Effective and clear corporate governance contributes to the safeguarding of trust in AAK among the company's stakeholder groups and also increases the focus on business benefit and shareholder value in the company.
AAK’s Board of Directors and management team endeavor, through a high level of transparency, to make it easy for individual shareholders to understand the company’s decision-making process and to clarify where in the organization responsibilities and authorities reside. AAK’s corporate governance is based on applicable legislation, the Code, Nasdaq Nordic Main Market Rulebook for Issuers of Shares, generally accepted practice in the stock market and various internal guidelines. Where AAK has chosen to diverge from the rules in the Code, the reason is provided under each heading in the Corporate Governance Report.
General
AAK is a Swedish public limited liability company, the shares of which are traded on Nasdaq Stockholm within the Large Cap segment, Consumer Commodities sector. AAK had 18,908 shareholders per September 30, 2022. Its business operations are global, with a presence in more than 100 countries. The average number of employees on September 30, 2022, was 3,947. Responsibility for management and control of AAK is divided between the shareholders at the Annual General Meeting, the Board of Directors, its elected committees and the CEO in accordance with the Swedish Companies Act, other legislation and ordinances, applicable rules for companies traded on a regulated market, the Articles of Association and the Board’s internal control instruments.
Long-term responsibility
AAK’s goal is to be the obvious first choice for its customers, and to create the best possible value for the company’s various stakeholder groups — in particular customers, suppliers, shareholders and employees. At the same time, AAK aims to be a good corporate citizen and take long-term responsibility. The aim of corporate governance is to define a clear allocation of responsibility and roles between the owners, the Board, the executive management team and various control bodies. In line with this, corporate governance covers the Group’s management and control systems. AAK’s general accounting principles and guidelines form the groundwork on which the company’s detailed and legalistic accounting rules are based. These can be found in the Annual Report 2022.
