AAK Annual Report 2017

Continued MSAB support and new Chairman of the Board ,W LV LPSRUWDQW WR FRQ¿UP WKDW $$. FDQ UHO\ RQ D FRQWLQXHG long-term ownership from the holding company Melker Schörling AB, where I’m also the Chairman of the Board. AAK is one of our core holdings and we consider the company to be only at the beginning of its journey to become even larger and more successful. In other words, our engagement, commitment and belief in the long-term perspective of the company remain unchanged. When Melker Schörling due to health reasons unfortu- nately had to step down from his position as Chairman of the Board, Melker and Arne asked me to step in. The plan was then to later engage Arne as long-term Chairman once he KDG ¿QDOL]HG KLV &(2 GXWLHV :LWK ODVW VXPPHU¶V WUDJHG\ HYHU\WKLQJ KDG WR EH FKDQJHG :H ¿UVW IRXQG DQ H[FHO - lent new CEO in Johan Westman and now we have also managed to engage Georg Brunstam, with long industrial experience and an outstanding track record in creating shareholder value, as our new proposed Chairman. I am WKHUHE\ FRQ¿GHQW WKDW WKH VXFFHVV VWRU\ RI $$. ZLOO FRQWLQXH for many years to come. Finally, I would like to thank our CFO and acting CEO Fredrik Nilsson, the entire management team and all employees for their outstanding efforts devoted to AAK during the extremely challenging year of 2017. Without your strong support, AAK would have suffered and I could hardly have bridged the gap between Melker and Georg. Thank you all! Mikael Ekdahl, Chairman of the Board