Mr. President,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

My name is Frank van Pernis, from Bassersdorf in Switzerland. I take the floor on behalf of Actares, Swiss association of shareholders favouring stronger corporate responsibility.

Our shareholders’ association is pleased to note the good results of the past business year 2025. Despite a decline in profits, the share price rose significantly in the second half of 2025. It fell back somewhat at the beginning of 2026 but appeared to recover during the last few weeks.

Legal situation

During recent years, Holcim has shifted away from low margin cement production into building materials with better margins. The sale of cement plants mainly in Asia, the spin-off of Amrize in the USA and the acquisition of new companies helped to improve the margins, except for the sale of the Nigerian business. This leads me to my first question: has Holcim been able to get rid of all the skeletons in the cupboard acquired through its merger with Lafarge? Are there still any risks of getting involved in legal complaints against Lafarge related to Syria?

Products

Holcim is proud of those buildings constructed with its new products. What is the life expectancy of these products and how does this influence the building industry? It would be a waste if these products had to be replaced at shorter time intervals, considering the amount of grey energy invested in them.

Social responsibility

Social responsibility extends not only to Holcim’s shareholders, its 65’000 employees and its customers, but also to many other stakeholders. In this respect, the projects initiated to accelerate the process of CO2 use and storage underline Holcim’s efforts on behalf of the company’s environment: Earth, Air, Water, Communities.

• Earth: Due to the biotope destruction by sand and gravel extraction, biotope destruction should also make it necessary to renature wherever needed once the sites are abandoned. The Haller Park in Mombasa in Kenya and the renaturing accomplished around Hüntwangen in Switzerland show the way. Question: Does Holcim have more projects like these in store in other parts of the world?
• Air: we strongly encourage Holcim to control and reduce air pollution caused by dust and CO2 as well to switching to alternative fuels, such as waste products.
• Water: attention should also be given to water consumption and groundwater level, as well as to waste water treatment or recycling.
• Communities: lorry traffic, improvement of road safety, noise reduction, but also engagement on behalf of local communities affected by the activity of Holcim.

Compensations

However, one sociological problem remains to be solved: the high compensations paid out to members of the board and directors. You may have heard of the Gini coefficient. When comparing the average salary of a manager to that of the CEO, it might take the manager his whole working life to earn as much as the CFO earns in one year! Not to speak of workmen, drivers etc. For the average citizen, this is difficult to understand. Therefore, my question: The compensation committee should be competent to avoid excessive salaries and bonusses. Wouldn’t it be a good policy for Holcim’s reputation, in the sense of a worldwide corporate responsibility, to also act as a pioneer and moderate its budget in this area?

Thank you for your attention

(Speaker: Frank van Pernis, member of Holcim working group)