OREANDA-NEWS. Reynolds American Inc. (NYSE: RAI) announced that at the company’s annual meeting today, shareholders re-elected seven directors; approved an amendment to the articles of incorporation to declassify the board of directors; approved an amendment to the articles of incorporation increasing the number of authorized shares of RAI common stock from 1.6 billion to 3.2 billion; approved, on an advisory basis, the compensation of named executive officers; ratified the appointment of KPMG LLP as RAI’s independent registered public accounting firm for 2016; and defeated two shareholder proposals.

Re-elected today were the following five Class III directors: Susan Cameron, Martin Feinstein, Murray Kessler, Lionel Nowell and Ricardo Oberlander. In addition, two Class II directors were re-elected: Jerome Abelman and Robert Lerwill. Due to the approval of the board declassification amendment, the terms of all directors will expire at the 2017 annual meeting of shareholders, and nominees for director at that meeting will stand for election for one-year terms.

Abelman, Feinstein, Lerwill and Oberlander were designated by Brown & Williamson Holdings, Inc. (B&W)), a subsidiary of British American Tobacco p.I.c. (BAT), pursuant to the terms of the Governance Agreement dated as of July 30, 2004, as amended, between RAI, B&W and BAT.

The final voting results for each of the proposals voted on at the annual meeting will be reported on a Current Report on Form 8-K, in accordance with the rules of the Securities and Exchange Commission.
In addition, RAI’s board of directors declared a quarterly cash dividend on the company’s common stock of $0.42 per share ($1.68 per share annualized). The dividend will be payable on July 1, 2016, to shareholders of record on June 10, 2016. This is the 48th consecutive quarterly cash dividend since RAI became a public company on July 30, 2004.