Governance

Q-Free aims to protect and enhance shareholders’ investments through good corporate governance and has established principles and guidelines that define the roles and relationships between the shareholders, the Board of Directors and the executive management of the company.

Articles of association

Article 1.
The name of the Company shall be Q-Free ASA. The Company shall be a public limited company.

Article 2.
The Company’s registered place of business shall be in the City of Trondheim.

Article 3.
The object of the Company is, by itself or through ownership in other companies, to engage in research, development, production, operations and sale of information technology products and systems plus everything therewith connected.

Article 4.
The Company’s share capital shall be NOK 42,272,878.08 divided between 111,244,416 shares, each of NOK 0.38 face value.

The Company’s shares shall be registered in the Norwegian Central Securities Depository (VPS).

Article 5.
The Board of the Company shall have between three and eight members, as the general meeting shall stipulate.

The Board shall represent the Company outwardly, and sign for it. The signature of the Company is also vested in the Chairman of the Board and one other Board member acting jointly.

The Board may grant procuration (registered power of attorney).

Article 6.
The annual general meeting shall be held before 30 June, either in the City of Trondheim or the City of Oslo.

Invitation to the general meeting shall require at least 21 days’ written application to all shareholders with known addresses.

The Board may determine that documents pertaining to matters for discussion at the general meeting shall not be sent to the shareholders when these documents are made available on the Company’s Web pages. The same shall apply to documents that by statute must be incorporated into or appended to the invitation to the general meeting. A shareholder may nevertheless, by application to the Company, demand to be sent documents pertaining to matters for discussion at the general meeting.

The right to participate and vote at the general meeting may only be exercised for shares that are entered in the Register of Shareholders (VPS) on the fifth working day prior to the general meeting (the date of registration).

Shareholders who, either in their own persons or by proxies, wish to participate in the general meeting, shall communicate this to the Company within the deadline that the Board has stipulated in the invitation. Such deadlines cannot expire earlier than five days prior to the meeting.

The Ordinary General Meeting shall consider:

Adoption of profit and loss account and balance sheet.
Application of profit or coverage of loss pursuant to the adopted balance sheet and distribution of dividend.
Election of the Board and the Chairman of the Board.
Stipulation of the Board’s remuneration.
Election of members of the Nominations Committee.
Stipulation of the compensation to the Nominations Committee.
Stipulation of the compensation to the auditor.
Other matters that the Board places on the agenda, or that a shareholder wants considered, when such an item is notified in writing to the Board within seven days before the deadline for invitation to the general meeting, together with a proposal for decision or a justification for putting the proposal on the agenda. If the invitation has already taken place, a new invitation shall be made if the deadline for invitation to the general meeting has not passed.
Other matters that pursuant to statute pertain to the general meeting.

Article 7.
The Company shall have a Nominations Committee, whose mission shall be to make recommendations to the general meeting for shareholder-elected members to the Board and also propose the Board’s emoluments.

The Nominations Committee shall consist of three members who shall be shareholders or representatives of shareholders. The members shall be elected by the general meeting. The members of the Nominations Committee shall be elected for two years at a time. The general meeting may decide on instructions for the Nominations Committee.

Article 8.
Reference is otherwise made to the current company’s legislation.

Articles of Association as of 12 February 2021.

The shareholders of Q-Free ASA

Corporate Governance

Implementation of and reporting on Corporate Governance.

Q-Free is listed on the Oslo Børs and bases its corporate governance structure on Norwegian legislation.

The aim of the Norwegian Code of Practice for Corporate Governance is to ensure that companies that are listed on regulated markets in Norway practice corporate governance that clarifies the role of the shareholders, the board of directors, and the day-to-day management beyond what follows from legislation.

This review of the company’s corporate governance principles and practice is prepared in compliance with the Norwegian Code of Practice for Corporate Governance as updated per 17 October 2018.

The Norwegian Code of Practice for Corporate Governance is available on www.nues.no.

The principles and implementation of corporate governance is subject to annual reviews and discussions by the company’s Board of Directors.

Q-Free Corporate Governance Review 2021

Corporate social responsibility

Q-Free’s purpose is to help society and customers tackle mobility, safety, and environmental challenges related to traffic and help sustain urban growth and quality of life. This is the focal point of everything we do and is underpinned by our 3 strategic solution offerings Q-Flow (for improved mobility), Q-Safe (for increased traffic safety), and Q-Clean (for environmentally-friendly transportation).

Q-Free Corporate Social Responsibility Review 2021

Guidelines for salary and other remuneration to leading personnel

These guidelines govern the determination of remuneration to leading personnel in the Q-Free ASA Group. The guidelines were determined by the Board of Directors at the board meeting 28 April 2021 and approved at the Company’s general meeting 20 May 2021.

Guidelines for salary and other remuneration to leading personnel

Remuneration Report 2021

Code of conduct

Q-Free has a code of conduct which aims to provide guidance to our people for a common platform. The code of conduct is instrumental for Q-Free’s approach to human rights, fair working environment, health and safety, business ethics and anti-corruption.

Q-Free Code of Conduct

Q-Free Business Part n er Declaration & Questionnaire

Nomination committee

The Nomination Committee is elected by the General Meeting and is responsible for proposing board member candidates and remuneration of the Board of Directors, in addition to proposing members for the committee itself.

The Board of Directors currently comprises five shareholder-elected and two employee-elected members.

The entire board’s composition is evaluated annually, freely, and independently of the election period.

The composition of the Board of Directors should ensure that the board can attend to the common interests of all shareholders and meets the company’s need for expertise, capacity, and diversity. The board should, in addition to complying with relevant corporate legislation, meet the requirements of the Norwegian Code of Practice for Corporate Governance for composition and independence.

For the period from the General Meeting in 2021 to 2022 the following compensation has been approved by the general assembly:

Chair of the board	NOK 460,000
Vice chair of the board	NOK 310,000
Shareholder-elected board members	NOK 260,000
Employee-elected board members	NOK 95,000
Head of board subcommittee	NOK 11,500 per full day meeting
Member of board subcommittee	NOK 9,000 per full day Meeting

Deadline for promoting proposals to the Nomination Committee for the General Assembly 2022, is 18 February 2022. This deadline is set to allow for necessary reviews and reference checks prior to the deadline for submitting the notice for the General Assembly to the shareholders. The Nomination Committee may evaluate other candidates than proposed.

Q-Free’s Nomination Committee comprises:

Fredrik Thoresen	Partner Andenæsgruppen	Chair, elected 2018	ft@kvantia.no
Øystein Elgan	Director Rieber & Søn AS	Member, elected 2017
Jon Øyvind Eriksen	Sonstad AS	Member, elected 2021

Instructions for the Nomination Committee | Instruks for Valgkomiteen

The committee shall:

a) Recommend to the General Assembly the shareholders candidates for the Board of Directors, including Chairman of the Board. The Board chooses its Vice Chairman of the board.

b) Ensure that the Board evaluates its own work and competence annually.

c) Recommend to the General Assembly remuneration to the Board and the Boards’ subcommittees.

d) Recommend to the General Assembly new members to the Committee, including Chairman of the Committee.

Q-Free is not aware of the existence of any agreements or business partnerships between the Company and any third parties in which members of its Nomination Committee have direct or indirect interests. The composition of the Nomination Committee is such as to maintain its independence from the Company’s management.

Membership in the committee may be rotated, in accordance with NUES’ recommendation, article 7.

General meetings

Annual General meetings will ordinarily be held before 1st of June each year, at the latest 30th of June according to law.

Deadline for promoting proposals to the Nomination Committee is 17 February 2023. This deadline is set to allow for necessary reviews and reference checks prior to the deadline for submitting the notice for the General Assembly to the shareholders. The Nomination Committee may evaluate other candidates than proposed.

General meetings archive

Shareholder policy

One of our primary goals is maximizing shareholder value such that the return on investment—measured as the dividend and rise in the share price—is at least the same as alternative investments with similar risk. Q-Free does provide information on future financial performance.

Through the annual and quarterly reports and presentations, Q-Free will provide information on its major value drivers and risk factors. This will secure information for investors and make it possible to evaluate the company’s risk and performance. It is Q-Free’s policy to maintain a high equity ratio to provide a platform for the company’s expected expansion and growth. Based on this assumption, the company does not expect any dividend to be paid out to shareholders in the coming years.

Dividend policy

It is Q-Free’s policy to maintain a high equity ratio to provide a platform for the company’s expected expansion and growth. Q-Free ASA has not paid dividends in the last three years.

Prospectuses

Listing prospectus 10 March 2021:

Download prospectus

Listing prospectuses 7 October 2016:

Download prospectuses

Key legal information for shareholders

KEY LEGAL INFORMATION FOR SHAREHOLDERS IN NORWEGIAN PUBLIC LIMITED COMPANIES LISTED ON OSLO BØRS OR OSLO AXESS

Set out below is a summary of certain Norwegian legal issues related to shareholding in Norwegian companies listed on Oslo Børs or Oslo Axess (referred to below as the “Company”).

The summary is applicable in relation to entities that:

are Norwegian public limited liability companies,
has its tax residency in Norway and;
is listed on Oslo Børs or Oslo Axess.

This summary does not purport to be a comprehensive description of all the legal rights and obligations that may be relevant to the shareholders in the Company and does not address legal issues regulated by other than Norwegian law. The summary is based on applicable Norwegian laws, rules and regulations, as they exist as of the date set out below. Such laws, rules and regulations are subject to change. The summary is solely intended to provide brief introductory information and does not address all aspects that may be relevant. The information in this summary is subject to change without notice.

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Registrar

If you have any questions regarding your holding of Q-Free shares, please contact our registrar:

Nordea Bank Abp, filial i Norge Client Relations NO
Issuer Services P.O.Box 1166 Sentrum
N-0107 Oslo, Norway
Phone: +47 24013462

Demerger and merger plan and ancillary documents

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