Hydro Board regrets chairman's resignation

(Aug. 5, 2007) Hydro's Board of Directors regrets Jan Reinås' decision to resign as chairman of the board. He has led the board in an outstanding manner in a time with major changes and considerable value creation in the company, says acting chair Elisabeth Grieg.

"The board was unanimous in its decision to terminate the stock option program with the company's top leaders. We still believe the board had the authority to terminate the program the way we did, however, with the questions that have been raised we would like Hydro's Corporate Assembly to consider the board's handling of the case," Grieg says.

Should the Corporate Assembly conclude that the board did not handle the termination of the stock option scheme in a responsible manner, the board members have placed the decision of their continued board membership in the hands of the Corporate Assembly.

The Corporate Assembly will address the case on Monday, August 6.