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Strong support for board proposals at Nestlé Annual General Meeting

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Lausanne

2 570 shareholders attended the Nestlé S.A. Annual General Meeting today in Lausanne. They represented 34.89 percent of the total capital and 53.28 percent of the shares entitled to vote. All proposals of the Board of Directors were voted with strong majorities. The annual report and the accounts were approved, and the shareholders agreed to the release of the Board of Directors and the Executive Board. Shareholders further approved the proposed dividend increase to CHF 12.20 per share, up 17.3 percent over last year. They also gave their assent to the reduction in the share capital by CHF 10 072 500 through the cancellation of a corresponding number of registered shares under the share buy-back programme launched on 24 August 2007. Shareholders further approved a 1-for-10 share split and respective increase of the number of shares.

Shareholders re-elected Messrs. Andreas Koopmann and Rolf Hänggi as members of the Board of Directors for a full 3-year term. Due to the age limit set forth in the Board Regulations, Mr. Peter Böckli did not stand for re-election. The Board wishes to extend its gratitude to Mr. Peter Böckli for his invaluable services as a member of the Board, the Audit Committee and chairman of the Compensation and Nomination Committee. The AGM further elected Messrs. Paul Bulcke and Beat W. Hess as new members of the Board. After the AGM, the Board appointed Mr. Paul Bulcke as "Administrateur délégué"/Chief Executive Officer of Nestlé, succeeding Mr. Peter Brabeck-Letmathe who stepped down after 11 years as CEO.

A very strong majority of 98.88 percent of the share capital represented at the meeting approved the proposed revised Articles of Association. The new Articles include abolishing the old attendance quorums and supermajority clauses; lowering the threshold for shareholders to put items on the Annual General Meeting agenda from 0.25% to 0.15% of total share capital; reducing Board members' term of office from five years to three; and increasing the maximum voting rights' percentage of any one shareholder from 3% to 5% of total share capital.

For the year to come, the different Committees of the Board are composed as follows:

Chairman's and Corporate Governance Committee: Messrs. Brabeck-Letmathe, Bulcke, Koopmann, Hänggi, Lord George
Compensation Committee: Messrs. Borel, Koopmann, Lord George, Fourtou
Nomination Committee: Messrs.Villiger, Brabeck-Letmathe, Hänggi, Hoch
Audit Committee: Messrs. Hänggi, Meyers, Villiger, Kudelski
Contacts:
Media: François-Xavier Perroud (Nestlé) Tel.: +41-21-924 2596
Investors: Roddy Child-Villiers (Nestlé) Tel.: +41-21-924 3622