Welcome to the extraordinary general meeting of Norsk Hydro ASA. My name is Dag Mejdell, and I'm the chair of the board of directors. Pursuant to Section 512 of the Public Limited Liability Companies Act, it's therefore I who also call the meeting to order. With me on the podium today are President and CEO Hilde Merete Aasheim, CFO Pål Kildemo, and Hedvig Bugge Reiersen, lawyer. Furthermore, the external auditors, KPMG, participate via video link. Lawyer Kaja Kapstad from the company secretariat will be taking minutes. Today, the general meeting will be moderated by me in Norwegian, but proceedings will be simultaneous translated into English. Before we move to deal with the items on today's agenda, I want to start by giving you some practical information. All votes today will be conducted digitally, and all items on today's agenda were open for voting at 8:30 A.M.
When the general meeting has finished dealing with an item and voting starts on the item in question, I will ask you to cast your vote quickly if you haven't already voted before we close the vote on that item. Once voting under an agenda item has been closed, it will no longer be possible to cast a vote. As chair of this meeting, I will clearly inform you when it's time to vote under the individual item. To make sure that everyone who wants to vote gets to cast their vote, we will take some brief pauses along the way to make sure everyone follows. Items to be voted on will automatically come up on your screens. Press Vote at the top of your screen if you happen to click on something else and lose sight of the image.
If you wish, you can change your vote under an item until the vote is closed. Shareholders who want to ask questions or have comments relating to the items on the agenda can do so in writing by selecting the messaging icon at the top of your screen. Type where it says, "Ask a question," and then click on the arrow on the right-hand side. If we receive questions that we cannot respond to during this extraordinary general meeting, we will revert as soon as possible after today's meeting. I believe I've given all the practical information necessary, and we are now ready to start addressing today's agenda. In my capacity as moderator, it's my duty under Section 5-13 of the Public Limited Liability Companies Act to make a list of the shares that are legally represented at this EGM.
The secretariat is about to draw up the list of participating shareholders, and proxies, and I can inform you of the following. The Chair has registered 2,832,187 open proxies, and 354,241,763 proxies with bound instructions, where all the instructions have been given to the Chair of the Board. 124,709,786 advance votes have been cast. 11 shareholders representing 708,881,221 own shares. In total, 1,000,190,706. Sorry. I apologize.
1,190,664,957 shares have been represented or 58.01% of the company's votes eligible for voting. Before we move on, I also wish to inform you that in line with the notice, proxies have been given and partly with bound instructions, and I already read some of this out, so it ensues from this. The more detailed minutes and detailed list of shares representatives will be attached to the minutes that will be posted on Hydro's website after today's general meeting. We now move to deal with the items on today's agenda. Item one is the approval of the notice and the agenda.
The notice convening today's extraordinary general meeting is in accordance with the requirements pursuant to Section 510 and 511 B of the PLLC Act and Hydro's Articles of Association. The notice was sent to all shareholders with a known address within the statutory deadline. The notice, the other documents referred to in the notice, proposed resolutions for items on the proposed agenda, as well as the company's articles of association, are published on the company's website pursuant to Article 7 of the articles. Are there any questions or any comments to this point on the agenda? That doesn't seem to be the question. The vote under item 1 on the agenda will soon be closed.
The vote under item one on the agenda has now been closed, and the notice and agenda have now been approved by the required majority of the general meeting, and I declare this extraordinary general meeting to be legally convened. I will now move on to item two on the agenda, which is the election of a meeting chair and a person to co-sign the minutes. The board of directors propose that the general meeting elect Lawyer Hedvig Bugge Reiersen to chair today's extraordinary general meeting. Pursuant to Section 5-16-3 of the PLLC Act, the minutes of the meeting are to be signed by the chair of the meeting and at least one more person appointed by the general meeting. The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Fisheries representative, Morten Strømgren, has been nominated to co-sign. Are there any questions or any comments to this item?
That does not seem to be the case, and we will in a minute now close the vote under item two. The vote under item two on the agenda has now been closed, and the general meeting have elected Hedvig Bugge Reiersen as chair and the representative of the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Fisheries, Morten Strømgren, to co-sign the minutes from today's general meeting along with the chair. I now give the floor to Ms. Bugge Reiersen. Thank you, Dag. My name is Hedvig Bugge Reiersen, and I will conduct this extraordinary general meeting through the remaining items on the agenda. First, we move to item three on the authorization to the Board of Directors of Norsk Hydro ASA to acquire own shares. CFO Pål Kildemo will briefly account for the background for the board's proposed resolutions under items three and four. Pål, you have the floor.
Thank you, Hedvig. Our financial framework is a key element in Hydro's 2025 strategy, aiming to lift cash flows and returns. This framework includes principles for capital allocations, among others, as well as ambitions for capital structure, profitability, and shareholder policy. In connection with the reporting of our Q2 results for 2022, we updated the goals for our capital structure over the industry cycle. That was to ensure an efficient balance sheet for Hydro, as well as to increase the predictability related to shareholder distribution. We continue our commitment to an investment-grade credit rating and aim to keep adjusted net debt less than two times adjusted EBITDA throughout the cycle.
We have also now introduced the goal of maintaining net adjusted debt of around NOK 25 billion over the cycle, somewhat below this at the higher end of the cycle and somewhat higher at the lower end. We aim to keep consolidated debt relatively stable, while the liquidity required to cover fluctuations in working capital and other fluctuations in cash flow will vary throughout the cycle. As a result, based on the net income for 2021, the Board of Directors of Norsk Hydro ASA have proposed an additional shareholder distribution for 2021 to end 2021 according to the new targeted capital structure. The distribution will consist of an additional dividend of NOK 3 billion, as well as an introduction of a share buyback program of up to NOK 2 billion over the next 12 months.
Hydro's shareholder policy states that the company may consider to buy back shares in periods when earnings are high based on a growing interest among some of Hydro's shareholders to let a portion of the distribution consist of share buybacks. We have now proposed to set up such a program. I give the floor back to you, Hedvig. Thank you, Pål. Against this background, the board of directors has proposed that the general meeting adopt the following resolution. The general meeting hereby grants the board of directors power of attorney to acquire shares in Norsk Hydro ASA with a nominal value of up to NOK 109,800,000 in the market and from the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Fisheries, divided up to 100 million shares.
Acquisition of treasury shares is subject to the terms and conditions set by the board at all times. The minimum and maximum amounts that can be paid per share shall be NOK 20 and NOK 150 respectively. Shares acquired pursuant to this power of attorney shall be resolved, deleted at the latest at the company's ordinary general meeting in 2024. This power of attorney shall apply from 20th of September 2022 and until 20th of September 2023. It's a prerequisite for all buybacks and subsequent deletion of shares that these transactions do not result in a change to the ownership interest of 34.26% of the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Fisheries. The vote under item three will soon be closed.
The vote under item three on the agenda has now been closed, and the general meeting has decided to authorize the board of directors to acquire own shares in accordance with the board's proposal. We therefore move forward to the last item on the agenda, which is number four, dividend. The board of directors have proposed that the general meeting adopt the following resolution. The general meeting adopts that a dividend will be paid in the amount of NOK 1.45 per share based on the annual accounts for 2021. CFO Pål Kildemo accounted for the rationale behind the board's proposal to the general meeting regarding the distribution of an additional dividend under the previous agenda item. Are there any questions or comments to the board's proposal under this item four?
There does not seem to be the question, and the vote under item four will therefore soon be closed. The vote on the item four has now been closed, and the general meeting have decided to distribute dividend in accordance with the board's proposal. There are no further matters to be dealt with, and I wish to thank the shareholders for their participation. The meeting is hereby adjourned.