Directors of the Company, the Board of Directors, President, vice President, General Manager
A. THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Article Ten: The Company shall be managed by a Board of Directors composed of seven members, each of whom has a substitute who can replace him/her permanently in the case of a vacancy, and temporarily in the case if an absence or temporary disability. Alternate directors may always attend meetings of the Board with a right of voice but will only be entitled to vote when the member that they are substituting for is absent. For the validity of actions of an alternate director it shall not be necessary to prove the reason or circumstance that prevents the respective director from attending, it will be presumed by the mere presence of the acting deputy. The directors may or may not be shareholders of the Company.
Article Eleven: The directors shall be elected for a period of three years after which they must be renewed completely. Directors may be reelected indefinitely.
Article Twelve: In the election of directors, shareholders have one vote for each share they own or represent, and may accumulate them in favor of one person or distribute their votes in the way that they see fit, the resulting elected members will be those who accumulate the most amount of votes during one single voting round, until the number of seats of the Board are filled. In the case of alternate directors, the mere choice of a director includes an alternate who has been previously nominated for that director. The provisions mentioned in this article do not exclude that by unanimous agreement of the shareholders present and entitled to vote, voting will be skipped and proceed to the election of all Board members by acclamation.
Article Thirteen: The transcript that consigns the election of directors shall state all attending shareholders, specifying the number of shares for which each has voted in person or in representation and the expression of the general outcome of the vote.
Article Fourteen: If the vacancy of a director and his alternate were to occur, there must be a total renewal of the Board at the next Ordinary Meeting of Shareholders held by the Company, and in the meantime, the Board may appoint a replacement director, and must do so if the vacancy prevents the Board meetings for lack of quorum. The replacement director does not have an alternate.
In the event that the vacancy may be made for an independent director referred to in Article 50 bis of the Law, and his alternate, in this case, the Board shall appoint his replacement, an independent director nominee who had followed him in the election of the Board during which the first was elected. If this person is not available or able to take office, the Board may appoint the one that followed in the vote at the same meeting, and so on until the position is filled. If it is not possible to comply with the above procedure, it shall be up to the Board to appoint a person who meets the requirements established by Law to be considered an independent director.
Article Fifteen: The Directory may be revoked in its totality before the expiry of its term, by resolution of the Ordinary or Extraordinary Shareholders' Meeting and, if so, the same Shareholders shall elect a new Board. Individual or collective revocation of one or more of its members will not follow.
Article Sixteen: At the first meeting, after the Shareholders' Meeting in which their choice has been made, the Board shall elect from its members a President and a Vice President. The General Manager will act as Secretary of the Board, or the person expressly appointed by the Board to serve in that capacity.
Article Seventeen: The Board meetings shall be ordinary and extraordinary. The first shall be held on dates that have been predetermined by the Board, and there will be at least one meeting per month. The second meetings are held when called by the President alone or by indication of one or more directors, with a previous evaluation of the President for the need of the meeting, unless it is requested by an absolute majority of the directors. In the extraordinary meetings, the only matters to be discussed are those that were mentioned in the summons of the meeting. The summons to extraordinary board meetings will be practiced through the means of communication determined by the Board by unanimous vote, provided they give reasonable assurance of it being a secure means or, failing to establish said means, by registered letter released for each of the director at least three days prior to the meeting. This period may be reduced to 24 hours in advance, if the summons were to be delivered to the directors personally by a public notary. The summons to an extraordinary session shall contain a reference to the matter treated in it and may be omitted if the session concurs with the directors of the Company unanimously.
Article Eighteen: The quorum for the Board to be in session is an absolute majority of its members, and resolutions shall be adopted by the affirmative vote of an absolute majority of the present directors, except for agreements that according to these laws, the Act and its Regulation or other special provisions, require a greater majority. In case of a tie, the person presiding over the meeting will cast a deciding vote.
Article Nineteen: The Company may only enter into transactions with related parties when they contribute to social interest, adjust in price, terms and conditions to those prevailing in the market at the time of approval and comply with the requirements and procedures specified in Title XVI of the Act.
Article Twenty: The deliberations and resolutions of the Board shall be recorded in a special journal, which will be signed on each occasion by the directors who have attended the meeting and the Secretary. If one of the members were to pass away or is for any reason unable to sign the act, the respective circumstance or disability shall be recorded on the bottom of the transcript. The transcript shall be considered approved from the moment it is signed by the directors and, from that moment, the agreements adopted therein may be effective.
However, unanimity of the directors who attended a meeting may provide that the resolutions adopted by it are put into effect without waiting for approval of the transcript, which shall be recorded in a document signed by all of them containing the agreement adopted.
Article Twenty-One: A director who wants to save his responsibility for any act or agreement of the Board, must record this in the act of his opposition, and the President of the Company shall make notice of this at the next Shareholders’ meeting.
Article Twenty-Two: The directors shall receive a salary for their functions and the Ordinary Shareholders shall establish this salary annually.
Article Twenty-Three: The Board, for the fulfillment of social order, which does not have to be proven to third parties, shall be the judicial and extrajudicial representation of the Company and shall be vested with all the powers of administration and disposition, that the Act and Regulations or these bylaws do not provide for such deprivation of Shareholders, without having to give any special power, even for those acts or contracts required in accordance with the relevant legislation. This is without prejudice to the legal representation that corresponds to the General Manager of the Company.
Article Twenty-Four: The Directors' functions cannot be delegated and are collectively exercised in a legally constituted room. The Board may delegate some of its powers to managers, assistant managers, key executives and lawyers of the Company, the President, Vice President or a committee of directors and, for specific matters, in others. The Company shall keep a public register indicative of its President, Vice President, directors, managers, senior executives or liquidators, specifying the dates of initiation and termination of employment.
B. THE PRESIDENT, VICE PRESIDENT AND GENERAL MANAGER
Article Twenty-Five: The President shall be President of the Board, of the Shareholders and of the Company and will be responsible for:
- Presiding over the meetings of the Board and of the Shareholders. In his/her absence or incapacity he/she shall be replaced by the Vice President and in the absence or inability of both, by a person designated by the Board or the Shareholders, as appropriate.
- Calling for meetings of the Board when resolved by the Board or requested by the necessary number or percentage of shareholders, pursuant to the Act and Regulations or these bylaws.
- Complying with and enforcing the provisions of these statutes and the resolutions adopted by the Board and Shareholders.
- In case of an emergency, where it is not possible to assemble the Board, taking the measures necessary to protect the interests of the Company and collecting and reporting to the Board of the proceedings done, in the shortest possible time.
Article Twenty-Six: The Vice President, in the absence or temporary inability of the President, may replace him/her without the need to accredit it to third parties.
Article Twenty-Seven: The Board may appoint a General Manager, which will have all the powers and responsibilities and obligations of the trade, and those others that are under the Act and Regulations, and the ones especially conferred by the Board. The General Manager shall have the following powers and duties:
- Ensure the compliance of the laws, especially those of social security, labor, tax issues and rules contained in Decree with Force of Law No. 382 of the Ministry of Public Works 1988 General Health Care Law, Law No. 18,045 of Securities Market Act and Regulations, and regulations and/or supplementing those same provisions.
- To safeguard the assets and funds of the Company.
- Subscribe all public documents and/or private documents of the Company when not expressively designated to any other person to do so.
- To legally represent the Company.
- Participate in Board meetings, responding with the members of it, to all agreements that have harmful results to the Company and shareholders, in the case that his/her dissenting opinion is not recorded in the transcript.
- To act as Secretary of the Board of Directors and Shareholders, unless the Board has expressively designated another person for such tasks.
- Comply with such other functions under this Constitution, the Act and Regulations and those functions that the Board deems appropriate to grant to the General Manager.
Article Twenty-Eight: The Board may demand from the General Manager the provision of a guarantee in favor of the Company, to account for the proper performance of his/her duties. The position of General Manager is incompatible with the one of President, Vice President, Director, auditor or accountant of the Company. Any appointment, vacancy or replacement to occur with respect to the positions of President, Vice President, Directors, General Manager, managers and senior executives must be reported to the Superintendence of Securities and Insurance and the respective Stock Exchanges, subject to compliance with the other paperwork stated in the Act and its Regulations.