The fiscal year commences on September 1 of each year and ends on August 31 of the following year.
The Company’s shares may be held in either registered or bearer form.
They are freely negotiable. Transfer of shares occurs by transfer from one account to another in accordance with the conditions laid down by laws and regulations.
In accordance with article 8 of the Company’s Bylaws, any shareholder whose interest in the Company, held in any form and taking into account the forms of ownership provided for in the legislation applicable to statutory disclosure requirements, reaches or falls below 1% of the Company’s voting rights or any multiple thereof, including percentages that are higher than the disclosure thresholds provided for in the applicable laws and regulations, must inform the Company by registered mail with request for acknowledgement of receipt within five trading days of the threshold being crossed. When a disclosure threshold is crossed due to a purchase or sale of shares on the open market, the five trading-day timeframe will begin on the trade of the shares rather than their delivery date.
The above disclosure requirements will also apply to intermediaries that are registered with the Company or its share registrar as acting on behalf of shareholders who are not domiciled in France.
If a shareholder fails to comply with the above disclosure rules, the shares not disclosed may be stripped of voting rights at General Meetings.
The Company may make use of the legal framework available for identifying the holders of shares which have, either immediately or in the future, voting rights at Shareholders Meetings.
Each share entitles its holder to a proportion of the Company’s profits and net assets equal to the proportion of capital represented by the share.
The first appropriation of net income, net of any accumulated losses from prior periods, must be an amount of at least 5% of net income to establish the reserve fund required by law. This appropriation ceases to be compulsory once this reserve fund is equal to one-tenth of the issued capital but must be resumed if for any reason the reserve falls below one-tenth of the issued capital.
Distributable earnings comprise net income for the fiscal year, minus any accumulated losses brought forward and any transfer to the legal reserve, plus any retained earnings brought forward.
Distributable earnings are appropriated in the following order (i) any sum that the Ordinary Shareholders Meeting, on the proposal of the Board of Directors, decides to carry forward as retained earnings or to appropriate to the creation of an extraordinary reserve fund, contingency fund or other fund, whether or not created for a specific purpose and (ii) the surplus is distributed among all of the shareholders, each share entitling its holder to an equal share of the profit.
However, shareholders able to show that they have been a registered shareholder for at least four years as of the end of a given fiscal year, and who remain registered at the dividend payment date related to the said fiscal year, are entitled to a dividend premium on the shares so registered, equal to 10% of the dividend paid on the other shares, the resulting dividend premium being rounded down to the nearest euro cent where appropriate.
Similarly, shareholders able to show that they have been a registered shareholder for at least four years as of the end of a given fiscal year, and who remain registered at the date of a capital increase by capitalization of reserves, income or share premiums, by distribution of bonus shares, are entitled to supplementary bonus shares equal to 10% of those to be distributed. In the case of odd lots, the number of supplementary shares will be rounded down to the nearest unit. The resulting new shares will qualify for the same treatment as the old shares from which they are derived for the purposes of calculating rights to the dividend premium and to receive supplementary bonus shares.
The number of shares upon which a single shareholder shall be eligible for these dividend premiums or supplementary bonus shares may not exceed 0.5% of the share capital.
The above-mentioned right to a dividend premium has been applicable since the payment of the dividend for the fiscal year ended August 31, 2013.
