FACTSHEET
5
FREE SHARES
A benefit granted by Air Liquide to all Shareholders, no matter how they hold their shares.
Air Liquide regularly issues(1) Free Shares to all its Shareholders. A Free Shares attribution at a ratio of 1 bonus share for every 10 held is planned for June 2026, subject to approval at the General Meeting(2).
GROW YOUR NUMBER OF SHARES… AND THEREFORE YOUR DIVIDEND RIGHTS!
For all Shareholders, Free Shares attributions enable you to expand your portfolio over time. In addition to passing on approximately 60% of its net income in the form of dividends, Air Liquide distributes a portion of its retained earnings(3) to all its Shareholders in the form of Free Shares in proportion to the number of shares already held. The Free Shares allocated give the same right to dividends as the shares from which they are derived.
EFFECT OF THE LOYALTY BONUS ON THE DISTRIBUTION OF FREE SHARES (SEE FACTSHEET NO. 3).
At the time of the June 2024 Free Share distribution, any Shareholder who had held 100 shares for more than two full calendar years (before January 1, 2022):
-
if held in bearer form, the Shareholder received 10 additional shares
ratio of 1 Free Share for 10 held; -
if held in registered form, the Shareholder benefited from the Loyalty Bonus and received 11 additional shares
ratio of 1 Free Share for 10 held and 1 additional Free Share (+10%) thanks to the Loyalty Bonus.
FRACTIONAL SHARES
If the number of shares you hold is not a multiple of the allocation ratio, an amount corresponding to the value of the fraction of shares that cannot be distributed, called “fractional shares”, will be paid to your bank account.
GOOD TO KNOW
Your benefits are maintained
Free Shares have the same characteristics as the shares they are derived from: eligibility for the Loyalty Bonus, seniority, voting rights, dividend rights. Free Shares are allocated on an account-by-account basis and also on a holding-by-holding basis: fractional shares are not fungible. So, if you have shares in a securities account and in a Share Savings Plan (“Plan d’Epargne en Actions”, “PEA” in French) or if you hold intermediary registered shares and bearer shares, the fractional shares from these holdings cannot be combined to create a new Free Share (non-fungibility of fractional shares).
Example of calculation of fractional shares for the June 2024 distribution of Free Shares
A Shareholder holds 225 shares in his portfolio, 112 of which are eligible for the Loyalty Bonus (held in registered form for more than two full calendar years).
Free Share Allocation
(1 Free Share for every 10 held)
For the 225 shares held:Free Shares: 22(220 ÷ 10)
Fractional shares: The remaining 5 shares are not enough to obtain a whole share. They generate a fractional share of 0.5 share.
The Loyalty Bonus
(+10% in Free Shares on the number of Free Shares distributed)
For the 112 eligible shares:Additional Free Share: 1(i.e. 1 share for every 100 held)
Additional fractional share: The remaining 12 shares generate a fractional share of 0.12 share.