5.6.1Appropriation of result

Articles of association governing profit appropriation

With regard to the appropriation of result, article 29 of the Articles of Association states:

  1. When drawing up the annual accounts, the Management Board shall charge such sums for the depreciation of the Company’s fixed assets and make such provisions for taxes and other purposes as shall be deemed advisable.
  2. Any distribution of profits pursuant to the provisions of this article shall be made after the adoption of the annual accounts from which it appears that the same is permitted. The Company may make distributions to the shareholders and to other persons entitled to distributable profits only to the extent that its shareholders’ equity exceeds the sum of the amount of the paid and called up part of the capital and the reserves which must be maintained under the law. A deficit may be offset against the statutory reserves only to the extent permitted by law.
    1. The profit shall, if sufficient, be applied first in payment to the holders of Protective Preference Shares of a percentage as specified in b. below of the compulsory amount due on these Shares as at the commencement of the financial year for which the distribution is made.
    2. The percentage referred to above in subparagraph a. shall be equal to the average of the Euribor interest charged for loans with a term of twelve (12) months - weighted by the number of days for which this interest was applicable - during the financial year for which the distribution is made, increased by two hundred (200) basis points.
    3. If in the course of the financial year for which the distribution is made the compulsory amount to be paid on the Protective Preference Shares has been decreased or, pursuant to a resolution for additional payments, increased, then the distribution shall be decreased or, if possible, increased by an amount equal to the aforementioned percentage of the amount of the decrease or increase as the case may be, calculated from the date of the decrease or from the day when the additional payment became compulsory, as the case may be.
    4. If in the course of any financial year Protective Preference Shares have been issued, the dividend on Protective Preference Shares for that financial year shall be decreased proportionately.
    5. If the profit for a financial year is being determined and if in that financial year one or more Protective Preference Shares have been cancelled with repayment or full repayment has taken place on Protective Preference Shares, the persons who according to the shareholders' register referred to in article 12 at the time of such cancellation or repayment were recorded as the holders of these Protective Preference Shares, shall have an inalienable right to a distribution of profit as described hereinafter. The profit which, if sufficient, shall be distributed to such a person shall be equal to the amount of the distribution to which he would be entitled pursuant to the provisions of this paragraph if at the time of the determination of the profits he had still been the holder of the Protective Preference Shares referred to above, calculated on a time-proportionate basis for the period during which he held Protective Preference Shares in that financial year, with a part of a month to be regarded as a full month. In respect of an amendment of the provisions laid down in this paragraph, the reservation referred to in section 2: 122 of the Dutch Civil Code is hereby explicitly made.
    6. If in any one financial year the profit referred to above in subparagraph a. is not sufficient to make the distributions referred to in this article, then the provisions of this paragraph and those laid down hereinafter in this article shall in the subsequent financial years not apply until the deficit has been made good.
    7. Further payment out of the profits on the Protective Preference Shares shall not take place.
  3. The Management Board is authorised, subject to the approval of the Supervisory Board, to determine each year what part of the profits shall be transferred to the reserves, after the provisions of the preceding paragraph have been applied. 
  4. The residue of the profit shall be at the disposal of the General Meeting. 
  5. The General Meeting may only resolve to distribute any reserves upon the proposal of the Management Board, subject to the approval of the Supervisory Board.