Published 2/19/15
Published 2/19/15
Reading Min.

 Securities can be held in two different forms in France: "registered" and "bearer".

  • BEARER FORM

Bearer security accounts are held by a financial intermediary (lending institution or investment firm) chosen by the shareholder, which is the only one to know the shareholder’s identity while Natixis, the issuing company does not know the shareholder’s identity and status.

  • REGISTERED FORM

The shareholder’s identity is recorded in the issuing company’s books, which makes communications between the company and its shareholders much easier.

There are two types of registered shares:

  • Directly registered shares: the shares are recorded and kept on behalf of the shareholder in the issuing company’s books. However, the record keeping of these shares may be delegated through a mandate to CACEIS Corporate Trust acting as a custody account keeper. In this regard, CACEIS Corporate Trust becomes the shareholder’s sole contact. CACEIS Corporate Trust Investor Relations Department is a team of professionals on securities who answer all shareholders’ questions and requests uninterruptedly from Monday to Friday, from 09:00 to 23:00 (Paris time) (address: 14 rue Rouget de Lisle – 92682 Issy les Moulineaux CEDEX 09 – France / telephone:  +33 1 57 78 34 44 / fax: +33 1 49 08 05 80 / e-mail: ct-contact@caceis.com.

 

  • Administered registered shares: the shares are recorded in the issuing company’s accounts, but kept in custody by the financial intermediary of the shareholder’s choice, being not CACEIS Corporate Trust. This financial intermediary holds the shareholder’s account and is his/her sole contact. However, the intermediary informs CACEIS Corporate Trust of the existing shares, if need be.

 

 

 

Advantages of registered form

  • What are the advantages of registered form?

Direct share registration offers several advantages to the shareholder:

  • Tailored information and a direct relationship with the company. The shareholder regularly receives information on the company as well as notices of meeting to shareholder-dedicated events: phone information on the securities management, on the securities tax system, on the Shareholders’ Meetings operating methods.
  • Systematic reception of the Company’s notice of Shareholders’ Meetings:

the registered form shareholders are consistently convened to Shareholders’ Meetings and do not have to carry out any prior formalities certifying share ownership, to be able to register and vote (meeting notice, voting form, postal voting form, admission card and legal information documents request).

  • What are the directly registered form advantages?

Direct registration in the accounts of the issuing company further benefits the shareholder: total exemption of custody fees as well as exemption of fees relating to the current management of the securities (except trading orders):

Conversion into bearer shares, securities transfers.

Legal files: ownership transfer, donation, inheritance.

Corporate operations: capital increase, share allocations, etc.

Payment of dividends.

These fees are paid by the issuing Company, Natixis.

 

Disadvantages of directly registered form

Registration in administered form does not entail any significant drawback except the fact that custody fees are owed by the shareholder, as it is the case for bearer shares.

  • Direct Registration form may entail the following drawbacks:
  •  The securities account manager is not chosen by the shareholder.

The issuer – and not the shareholder – choses the banking service provider who will manage the shareholders’ registered securities accounts.

  •  One securities account per issuer

The registration in registered form has the drawback of generating a multiplication of accounts for the investor: an account for each issuing company.

This means that instead of receiving a yearly global statement of securities accounts and a single tax form (IFU) for the whole of his/her lines, the shareholder receives as many account statements and as many IFUs as he/she has lines in registered form.

Upon filing his/her tax return, the shareholder has to add up the amounts of each IFU to get the amount of the taxable gains or of the losses to be possibly carried forward.

  •  Timeframe and fees

Processing of your trading orders might take more time than for bearer shares managed by online banks.

The cost of transfer into registered shares: it is better to buy directly in this form than to require transfer of bearer shares, on account of fees that retail banks may charge. So please first contact the Shareholder Relations Department of the issuing companies which will advise you on the process. To buy directly from CACEIS Corporate Trust, please contact CACEIS Coporate Trust Investor Relations Department.

The purchase and sale transaction fees are generally higher than those charged by most brokers or online banks.

Registered form is hardly compatible with registration of shares in an Equity Savings Plan (Plan d'Epargne en Actions/PEA) due to applicable administrative procedures.

 

 

Fees linked to directly registered form

The direct registered form in the issuing company’s accounts means no management fees and total exemption of custody fees as well as the fees relating to current management of  securities held (except trading orders).

Trading fees which have been negotiated by the issuer are liable to current VAT for France residents and for European Economic Area (EEA) residents.

If the issuer is eligible and only for purchase orders, the Tax on Acquisitions of Equity Securities in force in France since August 1st, 2012 may be added to the trading fees.

Please report to the cover letter of your securities account agreement to get the trading scale charged for orders transmitted by CACEIS Corporate Trust Investor Relations Department.

For stock exchange orders transmitted via Internet or via the OLIS-Shareholder website, the applicable scale is as follows:

Internet orders via OLIS-Shareholder website

Fees without VAT(in percentage of the gross amount)
Stock exchange commission         0.30%
Minimum amount
6 EUR

 

For trading orders transmitted by CACEIS Corporate Trust Investor Relations Department, the applicable scale is as follows:

Scale 0 € to 152,449 € 152,449.01 € to 335,388 € 335,388.01 € and above
Fees (without VAT)
(in percentage of the gross amount)        
 0.75 %  0.65 % 0.55%
Minimum amount
 10 EUR  10 EUR 10 EUR

 

Direct registration of shares

Direct form is suitable for long-term shareholding.

To get your shares directly registered, you only have to download the form available hereunder, to complete it and to hand it in to your usual financial intermediary so that you can have your shares transferred to CACEIS Corporate Trust, the share management entity. Natixis will not refund possible fees charged for your Natixis securities transfer towards CACEIS Corporate Trust. These fees may differ from bank to bank.

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