Paris, 29 June 2012
The General Meeting of the shareholders of the Company, held on 29 June, 2012, approved the proposed dividend for the 2011 financial year of €0.77 per share and decided that each shareholder will have the right to elect for payment of such dividend either in cash or new shares of the Company.
Shareholders can exercise the right to be paid their dividend in new shares of the Company during the period from 3 July, 2012 until 17 July, 2012 (inclusive) by sending their request to the financial intermediaries that will pay their dividend or, in the case of shareholders whose shares are registered with the Company in pure nominative form, to the Company's agent (CACEIS Corporate Trust - Investor Relations Service - 14, rue Rouget de Lisle, 92862 Issy-les-Moulineaux Cedex 9). In the event that the election right is not exercised, the dividend will be paid exclusively in cash.
The maximum number of new ordinary shares of the Company that can be issued for the purposes of the payment of the dividend in shares is 57,812,705 shares, representing 9.73% of the share capital of the Company as of the date of the shareholders' General Meeting.
The issue price of the new shares of the Company to be issued in payment of the dividend is €7.88, equal to 100% of the average opening share price of the Company on the NYSE Euronext Paris stock market during the twenty trading days preceding 29 June, 2012, the day of the General Meeting, less the amount of the dividend (and rounded up to the nearest centime).
If a shareholder exercises an election right for an amount that does not correspond to a whole number of shares, the shareholder will have the right either to receive the number of shares rounded up to the nearest whole number, by paying on the election exercise date the relevant cash shortfall, or to receive the number of shares rounded down to the nearest whole number together with a cash payment.
The dividend in respect of the 2011 financial year will be paid from 24 July, 2012.
The new ordinary shares of the Company issued in payment of the dividend will have a right to dividend payments in respect of the period commencing 1 January, 2012. The Company will request that such shares are admitted to trading on the NYSE Euronext Paris stock market.
The new shares will be in the same category, and have the same rights, as the ordinary shares of the Company that are already admitted to trading on the NYSE Euronext Paris stock market (Compartment A – code ISIN FR0000120222).