Translation for information purposes only
ARTICLE 21- DIVIDENDS
If there results a distributable profit from the accounts of the fiscal year, as approved by the general meeting, the general meeting may decide to allocate it to one or several reserve funds, the appropriation or use of which it shall determine, or to carry it forward or to distribute it as dividends.
Furthermore, after having established the existence of reserves which it may dispose of, the general meeting may decide the distribution of amounts paid out of such reserves. In such case, the payments shall be made. However, the dividends shall be set off by priority on the distributable profit of the fiscal year.
The general meeting shall determine the terms of payment of dividends ; failing such determination, these terms shall be determined by the Board of Directors.
However, the dividends must be declared payable no more than nine months following the close of the fiscal year.
The general meeting deciding upon the accounts of a fiscal year will be entitled to grant to each shareholder, for all or part of the distributed dividends, an option between payment in cash or in shares.
Similarly, should the ordinary general meeting resolve the distribution of interim dividends pursuant to article L. 232-12 of the French commercial code (code de commerce) , it will be entitled to grant to each shareholder an interim dividend and, for whole or part of the said interim dividend, an option between payment in cash or in shares.
The offer of payment in shares, the price and the conditions as to the issuing of such shares, together with the request for payment in shares and the conditions of the completion of the capital increase will be governed by the law and regulations.
When a balance sheet, drawn up during, or at the end of the fiscal year, and certified by the statutory auditor, shows that the Company, since the close of the preceding fiscal year, after having made the necessary depreciations and provisions and after deduction of the prior losses, if any, as well as of the amounts which are to be allocated to the reserve fund provided by law or by the by-laws and taking into account the profits carrying forward, has made profits, the Board of Directors may resolve the distribution of interim dividends prior to the approval of the accounts of the fiscal year, and may determine the amount thereof and the date of such distribution. The amount of such interim dividends cannot exceed the amount of the profits as defined in this paragraph. In this case, the option described in the preceding paragraph shall not be available.
ARTICLE 22—EARLY DISSOLUTION
An extraordinary general shareholders’ meeting may, at any time, decide to dissolve the Company before the expiration of its term.
ARTICLE 23—LOSS OF ONE HALF OF SHARE CAPITAL
If, as a consequence of losses showed by the Company’s accounts, the net assets (capitaux propres) of the Company are reduced below one half of the capital of the Company, the Board of Directors must, within four months from the approval of the accounts showing this loss, convene an extraordinary general meeting of shareholders in order to decide whether the Company ought to be dissolved before its statutory term.
If the dissolution is not declared, the capital must, at the latest at the end of the second fiscal year following the fiscal year during which the losses were established and subject to the legal provisions concerning the minimum capital of sociétés anonymes, be reduced by an amount at least equal to the losses which could not be charged on reserves, if during that period the net assets have not been restored up to an amount at least equal to one half of the capital.
In the absence of a meeting of shareholders, or in the case where the Company has not been able to validly act, any interested party may institute legal proceedings to dissolve the Company.