Understanding the shareholding

How to become shareholder

In order for us to place your order, please read our registered securities account agreement and we need you to fill out the following documents and send it to the address indicated in the CONTACT section of the footer:

  • The purchase order form, to be completed, dated and signed by you.
  • The securities account agreement subscription form, to be completed, dated and signed by.
    If you are an individual: registration form Natural person
    If you are a legal entity or other legal form: registration form Legal entity
  • Copies of the documents required in the securities account agreement subscription form.
  • The payment of approximately 50% of the estimated amount of your purchase order (depending on the share price), by bank transfer in Euros (please refer to the purchase order form). The balance of the operation will be required, if any, upon the receipt of your notice of transaction confirming your order. The actual total net amount can be paid by bank card.

    Or the authorization to debit your bank account directly with the whole amount of your purchase by sending us back the direct debit mandate.

 Important: your instruction cannot be processed upon receipt all the elements listed above. Be sure to include the name of the issuer and the value code of the stock you wish to purchase.

Once your buy order has been executed, you will receive a notice of the book-entry of your shares and your Sharinbox online access codes to activate your account.

You will find all the information to activate your account in the News "SHARINBOX becomes more secure! ACTIVATE YOUR ACCOUNT" or by discovering our tutorial video and/or our connection guide present on the homepage (after clicking on the "Access your account" button on the top right).

The information you provide will also allow us to transfer to you any payment regarding share sales or potential dividend.

The various ways of holding securities

Your securities and identity are registered in your name at the issuing company, enabling the bank to establish direct personal contact with you.
Your shares are registered in a securities account at Société Générale Securities Services, Shareholding service for the issuing company.

Your shares remain registered with your financial intermediary, who takes care of both custody and management.
In this case, management of your securities is assimilated to that of "shares in bearer form", enabling you to bring all your shares together in a single portfolio.
However, to transfer your administered registered shares you have to make a specific request to your financial intermediary. Then, your intermediary must inform Société Générale Securities Services of the conversion of your securities to externally administered registered shares. 
This form of holding enables the issuing company, both to identify you and to establish direct, personal contact with you.

This is the most common method of holding shares. 
In this method, purchase and day-to-day management of your securities are entrusted to the financial intermediary of your choice.
Your name is not recorded on the issuing company register.

The advantages of pure share registration

You will save money on management fees

The issuing company covers the full cost of account management fees.
The only fees you would have to pay (which would also be payable if your securities were in bearer form) are the brokerage fees and stock exchange tax pertaining to transactions (purchase or sale) carried out at your request. These fees are negotiated with the issuing company.

You will receive a named invitation to General Meetings

You will be invited to Ordinary and/or Extraordinary General Meetings, and you will directly and automatically receive a full Notice of Meeting two to three weeks prior to the date of the meeting. This document includes all the paperwork necessary to cast your vote (request forms for admission card, proxy and postal vote).
Procedures for participation in the meeting will be simplified: Given that you are registered on the lists of the issuing company, the request for an admission card to participate in a General Meeting will not be necessary - you will simply be asked to show personal identification on the day. The shareblocking certificate is not necessary.

Access to personalised information

You directly receive information about all financial operations (capital increase, bond issues, etc.) and in case of subscription to these operations, you will benefit from reduced, negotiated fees with the issuing company. You will be invited to various shareholder meetings held in your region and will receive all the information intended for shareholders promptly.

You will also have access to the Sharinbox website at the following address https://sharinbox.societegenerale.com/ as well as to the Nomilia telephone service, by dialling + 33 (0)2 51 85 67 89 (Phone number without tax surcharge, invoicing depending on your operator contract and the country from which you are calling from), exclusively reserved for pure registered shareholders for the monitoring and management of their securities.

You will receive specific practical guides 

Specific practical guides to regulations and tax (“Quelle fiscalité pour vos titres au nominatif?” (Taxes on Registered Shares), “Guide pratique des donations et dons” (Practical Guide to Donations and Bequests), etc.) are available at https://sharinbox.societegenerale.com/ or from the NOMILIA Customer Relations Centre.

Stock market orders

The lexicon

These definitions have been provided for information purposes only. Societe Generale Securities Services cannot be held liable for them under any circumstances.

Securities are registered directly by the issuing company, but are managed by an intermediary.
Form of holding securities chosen by the holder.

The purpose of the Autorité des Marchés Financiers is to strengthen the effectiveness and visibility of market regulation. The AMF has four main missions: to regulate, authorise, monitor and sanction.
Its jurisdiction covers financial transactions and information, collective investment schemes, markets and professionals, on which it may conduct controls or launch investigations.

Form of holding securities in which the name of the beneficiary is not recorded, chosen by the holder.
Bearer securities are however numbered by the issuing company. This numbering enables the security in question to be identified. It is the opposite of a registered security, which is addressed to a person in particular, and not simply the holder of the security.
In order that the issuing company is aware of the securities they own, investors may ask their shares to be registered.

Management body of a société anonyme (public limited company).
Its members, the directors, and the chairman of the board of directors divide strategic tasks (business development, audit, remuneration, nomination of executive management, etc.) between them in specialist committees.

Remuneration of an intermediary (service provider, broker) received when transactions are conducted on behalf of his/her clients. Concerning stock markets, the term brokerage usually encompasses all fees, actual brokerage as well as the commissions received by the bank or credit institution through which the trade order was rooted.

Company external growth procedure, but which is also used to strengthen its financial structure when the company is financially weakened.
The decision to increase the company’s share capital is taken at the Extraordinary General Meeting, and this is the only company body able to make this decision. This decision is taken following a report from the company’s board of directors or executive board, which sets out all the reasons for the capital increase.

Banking and/or financial intermediary responsible for centralising documentation relating to a corporate action or a financial transaction.
The centraliser is responsible for ensuring the administrative, accounting and financial completion of a transaction, and also for paying the various fees to intermediaries.

Financial establishment approved by the market authorities that is responsible for finalising securities transactions and contracts recorded on a stock market.
The clearing agent ensures that the exchanges of these various assets actually give rise to simultaneous settlements.

Meeting combining an Ordinary General Meeting and Extraordinary General Meeting held at the same time.

Corporate actions identify events that causes a change in a security: dividend payments, capital increases, takeover bids, etc.

A sum of money, payable to the holder of a bond, corresponding to the interest paid by the issuer.

Moment that marks the end of the vesting period, the duration of which cannot be less than one year. From that moment, shares are definitively vested to their beneficiary. However, the cumulative duration of vesting and retention periods must be equal to at least two years.

Amount of fees paid to your intermediary in return for holding your securities in their account books.

A dividend corresponds to the portion of the company’s earnings redistributed to shareholders as decided by the company’s annual general meeting, which passes resolutions on the very principle that dividends should be paid and their unit amount.

Specific securities account created in 1986. It was designed to encourage mass share ownership. 
Equity Savings Plans enable a European equities portfolio to be managed free from tax on dividends and capital gains, provided the holder does not retire in the five years following the opening of the plan. Payments are limited to €120,000 per person (€240,000 for a married couple).

Operation conducted by a holder who has been assigned stock options with a view to obtaining, in return for payment of the strike price, the corresponding shares.

Date on which the beneficiary may exercise his/her stock options. 
It may correspond to the end of the lock-up period, but the settlement plan may set out other ways for exercising stock options (“gradual exercise”).

Date, decided by the issuing company, from which stock options may no longer be exercised by the beneficiary. The options are thus invalid and lost by the holders.

A “fiscal non-resident” is anyone with a tax residence established outside France. Fiscal non-residents are governed by a specific tax regime, depending on the products they hold.

Employee share ownership plan that enables listed or unlisted joint-stock companies to allocate, under certain conditions and within certain limits, free shares to their employees and corporate officers.

Meeting of a company’s shareholders. There are two types of General Meeting (GM):

  • The Ordinary General Meeting (OGM): the shareholders’ meeting held at least once a year by companies, in the six months following the close of the financial year, and which is chiefly intended to present the performance of the company’s activities to shareholders. The OGM has several functions, including: approval of the financial statements, the distribution of dividends, changes to or reappointment of the board of directors, presentation of the annual report, etc.
  • The Extraordinary General Meeting (EGM): shareholders’ meeting held to take important decisions (amendments to articles of association, capital increases, bond market issues).
     

Date on which stock options or free shares are allocated to beneficiaries.
In particular, this date enables the tax regime applicable to free shares or those resulting from the exercise of stock options to be determined.

Any natural or legal person holding registered shares.

Identification number for securities listed on the Stock Exchange, adopted by Euronext for the sake of European harmonisation. It replaced the “Sicovam”, then “Euroclear” codes.

Any company that issues shares, bonds or other investment securities on the capital market.

A security is listed when it is admitted to a financial market. The price of the security is its market price, established by matching the best sale and purchase offers.
For a company, the advantage of listing is the access it gives to the capital markets and the opportunity to communicate information about the company.

The price, sometimes expressed as a percentage, of a financial instrument, a security, a commodity, a currency, merchandise, etc. resulting from the balancing of supply against demand; Price from which the opening price of the new session is established. This is the last listed price or the last indicative price appearing on the listing:

  • For subscription options, it is the average of the last 20 listed prices preceding the date of the board of directors’ meeting allocating the stock options.
  • For call options, it is the highest between the average purchase price of the shares held by the company and the average of the last 20 listed prices preceding the date of the board of directors’ meeting allocating the stock options.
  • For exercising stock options, it is the first stock market price on the day the options can be exercised.

The securities are directly registered and managed by the issuing company. This company conducts operations such as the payment of a dividend, the use of subscription rights or the allocation of new shares.
Form of holding securities chosen by the holder.

Share registered in the books of the company, which thus knows the exact identity of the holder of the share.

Contractual document drawn up by the issuer and between the company and the beneficiary, defining the procedures of the options plan or the free shares plan, such as the strike price, the exercise period, retention period, etc.

Tradable security issued by a company with share capital, representing a share in its capital. In return for purchasing shares, investors have the right to earnings and a right to vote at General Meetings.

Person that owns shares in a company.

Tax return to be sent by the paying institutions to holders and used to declare all income from investments and securities transactions. Under French tax regulations, it must be issued and sent.

Price at which beneficiaries of stock options can exercise their options to acquire shares. 

Right granted to employees to purchase a certain quantity of shares in their company at a set price for a defined period.
When they exercise their options, they acquire the share at a set price. In certain cases, they can sell them on immediately and collect the capital gain.
The option does not constitute an obligation to purchase. If the real share price is lower than the strike price, it will not be in the employees’ interest to exercise their option. If the price is higher, then they have an interest in exercising their option. They will thus acquire the share at a lower price than its real price.

Plan to purchase or subscribe to securities enabling a company to offer options to all or some of its employees and/or corporate officers, giving them the possibility to purchase its shares at a set price over a defined period. 

A “tax resident” is considered anyone who has their tax residence in France (either their family home or the place they conduct a professional activity or the centre of their economic interests).

Instruction sent to a financial intermediary, who, depending on the information received and the situation of the client’s account, submits it for execution on the stock market. A trade order must carry certain pieces of information necessary for it to be properly executed (the transaction direction, the security’s name or ISIN, the quantity of securities, etc.).

For each transaction (purchase, sale) that holders conduct on their securities, they receive a few days later a transaction notice that summarises all the characteristics of the order that has been executed. In the event of a complaint, they usually have 30 days to exercise their rights.

Essential attribute of a share enabling its holder to vote on resolutions proposed at general meetings. Pure registered shares (according to the terms and conditions set by the company) may grant double voting rights.

Method of tax collection consisting of having the tax collected by a third-party payer, usually the employer or bank, when income on which tax is due is paid to the tax payer.