Twenty-first resolution: delegation of authority granted to the Board of Directors for the purpose of carrying out a capital increase reserved for categories of beneficiaries consisting of employees of foreign subsidiaries, with cancellation of preferential subscription rights, within the scope of an employee share ownership plan
The Annual General Meeting, voting in accordance with the quorum and majority conditions required for Extraordinary General Meetings, having reviewed the Report of the Board of Directors and the Special Report of the Statutory Auditors, and acting in accordance with the provisions of Articles L. 225‑129‑2 and L. 225-138 of the French Commercial Code:
- delegates to the Board of Directors the authority to decide to increase the Company’s share capital, on one or more occasions, in the proportions and at the times it may consider appropriate, through the issue of shares or securities giving access to the Company’s capital with cancellation of shareholders’ preferential subscription rights in favour of the beneficiaries defined below;
- decides to cancel shareholders’ preferential subscription rights to the shares and securities giving access to the Company’s capital issued within the scope of this delegation of authority and to reserve the right to subscribe them to one or several categories of beneficiaries meeting the following characteristics: (i) employees, directors and corporate officers of affiliates of the Company under the conditions of Article L. 225-180 of the French Commercial Code and Article L. 3341-1 of the French Labour Code and which have their headquarters outside France and/or (ii) for UCITS or other entities governed by French or foreign law, whether or not they constitute a legal person, of employee share ownership schemes invested in shares of the Company whose unitholders or shareholders will consist of the persons mentioned in paragraph (i) or enabling the persons mentioned in paragraph (i) to benefit, either directly or indirectly, from a Company employee share ownership plan or employee share savings scheme;
- sets the period of validity of this delegation of authority at eighteen months as from the date of this Annual General Meeting, and notes that this delegation renders ineffective the unused portion of any prior delegation for the same purpose; it being specified that in the event of filing of a public offer by a third party with regard to the shares of the Company, the Board of Directors will not be able to use this authorisation during the public offer period without prior authorisation of the Annual General Meeting;
- decides that the issue price of the new shares, to be issued pursuant to this delegation of authority, will be set, (i) on the basis of an average of the trading prices on the Euronext Paris market for the 20 trading days prior to the date of the decision of the Board of Directors or the Chief Executive Officer, setting the opening date of the subscription period, with a maximum discount of 30%, and/or (ii) at the same price as decided at the time of a simultaneous transaction, and/or (iii) in accordance with the terms and conditions for setting the subscription price for the Company’s shares taking into account the specific regime of an offering of shares in the Company that would be carried out within the framework of a share ownership scheme governed by foreign law, and in particular within the scope of a Share Incentive Plan in the United Kingdom or a 401k or 423 plan in the United States;
- decides to set at 1% of the share capital existing at the date of this Annual General Meeting, the capital increase that could thus be carried out (namely, for information purposes, as at 31 December 2021, an increase in the share capital by a nominal amount of €1,115,344.60 by issuing 5,576,723 new shares); it being specified that the cumulative amount of the share capital increases that may be carried out under this resolution and the twentieth resolution may not exceed the maximum amount of 1% of the share capital existing at the date of this Annual General Meeting, which constitutes a ceiling applicable jointly to the twentieth and twenty-first resolutions;
- decides that the amount of the share capital increases that may be carried out pursuant to this resolution will be charged against the total ceiling stipulated in the seventeenth resolution of the Annual General Meeting of 20 April 2021 or, as applicable, against the ceiling stipulated by a similar resolution that may potentially succeed this seventeenth resolution during the valid period of this delegation; and
- decides that the Board of Directors will have full powers, to delegate further under the conditions provided for by law, with the ability to delegate authority on one or more occasions, in particular in order to:
- set a list of beneficiaries, from one or more categories defined above, or the categories of employees who will be beneficiaries of each issue and the number of shares to be subscribed to by each of them,
- determine the formulas and methods of subscription which will be presented to the employees in each country concerned, in light, where applicable, of the local legal constraints that apply, and select the countries chosen from those in which the Group has subsidiaries as well as such subsidiaries whose employees will be able to participate in the transaction,
- decide on the maximum number of shares to be issued, within the limits set by this resolution and record the final amount of each capital increase and amend the Articles of Association accordingly,
- decide on the dates and any other terms and conditions of such a share capital increase under the conditions provided for by law,
- deduct the costs of such an increase in capital from the amount of the related share premiums and take from this amount the amounts necessary to increase the legal reserve to one-tenth of the new amount of the share capital resulting from such an increase, and
- in general, carry out all acts and formalities, take any decisions and enter into any agreement that may be useful or necessary for the due and proper completion of the share issues made pursuant to this delegation of authority and record the final completion of the capital increase(s) made pursuant to this delegation of authority and amend the Articles of Association accordingly.
