Danone announces today the launch of its first global Employee Share Subscription Plan.
As from June 7, 2019, Danone employees in eight countries will have the opportunity to subscribe to new Danone shares. Including French employees, who already benefit from a local company savings plan, this represents 50% of all Danone employees worldwide.
The launch of its new global Employee Share Subscription Plan is part of “One Person. One Voice. One Share”, an innovative employee engagement program and governance model launched by Danone in 2018 to allow all of its 100,000 employees to co-own the company agenda, actively participate in defining roadmaps to bring the company’s strategic goals to life, and deepen their ownership mindset.
Main terms of the Employee Share Subscription Plan
The share offering is being conducted under an authorization of the shareholders’ meeting of April 25, 2019 and is being proposed to all eligible employees in Chinese Mainland and Hong Kong, Indonesia, Mexico, Singapore, Poland, Spain, The Netherlands and the United Kingdom, subject to obtaining the necessary authorizations from the local authorities. The subscription price is equal to EUR 56.65, or 80% of the average opening price of Danone share on the Euronext Paris market during the twenty trading days preceding June 3, 2019.
The subscription period is planned to run from June 7 to June 24, 2019 and settlement (paymentdelivery) is expected to occur in the following weeks, subject to any pending regulatory approval. The Plan is limited to 800,000 shares.
Participants in the Employee Share Subscription Plan must keep the shares subscribed for a period of five years, subject to early release exemptions.
The application for admission to trading on the Euronext Paris exchange of the shares issued will be filed as soon as possible after the completion of the capital increase. The new shares will be listed under the same code as the existing Danone shares (ISIN code: FR0000120644) and will be fungible with those shares from their admission to trading.
