Capital and form of shares

In accordance with the law of December 14, 2005 on the elimination of bearer shares, holders of bearer shares had to convert them into registered or dematerialised shares by December 31, 2013 at the latest. The bearer shares that had not yet been converted into registered or dematerialised shares at January 1, 2014 were automatically converted into dematerialised shares and registered in a securities account in GBL’s name. Since January 1, 2014, the exercising of bearer shares rights has been suspended in accordance with the law. The law also provides that, as from January 1, 2015, issuers must put any unclaimed bearer shares up for sale on the stock market and announce this mandatory sale in good time. Once the unclaimed bearer shares have been sold, the net proceeds of this sale (in other words the proceeds less any costs incurred) must be transferred to the Caisse des Dépôts et Consignations within fifteen days.

In accordance with this obligation two notices, which among other things stated the maximum number of securities liable to be put up for sale and the depositing deadline and location for bearer shares, were published by GBL and Euronext on their websites. An initial notice was published on December 5, 2014 and concerned 69,082 unclaimed bearer shares, while a second notice was published on October 2, 2015 relating to 32,656 bearer shares from share exchange reserves. These notices were also inserted in the Belgian Official Gazette of December 11, 2014 and October 6, 2015 respectively. Following the publication of these notices, the shares in question were sold on the stock exchange on January 21, 2015 (69,082 shares) and November 16, 2015 (32,656 shares). The proceeds from these sales were transferred on January 23, 2015 and November 18, 2015 to the Caisse des Dépôts et Consignations.

Since December 31, 2015 the owners of these old bearer shares have been entitled to demand payment of the corresponding proceeds from the Caisse des Dépôts et Consignations, subject to these owners being able to provide proof of ownership. However, the law of 14 , December 2005 provides that, as from January 1, 2016, such a repayment will be subject to a fine of 10% of the proceeds from the sale of the underlying bearer shares, calculated by year of delay commenced. GBL is therefore no longer involved in this process.