Bayer calls in old share certificates

Global certificate instead / No cost to stockholders

28-Sep-2000

Leverkusen – Bayer AG is calling in its old share certificates and replacing them by a single global certificate to be deposited with Clearstream Banking AG in Frankfurt. This means stockholders will no longer receive share certificates in the future. A custody credit showing the number of shares held will be issued instead, as is already done in the vast majority of cases.

Stockholders are being asked to hand in their old share certificates starting October 9, 2000. Certificates not surrendered by January 12, 2001 will be declared void. Stockholders whose Bayer shares are kept by a bank in a collective security deposit need take no action. Stockholders whose shares are kept in separate custody must have their shares transferred by the custodian bank to a collective security deposit; the bank will take all necessary further steps.

Of the approximately 730 million Bayer shares in circulation, only about 5 million – represented by some 100,000 certificates – are kept in separate custody by banks or by stockholders at home. Stockholders who have their share certificates in their possession are requested to hand them in at a branch of Deutsche Bank AG or any other custodian bank, where a custody credit will be issued accordingly. Stockholders will not incur any costs as a result of surrendering the invalid certificates and the issuance of a custody credit.

The old share certificates still in circulation need to be withdrawn not only because they bear several different DM par values but also because some of them still carry the old company name "Farbenfabriken Bayer". Following the approval by the Annual Stockholders' Meeting of the switch to no-par shares in 1998 and of the conversion of the capital stock to euros the following year, the text of the share certificates has become void. Also, there is only one dividend coupon left on the accompanying coupon sheet, so new coupons would have to be printed. Bayer AG has decided that no more certificates will be issued in order to avoid the substantial cost of printing new certificates and dividend coupon sheets.

https://www.chemeurope.com/en/news/99/bayer-calls-in-old-share-certificates.html