Are you a shareholder in Swedish Match with fewer than 200 shares? If so, you will soon receive an offer from the company enabling you to sell your shares without having to pay any charges or brokerage fees.
"Many small shareholders have an odd number of shares, and the number of shares they hold is also less than the company´s trading lot, which is 200 shares," says Bo Aulin, Senior Vice President Corporate Affairs. "Conducting a trade in an even number of trading lots is generally a simple and straightforward process that can be completed more or less immediately. But selling - or buying - let´s say 67 or 155 shares can be an unnecessarily complicated and time-consuming transaction, as well as incurring relatively costly brokerage fees and charges for shareholders with small holdings."
Against this background, the Swedish Match Board of Directors was assigned the task, at the 2006 Annual General Meeting, of formulating the details for an offer to shareholders with fewer than 200 shares. The conditions will be finalized by the Board during August, after which all shareholders will receive a brochure in their mailboxes at home setting forth detailed conditions, including the relevant tax aspects.
Conditions in brief
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Shareholders can sell their entire holding of 1-199 shares on one and the same occasion
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The price offered is a market price corresponding to the average price for all sales within the framework of the offer.
History
Today, Swedish Match has slightly more than 84,000 shareholders. More than 80,000 shareholders hold fewer than 1,000 shares in the company, and the majority of these have only around 100 shares.
Many of Swedish Match´s shareholders originally obtained their shares through the distribution from Volvo that took place when Swedish Match was listed on the Stockholm Stock Exchange in 1996. At that time, there were 167,000 shareholders, about 100,000 of whom held fewer than 200 shares in the company. During the ten years that have passed since then, the number of shareholders has halved. Nevertheless, Swedish Match remains one of the companies that can claim the broadest shareholder bases on the Stockholm Stock Exchange.