What instigated us splitting shares? Was it to push the stock price up?
The stock-split is a pure technicality and a simple move: 5 new shares for 1 existing share in order to better align the shares listed in Paris with the ADS listed in New York.
Also, a share valued around 30-35 Euros or ($45-55US) - instead of 170 Euros or ($250US) - is an amount better-suited for retail (meaning individual shareholders) and thus will bring more liquidity to our stock.
What is the ADS?
ADS means 'American Depositary Share’: this is what is registered and listed on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE). Each ADS has a correspondence to the shares registered and listed in Paris (up to now, 1 share in Paris was corresponding to 5 ADS listed on the NYSE).
Why did the ADSs not split?
We didn’t split the ADS as they were already in the targeted value-range (less than $100) and because we wanted, for the reasons mentioned in some of the other Q&As, to have a one-for-one parity against the Parisian share (it was five-to-one up to now).
Why did we need to align the share price?
We didn't need to align the Parisian share and the ADS, but it will ease the readability of our market value for the shareholders, by having consistency in shares denominated in Euros (the Parisian share) for the European investors as well as a shares denominated in $US (the ADS) for the US investors.
What is the value to the shareholder? And to the company?
There's no mechanical value creation - or cost induced - for the shareholder or the company related to a stock-split, but a lower target value can encourage a broader range of buyers to become interested in general, thus increasing our share price (ordinary and ADS) overall. When looking at other stock-split examples, the stock usually sees a slight increase following the split.
Why would we want the share price to be high?
We want the share price to increase over time as we are committed to creating permanent value for our shareholders.
If you have further questions about the stock-split please contact:
