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Offer to Facilitate Realisation of Small Shareholdings AXA Asia Pacific today announced it had written to 144,130 shareholders, owners of parcels of 300 shares or less, offering them an easy and inexpensive way to sell their shares. An administration fee of A$15 (NZ$19) will be debited to sellers accounts. However, shareholders with parcels of nine or less shares will not be charged. AXA has arranged with Deutsche Securities to bundle these small parcels of shares and sell them in commercial packages. If all eligible shareholders were to accept this invitation 29, 431, 397 shares, representing 1.7 per cent of the register, would be placed on the market. Commenting on the offer Chief Executive Mr Les Owen said that this offer was a great way for small shareholders to tidy up their affairs. “Very small parcels of shares can be difficult and expensive to sell. If you go to a mainstream broker it will cost you around $100 to do a simple transaction like this – or $50 over the net. At just $15.00 this is a great way to maximise your returns,” Mr Owen said. AXA Asia Pacific has 420,849 shareholders, with 324,223 in Australia and 96,626 in New Zealand. Many of the private shareholders received their shares through the demutualisation in 1995 when eligible policyholders exchanged their voting rights for shares in the listed entity, National Mutual, which later became AXA Asia Pacific. Mr Owen said the bundled shares would be sold on the Australian stock exchange by Deutsche Securities. “Quite clearly, this is not a share buy-back or a way of AXA SA increasing its stake beyond the 51 per cent allowed by the Australian Government because these shares will remain in the market and be publicly owned. This is a simple way of helping small shareholders realise their asset in a cost-effective manner as well as reducing the costs to the company of having such a large register. “It costs around $25 per shareholder per year for us to manage their registration and to provide company reports. “Some shareholders have as few as three or four shares, which is likely to be the result of dividend reinvestment plans being delivered immediately after the sale of the original stock. “It must be frustrating for those people with unmarketable parcels of shares as they continue to receive the same correspondence as all other investors. But the only way of realising the small holding is often to have to buy extra shares to create a marketable parcel. This is clearly something that many of these shareholders do not want to do and which they may lack the confidence to initiate with a stockbroker or other financial adviser. AXA is also very focussed on reducing environmental waste through avoiding the printing and posting of large quantities of unwanted reports and correspondence. “I encourage all shareholders who receive this invitation to consider it with their own financial adviser and to act on it – and to do so before March 16 when the offer expires,” Mr Owen said. -o0o- For further information please contact: Investors: Robin Burns General Manager Investor Relations (03) 9616 3631 Media: Simon Morgan Group Media Relations Manager (03) 9618 4944 |