Section 6: Share savings plan

I. - 1° The sums paid into the share savings plan are used for one or more of the following purposes :

a) Shares, with the exception of those mentioned in article L. 228-11 of the French Commercial Code, or company investment certificates, cooperative investment certificates, mutualist certificates mentioned in articles L. 322-26-8 of the French Insurance Code and L. 221-19 of the French Mutual Code and parity certificates mentioned in article L. 931-15-1 of the French Social Security Code ;

b) Shares in limited liability companies or companies with equivalent status and shares in companies governed by law no. 47-1775 of 10 September 1947 on the status of cooperatives;

2° Sums paid into the share savings plan may also be used to subscribe for :

a) Shares in open-ended investment companies that invest more than 75% of their assets in the securities referred to in a and b of 1° ;

b) Units in mutual funds in which more than 75% of the assets are invested in the securities referred to in a and b of 1°;

c) Units or shares in UCITS established in other Member States of the European Union or in another State party to the Agreement on the European Economic Area which has signed an administrative assistance agreement with France to combat tax evasion and avoidance, which benefit from the mutual recognition procedure for approvals provided for in Directive 2009/65/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 13 July 2009 and which invest more than 75% of their assets in the securities referred to in a and b of 1°;

3° Sums paid into the equity savings plan may also be invested in a unit-linked capitalisation contract governed by the Insurance Code and invested in one or more of the categories of securities mentioned above, subject to the provisions of article L. 131-1 of the same code;

4° Issuers of the securities referred to in 1° must have their registered office in France or in another Member State of the European Union or in another State party to the Agreement on the European Economic Area which has entered into an administrative assistance agreement with France to combat tax evasion and avoidance, and must be subject to corporation tax under ordinary law or to an equivalent tax. For the application of articles L. 221-30 to L. 221-32, the condition relating to the normal rate of taxation does not apply to the new companies mentioned in article 44 sexies of the General Tax Code and to the companies referred to in 3° septies of article 208 of the same code.

II. - 1° Units in the funds mentioned in section 3 of III of article 150-0 A of the General Tax Code may not be included in the share savings plan.

Amounts paid into the equity savings plan may not be used to acquire securities offered under the conditions set out inarticle 80 bis of the General Tax Code;

2° Securities or shares the subscription of which has enabled the holder of the plan to benefit from the tax advantages resulting from articles 199 undecies A and 199 unvicies, from II bis of article 80 bis of the General Tax Code, as well as from the second paragraph of II of article 726 of the same code may not be included in the plan. Units in venture capital mutual funds, shares in venture capital companies and securities in the entities mentioned in the last paragraph of paragraph 8 of II of article 150-0 A of the General Tax Code, giving rise to different rights to the net assets or income of the fund, company or entity and allocated according to the status of the person, may not be included in the plan;

3° The holder of the share savings plan, his/her spouse or partner under a civil solidarity pact and their ascendants and descendants must not, for the duration of the plan, together hold, directly or indirectly, more than 25% of the rights to the profits of companies whose securities are included in the share savings plan, or have held this stake at any time during the five years preceding the acquisition of these securities under the plan. The percentage of rights held indirectly by these persons, through interposed companies or organisations and whatever the number, is assessed by multiplying the successive holding rates in the chain of holdings;

4° The sums paid into the share savings plan may not be used to acquire securities held outside this plan by the holder of the plan, his spouse, the partner to whom he is linked by a civil solidarity pact or their ascendants or descendants.

III. - The sums or securities resulting from investments made in the share savings plan are reinvested in the plan under the same conditions as the deposits.