The capital stock of Bayer AG, amounting to Euro 2,116,986,388.48, is divided into 826,947,808 no-par registered shares.
An international survey conducted in November 2009 which included around 768 institutional investors covered 82 percent (i.e. 681,497,176 shares) of the shares outstanding. The following regional overview of stock ownership is based on the results of this survey.
Non-German investors hold nearly 75 percent of the capital stock, reflecting the Bayer Group’s international presence and the significance of its stock on international financial markets. The region USA & Canada accounts for the largest proportion of non-German-owned stock.
Source: D.F. King Ltd., November 2009
0.98 percent of the company’s capital stock was held by employees in German securities accounts as of December 31, 2009. These shares are not included in the above survey.
Bayer offers a range of stock programs to enable employees to participate in the success of the company.
Under the German Securities Trading Act (Wertpapierhandelsgesetz), holders of voting securities of a listed German company must notify that company of the level of their holding whenever it reaches, exceeds or falls below specified thresholds. These thresholds are 3, 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30, 50 and 75 percent of the company’s outstanding voting securities.
By letter dated on March 16, 2010 the announcing entity BlackRock, Inc., New York, U.S.A., has notified us, the issuer Bayer AG, 51373 Leverkusen, Germany, pursuant to Article 21, Section 1 of the Securities Trading Act (Wertpapierhandelsgesetz - “WpHG”) as follows:
The amount of voting rights of BlackRock, Inc. in Bayer AG exceeded the threshold of 5% on March 12, 2010 and amounts to 5.01 % (41,424,399 voting rights) on that day. All of the voting rights are attributable to BlackRock, Inc. pursuant to Article 22 Section 1 Sentence 1 No 6 in connection with Sentence 2 WpHG.
On December 1, 2009, Capital Research and Management Company, Los Angeles, USA, has informed us according to Article 21, Section 1 of the WpHG that via shares its Voting Rights on Bayer Aktiengesellschaft, Leverkusen, Deutschland, ISIN: DE000BAY0017, WKN: BAY001, have fallen below the 10% limit of the Voting Rights on November 26, 2009 and on that day amounted to 9.97% (this corresponds to 82483440 Voting Rights).
According to Article 22, Section 1, Sentence 1, No. 6 of the WpHG, 9.97% of the Voting Rights (this corresponds to 82483440 Voting Rights) were attributed to Capital Research and Management Company. Of those 9.97% Voting Rights (corresponds to 82483440 Voting Rights) 4.16% of the Voting Rights (this corresponds to 34400827 Voting Rights) were held by EuroPacific Growth Fund, Los Angeles, USA, which is thus a stockholder holding directly 3% or more of the Voting Rights in Bayer AG.
At present, no other shareholder has notified us that it has exceeded the German Securities Trading Act's treshold of 3 percent.