The past period has shown that the form of SPAAK, a Dutch foundation, does not fit well with French corporate law. This could possibly lead to discussions in the future when exercising our rights as a shareholder. An association of shareholders under French law is a more effective way of exerting influence. As a result, SPAAK and VNV have decided, after thorough research, to jointly form such an association: Association SPAAK. This was completed in mid-September. In practice, there will be hardly any difference with the old situation and SPAAK will remain the party that manages the shares in Air France – KLM and exercises the rights and obligations associated with the package of shares.
On August 31, Air France – KLM executed a reverse share split. This entails a reduction in the number of outstanding shares, while simultaneously increasing the value per share in the same proportion. In this case, a ratio of 1 to 10 was applied. Shareholder approval for this reverse share split was already granted at the Annual General Meeting in June.
The reasons for implementing the reverse share split include normalizing the number of outstanding shares to pre-COVID-19 levels, aligning the share price with that of comparable companies, and improving the market perception of the share.
As a result of the reverse share split, the number of shares managed by SPAAK has been reduced tenfold to 2,241,065. Naturally, the total value of the shareholding remained unchanged at the time of the conversion.
This number of shares corresponds to a 0.87% stake in Air France – KLM. The rules concerning double voting rights remain unchanged, and SPAAK currently holds 0.98% of the voting rights. With further doubling of voting rights, this is expected to increase to well above 1% by mid-2024.