Registration & FAQ

Your request must be in writing and signed and must be sent to the Shareholders Service via e-mail (scanned request) to shareholders@solvay.com or by post (Solvay Shareholders Service, 310 Rue de Ransbeek, B-1120 Brussels) [see form letter in appendix 1].

A copy of your identity card must be included without fail (or scanned if sending your request via e-mail), as well as a bank details statement (RIB).

Please contact the Solvay Shareholders Service by telephone or in writing.

Solvay Shareholders Service
310 Rue de Ransbeek
B-1120 Brussels (Belgium)  
Tel.+32 2 639 66 32
e-mail: shareholders@solvay.com 

First contact your notary, lawyer, banker or other advisor to establish the conditions for the donation to be made.

Send the Shareholders Department a letter stipulating the terms of the off-exchange transfer of the shares (see model letter in appendix 2) and a copy (certified copy) of the notarial deed of donation, whether it is a donation of full or bare ownership of shares.

Confirmation of the registration of the transfer of shares will be sent to the parties concerned.

Please inform the Registered Shares Management Service of the date of death in writing with a copy of the death certificate.  

Please include the contact details of the notary in charge of the succession.

Attach, if already established, a copy of the deed of inheritance as well as the precise instructions for sharing the shares, countersigned by all the beneficiaries.

If one of the heirs resides outside a Member State of the European Economic Area (i.e. outside the European Union, Liechtenstein, Iceland or Norway) attach a release certificate requested by the notary to the tax administration (Legal Security Office) as soon as the inheritance tax has been paid. The notary can also carry out the formalities described above. 

Article 10 of the by-laws stipulates that the company recognizes only one owner per share.  Joint owners must therefore designate one of themselves as the share owner vis-à-vis Solvay to exercise their rights (and in particular voting rights). The same applies in the event of usufruct or pledging (see question 6 on this issue). This does not affect the ownership of shares covered by the designation in any way. They remain registered under the name of the joint inheritance / bare ownership-usufruct beneficiary. Letter templates (appendix 3 – 4) must be sent to the Registered Shares Management Service duly completed and signed by all parties.  Failure to do so means that shares cannot be accepted at shareholder meetings.

Yes. The Registered Shares Management Service can send you a position balance statement from the register.

On the strength of this document the bank can draw up a pledge agreement between itself and you. You must subsequently send a copy of the agreement to the Registered Shares Management Service.

The company confirms to both parties that the pledge has been listed in the register until the service has been informed of its cancellation by the bank.

Article 10 of the by-laws requires that a single person be designated (as is the case for joint ownership or usufruct/bare ownership) as the share owner vis-à-vis the company. The letter template in appendix 3.3 must be completed and signed by all parties and be sent to the company.

In the event of purchases on stock markets, the operation is carried out via a financial intermediary (credit institution or brokerage). Shares will be credited as registered or dematerialized shares, as decided by the shareholder.

The stock market sale of dematerialized shares is carried out via a financial intermediary (credit institution or brokerage).

The sale of registered shares is carried outby a financial intermediary (credit institution or brokerage), having first asked the Registered Shares Management Service to transfer the shares to a securities account by means of a signed document.

Please contact your financial intermediary to have dematerialised shares transferred to the registered Solvay account with Euroclear Belgium. A template of the letter to address to your financial intermediary is attached in appendix 6.

As coupon payment approaches, please remember the ex-dividend date.

Please send a signed letter to the Registered Shares Management Service indicating the stock file in which shares must be transferred as well as the Euroclear Belgium account of your financial intermediary (credit institution or brokerage).  

Attach also a copy of your ID card and a RIB.

As coupon payment approaches, please remember the ex-dividend date.

In principle, the payment of dividends gives rise in Belgium to a withholding tax called withholding tax and the rate applicable to Solvay dividends is fixed at 30% since the 1st of January 2017.

However, Belgium has entered into international tax treaties with a certain number of foreign countries(1), which generally limit the burden of this withholding tax to 15% or even 10%. Those of our non-resident shareholders who qualify for these treaties to apply to them may therefore claim the benefit of this relief. An outline of the procedure to be followed to obtain the conventional reduction of withholding tax is given below.

Reimbursement application

The general rule is that tax convention eligibility is obtained by reimbursement, which must be requested from the Bureau Central de Taxation “Etranger”, boulevard du Jardin Botanique, 50, boîte 3429, B-1000 Brussels. To do so, form 276 Div. AUT must be used and not any other. The form can be downloaded from our website in appendix 5.

Both parts of the form must be correctly completed and signed. Once done, they must be submitted for approval by the international taxation department to which the requisitioning party is subject. The appropriate civil servant will return the first part of the document and keep the second. The first part of the document must be sent to the department (address above) along with:

• the coupon payment form for registered or dematerialized shares
• the circular and attached dividend statement, which the company issues several days before release of payment of the dividend for any shares owned as registered shares.

Reduction at source application

The company is exceptionally authorized to apply tax relief directly, but only when the request concerns exclusively dividends from registered shares (and must therefore defer all cases of dividends from both registered and dematerialized shares). In this instance, the first part of form 276 Div. AUT must be completed, signed and approved and must be sent to the company within ten days of payment of income. No reason can be accepted for exceeding this deadline. The company is required to return to the sender all documents not correctly completed or received late.

(1) 
Limitation to 15% in particular for the following countries:, Austria, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Romania, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland. United States.
Limit to 10% in particular for the following countries: Bulgaria, China, Congo, Hungary, Japan, Kuwait, Mauritius, Poland, Russia and United Kingdom.

It has not been possible to receive paper (bearer) shares since 1 January 2008. Bearer shares already in a securities file have been automatically converted into dematerialized shares. Additionally, under the terms of a resolution passed by the General Shareholder Meeting held on 8 May 2007, all bearer shares issued by the company and not recorded in dematerialized securities accounts or converted into registered shares by 01 July 2011 have been automatically converted into dematerialized shares.