Dividend

Dividend Policy

In coherence with Aperam’s Financial Policy (Link), Aperam’s dividend policy consists of a base dividend, anticipated to progressively increase over time. The Company targets a Net Financial Debt/EBITDA ratio of <1x (through the cycle). In the (unlikely) event that Net Financial Debt/EBITDA exceeds 1x, then the Company will review the dividend policy.

Dividend technicalities

The Company proposal to maintain its base dividend at EUR 1.75/share has been approved at the Annual General Meeting of shareholders of 5 May 2020.

The dividend payments would occur in four equal quarterly installments of EUR 0.4375 (gross) per share in 2020 as described below in the detailed dividend schedule.

A Luxembourg withholding tax of 15% is applied on the gross dividend amounts.

Table: Detailed dividend schedule 2020

 1st Quarterly Payment (interim)2nd Quarterly Payment3rd Quarterly Payment4th Quarterly Payment
Announcement DateFebruary 26, 2020May 12, 2020August 11, 2020November 09, 2020
Ex-DividendMarch 02, 2020May 15, 2020August 14, 2020November 12, 2020
Record DateMarch 03, 2020May 18, 2020August 17, 2020November 13, 2020
Payment DateMarch 26, 2020June 12, 2020September 11, 2020December 09, 2020
FX Exchange rateFebruary 27, 2020May 13, 2020August 12, 2020November 10, 2020

For shares traded in the United States on the OTC market in the form of New York registry shares, dividends are paid in US dollars and converted from Euros to US dollars based on the EURUSD ECB fixing exchange rate of the date, which is not a Target closing day, immediately following the announcement.

In order to benefit from exemption of Luxembourg dividend withholding tax at source, an “Informative Memorandum” describing the procedure to obtain an exemption at source of the Luxembourg dividend withholding tax is available here.