Shareholder structure
162
Share capital
Ahold at a glance
Business review
Governance
Ahold
Annual Report 2014
During 2014, Ahold's issued share capital decreased by approximately 160 million common shares to 823 million common shares. The reasons for this decrease were the 92 million shares Ahold acquired, pursuant to the
€2 billion share repurchase program and the impact of the reverse stock split of 74 million shares, offset by the use of 6 million treasury shares for the GRO program. The common shares issued decreased by 167 million to
894 million at the end of 2014. The reasons for this decrease were the impact of the reverse stock split of 82 million shares and the cancellation of 85 million shares on June 20, 2014.
As of December 28, 2014, there were 72 million shares held in treasury, the majority held by Ahold to cover the equity-based long-term incentive plan for employees.
Ahold's authorized share capital as of December 28, 2014, was comprised of the following:
a 1,700,000,000 common shares at €0.01 par value each
a 477,580,949 cumulative preferred financing shares at €0.01 par value each
a 43,520 cumulative preferred shares at €500 par value each
Shareholders by region2:
Percent
February 2015
February 2014
UK Ireland
22.8
19.3
North America
20.6
23.5
Rest of Europe
8.1
7.2
The Netherlands1
7.1
7.8
France
4.9
5.1
Rest of the world
3.9
3.5
Germany
3.8
3.6
Switzerland
1.8
2.1
Undisclosed1
27.0
27.9
1 The Netherlands excludes the percentage of shareholdings of all retail holdings and treasury shares, which are included in Undisclosed.
2 Source: CMi2i.
For additional information about Ahold's share capital, see Notes 20 and 22 to the consolidated financial statements. Ahold is a public limited liability company registered in the Netherlands with a listing of shares
(symbol: AH) on Euronext's Amsterdam Stock Exchange (AEX).