According to Metsä Board's Articles of Association, a shareholder may present the company with a request to convert an A share held by them into a B share. The request concerning conversion can usually be presented at any time, though not after the company's Board of Directors has made a decision to convene a General Meeting of Shareholders. A request made between said decision and the General Meeting that follows it is considered as presented and will be handled after the General Meeting and any possible dividend record date to follow.
The A share is converted into a B share following registration. Metsä Board processes conversion requests as a rule on a monthly basis. However, share conversions are not handled in July. Conversion requests received in June and July will be processed at the beginning of August. Newly converted B shares are registered on the shareholder's book-entry account and can be traded following registration in the trade register and book-entry system. Trading in newly converted shares will as a rule commence approximately one month after the company has processed the conversion request. The conversion schedule depends, however, on external parties, such as authorities. Upon placing a conversion request, the relevant book-entry account will be subject to a transfer restriction, which means that the shareholder cannot transfer his/her A shares before their conversion into B shares.
A shareholder wishing to convert shares must present a free-form signed conversion request in writing to Metsä Board, indicating the shareholder's personal identification code or business ID, contact information, number of shares to be converted, the trading code and ISIN code of shares to be converted from, e.g. METSA (FI0009000640), the trading code and ISIN code of shares to be converted to e.g. METSB (FI0009000665), book-entry account and account operator.
Share conversion is voluntary in nature: it is executed only at the request of the shareholder or the custodian of any nominee-registered shares. A shareholder is liable for costs associated with the conversion.
Please address written requests for conversion and any questions related to share conversion to:
Darja Warma
Metsä Group
P.O.Box 10
FI-02020 Metsä
FINLAND
E-mail: darja.warma[at]metsagroup.com