Corporate governance

Shareholders

Registered shareholders

As of March 31, 2019, the shareholdings of registered shareholders were distributed as follows:

Number of shares

 

Registered shareholders 31.3.2019

 

Registered shareholders 31.3.2018

1 – 100

 

7,538

 

7,387

101 – 1,000

 

8,223

 

9,729

1,001 – 10,000

 

1,138

 

1,277

10,001 – 100,000

 

211

 

214

100,001 – 1,000,000

 

42

 

35

> 1,000,000

 

6

 

6

Total registered shareholders

 

17,158

 

18,648

Significant shareholders

The following overview shows the registered shareholdings of significant shareholders as of March 31, 2019. Nominees are registered without voting rights. Significant shareholders may also hold non-registered shares which are reported under “Not registered”:

 

 

2019

 

2019

 

2018

 

2018

 

 

No. of shares

 

In %

 

No. of shares

 

In %

Beda Diethelm 1)

 

6,654,759

 

10.19

 

6,657,509

 

10.19

Chase Nominees Ltd. 2)

 

5,906,307

 

9.04

 

5,610,620

 

8.59

Family of Hans-Ueli Rihs 1) 3)

 

3,704,307

 

5.67

 

3,733,000

 

5.71

Nortrust Nominees Ltd. 2)

 

3,799,076

 

5.82

 

2,878,139

 

4.41

Bank of New York Mellon Nominee 2)

 

2,724,420

 

4.17

 

n/a

 

<3.00

Fidelity Funds

 

2,241,202

 

3.43

 

n/a

 

<3.00

Andy Rihs 1) 4)

 

n/a

 

<3.00

 

2,009,979

 

3.08

Registered shareholders with less than 3% of shares

 

19,332,634

 

29.59

 

23,475,488

 

35.93

Not registered

 

20,968,182

 

32.10

 

20,966,152

 

32.09

Total shares

 

65,330,887

 

100.00

 

65,330,887

 

100.00

1) The founding shareholders Andy Rihs, Beda Diethelm and Hans-Ueli Rihs were already shareholders before the Initial Public Offering in November 1994. There are no shareholders’ agreements among these individuals and they can trade freely.

2) Registered without voting rights.

3) Hans-Ulrich Rihs, Gabriela Rihs and Stefan Rihs as a group jointly control 3,704,307 registered shares (corresponding to 5.67% of total Sonova share capital) as of December 24, 2018. These shares were previously controlled by Hans-Ulrich Rihs as a single shareholder.

4) Andy Rihs deceased on April 18, 2018.

For information on shareholders of Sonova Holding AG that have reported shareholdings of over 3% or a reduction of shareholdings below 3% in the financial year (FY) 2018/19, please refer to the website of the Disclosure Office of the SIX Swiss Exchange www.six-exchange-regulation.com/en/home/publications/significant-shareholders.html.

Cross-shareholdings

Sonova Holding AG has no cross-shareholdings with other companies.