Corporate governance

Shareholders

Registered shareholders

As of March 31, 2020, the shareholdings of registered shareholders were distributed as follows:

Number of shares

 

Registered shareholders 31.3.2020

 

Registered shareholders 31.3.2019

1 – 100

 

8,340

 

7,538

101 – 1,000

 

7,780

 

8,223

1,001 – 10,000

 

1,074

 

1,138

10,001 – 100,000

 

211

 

211

100,001 – 1,000,000

 

37

 

42

> 1,000,000

 

7

 

6

Total registered shareholders

 

17,449

 

17,158

Significant shareholders

The following overview shows the registered shareholdings of significant shareholders as of March 31, 2020. Nominees are registered without voting rights. Significant shareholders may also hold non-registered shares which are reported under “Not registered”:

 

 

2020

 

2020

 

2019

 

2019

 

 

No. of shares

 

In %

 

No. of shares

 

In %

Beda Diethelm 1)

 

6,667,002

 

10.35

 

6,654,759

 

10.19

Chase Nominees Ltd. 2)

 

5,390,989

 

8.37

 

5,906,307

 

9.04

Family of Hans-Ueli Rihs 1) 3)

 

3,679,600

 

5.71

 

3,704,307

 

5.67

Nortrust Nominees Ltd. 2)

 

3,655,897

 

5.68

 

3,799,076

 

5.82

Bank of New York Mellon Nominee 2)

 

2,635,460

 

4.09

 

2,724,420

 

4.17

Registered shareholders with less than 3% of shares

 

20,529,302

 

31.88

 

21,573,836

 

33.02

Not registered

 

21,839,887

 

33.91

 

20,968,182

 

32.10

Total shares

 

64,398,137

 

100.00

 

65,330,887

 

100.00

1) 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 3,679,600 registered shares (corresponding to 5.71% of total Sonova share capital) pursuant to the last disclosure notice. These shares were previously controlled by Hans-Ulrich Rihs as a single shareholder.

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) 2019/20, please refer to the website of the Disclosure Office of the SIX Swiss Exchange.

Cross-shareholdings

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