Income tax treatment of Westgrund AG and GAGFAH S.A. reorganisation/exchange offers – Final decision – Update

Note: This announcement, originally published on 7 December 2015, was updated to attach the information of the Federal Ministry of Finance (only in German).

In addition to our Announcement D15041 dated 4 November 2015 and D15032 dated 28 September 2015 concerning the income tax treatment of the reorganisation/exchange offers for Westgrund AG and GAGFAH S.A., Clearstream Banking¹ would like to inform its customers that the Federal Ministry of Finance (Bundesministerium für Finanzen, BMF) in Berlin has made a final decision on 3 December 2015 that should be published shortly.

The BMF assumes in both cases that the cash component in accordance with § 20 paragraph 4a sentence 2 of the Income Tax Law (Einkommensteuergesetz, EStG) is not subject to deduction of capital gains tax as per § 49 paragraph 1 number 5 letter a) (that is, no deduction of capital gains tax when a foreign credit institution is involved).

In accordance with the BFM statement, Clearstream Banking will cancel the net cash settlement payed out for the Westgrund AG (DE000A14KCW5) security as announced in the D15032 dated 28 September 2015 and will settle it again without tax deduction.

The cancellation and the new payout will be executed on 9 December 2015.

Tax vouchers issued for the Westgrund AG (DE000A14KCW5) security will be called back by Clearstream Banking and concerned customers will therefore be personally notified.

The returned original tax vouchers must have reached Clearstream Banking one month after the request notification at the latest. After this time expiration, Clearstream Banking will be compelled to disclose to the German tax authorities the creditors' names, the amount and type of gain as well as the tax amount for which no voucher was presented.

The settlement for GAGFAH S.A. (LU1152862774) was executed by Clearstream Banking without tax deduction.

The transaction process is now completed.

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1. This Announcement is published by Clearstream Banking AG (CBF), registered office at Mergenthalerallee 61, 65760 Eschborn, Germany, registered with the Commercial Register of the District Court in Frankfurt am Main, Germany, under number HRB 7500.