2 Capital structure

As of December 31, 2023, the Company’s share capital was CHF 1,278,309 and was divided into 12,783,087 registered shares with a nominal value of CHF 0.10 each. Each share is entitled to dividend payments whenever the shareholders approve a profit distribution. The Company does not have any bearer shares, participation certificates or bonus certificates outstanding.

In 1997, the Company's shareholders approved the creation of conditional share capital of CHF 130,000 (consisting of 1,300,000 registered shares with a nominal value of CHF 0.10 each) for the purpose of employee stock options (Article 3a of the Articles of Incorporation). Several employee stock option plans were adopted based on this conditional share capital. Details of these plans are given in the consolidated financial statements under Note 12 “Employee benefits”. Since 2011, the Company has serviced the options exercised and share transfers from its own shares. As of December 31, 2023, 170,125 shares in the total nominal amount of CHF 17,013 were left under article 3a of the Articles of incorporation and 59,059 shares of the conditional share capital were reserved for outstanding employee stock options and 85,563 for outstanding employee shares. These shares correspond to a share capital of CHF 14,462.

The Articles of Incorporation provides for an additional conditional share capital (Article 3b of the Articles of Incorporation); the Company’s share capital may be increased by a maximum of CHF 180,000 through the issue of a maximum of 1,800,000 registered shares to be paid in full with a nominal value of CHF 0.10 each. This increase shall be achieved through the exercise of conversion or option rights granted in connection with bonds or similar instruments issued by the Company or Group companies or through the exercise of option rights granted to shareholders. Shareholders’ pre-emptive rights are excluded. The acquisition of registered shares through the exercise of conversion or option rights and any further transfer of registered shares is subject to the restrictions specified in Article 5 of the Articles of Incorporation. In the case of convertible bonds or warrant-linked bonds, the preferred pre-emptive rights of the shareholders may be restricted or excluded by resolution of the Board of Directors 1) in order to finance or refinance the acquisition of companies, parts of companies or equity investments, or 2) to issue warrant-linked or convertible bonds on international capital markets. If preferred pre-emptive rights are excluded, then 1) the bonds must be placed at market conditions; 2) the exercise period for warrants must be limited to five years and the exercise period for conversion rights must be limited to ten years from the date the bond was issued; and 3) the conversion or exercise price for the new shares must be set at least in line with the market conditions prevailing on the bond issue date. The Articles of Incorporation are available for consultation at www.tecan.com/tecan-corporate-policies.

Registration of voting rights in the Company’s share register is conditional on shareholders declaring that they have acquired the shares in their own name and for their own account. If this is the case, then there are no registration or voting right restrictions under the Articles of Incorporation. The Company’s Board of Directors may register nominees for not more than 2% of the share capital as shareholders with voting rights in the share register. Nominees are shareholders who do not explicitly declare in the registration application that they hold the shares for their own account and with whom the Company has entered into a corresponding agreement. In addition, for shares in excess of 2% of the share capital, the Board of Directors may register nominees with voting rights in the share register if such nominees disclose the names, addresses, nationalities and shareholdings of those persons for whose account they hold 2% or more of the share capital. Legal entities and companies that are linked to one another in terms of capital and voting power through uniform management or otherwise, as well as individuals, legal entities or companies coordinating their actions to circumvent the registration limitations, are considered to be one person. The Board of Directors is entitled to grant exceptions to the registration limitations in special cases. No such exceptions were granted in the year under review. The procedures and conditions for cancelling these limitations on transferability are described in section 6.