One of the more popular posts on this blog is about shareholder perks. I wanted to take a deeper dive into one perk I uncovered and see what it would take to get the free chocolate that is given to shareholders of Lindt. Each year at the annual meeting, shareholders receive the box of chocolate as shown in the pictures. Lindt has 2 classes of shares, registered shares and participation certificates. So what do these share classes mean? And which class gets the free chocolates?
The registered shares trade in the U.S. on the OTC market under the ticker COCXF. The participation certificates trade the same way under the ticker LDSVF. After contacting the shareholder relations department, I discovered that only the registered shares are eligible to receive the chocolate gift box. The dividend remains the same, proportionately, for both the registered and participation shares, but the participation shares are 1/10 of the economic interest of the registered shares. Only registered shareholders who attend the meeting, or have a Swiss address, are able to receive a gift box. So, lets say you live in Switzerland, or have a friend who could receive the box on your behalf, how much would a registered share cost? A whopping $82,000 (as of this writing)! Even the participation shares are highly priced at $7,500. This may be too highly priced for most, but it is still an interesting perk!
