Legal reserve
1. Without prejudice to mandatory provisions of national laws, the statutes shall lay down rules for the allocation of the surplus for each financial year.
2. Where there is such a surplus, the statutes shall require the establishment of a legal reserve funded out of the surplus before any other allocation.
Until such time as the legal reserve is equal to the capital referred to in Article 3(2), the amount allocated to it may not be less than 15 % of the surplus for the financial year after deduction of any losses carried over.
3. Members leaving the SCE shall have no claim against the sums thus allocated to the legal reserve.
Dividend
The statutes may provide for the payment of a dividend to members in proportion to their business with the SCE, or the services they have performed for it.
Allocation of available surplus
1. The balance of the surplus after deduction of the allocation to the legal reserve, of any sums paid out in dividends and of any losses carried over, with the addition of any surpluses carried over and of any sums drawn from the reserves, shall constitute the profits available for distribution.
2. The general meeting which considers the accounts for the financial year may allocate the surplus in the order and proportions laid down in the statutes, and in particular:
- carry them forward,
- appropriate them to any legal or statutory reserve fund,
- provide a return on paid-up capital and quasi-equity, payment being made in cash or shares.
3. The statutes may also prohibit any distribution.
CHAPTER VI
ANNUAL ACCOUNTS AND CONSOLIDATED ACCOUNTS
