Article 17
Terms of Office of Directors - Retirement and replacement The term of office of a Director shall be six years. The term of office of a Director shall expire on conclusion of the ordinary general meeting of the shareholders which has considered the accounts for the past financial year and has been held during the year in which the term of office of the said Director expires. The first Board of Directors shall remain in office until the ordinary general meeting which considers the accounts for the fifth financial year of the company and which will replace the whole Board. Thereafter a number of the Directors shall retire and be replaced at the annual meeting, that number being in proportion to the number of Directors for the time being in office. Such retirement and replacement shall take place once every period of a year or two years, these periods alternating, if necessary, in such a way that the replacement process is as regular as possible and in any case complete after every period of six years, but also that the requirements of Article 15 are at all times complied with. When this provision is brought into operation, the order of retirement shall be determined by lot at a meeting of the Board; once the order of rotation has been established, the Directors shall retire and be replaced in the order of their seniority of office, and the term of office of each Director shall be six years. Retiring Directors shall be eligible for re_election. The number of Directors over 70 years of age on the Board may not exceed one_third of the number of the Board's serving members. When the number of Directors over 70 years of age exceeds one_third of the number of serving Directors, the term of office of the oldest Director(s) shall expire on the day of the annual ordinary general meeting of shareholders following the date on which the proportion of one_third was exceeded.