Help me understand ADEN capital gains distribution

Hi all!

Trying to instruct myself, here. I’ve bought some shares of Adecco (ADEN) this April.

Per Adecco’s publication and SIX’s dividends information, the dividends distributed were planned to be CHF 2.5 per share. The report I have received from TradeDirect looks like this (in French):

That is, CHF 15.45 have been distributed as income from the position (dividend) and CHF 23.75 as capital gains. I was holding 19 shares at the ex-div date. It seems that CHF 1.25 per share (CHF 23.75) were distributed as capital gains, without witholding tax, and CHF 1.25 per share (CHF 23.75) were distributed as dividends, with 35% witheld as witholding tax (net distribution: CHF 15.45 with some rounding up).

I don’t understand it. Shares buybacks have occured but if anything had been distributed as a result of it, shouldn’t it be added to the CHF 2.5/share dividend that was approved at the GA? How does a company distribute part of its dividends as capital gains (not taxed for private investors) rather than simple dividends?

If someone has an explanation for it, I’d be very grateful.

LIFD art 20 al 3 and 4 → Fedlex

Out of the CHF 2.5, half was paid using benefits (2021 and/or non distributed past benefits). The other half can be assimilated to a capital reimbursement to the investor. Most likely coming from the capital reserve/agio. It is free of Swiss witholding tax and income tax for a Swiss individual taxpayer.

Edit: the label is chosen by your bank. It can facilitate the back office treatment and/or trigger certain results in the client’s tax reporting.

2 Likes

From the annual report

, consisting of a dividend of CHF 1.25 which shall be allocated from Adecco Group AG’s reserves from capital contribution to free reserves and subsequently distributed to shareholders, and a dividend of CHF 1.25 which shall be directly distributed from available earnings 2021.

While it is known that dividend paid from reserves from capital contributions are tax-free (exceptions exist), I can’t explain why they are labelled as “gain en capital” within Tradedirect

1 Like

@Guillaume_GVA @REandSTOCK That makes full sense, thanks!

1 Like