According to the laws in Poland (Act on trade as of July 29, 2005: Dziennik Ustaw of 2005 no. 183 pos. 1538), shareholder identities are publicly disclosed when the 5% threshold is exceeded. If a shareholder has less than a 5% stake, there is no requirement to disclose identity.
This means that precise identification of the shareholding structure is not possible. Participation in General Meetings is voluntary, whilst dividends are paid out through the National Depository of Securities and brokerage firms. In practice, as a listed company, we treat every investor as a potential shareholder. According to regulations and best practices, we ensure that all investors have equal access to information.
Open pension funds (OFE) are considered, as a rule of thumb, long-term investors – as a part of shareholder ID research, we identified OFE in PGE’s shareholding (as at the data for 2020) – details are presented on the diagram above.
On December 31, 2020, open-ended pension funds held a total of 326.1 million shares of PGE (i.e. 17.4%). According to data from December, NN OFE had the largest stake, with approx. 3.8%, followed by Aviva OFE with approx. 3.5%.
In aggregate, domestic pension funds and the State Treasury held approximately 75% of shares. Thus, the remaining 25% was divided between retail investors (presumably mostly domestic) and institutional investors – TFI investment funds and their foreign equivalents (mutual funds). Shares of PGE Polska Grupa Energetyczna are included in stock market indexes, such as WIG20 – which is why PGE Group’s shareholding structure also includes ETF funds, which replicate the index composition in their portfolios. Moreover, continuously since 2011, PGE S.A.’s shares were also listed in the RESPECT Index – index including Polish companies operating in compliance with best corporate governance, information governance and investors relations standards. As of January 1, 2020, the WSE stopped calculating and publishing the RESPECT Index. On September 3, 2019, the WSE started to publish the WIG-ESG (Environment, Social, Governance) index which includes companies from WIG20 and mWIG40 indices, who carry out socially responsible activities. Companies are assessed in terms of managing ESG (environmental, social, governance) factors, i.e. environmental factors, social responsibility and corporate governance, information governance and investors relations.