Capital increases through bonus issues

An increase in share capital through a bonus issue may occur in connection with a transfer to the share capital from the premium and from unrestricted equity without any payment being made by the shareholder. The increase may take place through an increase in the nominal value of the shares or through issuing new shares.

Where can you find out if you have acquired shares in this way?

A notification will have been submitted to the Register of Business Enterprises and the increase in capital will have been registered there. You will also find a report on capital increases in board meeting minutes and general meeting resolutions.

How does a bonus issue affect the input value?

No change is made to the input value of the shares in the event of an increase in nominal value.

The original input value must be distributed between all of the shares in connection with the issue of new shares (bonus shares). The input value of the bonus shares is defined as a proportional share of the input value for the share(s) with which the bonus share is associated. The input value of these last-mentioned shares (capital shares) is reduced correspondingly.

Example: 

  • A acquired one share in AS in 2008 for NOK 200 and another in 2009 for NOK 150.
  • In 2010, the number of shares was increased from 5,000 to 7,000 through a bonus issue.

Redistribution of the input values takes place through multiplication by an adjustment factor, which is calculated by dividing the number of shares before the issue by the number of shares after the issue:

Thus, in this case the adjustment factor is 5,000/ 7,500 = 0.667.

A will receive one bonus share and, after the bonus issue, will have three shares with the following input values:

  • Share from 2008: NOK 133.33 (= NOK 200 x 0.667)
  • Share from 2009: NOK 100 (= NOK 150 x 0.667)
  • Bonus share NOK 116.67 (= (NOK 200 x 0.667) / 2 + (150 x 0.667) / 2.
  • The total input value for all of the shares is NOK 350, as before the bonus issue.

Correspondingly, any total RISK amount will not be affected (applicable to shares acquired before 1 January 2006). The RISK amount will be distributed between the larger number of shares in the same way as described in the example, i.e. by multiplying by the adjustment factor. This can be done simply by determining the input value, plus the total RISK for the individual capital share, and dividing the sum of these two amounts by the capital share and the bonus share in accordance with the same calculation as described above in the example.