Unless expressly permitted by law, Münchener Rückversicherungs-Gesellschaft Aktiengesellschaft in München (hereinafter referred to as "Munich Reinsurance Company" or "the Company") requires the authorisation of the Annual General Meeting to buy back shares. As the authorisation granted on 17 April 2008 expires in October 2009, it will be proposed to the Annual General Meeting that the Company be again authorised to buy back own shares.
The Supervisory Board and the Board of Management propose that the following resolutions be adopted:
a) The Company shall be authorised to buy back its own shares up to a total amount of 10% of the share capital at the time the resolution is adopted. The authorisation may be exercised as a whole or in part amounts, on one or more occasions and for one or more purposes by the Company, but also by dependent Group companies or enterprises in which the Company has a majority shareholding, or by third parties for its or their account. The shares acquired plus other own shares in the possession of the Company or attributable to the Company in accordance with Section 71a ff. of the German Stock Companies Act may at no time amount to more than 10% of the share capital. The authorisation may not be used for trading in own shares.
b) The shares shall be acquired at the discretion of the Board of Management aa) via the stock exchange or bb) via a public purchase offer to all shareholders or cc) via a solicitation to all shareholders to submit offers (request to sell) or dd) via a public offer to all shareholders to exchange Munich Re shares for shares in another listed company as defined in Section 3 para. 2 of the German Stock Companies Act. In cases bb), cc), and dd), the provisions of the German Securities Acquisition and Takeover Act shall be observed where applicable.
aa) If the shares are bought back via the stock exchange, the purchase price (excluding incidental expenses) may not exceed by more than 10% or undercut by more than 20% the arithmetic mean of the closing price in Xetra trading on the Frankfurt stock exchange determined for Company shares with the same securities reference number on the last three days of trading prior to the commitment to purchase.
bb) If the shares are bought back via a public purchase offer, the purchase price per share or the upper and lower limits of the price range (excluding incidental expenses) may not exceed by more than 10% or undercut by more than 20% the arithmetic mean of the closing price for Company shares with the same securities reference number in the closing auction in Xetra trading on the Frankfurt stock exchange on the fifth, fourth and third trading day before the date on which the offer is published. If after a public purchase offer there are significant deviations in the relevant share price, the offer may be adjusted. In this case, the basis for determining the purchase price or the purchase price range will be the arithmetic mean of the closing price for Company shares with the same securities reference number in Xetra trading on the Frankfurt stock exchange on the fifth, fourth and third trading day before the public announcement of the adjustment. The volume may be restricted. If the offer is oversubscribed, acceptance shall be based on quotas. For this, the Company may provide for preferred acceptance of small lots of shares (up to 100 shares tendered per shareholder). The purchase offer may provide for further conditions.
cc) If the Company publicly solicits submission of offers to sell Munich Reinsurance Company shares, the Company may in its solicitation state a purchase price range within which offers may be submitted. The solicitation may provide for a submission period, terms and conditions, and the possibility of adjusting the purchase price range during the submission period if after publication of the solicitation significant share price fl uctuations occur during the submission period. Upon acceptance, the final purchase price shall be determined from all the submitted sales offers. The purchase price (excluding incidental expenses) for each Company share may not exceed by more than 10% or undercut by more than 20% the average closing price of Company shares in Xetra trading during the last five trading days prior to the relevant date. The relevant date shall be the date on which the offers are accepted by the Company. If the number of Company shares offered for sale exceeds the total volume of shares the Company intended to acquire, acceptance shall be based on quotas. Furthermore, the Company may provide for preferred acceptance of small lots of shares (up to 100 shares tendered per shareholder).
dd) In the case of a public offer to exchange Munich Re shares for shares in another listed company ("exchange shares") as defined in Section 3 para. 2 of the German Stock Companies Act, a certain exchange ratio may be specified or also determined by way of an auction procedure. A cash benefit may also be provided for as an additional payment to the exchange offered or as compensation for any fractional amounts. In each of these procedures for the exchange of shares, the exchange price or the applicable upper and lower limits of the price range in the form of one or more exchange shares and calculated fractional amounts, including any cash or fractional amounts (excluding incidental expenses), may not exceed by more than 10% or undercut by more than 20% the relevant value of Munich Re shares.
The basis for calculating the relevant value of each Munich Re share and of each exchange share shall be the respective arithmetic mean closing price in Xetra trading on the Frankfurt stock exchange on the fifth, fourth and third trading day before the date on which the exchange offer is published. If the exchange shares are not traded in the Xetra trading system on the Frankfurt stock exchange, the basis shall be the closing prices quoted on the stock exchange having the highest average trading volume in respect of the exchange shares in the course of the preceding calendar year. If after a public exchange offer there are significant deviations in the relevant share price, the offer may be adjusted. In this case, the basis for the adjustment shall be the arithmetic mean closing price on the fifth, fourth and third trading day before the date of the public announcement of the adjustment. The volume may be restricted. If the exchange offer is oversubscribed, acceptance shall be based on quotas. For this, the Company may provide for preferred acceptance of small lots of shares (up to 100 shares tendered per shareholder). The exchange offer may provide for further conditions.
c) The Board of Management shall be empowered to use shares acquired on the basis of the aforementioned or previously granted authorisations or in accordance with Section 71d sentence 5 of the German Stock Companies Act for all legally admissible purposes, and in particular as follows:
aa) They may be used for launching the Company’s shares on foreign stock exchanges where they are not yet listed.
bb) They may be sold directly or indirectly in return for non-cash payment, in particular as part of offers to third parties in connection with mergers or acquisitions of companies or parts of companies, shareholdings or assets connected with such investments. Selling in this connection may also include the granting of conversion or subscription rights or of warrants and the transferring of shares in conjunction with securities lending.
cc) They may be sold to third parties for cash other than via the stock exchange or via an offer to all shareholders.
dd) They may be offered for subscription to the holders of conversion rights or warrants issued by the Company or one of its dependent Group companies.
ee) They may be offered as employee shares to staff of the Company or of enterprises affiliated with the Company within the meaning of Section 15 ff. of the German Stock Companies Act.
ff) They may be retired without a further resolution of the Annual General Meeting being required. Any retirement may be limited to a portion of the bought-back shares. The Board of Management may determine that the shares can also be retired in a simplified process, without reducing the share capital, by adjusting the proportion of the Company’s share capital represented by each of the remaining no-par-value shares. In this case, the Board of Management shall be authorised to adjust the number of no-par-value shares in the Articles of Association.
d) The price at which the shares are launched on other stock exchanges in accordance with item c) aa or sold in accordance with item c) cc may not significantly undercut the stock price determined for Company shares with the same securities number in the opening auction in Xetra trading on the Frankfurt stock exchange (excluding incidental costs) on the day the shares are launched or the binding agreement with the third party is concluded. In addition, in these cases the sum of the shares sold, together with any shares that may be issued or sold during the term of this authorisation by excluding the shareholders’ subscription rights, directly or indirectly pursuant to Section 186 para. 3 sentence 4 of the German Stock Companies Act, may not exceed a total of 10% of the share capital, either at the time this authorisation enters into effect or when the shares are issued or sold.
e) Should the Xetra trading system be replaced by a comparable successor system, the latter shall also take the place of the Xetra trading system for the purposes of this authorisation.
f) The authorisations in accordance with item c) may be utilised one or more times, partially or wholly, individually or jointly; the authorisations in accordance with item c) bb, cc, dd or ee may also be utilised by dependent Group companies or enterprises in which the Company has a majority shareholding, or utilised for its or their account by third parties.
g) Shareholders’ subscription rights in respect of these bought-back shares shall be excluded insofar as the shares are used in accordance with the authorisations in items c) aa, bb, cc, dd or ee. Beyond this, if bought-back shares are sold via an offer to the shareholders, the Board of Management shall be entitled to exclude shareholders’ subscription rights insofar as this is necessary to grant subscription rights to the bearers of Company or Group company convertible bonds or bonds with warrants to the extent to which such bearers would be entitled as shareholders after exercising their warrants or after the conversion requirements from such bonds have been satisfied.
h) The authorisation shall run until 21 October 2010. The authorisation to buy back shares granted by the Annual General Meeting on 17 April 2008 shall be cancelled as from the moment this new authorisation comes into effect.