21 Shareholders’ equity

Shareholders’ equity of €6,056 million at 30 June 2014 (€5,994 million at 31 December 2013) breaks down as follows:

Share capital

The share capital as at 30 June 2014 consisted of 3,381,638,294 shares with no par value (unchanged from 31 December 2013), with a total value of €3,571,187,994 (unchanged from 31 December 2013).

Legal reserve

The legal reserve stood at €714 million at 30 June 2014 (unchanged from 31 December 2013).

Share premium reserve

The share premium reserve at 30 June 2014 totalled €1,324 million (€1,322 million at 31 December 2013).

Consolidation reserve

The negative consolidation reserve of €1,701 million (unchanged from 31 December 2013) includes the value derived from the difference between the acquisition cost of the Italgas and Stogit shareholdings (€4,628 million, including the additional transaction expenses and price adjustment following the agreements reached at transaction closing) and the relative shareholders’ equity attributable to the Group on the transaction completion date (€2,004 million and €923 million, respectively, for Italgas and Stogit).

Other reserves

Other reserves of €11 million (€5 million at 31 December 2013) refer mainly to the reserve established for the cost of 1,127,250 treasury shares held (€5 million).

Retained earnings

Retained earnings totalled €1,592 million (€1,520 million at 31 December 2013) and rose by €72 million, due essentially to the allocation of 2013 retained earnings.

Reserve for remeasurement of employee benefit plans, IAS 19

The reserve for remeasurement of employee benefit plans, IAS 19, which was down by €9 million (unchanged from 31 December 2013) is recognised in relation to the amendments to international accounting standard IAS 19 “Employee Benefits”, which came into effect on 1 January 2013, and includes the unrecognised actuarial gain and losses recorded net of tax effect in items of other comprehensive income.

Treasury shares

At 30 June 2014, Snam had a total of 1,127,250 treasury shares (compared with 1,672,850 at 31 December 2013), equivalent to 0.03% of its share capital. The total cost was €5 million, corresponding to an average unit purchase price of approximately €4.2.

At 30 June 2014, the Company had no commitments to grant shares under stock option plans.

The market value of treasury shares at the end of the first half of 2014 was approximately €5 million¹³.

Dividends

The shareholders of Snam S.p.A. authorised the distribution of an ordinary dividend of €0.15 per share at the Ordinary Shareholders’ Meeting of 15 April 2014 to pay the balance of the 2013 interim dividend of €0.10 per share. The remaining dividend (€507 million) was paid from 22 May 2014, with an ex-dividend date of 19 May 2014.