Note 18: Group equity

During 2020, 9,331,481 common shares repurchased in 2019 and 2020 were cancelled (2019: 28,433,528 common shares).

For further details on weighted average number of shares, refer to Note 10.

Subscribed share capital

For further details on subscribed share capital, refer to Note F in the Company financial statements.

Cumulative translation reserves comprise all foreign exchange differences arising from the translation of the financial statements of foreign operations, as well as from the translation of intercompany loans with a permanent nature and liabilities and derivatives that hedge the net investments in a foreign subsidiary.

Equity-settled transactions consist of the performance related and restricted share plan and share-matching plan, whereby shares are granted to the Board of Management, Executive Committee and other executives. For details of the share-based compensation, refer to Note 7.

Non-controlling interests

None of the non-controlling interests are considered individually material to the group.

Dividend

Our dividend policy is to pay a stable to rising dividend.

In 2020, an interim dividend of €0.43 (2019: €0.41) per common share was paid. We propose a 2020 final dividend of €1.52 (2019: €1.49) per common share, which would equal a total 2020 dividend of €1.95 (2019: €1.90).

In line with our announcement on April 19, 2017, we have returned the vast majority of the net proceeds from the separation of the Specialty Chemicals business to our shareholders. The Extraordinary General Meeting of November 13, 2018, approved to return an amount of €2.0 billion to shareholders by means of a capital repayment and share consolidation, which was executed in January 2019. A share consolidation ratio of 9:8 was applied.

We distributed €1.0 billion by means of a special cash dividend of €4.50 per common share (post consolidation) on February 25, 2019, in addition to the €1.0 billion special cash dividend already distributed in December 2017. The share buyback program to repurchase common shares up to the value of €2.5 billion was completed at the end of 2019, acquiring 31.2 million common shares, which all have been cancelled. On October 23, 2019, a €500 million share buyback program was announced, for which 0.4 million common shares were acquired in 2019 and 6.2 million shares in 2020, which have all been cancelled.

On October 21, 2020, a new €300 million share buyback program was announced for which 0.7 million shares were acquired in 2020, that have not yet been cancelled. The share buyback program is to be completed in the first half of 2021.