[27] Equity

As at 31 December 2019, the Company’s share capital amounted to €118.1 million, which was unchanged on 31 December 2018 and was fully paid up. It was divided into 118.1 million no-par-value shares.

The Annual General Meeting on 11 May 2017 voted to create new authorised capital that will enable the KION Group to continue to meet its funding needs quickly and flexibly. Subject to the consent of the Supervisory Board, the Executive Board is authorised until 10 May 2022 to increase the Company’s share capital by up to €10.879 million by way of an issue of up to 10,879,000 new no-par-value bearer shares (2017 Authorised Capital).

With the consent of the Supervisory Board, the Executive Board of KION Group AG decided on 22 May 2017 to utilise some of the authorised capital created by the 2017 Annual General Meeting. The share capital was increased against cash contributions by issuing 9.3 million new no-par-value bearer shares. The gross proceeds from the capital increase came to €602.9 million. An amount of €593.6 million was paid into the capital reserves.

The total number of shares outstanding as at 31 December 2019 was 117,959,356 no-par-value shares (2018: 117,924,442 no-par-value shares). Between 9 September 2019 and 20 September 2019, a further 60,000 treasury shares (KEEP 2018: 66,000 treasury shares) were repurchased via the stock exchange at an average price of €48.80 (2018: €54.17) in order to provide the shares for employees’ own investments and the free shares under the KEEP 2019 employee share option programme. The total cost was €2.9 million (2018: €3.6 million). In February 2019, a further 13,674 no-par-value shares were issued for employees’ own investments under KEEP 2018. Due to the issue of 14,136 bonus shares under KEEP 2016 (KEEP 2015: 22,580 bonus shares) and 67,104 no-par-value shares (2018: 38,691 no-par-value shares) under KEEP 2019, KION Group AG held 130,644 treasury shares at the reporting date (2018: 165,558). These treasury shares are not dividend-bearing and do not confer any voting rights. Further details on the KEEP employee share option programme can be found in note [45]. In February 2020, a further 7,338 no-par-value shares were issued for participants’ own investments under KEEP 2019.