(1) Profits may not be distributed before the legal reserve and the capital reserve, taken together, have reached 10 per cent of the capital stock. In this context, the nominal amount resulting from the reduction, and at a minimum the minimum nominal amount stipulated in section 7, will be considered the capital stock.
(2) The payment of a participation in the profits amounting to more than four per cent is permissible only for a financial year commencing no earlier than two years after the resolution as to the capital reduction was adopted. This does not apply if the creditors whose claims have arisen prior to publication of the notice as to the entry of the resolution in the register have been granted satisfaction or provided security, insofar as they have come forward for this purpose within six months after the annual financial statements on which the distribution of profits is based have been entered in the business register. Those creditors need not be provided security who are entitled to preferred satisfaction of their claims, in the event of insolvency, out of covering funds that were created for their protection pursuant to the stipulations of the law and that are monitored by the state. The creditors are to be made aware of the satisfaction and provision of security by a separate declaration, which is to be transmitted, together with the annual financial statements, to the body maintaining the business register for registration purposes.
(3) The amounts obtained from the reversal of the capital reserve and the retained earnings, as well as from the capital reduction, may not be distributed as profits, also not pursuant to these provisions.