EUROPE: ESMA consultation on draft RTS on EU major shareholdings disclosures

Friday March 21 2014

The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) has published a public consultation EU major shareholdings rules.

The consultation concerns draft Regulatory Technical Standards (RTS) under the revised Transparency Directive on the notification of major shareholdings and the indicative list of financial instruments subject to notification requirements.

The draft RTS are intended to facilitate the creation of a harmonised regime regarding the aggregation of holdings of shares and financial instruments, the calculation of notification thresholds and the exemptions from notification requirements.

The draft RTS on the EU major shareholding notifications addresses the following issues:

• Method of calculation of 5% threshold exemption regarding trading books and market makers;
• Calculation method regarding a basket of shares or an index;
• Methods for determining the ‘delta’ for calculating voting rights; and
• Exemptions regarding notification of financial instruments.

The Consultation Paper also sets out the proposed content of an indicative list of financial instruments which should be subject to the notification requirements laid down in the Directive, and outlines the processes for updating that list.

Comments to this consultation can be submitted via ESMA’s website and the deadline for submission is 30 May 2014.

Click on the above link for the consultation paper.