GERMANY: Standard Form for the Publication of Own Shares Released

Wednesday January 11 2017

The German financial regulator, BaFIN, has published an updated standard form for the Publication of own shares by Issuers, in accordance with Section 26 paragraph 1 WpHG (Securities Trading Act).

Under section 26 of the WpHG, the issuer must publish the notification and file it with the Business Register (Unternehmensregister) without undue delay, and at the latest within three trading days after receipt of the notification (when their holdings reach, exceed or fall below the thresholds of 5% and 10%, or 3% if the issuer is incorporated in Germany).

Shareholders are subsequently required, to make a disclosure to BaFIN and the issuer, in cases where their percentage of voting rights in the issuer reaches, exceeds or falls below a threshold outlined in Section 21 WpHG as a result of the change in the denominator of the issuer, within T+2 trading days of becoming aware of the change.

An exception applies on the issuance of new shares, whereby the publication of the issuer`s total voting rights are not published until the end of the calendar month, as outlined in BaFIN Q&A, no. 25.

Please click the link at the top of the page for the updated standard form for the publication of own shares by issuers.