A quick summary of some recent rule updates to Rapptr:
Switzerland - 16th May 2012
The following changes have also been made to the Major Shareholding Rules to reflect recent amendments to the Swiss disclosure legislation (the SESTO-FINMA):
- Two new exemptions are included: when reaching/exceeding thresholds without reaching/exceeding the next higher threshold or reaching an already reported threshold again.
- Disclosure of changes to non-threshold information: changes must be notified to the relevant disclosure office and the issuer within four trading days.
- Investment funds: aggregation permitted in certain circumstances by certain unauthorised collective investment schemes.
Hong Kong - 2nd May 2012
Hong Kong will introduce new rules regarding Short-selling Positions disclosure on the 18th June 2012. These new rules require net short position values in the specified shares to be reported where the value is equal to or more than the lower of HK$ 30 million and 0.02% of the value of the total number of the specified shares issued by the corporation concerned.
Belgium - 4th April 2012
The Short-Selling rule has been updated to reflect the changes which came into effect on 13th February, 2012 (including the introduction of the 'locate' rule for covered short-selling and the disclosure obligation for net short positions above 0.25%).
Germany - 1st February 2012
The updated Major Shareholding rule includes the new disclosure obligations that came into force on 1 February 2012.
In particular, the new rule captures opportunities to acquire shares under financial instruments or other instruments which are not covered by the current notification requirement in Section 25 WpHG. This "catch-all" notification requirement is intended to capture all financial instruments referenced to issued shares which offer the (theoretical) opportunity to acquire such shares with voting rights attached. For example, contracts for cash-settled put and call options will be caught.
Holdings of financial instruments (including those under the new 1 February 2012 rules) will need to be aggregated with holdings of voting shares for the purposes of calculating whether the 5% disclosure threshold has been triggered. Holdings of financial instruments are not included when calculating the starting threshold of 3%.
Coming soon...
Keep an eye out for the next Rule Team blog post giving an introduction to the new EU short selling directive (236/2012), effective 1st November 2012 and the new German short selling electronic disclosure system.
Our developers are currently working on an electronic notification system with which Rapptr can be connected up to any regulator to automatically provide disclosure information.
Too excited? Can't wait? BaFin has issued a press release confirming that applications can now be submitted for the electronic notification procedure for net short positions. Users can register in advance to use the electronic procedure without actually submitting a notification. BaFin recommends advance registration.