The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) has published a Practical Guide to national rules across the European Economic Area (EEA) on major holdings notifications under the Transparency Directive to help market participants navigate the different requirements.
The Transparency Directive requires investors to notify issuers when they acquire or dispose of shares admitted to trading on regulated markets, resulting in their total voting rights crossing certain set thresholds. As a minimum harmonisation directive, the Transparency Directive allows EEA countries some discretion as to how they transpose the rules into national law. Therefore, ESMA has prepared this Practical Guide, in close cooperation with national regulators, to help market participants identify their notification obligations under national law in accordance with the Transparency Directive.
The first part of the Practical Guide contains a fact sheet for each EEA country (with the exception of Lichtenstein) setting out the national requirements in relation to notification of major holdings along with links to the relevant websites. The second part presents information on rules and practices in a series of tables, enabling market participants to compare rules across different jurisdictions.
ESMA has created the Practical Guide based on information provided by national regulators and market participants should address any queries regarding specific content directly to the relevant regulator of the country concerned.
ESMA will update the Practical Guide on an ad hoc basis, based on changes to national rules and practices.