In order to take account of changes brought about by the new market abuse regime which came into effect on 3 July 2016, the Irish Stock Exchange (ISE) has published revised rulebooks, including:
- Main Securities Market (MSM): Listing Rules
- Enterprise Securities Market (ESM): Rules for Companies and Rules for Advisors
- Global Exchange Market: Listing and Admission to Trading Rules for Debt Securities
Under the new regime, the scope of market abuse rules is extended to apply to securities admitted to trading on multilateral trading facilities, such as the Irish Stock Exchange’s ESM and GEM, for the first time.
In addition to changes to take account of MAR, the MSM Listing Rules have been updated in a number of other ways. For example, the ISE has brought in the concept of “controlling shareholder”, whereby a company listed on the MSM must put in place a relationship agreement with any controlling shareholder, which includes any group of persons acting in concert who together control 30% or more of the voting rights attached to the company’s shares. A further change is the deletion of the concept of a Class 3 transaction. A Class 3 transaction was one which resulted in a percentage ratio of less than 5% under the class tests and which did not require a company to make an announcement on the ISE where certain conditions were met.
If you have any queries regarding the new rules published by the ISE or the new market abuse regime please contact David Fitzgibbon or Susanne McMenamin or your usual William Fry contact.
Contributed by Susanne McMenamin
