1. Highlights:

   a) Prospectuses

         The Danish Securities Trading Act (Past)

         The obligation to prepare and make public a prospectus when offering securities to the public applies if the value of the offering to the public is equal to or above EUR 1,000,000. Only prospectuses prepared for offerings to the public with a value equal to or above EUR 5,000,000 are recognizable in other EU member states.

         The Danish Capital Markets Act (Present)

         The obligation to prepare and make public a prospectus when offering securities to the public applies if the value of the offering to the public is equal to or above EUR 5,000,000. All prospectuses are recognizable in other EU member states.

         Summary of Amendment: The Danish Capital Markets Act repeals the obligation to prepare and make public a prospectus when offering securities to the public at a value between EUR 1,000,000 and 5,000,000 (i.e. small prospectuses), see item 3 below.

   b) Public Announcement of Own Shares

         The Danish Securities Trading Act (Past)

         Issuers are obligated to make public their ownership of own shares in the event that such ownership reaches, exceeds or falls below 5%, 10%, 15%, 20%, 25%, 1/3, 50%, 2/3 or 90% of the voting rights or share capital.

         The Danish Capital Markets Act (Present)

         Issuers are obligated to make public their ownership of own shares in the event that such ownership reaches, exceeds or falls below 5% or 10% of the voting rights or share capital.

         Summary of Amendment: The Danish Capital Markets Act repeals the higher thresholds for the issuer’s obligation to make public their ownership. Thus, the obligation solely applies when the issuer’s ownership of own shares reaches, exceeds or falls below 5% or 10% of the voting rights or the share capital, see item 4 below.

   c) Equal Treatment of Shareholders

         The Danish Securities Trading Act (Past)

         An offeror making a takeover bid, whether mandatory or voluntary, shall treat all shareholders within the same share class equally.

         The Danish Capital Markets Act (Present)

         An offeror making a voluntary takeover bid with the objective of acquiring control over the issuer shall treat all shareholders equally, regardless of any division of share classes. For mandatory and other voluntary takeover bids, the offeror shall treat all shareholders within the same share class equally.

         Summary of Amendment: The Danish Capital Markets Act introduces a specific requirement of equal treatment of all shareholders in the issuer, regardless of share classes, in the event that the offeror makes a voluntary takeover to the shareholders in the issuer with the objective of acquiring control of the issuer, see item 5 below.

2. Introduction

The Danish Capital Markets Act, including certain executive orders, entered into force on 3 January 2018, replacing the former Danish Securities Trading Act and amending certain material aspects of the capital markets regulation in Denmark. Apart from certain amendments to the provisions of the Danish Securities Trading Act, the Danish Capital Markets Act contains provisions similar to those of the Danish Securities Trading Act with some language changes. This XBMA contribution highlights the material changes as a result of the Danish Capital Markets Act.

3. Prospectuses

The provisions in the Danish Securities Trading Act regarding the obligation to prepare and make public a prospectus for offerings to the public of a value between EUR 1,000,000 and EUR 5,000,000 have been repealed with the Danish Capital Markets Act which entered into force 3 January 2018.

The Danish Securities Trading Act contained both an obligation to prepare prospectuses for offerings between 1,000,000 and EUR 5,000,000 (i.e. small prospectuses) and an obligation to prepare prospectuses for offerings of or above EUR 5,000,000 (i.e. large prospectuses). The reason for the two different provisions was that the small prospectuses were subject only to Danish national regulation and did not enjoy the so-called EU passport for prospectuses (recognition in other EU member states than Denmark), as the small prospectuses were not prepared in accordance with the regulation as implemented from the Prospectus Directive (2003/71/EC).

As of 3 January 2018, issuers or offerors are only obliged to prepare and make public a prospectus when making offerings to the public of a value of EUR 5,000,000 or above. These are recognizable throughout all EU member states.

The threshold of EUR 5,000,000 is calculated on offerings made by the entity in question over a period of 12 months and on the basis of the market value of the securities in question and the costs associated with the offering to be paid by the investors, including e.g. levies. If the offering is made in DKK, the EUR 5,000,000 threshold is calculated based on the Danish National Bank’s public currency rate at the time of the commencement of the offering.

The Danish Capital Markets Act does not alter the obligation to prepare and make public a prospectus when securities are listed, and no threshold regarding value etc. applies to such obligation.

On 14 June 2017, the European Parliament and the Council adopted a new Prospectus Regulation (EU/2017/1129) that enters into force 21 July 2019. Certain exemptions to the obligation to prepare and make public a prospectus for public offerings entered into force on 20 July 2019, however; these specific exemptions are not the subject of this XBMA contribution.

In connection with the new Prospectus Regulation, the member states are authorized to increase the threshold for the obligation to prepare and make public a prospectus to offerings of a value on or above EUR 8,000,000. The Danish Parliament is currently treating an amendment to the Danish Capital Markets Act which will increase the Danish threshold from EUR 5,000,000 to EUR 8,000,000. If passed, the new threshold will apply from 21 July 2018.

Our opinion: As offerings in Denmark are usually smaller compared to offerings in other EU member states, the repeal of the requirement of small prospectuses and – if passed – the increase of the threshold for the requirement to larger prospectuses certainly lifts an administrative burden for offerors when making public offerings. This might mean that Denmark would become a more attractive forum for making public offerings, and in the future we might experience an increase in offerings.

4. Public Announcement of Own Shares

In accordance with the Danish Securities Trading Act, any shareholder in an issuer of listed shares was obligated to notify the Danish Financial Supervisory Agency (the FSA) and the issuer of the shareholder’s holding of shares in the issuer in the event that the holdings reached, exceeded or fell below 5%, 10%, 15%, 20%, 25%, 33%, 1/3, 50%, 66%, 2/3 or 90% of the voting rights or the share capital. The issuer should also notify the FSA in the event that the issuer’s holding of own shares reached, exceeded or fell below the aforementioned thresholds.

This provision has been implemented into the Danish Capital Markets Act. As of 3 January 2018, however, the issuer is only obligated to notify the FSA in the event that the issuer’s holding of own shares reaches, exceeds or falls below 5% and 10% of the voting rights and share capital. Other shareholders are still obligated to notify the issuer and the FSA regarding the holdings of shares in the issuer in the event that their holdings reach, exceed or fall below the old thresholds.

The issuer’s obligation has been amended in that the previous requirement, subject to the higher threshold, was a result of goldplating in Denmark, i.e. a national implementation of the Transparency Directive (2004/109/EC) in excess of the requirements in the directive.

Our opinion: As issuers most often do not hold a large bulk of own shares, the removal of the higher thresholds only has a practical value for a few issuers on the Danish capital markets. However, the amendments may prove to be an improvement of the administrative burden for such issuers. Moreover, should an issuer hold e.g. 20% of its own shares, such information will not be publically available in the future, unless the circumstances under which the issuer came to hold such shares have been disclosed in connection with the disclosure of inside information under the Market Abuse Regulation (EU/596/2014).

5. Equal Treatment of Shareholders

The Danish Securities Trading Act contained a requirement on offerors when making takeover bids to treat shareholders within the same share class equally.

The same requirement is adopted in the Danish Capital Markets Act, with exception, however, of a specific requirement on offerors making a voluntary takeover bid to the shareholders of a listed issuer with the objective of acquiring control over the issuer in question. In such event, the offeror shall treat all shareholders equally, irrespective of share classes and whether all or merely some of the share classes are listed on a regulated market place.

The requirement does not apply to a situation where the offeror makes a voluntary takeover bid without the objective of acquiring control over the issuer, nor does it apply to a situation where the offeror already has control over the issuer before making the takeover bid or where the offeror makes a mandatory takeover bid. In such events, the requirement of equal treatment of shareholders within the same share class applies.

Our opinion: There are certain scenarios in which this new requirement may be relevant, however, the most relevant scenario would be where an offeror makes a takeover bid for one share class with voting rights and intends to exclude another share class without voting rights from the takeover bid. In this event, and provided that control is the offeror’s objective, the offeror is forced to offer to purchase the other shareholders’ shares without voting rights on the same terms, including in relation to price etc., as the shareholders’ holding of shares with voting rights. As the shares with voting rights are more valuable to the offeror, we may see less favourable terms for purchasing shares during voluntary takeover bids in the future, seeing as an offeror shall compensate for the obligation of purchasing all shares on the same terms.