Amendments to the Law on Securities Market in Republic of Srpska

UniCredit Bank d.d.
Summary: 
Amendments to the Law on Securities Market in Republic of Srpska bring changes related to the requirements for acquiring shares in the capital of broker-dealers and stock exchanges
Wed, 25/01/2017

 

The Parliament of Republic of Srpska approved amendments to the Law on Securities Market. The most notable changes are as follows:

  • with respect to ownership thresholds in broker-dealer companies
    • acquisition of or increase in the number of shares in the capital of a broker-dealer company equal to or exceeding 10%, 20%, 33%, 50% and 66% has to be approved by the Securities Commission
    • shareholders that hold exactly or above 10%, 20%, 33%, 50% and 66% of the shares in the capital of a broker-dealer company are required to notify the Securities Commission of their intention to decrease their shares
    • prior to the current changes, the thresholds were set at 25%, 33%, 50% and 75%
  • with respect to ownership thresholds in stock exchange companies
    • shareholders in a stock exchange may be both domestic and foreign individuals and legal entities - previous the right to own such shares was restricted to professional intermediaries only
    • the restriction that the participation in the capital of a stock exchange of a single investor may not exceed 20% has been removed
    • any shareholder intending to acquire, increase or decrease its participation in the capital of a stock exchange company to exactly, above or below 10%, 20%, 33%, 50% and 66% is required to obtain the approval of the Securities Commission
    • prior to the current changes, the thresholds were set at 5%, 10%, 15% and 20%

The above amendments are in force as of today, 25 January 2017.

 

Impact on investors: Changes to the process for acquiring and disposing of shares in broker-dealer and stock exchange companies