Notification requirement of major holdings

In accordance with the Transparency Directive (TD) and Icelandic law, natural and legal persons are obliged to notify the Icelandic Financial Supervisory Authority (FME) and Arion Bank of the percentage of their holdings of voting rights as soon as these rise above, fall below or reach certain thresholds because of the acquisition or disposal of shares or financial instruments or due to other reasons.

Who is subject to the obligation to notify major holdings?

The obligation to notify major shareholdings and proportions of voting rights applies to shareholders of the Bank, persons comparable to a shareholder of the Bank and the Bank itself.

The purpose of the obligation is to provide investors with equal opportunities to have information on Arion Bank’s structure of ownership, voting rights and changes therein. This information may have a material influence on the value of the shares of the Bank.

Which circumstances require a notification?

A notification is made whenever one’s proportion of holdings or votes in the Bank reaches, exceeds or falls below a disclosure threshold. The thresholds are 5%, 10%, 15%, 20%, 25%, 30%, 35%, 40%, 50%, ⅔ and 90% of the number of voting rights or shares in the Bank.

When and how is a notification of major shareholdings made and published?

A notification of major holdings must be made as soon as possible, and no later than on the trading day immediately following the date on which the notification requirement arose.

The triggering event for on-exchange transactions under TD Art. 9(1) / Article 78 of Act No. 108/2007 on Securities Transactions is the Trade Date. On-exchange transactions are transactions which are carried out on a regulated market.

The triggering event for passive crossings, i.e. when there is a change in the breakdown of voting rights under TD Art. 9(2) / Article 84 of Act No. 108/2007 on Securities Transactions is the publication of the results of the share capital increase.

Please make the notification in writing on a standard form and send it to the Bank (ir@arionbanki.is and compliance@arionbanki.is) and the FME (fme@fme.is).

It should be noted that intra-day netting is permitted. Intra-day netting means that a shareholder who exceeds a notification threshold and falls below the same notification threshold later in the same trading day nets the voting rights for the calculation of the notification position.

Further information

• Link to standard form
• Link to national central storage mechanism for regulated information (OAM)

Contact details for FME if further information is needed: fme@fme.is.