According to the short selling regulation Article 9, a natural or legal person who has a short position, shall at midnight on the trading day on which the position is achieved calculate the net short position.
If the net short position is 0.2% or more of the listed company’s issued share capital, the natural or legal person shall report the position to the relevant competent authority at the lasted 15.30 hours the following trading day. For shares admitted to trading on the Danish venues, the Danish FSA is the relevant competent authority. If the net short position is 0.5% or more of the listed company’s issued share capital the Danish FSA will publish the net short position on its website.
On 25 January 2018, Old Mutual Global Investors (UK) Limited voluntarily contacted the Danish FSA. They informed that in the period between 15 September 2015 and 18 January 2018, Old Mutual Global Investors (UK) Limited on 20 occasions have had net short positions of 0.20% or more of 6 listed company’s share capital in companies listed in Denmark. On none of the occasions did Old Mutual Global Investors (UK) Limited fulfill the filing obligation according to the short selling regulation article 5.
In none of the above-mentioned occasions did the net short position pass the publication threshold of 0.5% or more of the listed company’s issued share capital, i.e. none of the net short positions should have been published on the Danish FSA’s website.
Old Mutual Global Investors (UK) Limited have informed the Danish FSA that the reasons for the missed filing obligation are incorrect threshold triggers and inaccurate reporting criterias for calculating the aggregated net short positions.
On 30 January 2018, Old Global Mutual Investors (UK) Limited reported all the missing net short positions in the period. Furthermore, Old Mutual Global Investors (UK) Limited has informed the Danish FSA that they have implemented remedial and preventative measures. These measures should imply that going forward all net short positions of 0.2% or more of the listed company’s issued share capital will be reported to the Danish FSA.
For more information on short selling the Danish FSA refers to our homepage finanstilsynet.dk