The Luxembourg Stock Exchange (the LuxSE) has implemented changes to its Rules and Regulations (the Rules) to adapt them to new practices and requirements of the market and its operators, as well as to bring the Rules into compliance with local and European regulations, including the Transparency Directive 2013/50/EU¹ and Regulation (EC) 809/2004².

Changes to the Rules may be summarized as follows:

The Rules now contain an explanation of the information to be included in the prospectus for the admission to trading, on a market operated by the LuxSE, of shares and units issued by undertakings for collective investment other than closed-end type whose securities are not publicly exposed, offered or sold in or from Luxembourg. The revamped Appendix VI of the Rules sets out an entirely new schedule, focused on information to be included by such investment funds. Specifically, this appendix contains information that must be provided with respect to, inter alia, the various actors associated with a listed fund.

Another notable change is that the Rules no longer require hard copies of documents to be made available in Luxembourg by issuers to investors. In a nod to the digital era, documents now need only be accessible to investors in an electronic format. Another simplification of the Rules is that they no longer require issuers with debt securities admitted to trading on the Euro MTF³ to inform investors of any new debt security issues traded on a market other than one operated by the LuxSE.

In order to harmonize the Rules relating to securities having a denomination equivalent to at least EUR 100,000 with the requirements of Regulation (EC) 809/2004 related to regulated markets, the LuxSE has incorporated certain exceptions or special rules into the Rules, which target this specific type of security. These changes concern the layout of prospectuses for admission to trading of debt securities issued by companies and other legal persons⁴ as well as by states and their local authorities.⁵

As per Regulation (EC) 809/2004, the updated Rules also provide clarification on certain listing requirements as follows:

• The information required to be included in, or attached to, a prospectus for securities listed on the Euro MTF has been reviewed and updated in the Schedules to Appendix III and Appendix V of the Rules.
   
• Issuers with both consolidated and non-consolidated annual accounts are no longer required to attach non-consolidated annual accounts to the prospectus, though the obligation to provide consolidated accounts remains.
   
• Henceforth only information on an issuer’s main subsidiaries need be provided, thereby eliminating the previous requirement to provide information on each entity in which an issuer holds at least 10% of the shares.

More generally, certain terms in the Rules have been updated to improve clarity and readability, as well as to align them with terms used in applicable laws and regulations, notably Regulation (EC) 809/2004. Likewise, references to laws and regulations that have been repealed or are otherwise obsolete have been removed.

All of these changes took effect as from January 1, 2016 and are part of the LuxSE’s ongoing process of reviewing and updating the Rules. Based on a publication by the LuxSE, it appears that further amendments to the Rules may follow in the future.