The European Securities and Markets Authority ("ESMA") has published a new version of its "Questions and Answers "prospectuses" which confirms at Question 77 that EU regulators should take a pragmatic approach to approving GDR prospectuses under the EU Prospectus Directive (Directive 2003/71/EC as amended by Directive 2010/73/EU) regime. Market participants will be aware that the UK Listing Authority had previously taken the view that a new prospectus should be prepared if new shares were deposited into a listed GDR facility after the original listing, which market participants believe would have been unworkable in practice.

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