(1) As soon as more than one quarter of the shares in a stock corporation having its seat in Germany belongs to an enterprise, said enterprise is to notify the company of this fact without undue delay in text form. Section 16 (2) sentence 1 and (4) applies in establishing whether more than one quarter of the shares of stock belongs to an enterprise.
(2) For purposes of the notification duty stipulated by subsection (1), the shares of stock belonging to the enterprise also include those shares of stock
1. regarding which the enterprise, an enterprise under its control or some other party acting for the account of the enterprise, or for the account of an enterprise under its control, may demand that title to such shares be transferred;
2. that the enterprise, an enterprise under its control or some other party acting for the account of the enterprise, or for the account of an enterprise under its control, is obliged to purchase.
(3) Where the enterprise is a share capital company, it also is to notify the company, without undue delay in text form, as soon as it holds more than a quarter of the shares of stock, not including the shares governed by subsection (2).
(4) As soon as the enterprise holds a majority interest (section 16 (1)), it is to notify the company of this fact as well, and is to do so without undue delay in text form.
(5) Where the ownership interest ceases to exist in the amount requiring notification pursuant to subsection (1), (3) or (4), the company is to be notified of this fact without undue delay in text form.
(6) The company is to give notice of the existence of an ownership interest, of which it has been notified pursuant to subsection (1) or (4), in its publications of record and is to do so without undue delay; in this context, the enterprise holding said ownership interest is to be identified. If the company is notified that the ownership interest has ceased to exist in an amount requiring notification pursuant to subsection (1) or (4), notice of this fact as well is to be given without undue delay in the company’s publications of record.
(7) No rights attaching to shares of stock belonging to an enterprise that is subject to the notification obligation pursuant to subsection (1) or (4) exist, neither for the enterprise nor for an enterprise under its control nor for some other party acting for the account of the enterprise, or for the account of an enterprise under its control, for as long as the enterprise fails to comply with the notification duty. This does not apply to any claims governed by section 58 (4) and section 271, provided the failure to provide notification was not intentional and the notification has been provided subsequently.
(8) Subsections (1) to (7) do not apply to shares of stock of an issuer within the meaning of section 33 (4) of the Securities Trading Act (Wertpapierhandelsgesetz – WpHG).