Notification obligations of the person subject to notification; authorisation to issue statutory instruments

(1) A person who, through acquisition, disposal or otherwise, reaches, exceeds or falls below 3 percent, 5 percent, 10 percent, 15 percent, 20 percent, 25 percent, 30 percent, 50 percent or 75 percent of the voting rights arising from shares belonging to that person in an issuer for whom the Federal Republic of Germany is the home state (person subject to notification) must notify this without delay to the issuer and simultaneously to the Bundesanstalt, no later than within four trading days, having regard to section 34(1) and (2). In the case of depositary receipts representing shares, the notification obligation rests exclusively with the holder of the depositary receipts. The period under the first sentence begins at the point in time at which the person subject to notification has knowledge, or, having regard to the circumstances, ought to have had knowledge, that its voting-rights holding reaches, exceeds or falls below the thresholds referred to. As regards the beginning of the period, it is irrebuttably presumed that the person subject to notification has knowledge no later than two trading days after reaching, exceeding or falling below the thresholds referred to. Where a threshold is touched as a result of events that change the total number of voting rights, the period begins, by way of derogation from the third sentence, as soon as the person subject to notification obtains knowledge of the touching of the threshold, but no later than on the issuer's publication under section 41(1).
(2) A person who, at the time of the initial admission of the shares to trading on a regulated market, holds 3 percent or more of the voting rights in an issuer for whom the Federal Republic of Germany is the home state, must make a notification, corresponding to subsection (1), first sentence, to that issuer and to the Bundesanstalt. Subsection (1), second sentence applies correspondingly.
(3) The mere existence of an unconditional claim, to be satisfied without delay, to the transfer of shares, or of a corresponding obligation, is already deemed belonging within the meaning of this Part.
(4) Domestic issuers and issuers for whom the Federal Republic of Germany is the home state within the meaning of this Part are only such issuers whose shares are admitted to trading on a regulated market.
(5) The Federal Ministry of Finance may, by statutory instrument not requiring the consent of the Bundesrat, adopt further provisions on the content, nature, language, scope and form of the notification under subsection (1), first sentence, and subsection (2). The Federal Ministry of Finance may transfer this authorisation, by statutory instrument, to the Bundesanstalt, insofar as the nature and form of the notification under subsection (1) or (2), in particular the use of an electronic procedure, is concerned.