4/2010: Transfer of the inspection and approval of prospectuses to Finanstilsynet and certain changes to the Oslo Børs Issuer Rules

1 Introduction

With effect from 1 May 2010, operational responsibility for inspecting and approving prospectuses will transfer from Oslo Børs to Finanstilsynet (the Financial Supervisory Authority of Norway).

Following a brief summary of the contents of this circular in section 2, an account of the types of document affected by the transfer is provided in section 3.

Section 4 addresses certain practical issues related to the transfer, while the significance of the change for issuers for which Norway is a host state is discussed in section 5.

The transfer of responsibility causes some changes to the Oslo Børs Issuer Rules. The changes required by the transfer are outlined in section 6.

Oslo Børs has taken the opportunity to make certain other changes to its Issuer Rules for issuers of shares, cf. section 7. Two important developments for listed companies can be mentioned here: The incorporation of a requirement for board independence as a continuing obligation has been deferred until 1 July 2012, and issuers for which Norway is a host state are subject to a new duty to forward announcements of major changes in shareholdings (flagging announcements) to Oslo Børs, cf. sections 7.2.1 and 7.2.2.

Finally, certain changes are made in the Oslo Børs Issuer Rules resulting from statutory amendments proposed by the Ministry of Finance in Prop. 84 L (2009-2010), cf. section. 8.

The following Oslo Børs Circulars together with appendices deal with the interpretation of the Prospectus Rules, and with effect from the date of the transfer of responsibility these circulars will be deemed to be the prospectus authority's guidelines to the extent decided by Finanstilsynet: Oslo Børs Circulars Nos. 4/2004, 9/2005, 3/2006 and 2/2009.[1]

2 Summary

The major issues addressed in this Circular can be summarised as follows:

(i) The transfer of responsibility for inspection and approval of prospectuses also applies to EEA prospectuses and “equivalent documents”, but does not apply to information documents or offer documents.

(ii) Inspections and approvals that are in progress at the date of transfer will be transferred for completion by Finanstilsynet.

(iii) Following the transfer of responsibility, prospectuses that are to be used on a cross-border basis in Norway must be sent to Finanstilsynet.

(iv) The draft of a listing prospectus for shares, bonds or warrants must be sent to Oslo Børs no later than the time at which the first draft is sent to Finanstilsynet for inspection and approval.

(v) Companies that have listed shares must notify Oslo Børs if they submit a prospectus for inspection and approval that relates to the issue of priority subscription rights, take up of rights to shares, etc.

(vi) Issuers of listed securities that carry out a transaction requiring a prospectus must confirm to Oslo Børs that the prospectus has been approved and published before the start of the offer period or the start of listing. Host state issuers must send Oslo Børs a copy of the announcement issued pursuant to Section 7-9 of the Securities Trading Act. The approved prospectus in its final form must be sent to Oslo Børs.

(vii) A listing document for the admission of bonds to listing on Oslo ABM where the nominal value is less than EUR 50,000 no longer needs to satisfy the requirements for an EEA prospectus, but must satisfy the requirements set out in the ABM Rules.

(viii) There is now an exemption from the duty to prepare a reserves report when a minerals company transfers its listing between Oslo Børs and Oslo Axess.

(ix) Oslo Børs has the legal authority to waive the listing requirements when a listed company applies for a new class of shares to be admitted to listing.

(x) The date for the new requirements for board independence to come into force as a continuing obligation has been deferred from 1 January 2011 to 1 July 2012. The background for the deferral is that work is currently underway with a view to revising the requirements for board independence in the Listing Rules.

(xi) Companies for which Norway is a host state will now be subject to a duty to forward flagging announcements that they receive to Oslo Børs to the extent that the announcement in question has not already been publicly disclosed.

(xii) Changes have been made to clarify the requirement for stock exchange listed savings banks to publicly disclose the notice calling meetings of the bank's committee of representatives.

3 Documents affected by the transfer of responsibility for prospectus inspection and approval

The transfer of responsibility in the first instance applies to EEA prospectuses, cf. Section 7-7 of the Securities Trading Act, including supplements to prospectuses pursuant to Section 7-15 of the Securities Trading Act.

In addition, the transfer of responsibility applies to what are known as “equivalent documents” prepared pursuant to the exemption rules at Section 7-4, items 4/6, and Section 7-5, items 5/7, of the Securities Trading Act. Finanstilsynet has announced that equivalent documents will, until further notice, be inspected and approved using the checklist for information documents prepared by Oslo Børs pursuant to Section 3.5 of Continuing Obligations. In view of this, Oslo Børs assumes that equivalent documents inspected and approved by Finanstilsynet will also satisfy the requirements for an information document, subject to the document being publicly disclosed in the manner and within the timetable stipulated for information documents, cf. Continuing Obligations, Section 3.5.6.

Finally, the transfer of responsibility applies to the inspection and approval of a summary prepared in connection with a listing on a new regulated market of a security that has been listed on a regulated market for at least 18 months, typically in the case of a transfer of listing between Oslo Axess and Oslo Børs, cf. Securities Trading Regulations, Section 7-2, item e.

Information documents that are not to be used as “equivalent documents” will continue to be subject to inspection and approval by Oslo Børs after 1 May pursuant to Section 3.5 of Continuing Obligations.

There is no change to the requirement for Registration Prospectuses (national prospectuses) to be sent to the Register of Business Enterprises (“Foretaksregisteret”) for registration, cf. Securities Trading Act, Section 7-10.

The transfer has no effect on the arrangements for inspection and approval of offer documents pursuant to Chapter 6 of the Securities Trading Act. Such documents must be approved by Oslo Børs. For the sake of good order, Oslo Børs wishes to stress that if an offer involves consideration in the form of securities for which a prospectus is required, inspection and approval of compliance with the requirements for the contents of the prospectus/equivalent document must be carried out by Finanstilsynet.

4 Review and inspection of prospectuses during the transitional period

The requirement for the first draft of any prospectus to be submitted to Oslo Børs will continue to apply normally until 24.00 hours on 30 April 2010.

After this time, the first draft of any prospectus must instead be submitted to Finanstilsynet, using the address prospekter@finanstilsynet.no.

Inspection and approval processes that are in progress at the time of transfer will not be terminated, and will be transferred to Finanstilsynet for the process to continue.

Four officers of Oslo Børs who work with prospectuses will transfer to Finanstilsynet as part of the transfer of responsibility, and approval processes that are underway at the time of the transfer will, wherever possible, be concluded by the same individual following the transfer.

Further guidance will be available from Finanstilsynet and the relevant officers at the time.

The list of prospectus approved prior to 1 May 2010 will be available on the Oslo Børs website for at least 12 months.

Further information on checklists, legal requirements, approved prospectus and other relevant documentation following the transfer of responsibility will be available on the Finanstilsynet website at www.finanstilsynet.no.

5 Issuers for which Norway is a host state

In the case of issuers of securities listed on Oslo Børs or Oslo Axess that are incorporated in an EEA member state other than Norway, the transfer of responsibility to Finanstilsynet will not cause any change in respect of inspection and approval of prospectuses.[2] Inspection and control of prospectuses will be carried out by the competent authority responsible for the approval of prospectuses (the “prospectus authority”) in the home state of the issuer/securities.[3]

However, after 1 May 2010 an EEA prospectus approved by the prospectus authority of another EU member state that is to be used cross-border in Norway must be sent to Finanstilsynet.

In addition, equivalent documents in respect of offers directed to Norway and in respect of admission to listing in Norway for such issuers must be submitted to Finanstilsynet for inspection and approval, cf. section 3 above and noting that equivalent documents cannot be used cross-border.

It should also be noted that the changes to the Issuer Rules discussed in section 6 and section 7 below will also affect host state issuers of securities listed on Oslo Børs or Oslo Axess.

6 Changes to the Oslo Børs Issuer Rules – transfer of the inspection and approval of prospectuses

6.1 Introduction

The transfer of responsibility for inspecting and approving prospectuses has caused changes in the following Issuer Rules:

(i) Listing Rules for equities on Oslo Børs (Listing Rules) and Listing Rules for equities on Oslo Axess (Oslo Axess Listing Rules)
(ii) Continuing obligations of stock exchange listed companies (Continuing Obligations)
(iii) Bond Rules
(iv) ABM Rules
(v) Warrants Rules
(vi) ETC Rules

In addition, certain other minor changes have been made to the Listing Rules and Continuing Obligations affecting issuers of shares, cf. Section 7.

Some minor technical and wording changes and corrections have also been made, but these are not intended to have any effect on the content of the rules in question.

The changes to all the rules will come into force on 1 May 2010.

Revised versions of the rules are provided as appendices to this Circular, and from the time they come into force the revised rules will also be available on: http://www.oslobors.no/Oslo-Boers/Regelverk/Regler-for-utstedere and for the ABM Rules: http://www.osloabm.no/Oslo-ABM/Regelverk/Regler-for-utstedere.

6.2 Duty to send the draft of a listing prospectus to Oslo Børs

It is a requirement of the current Listing Rules for Oslo Børs, Oslo Axess and Oslo ABM that an application for securities (shares, bonds, warrants) to be admitted to listing must be accompanied by a prospectus or draft prospectus.

In a situation where a draft prospectus is sent to Finanstilsynet or to another prospectus authority for inspection and approval before an application is made for admission to listing as mentioned above, there is now a new duty to send the draft prospectus to Oslo Børs at the same time.[4] The presentation of the issuer in the prospectus may be material to the process for admission to listing carried out by Oslo Børs, and Oslo Børs may wish to express views on the way in which the initial share issue preceding the listing is carried out, and on the chapter in the prospectus providing details of the transaction.

A provision has also been introduced giving Oslo Børs the right to require the production of such documents as it may consider necessary in connection with the process of admission to listing.[5] This may, for example, apply to any subsequent draft of the prospectus.

In accordance with the above, at the introductory meeting in respect of an application for the admission of shares to listing the issuer must provide information on the timetable for the preparation of the listing prospectus.[6]

6.3 Duty to notify Oslo Børs of the issue of subscription rights etc.

In the case of companies with shares listed on Oslo Børs or Oslo Axess, there is now a duty to notify Oslo Børs, no later than at the same time as the first draft of a prospectus is submitted to Finanstilsynet or another prospectus authority, if the company plans to issue preferential rights to subscribe for shares or to list other types of subscription rights, or if the company plans to list shares that have different rights to those of the shares already listed.[7]

The notification shall take the form of sending the chapter of the prospectus describing the transaction to prospekter@oslobors.no. If this chapter has not been prepared at the time in question, the company must instead provide a short account of the planned transaction.

The rationale for this duty is that in its capacity as the marketplace, Oslo Børs may wish to express views on the listing of the rights/implementation of the increase in share capital and how the transaction is reported in the prospectus.

Oslo Børs reserves the right to require that it receives all or part of the draft prospectus.

6.4 Submission of the annual overview

The annual overview of publicly disclosed information pursuant to Section 5-11 of the Securities Trading Act must be made public in accordance with the rules for public disclosure of a prospectus and must be submitted to the prospectus authority. Accordingly, issuers for which Norway is the home state must with effect from 1 May 2010 summit the annual overview to Finanstilsynet. The Oslo Børs Issuer Rules have been amended accordingly.[8]

However, Oslo Børs has established a system for the production, submission and public disclosure of annual reviews, as described in Oslo Børs Circular No. 5/2007.[9] Oslo Børs understands that Finanstilsynet will take the view that the submission of the annual review using the system developed by Oslo Børs will continue to satisfy the legal requirements for submission to the prospectus authority after 1 May 2010.

Issuers for which Norway is a host state pursuant to the Prospectus Directive must continue to send their annual overviews to their home state prospectus authority.

It has been proposed in connection with the revision currently underway of the Prospectus Directive that the duty to produce an annual overview should be abolished, and in view of this Oslo Børs does not consider it appropriate to update Oslo Børs Circular No. 5/2007 at this time. Circular 5/2007 must therefore be read in conjunction with Section 3.6 of Continuing Obligations and Section 3.4 of the Bond Rules.

6.5 Inspection, approval and publication of prospectuses etc.

The provisions in the Oslo Børs Issuer Rules in respect of the procedures for inspection and approval of prospectuses have been removed.

The duty to send an approved prospectus to Oslo Børs no later than the day before the first day of listing of securities has been replaced in the case of listing of shares with a duty to confirm to Oslo Børs - within the same timetable - that the prospectus has been approved.[10] A host state issuer is required to send Oslo Børs a copy of the notification of an approved prospectus.[11] In respect of the admission to listing of bonds on Oslo Børs or Oslo ABM, and for the admission to listing of warrants and ETCs on Oslo Børs, the approved prospectus must be included with the application for stock exchange listing.[12]

In addition, issuers of all types of securities must confirm to Oslo Børs, no later than the day before the offer starts or the day before the first day of listing (new admission to listing or subsequent issues of shares in the same class) that the prospectus has been publicly disclosed in accordance with the current rules.[13] This represents a simplification in relation to the current requirements.

No later than 08.00 hours on the first day of the offer or the first day of listing, the issuer must publicly disclose that the prospectus has been approved, and state where it is available.[14] If the prospectus in question is being used on a cross-border basis in Norway, this must also be stated in the announcement.[15] Oslo Børs will no longer issue announcements of approved prospectus.

The approved prospectus in its final form must be sent to Oslo Børs immediately after it is approved.[16]

For the sake of good order, Oslo Børs would like to make it clear that, after the transfer of responsibility for approval, it will still be possible for prospectuses to be published on the Oslo Børs website, cf. Securities Trading Act, Section 7-19, second paragraph, item 3. If the issuer wishes to publish the prospectus in this manner, it must notify Oslo Børs no later than at the time the first draft prospectus is sent to Finanstilsynet for inspection and approval, and must also state whether electronic mechanisms should be used to prevent the distribution of the prospectus to specific markets.

6.6 Listing of bonds, warrants and ETCs on the basis of a base prospectus

In the bonds-, warrants- and ETC rules, specific regulations are introduced addressing the situation where listing is sought for bonds, warrants or ETCs on the basis of a base prospectus and ’final terms’, cf. Securities Trading Regulations, Chapter 7, Part IV.

As a general principle, issuers must satisfy the requirements in the rules in respect of submission, public disclosure and approval for the complete base prospectus (including final terms) at the time of first admission to listing. For subsequent admissions to listing using the same base prospectus, the issuer needs only to satisfy the requirements for final terms. The changes made to the rules serve largely to formalise established current practice.

6.7 Exemption from the duty to prepare a prospectus in connection with short-term fixed income instruments etc.

Following the transfer of responsibility, exemptions from the duty to prepare a prospectus pursuant to Section 7-6 of the Securities Trading Act will be a matter for decision by Finanstilsynet. If an issuer of bonds or short term fixed income instruments (’certificates’) that are listed on Oslo Børs or are the subject of an application for admission to listing is granted such an exemption, the issuer will still be required to prepare a loan document pursuant to the Bond Rules, Section 2.9 first paragraph, cf. Section 3.9.1 second paragraph.

6.8 Listing document for listing on Oslo ABM with nominal value less than EUR 50,000

The current ABM Rules stipulate that a listing document for bonds with nominal value less than EUR 50,000 must satisfy the requirements for the content of an EEA prospectus.

Oslo ABM is not a regulated market and admission to listing does not in itself trigger an obligation to produce an EEA prospectus.

It is not seen to be an appropriate solution for Oslo Børs to be responsible for inspecting and approving listing documents in accordance with the requirements of the Prospectus Regulation after it has transferred responsibility for inspecting and approving prospectuses to Finanstilsynet. Against this background, the rules have been changed so that the document that must be prepared in the circumstances mentioned must satisfy the requirements for a listing document set out in Section 2.7.3.

A listing document for bonds with nominal value less than EUR 50,000 must accordingly satisfy the requirements set out in or based on the ABM Rules Section 2.7.3.2 first paragraph items 1-4, Section 2.7.3.3, Section 2.7.3.4 and Section 2.7.3.5 regardless of whether the borrower satisfies the conditions for exemption set out in Section 2.7.3.2 first and second paragraphs. In terms of content, these requirements are assumed to be substantially equivalent to the requirements in the Prospectus Regulation.

Regardless of the arrangements mentioned above, if a public offer is made in connection with admission to listing that triggers the duty to prepare a prospectus, an EEA prospectus approved by Finanstilsynet or by another prospectus authority may be used as the listing document, cf. ABM Rules, Section 2.7.4.

7 Other changes to the Issuer Rules for issuers of shares

7.1 Listing rules

7.1.1 Exemption from the duty to prepare a reserves report etc.

The Listing Rules for Oslo Børs now include at Section 2.7, third paragraph, item 2, an exemption from the duty to issue the report required by Section 3.4, third paragraph item 31, in connection with a transfer of listing from Oslo Axess to Oslo Børs. An equivalent change has been made in the Listing Rules for Oslo Axess in relation to a transfer of listing from Oslo Børs.

The reason for these changes is principally that a company will have prepared such a report in connection with its admission to listing on Oslo Axess/Oslo Børs. The exemption will apply regardless of whether the company question is subject to the duty to publish an annual reserves report pursuant to Section 3.8 of Continuing Obligations.

7.1.2 Admission to listing of a temporary share class

The Listing Rules for Oslo Børs and Oslo Axess stipulate at Section 2.4.3, second paragraph, that the listing conditions must be satisfied for each class of shares for which admission to listing is sought. Accordingly, if a company with shares listed on Oslo Børs or Oslo Axess issues shares in a new share class and applies for the new shares to be listed, the new share class must satisfy all the listing requirements in its own right. Section 3.1, fifth paragraph, of the rules allows for exemptions from the procedural requirements for admission to listing, but the material requirements continue to apply in full.

Oslo Børs is of the opinion that the situation described above can have unfortunate consequences, particularly in cases where a listed company issues new shares that for some reason must be assigned to a separate share class for a shorter or longer period. Oslo Børs takes the view that the rules should not prevent the admission of such shares to listing even if the share class in question does not satisfy all the requirements for admission to listing in its own right. In view of this, the rules have been amended to permit the marketplace to grant exemptions from the requirements in this respect.[17]

For the sake of good order, it should be noted that the marketplaces cannot grant exemptions that conflict with Section 24 of the Stock Exchange Act, or – in the case of admission to listing on Oslo Børs – Chapter 2 of the Stock Exchange Regulations.

7.2 Continuing obligations

7.2.1 Deferral of the date for the requirements on board independence to come into effect

With effect from 1 January 2008, the Listing Rules’ requirements on board independence were adopted as continuing obligations, however with a transitional period for companies which were already listed at this date. Section 20, second paragraph, of Continuing Obligations currently stipulates that the requirements on board independence in the listing rules will apply as continuing obligations for all companies with effect from 1 January 2011.

Oslo Børs is currently working on a possible revision of the listing requirements in this respect, and has therefore decided to defer the implementation of this requirement for companies listed before 1 January 2008 as a continuing obligation until 1 July 2012. Oslo Børs expects to circulate proposed new rules in this respect for consultation during the second quarter of 2010.

7.2.2 Duty for host state issuers to forward flagging announcements to Oslo Børs

Section 4-2, first paragraph, of the Securities Trading Act stipulates that the Norwegian rules on notifying acquisitions or disposals of major shareholdings (“flagging announcements”) apply to investors in companies for which Norway is the home state, cf. the current provisions in Article 9 of the EU Transparency Directive.[18]

For the purposes of market transparency, Oslo Børs also wishes to receive flagging announcements that apply to listed companies for which Norway is a host state. There is nothing in legislation or European directives to prevent investors sending such flagging announcements to Oslo Børs, and in practice this does happen to a large extent.

There are some differences between EEA states in the legal duties and procedures for investors to report flagging announcements for such issuers, but regardless of these differences investors always have a duty to send flagging announcements to the company itself, cf. Transparency Directive, Article 9 and Article 12.

In order to avoid the risk that the market is not made aware of flagging announcements, Oslo Børs is introducing a duty for companies for which Norway is a host state to forward all flagging announcements they receive to Oslo Børs for publication, cf. Continuing Obligations, Sections 13.2.2 and 13.3.3, new tenth paragraph to both sections. Announcements must be sent to ma@oslobors.no, and this must be done immediately they are received by the company. This brings the submission of such announcements into line with the arrangements for companies for which Norway is the home state, cf. Regulation No. 1359 of 6 December 2007.

The duty does not apply in circumstances where the flagging announcement in question has already been publicly disclosed in accordance with Section 5 of Continuing Obligations either by the company itself, or by the investor in question or by some other party.

For the sake of good order, it should be noted that the conditions for the duty to issue a flagging announcement and the flagging thresholds are determined by the rules of the issuer's home state.

7.2.3 Public disclosure by stock exchange listed savings banks of notices calling meetings of the committee of representatives

Section 1.2 of Continuing Obligations has been amended to clarify that savings banks with stock exchange listed equity certificates have a duty to publicly disclose notices calling meetings of both the election meeting and the committee of representatives. The duty to publicly disclose notices of such meetings applies in addition to the specific duty to publicly disclose individual proposals and decisions pursuant to Section 3.2.

The wording of Section 1.2 in the Norwegian original has been amended to clarify that the rules apply regardless of whether a savings bank refers to its senior corporate body as the ‘forstanderskap’ or as the ‘representantskap’, and the wording of the English translation uses ‘committee of representatives’ to refer to this body.

8 Changes that result from Proposition 84 L to the Norwegian Parliament (2009-2010)

In this Proposition, the Ministry of Finance proposes certain changes to the Securities Trading Act that will require changes to the Oslo Børs Issuer Rules. The changes in question have been made as part of this revision of the Rules, and will come into effect at the same time as the other changes.

The changes in question can be summarised as follows:

(i) The duty of notification pursuant to Section 6.1 of Continuing Obligations, cf. Securities Trading Act, Section 4-1, will no longer apply to purchases or sales of shares in the same group as the issuer company;

(ii) There are some changes to the rules on sanctions in Continuing Obligations and in the Bond Rules, cf. Securities Trading Act, Chapter 17, as a result of the transfer of responsibility for inspection and approval of prospectuses to Finanstilsynet;

(iii) The Bond Rules now include a new exemption from the duty of notification for “dispositions made by or on behalf of an EEA state, the European Central Bank, a central bank in an EEA state or other government body in such states when the disposition is a part of an EEA state’s monetary or foreign exchange policy or management of public debt”, cf. Bond Rules, Section 3.2.1.5, and Securities Trading Act, Section 5-1, second paragraph. In practice, this exemption will only apply for Norges Bank.

[1] Certain provisions in some of these circulars have since been cancelled by Oslo Børs, cf. Oslo Børs Circular No. 7/2008.
[2] The provisions that determine whether a particular issuer/security has Norway as its home state pursuant to the Prospectus Directive are found in Article 2(1)(m) of the directive.
[3] Except in specific situations where responsibility is transferred pursuant to Article 13(5) of the Prospectus Directive. With effect from 1 May 2010, such transfer must be to Finanstilsynet.
[4] Cf. Listing Rules and Oslo Axess Listing Rules, Section 7 third paragraph, Bond Rules Section 2.8 third paragraph, ABM Rules Section 2.7.4 second paragraph, Warrant Rules Section 2.3 third paragraph and ETC-Rules Section 2.7 third paragraph.
[5] Cf. Listing Rules and Oslo Axess Listing Rules, Section 5.2 second paragraph, Bond Rules Section 2.6.4 second paragraph, ABM Rules Section 2.4.3 second paragraph, Warrant Rules Section 2.5.4 second paragraph and ETC Rules Section 2.9.4 second paragraph.
[6] Cf. Listing Rules Section 3.1 second paragraph item 13, and Oslo Axess Listing Rules Section 3.1 second paragraph item 12.
[7] Cf. Continuing Obligations Section 8.2 fourth paragraph.
[8] See Continuing Obligations Section 3.6, Bond Rules Section 3.4, Warrant Rules Section 3.1 and ETC Rules Section 3.1.
[9] Certain changes have been made to the functionality of this system subsequently. An updated description is available at https://www.newspoint.no/newspoint/help/instruction-general_no.pdf
[10] Cf. Listing Rules and Oslo Axess Listing Rules, Section 6 second paragraph item 4, and Warrant Rules Section 2.6 second paragraph item 1.
[11] Cf. Listing Rules and Oslo Axess Listing Rules, Section 6 second paragraph item 4.
[12] Bond Rules Section 2.6.1 fourth paragraph item 12, ABM Rules Section 2.4.1 second paragraph item 10, Warrant Rules Section 2.5.1 third paragraph item 1 and ETC Rules Section 2.9.1 third paragraph item 1.
[13] Cf. Listing Rules and Oslo Axess Listing Rules, Section 6 second paragraph item 5, Continuing Obligations Section 8.3, Bond Rules Section 2.7 second paragraph item 1 and Section 3.9.3, ABM Rules Section 2.6 second paragraph item 1, and Warrant Rules Section 2.6 second paragraph item 1 and Section 3.5.3 and ETC Rules Section 2.10 second paragraph item 2. Cf. also the duty of Oslo Børs to ensure that issuers of listed securities comply with their duties pursuant to the prospectus rules, cf. Stock Exchange Act Section 24 third paragraph.
[14] Cf. Continuing Obligations Section 8.4, Bond Rules Section 3.9.4, Warrant Rules Section 3.5.4 and ETC Rules Section 3.1.
[15] Cf. Listing Rules and Oslo Axess Listing Rules, Section 9.1 fourth paragraph and Section 9.2 fourth paragraph, Continuing Obligations Section 13.2.2 sixth paragraph and 13.3.3 sixth paragraph, Bond Rules Section 3.9.4 third paragraph, Warrant Rules Section 3.5.4 third paragraph and ETC Rules Section 3.1.
[16] Cf. Continuing Obligations Section 8.5, Bond Rules Section 3.9.5, ABM Rules Section 2.7.4 third paragraph, Warrant Rules Section 3.5.5 and ETC Rules Section 3.1.
[17] Cf. Listing Rules and Oslo Axess Listing Rules, Section 2.4.3 second paragraph second sentence.
[18] Information on which listed companies have Norway as their home state and host state respectively is available on the Oslo Børs website at: (http://www.oslobors.no/Oslo-Boers/Notering/Noterte-selskapers-hjemstat-mv).