A&O Shearman was formed in 2024 via the merger of two historic firms, Allen & Overy and Shearman & Sterling. With nearly 4,000 lawyers globally, we are equally fluent in English law, U.S. law and the laws of the world’s most dynamic markets.
This combination creates a new kind of law firm, one built to achieve unparalleled outcomes for our clients on their most complex, multijurisdictional matters – everywhere in the world. A firm that advises at the forefront of the forces changing the current of global business and that is unrivalled in its global strength.
Our clients benefit from the collective experience of teams who work with many of the world’s most influential companies and institutions, and have a history of precedent-setting innovations.
Together our lawyers advise more than a third of NYSE-listed businesses, a fifth of the NASDAQ and a notable proportion of the London Stock Exchange, the Euronext, Euronext Paris and the Tokyo and Hong Kong Stock Exchanges.
On 12 April 2018, the European Commission (EC)
launched a consultation on minimum content requirements with regard
to shareholder identification and the exercise of shareholder
rights under the Shareholders Rights Directive
(SRD). The SRD applies to EU companies traded on
EU regulated markets.
The consultation paper includes a draft Shareholders Rights
Directive II and annex (SRD II), which set out
standardized formats and minimum content requirements for a wide
range of documents, including:
requests to disclose information on a
shareholders' identity;
notices of general meetings and other
corporate notifications;
confirmations of entitlement to
exercise shareholder rights at a general meeting; and
confirmations of the receipt and
counting of votes.
It is hoped that the standardisation of formats and minimum
content requirements will improve the efficiency and reliability of
information sharing between issuers and shareholders across the
EU.
The content of this article is intended to provide a general
guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought
about your specific circumstances.