The information covers the contents of the database plus instructions for use.

Notes on the database

BaFin uses the published holdings of voting rights as the basis for drawing up a consolidated overview of holdings of voting rights in domestic issuers and issuers whose home country is the Federal Republic of Germany and whose shares have been admitted to trading on an organised market. It is not legally obliged to do this.

The database is updated regularly and promptly following publication. However, temporary discrepancies between the holdings of voting rights listed in the voting rights database and the actual equity interests at the time of the search may occur.

No searches can be made in the database for voting rights notifications relating to holdings dropping below the lowest applicable threshold (3% or 5%).

The database cannot be used under any circumstances as proof that the notification obligations have or have not been met. Moreover, while all information has been carefully compiled, BaFin cannot accept any liability for its completeness or correctness.

Instructions for use

Searches can be made using the name of either the issuer or the notifying party. Where a search is made for notifying parties, all holders of voting rights with interests in the issuer pursuant to sections 33, 34, section 38 and section 39 of the WpHG are listed, regardless of whether these are actually obliged to submit a voting rights notification or not. In line with this, the “selection notifier” view also contains all subsidiaries of a notifying party, which are flagged as such. If a subsidiary is selected, the detailed view (“Details notifier”) for the relevant parent company, as the notifying party, is then displayed. In addition, it is possible to display the subsidiaries in the detailed view of the parent company as the notifying party. Please note, however, that subsidiaries that submitted their own voting rights notifications in the period up to 26 November 2015, in line with the law in force at that time, are still listed as separate notifying parties. If, in the period since the change in the law, the parent company has issued a group notification in accordance with the version of section 37 of the WpHG applicable as from that date, the subsidiaries listed in the chain of subsidiaries are no longer displayed as separate notifying parties. With effect from 26 November 2015, subsidiaries are also no longer displayed as separate notifying parties if they submit their own voting rights notifications, since the ultimate parent company did not reach or cross the relevant threshold (e.g. subsequent inclusion of a subsidiary in the chain of companies controlled by the ultimate parent company). In this case, only the group structure (name of the controlled companies and, where appropriate, their voting rights holdings; see the reporting template under 8.) for the last group notification submitted by the ultimate parent company is updated in the database. Such separate voting rights notifications by subsidiaries can be recognised on the basis of the different publication dates for the notifications in accordance with section 40 of the WpHG.

Search terms can be entered for searching, with any combination of upper case and lower case letters being allowed; special characters and umlauts can also be used. However, the use of wildcards is not supported. Alternatively, a group of names can be selected by clicking on the initial letter below the search window. An assignment list that maps companies to notifying parties is then displayed. Select the list to display the details (holdings of voting rights and publication of the voting rights notification); these can also be printed out.

Database