In accordance with current legislation, disclosure of beneficial ownership details are required to be made available to issuers on a monthly basis, or where required upon request. However, in terms of market practice, the equity dematerialised share register, known as the Beneficiary Download (BND), is produced and made available to the issuers or their agents weekly. The Central Securities Depository (CSD) Participants’ accounts are recognised as a sub-register within the recognised share register.

 

This BND data report is produced by Strate on a weekly basis for equities, monthly for bonds and real-time for money market securities. Ad-hoc BNDs, which may be required to fulfil the terms of a corporate event, are available to individual issuers upon request. Strate are currently planning to introduce weekly bond reporting in due course.

 

Strate produces the relative BND reports by collating the shareholder positions that are supplied by the CSD Participants, the JSE on behalf of the brokers and the FSB-approved nominees as at the close of books every Friday for equities and as at the last business day of the month for bonds. Upon receipt of the files from the various market participants, a rigorous validation and reconciliation process is undertaken. In instances where there is a variance, this is communicated to the relevant custodian immediately who must then provide an amended file or a suitable explanation.

 

It is important to note that although beneficial disclosure is provided in respect of all recognised local nominees, foreign nominees/omnibus account holders are do not required to provide this level of disclosure. Issuers or share register analysts will therefore only be able to view the total number of shares held by each foreign nominee on the register.

 

The monthly BND report is also utilised by third parties to conduct market analysis, however, this information is limited to data which is deemed to be in the public domain. In line with changing legislation the data provided has been restricted to the ISIN, registered account number, full name, address, country code and number of shares. Strate will restrict these data fields even further should legislation require this.

 

To remain compliant with changing legislation and new market developments, Strate has successfully enhanced the communication channels to conform to the distribution of the BND in an encrypted manner.

 

For further information or assistance, please contact Strate’s Issuer Relationship Manager, Carol Otto, on carolo@strate.co.za or on +27 (0)11 759 5325.