In a judgement handed down on Thursday 9 January (Case C-627/23), the Court of Justice of the European Union ruled that shares in the Belgian company Holding Communal SA, which can only be held by Belgian provinces and municipalities and can only be sold with the approval of the company’s board of directors, fall within the concept of ‘transferable securities’ within the meaning of Directive 2003/71/EC governing the prospectus to be published when securities are offered to the public.
In other words, as claimed by the communes of Schaerbeek and Linkebeek, the plaintiffs in this case, Holding Communal SA should have published a prospectus to establish the legality of the subscription by these communes to the increase in its capital initiated in 2009.
See the judgment of the Court of Justice: https://aeur.eu/f/ezc (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)