Significance of total voting rights RNS

Question

I own shares in a UK listed company.
The company has just issued a RNS (Regulatory News Service) announcement of total voting rights, which appears to state the obvious. For example:

As at 30 September 2020, there were 199,514,929 ordinary shares of 1p in issue carrying one vote each. The Company does not hold any Ordinary Shares in Treasury. Therefore, the total voting rights in the Company are 199,514,929

Does anyone know why it would be a regulatory requirement to announce total voting rights?

marktristan · Answer

For most companies the announcements are largely irrelevant – usually it's 1 voting right per share, and every time the total shares in issue changes, they issue this announcement, and it doesn't mean much to individual shareholders.
But I believe that having it as a requirement serves two functions that I can think of:

Any companies with different share classes (e.g. 10 votes per A share and 1 vote per Ordinary) it ensures these changes are brought into the light

If you are a shareholder concerned about dilution of your voting rights, or maintaining a certain stake, this will be more relevant to you

So it does result in a lot of 'noise' but there is 'signal' amongst it.

Significance of total voting rights RNS

One Answer

Add your own answers!

Ask a Question