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Article 40. Transactions by Directors and Senior Management

40.1 Any change in the board of directors and senior management must be notified immediately to the Agency.
40.2 The issuer must adopt rules governing dealings by directors, senior management and associated persons in the listed securities of the issuer, in terms no less exacting than those issued by the Agency.
40.3 The rules issued by the Agency should be regarded as applicable to purchases by an issuer of its own shares.
40.4 The directors, senior management and associated persons wishing to buy or sell securities in their company, must first pay attention to the following basic rules, and any other rules issued by the Agency from time to time:—
40.4.1 Directors and senior management should not deal in their companies' securities on considerations of a short-term nature.
40.4.2 Directors and senior management will always be thought to be in possession of more information than can ever be published. Accordingly, they must accept that they cannot always feel free to deal in their companies' securities, even when the rules would not prohibit them from doing so.
40.4.3 Notwithstanding this general constraint, there must be periods in the year when directors are, in principle (but subject to the rules) regarded as free to deal in their companies' securities. The following rules have been formulated on the basis that:—
a) dealings should not normally take place for a minimum period prior to the announcement of regularly recurring information, particularly profits, dividends and other distributions, whether or not the information is price-sensitive (this period being defined in Article 41 below), and
b) dealings should not take place prior to the announcement of matters of an exceptional nature involving unpublished price-sensitive information, in relation to the market price of the securities of the issuer (or where relevant, any other listed company).
40.4.4 For the purpose of the rules, the grant to a director or senior manager of an option to subscribe or purchase his issuer's securities shall be regarded as a dealing by him, if the price at which such option may be exercised is fixed at the time of such grant. If, however, an option is granted to a director or senior manager on terms whereby the price at which such option may be exercised is to be fixed at the time of exercise, the dealing is to be regarded as taking place at the time of exercise.
40.5 Matters of an exceptional nature cause particular difficulty. A director and senior manager who has knowledge of the exceptional matter in question will normally be prohibited from dealing by the Agency's law and rules, but even if he is not so prohibited he should nevertheless refrain from dealing under the circumstances outlined below. Similarly, a director or senior manager who has no such knowledge should be advised, when he notifies his intention to deal under Article 41 below, that it would be inappropriate for him to deal where the same circumstances apply. Those circumstances are when:—
40.5.1 The matter in question constitutes unpublished price-sensitive information in relation to the issuer's securities, and
40.6 In principle, a director should seek to secure that all dealings in which he is deemed to be interested should be conducted in accordance with the provisions of Article 41, set out as a general proposition.

Nevertheless it is recognized that a director's or senior manager's duty in this respect will depend on the particular circumstances. A director who is sole trustee, for example, should follow the same procedure as for any dealings on his own account, and should deal only if he would be personally allowed to do so under the rules, even if he is exempt from the general prohibitions imposed by the Agency's law and rules, by virtue of the special defences relating to trustees covered by such provisions.

Where a director has co-trustees who are not directors of the issuer, he may not be able to ensure that the procedure applicable to his personal dealings is followed in respect of dealings on behalf of the trust. The director/trustee has to avoid acting in breach of trust, and at the same time to refrain from divulging or abusing confidential information, and it may not always be practicable to expect that the trustee will refrain from dealing, at a time when one of their members is not personally free to deal.

On the other hand, if a director, whether or not himself a trustee, has as settlor or otherwise, an important influence over the decision of the trustee, the procedure applicable to his personal dealings ought to be followed and the trustee should not deal when he personally is not free to deal. Again, the remoteness of some interests may be such as to make the imposition of any duty under Article 41 below impracticable or inappropriate. Article 41 below indicates certain precautions, which should be taken.

It is an over-riding principle that under no circumstances should a director or senior manager deal, where prohibited from doing so by the Agency's law and rules, or make any unauthorized disclosure of any confidential information, whether to co-trustees or any other person, or make any use of such information for the advantage of himself or others, even those to whom he owes a fiduciary duty.
40.7 When a director places investment funds under professional management where either he retains or exercises influence, the managers should be made subject to the same restrictions and procedures as the director himself, in respect of proposed dealings in the issuer's securities.