BlackRock retracts substantial shareholder notices posted to NZX showing stakes in listed companies

Statements published on the stock exchange this morning purportedly showing investment fund BlackRock taking up substantial shareholdings in several NZX-listed companies have been now been retracted.

The NZX announced at 12.02pm that the statements titled “SPH Notice – BlackRock Inc. and related bodies corporate” released under 11 stock tickers, including Auckland International Airport, Contact Energy, Ryman Healthcare, Pacific Edge, the a2 Milk Company and six listed property companies, had been retracted at the request of BlackRock.

The Herald understands BlackRock was responsible for the error – not the NZX or the companies named.

A BlackRock spokesperson told the Herald the notice on it buying into Vital Healthcare Properties Trust was an “administrative error”.

It should not have gone up, she said. It was not true that BlackRock had bought a 6.5 per cent stake in Vital, as the notice said, the spokeswoman explained.

SPH (Substantial Product Holder) notices are designed to inform market participants about people or organisations that have large shareholdings in listed issuers.

They are provided to promote an informed market and deter insider conduct, market manipulation and secret dealings in potential takeover bids. NZX guidelines state this is “to ensure participants in financial product markets can access information about the identity and trading activities of anyone who is entitled to control or influence the exercise of significant voting rights in a listed company”.

“Timely, accurate disclosure is important to promote these purposes.”

An NZX spokesperson declined to comment further, referring the Herald’s questions to the Financial Markets Authority.

An FMA spokesman said it did not generally comment on individual entities or whether it was investigating an entity.

“However, it is important that market announcements are accurate and any errors are remediated quickly. The FMA will be following up with BlackRock to understand what happened and any lessons that can be learned from today’s incident.”