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The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has issued a forbearance statement clarifying the notifications required upon the issue of new shares by listed companies. It follows changes introduced on 19 January 2026 as part of the implementation of the new UK prospectus regime (in particular the FCA's new Prospectus Rules: Admission to Trading on a Regulated Market sourcebook (PRM) – see our blog post here for more information).
The procedure for listed companies who regularly issue and allot new shares, for example under employee share schemes, was simplified as part of implementation of the new prospectus regime – when listed companies issue further shares, the shares are now automatically admitted to listing. Consequently block listings, which were previously provided for by UKLR 20.6, are no longer needed and the rules have been deleted accordingly.
Under the new regime (PRM 1.6.4), listed companies must announce the admission to trading of new shares within 60 days of admission. Under UKLR 6.4.4(4) they are also obliged to announce the results of any new issue of shares as soon as possible (previously this rule contained an exemption for block listings, which was also removed on 19 January 2026).
In its forbearance statement, the FCA observes that there had been some confusion and notes that it was not its policy intention to require issuers who regularly issue new shares to announce as soon as possible the results of each individual issue and again on admission to trading. It will consult shortly on deleting UKLR 6.4.4(4) and, while this change is being considered, the FCA has said that existing listed companies which had a block listing in place pre-19 January 2026 are not required to make announcements under UKLR 6.4.4(4) where they issue shares covered by that former block listing.
We have produced a Corporate Governance Fundamentals, in which we explore the new requirements for listed companies when issuing further shares.
The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.
