Introduction

1. Public offers of securities which fall under the scope of Directive 2003/71/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 4 November 2003 on the prospectus to be published when securities are offered to the public or admitted to trading and amending Directive 2001/34/EC (the ‘Prospectus Directive’ or ‘Dir.’) are regulated in Slovakia by Act No. 566/2001 Coll. of 9 November 2001 on securities and investment services and amending and supplementing certain other acts, as amended (the ‘Securities Act’). As far as the admission of securities to trading on a regulated market is concerned, it is covered by Act No. 429/2002 Coll. on the stock exchange, as amended (‘Stock Exchange Act’), with the exception of rules regulating the preparation and approval of the prospectus used for the purpose of admission of securities to trading on a regulated market.

2. Already since its entering into force on 1 January 2002, the Securities Act also regulated, inter alia, public offers of securities, including approval and publication of the prospectus; however, it was only Act No. 336/2005 Coll. of 23 June 2005, amending and supplementing Act No. 566/2001 Coll. on securities and investment services and amending and supplementing certain other acts, as amended (the Securities Act), and amending and supplementing certain other acts (‘the Amendment’) that transposed the Prospectus Directive into Slovak legislation. The Amendment became effective on 1 August 2005, which means that Slovakia transposed the Prospectus Directive with a one-month delay.