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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?

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  • What does "stating the obvious" mean... that you have voting rights because you bought shares? ...showing the total number of voters/shares (and, presumably, what proportion of that total is yours)? Are you asking whether there is a regulatory requirement to disclose either of those two specific pieces of information? As the RNS is about promoting transparency, even if there isn't a specific requirement, I suspect companies will publish certain bits of information through them "to be safe" (what's obvious to you might not be to others).
    – TripeHound
    Oct 1, 2020 at 9:24
  • Welcome SeanJ. Your question sounds very interesting but could you edit it adding more detail? (Sometimes things that are obvious to a writer in one country in one industry, are a total mystery to others reading.)
    – Fattie
    Oct 1, 2020 at 13:04
  • Could you provide a link to the document you are referring to?
    – Flux
    Oct 1, 2020 at 13:42

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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.

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