Metsä Board group complies in insider matters with Finnish laws, namely the Securities Markets Act, the Regulation N:o 596/2014 by the European Parliament and the Commission on market abuse (MAR) and supporting orders and regulations as well as the insider guidelines of NASDAQ OMX Helsinki Ltd. (Helsinki Stock Exchange). The Board has based on the above rules approved the Company's own insider guidelines.
Pursuant to MAR Article 14 and Chapter 51 of the Penal Code, a person who possesses inside information shall not (i) engage or attempt to engage in insider dealing by acquiring or transferring financial instruments in his own name or on behalf of a third party, (ii) recommend that another person engage in insider dealing or induce another person to engage in insider dealing, (iii) unlawfully disclose inside information to another person, unless such disclosure is made as part of carrying out normal work duties. The purpose of insider management is to enable a transparent ownership of the Company's securities by the Company's insiders, while simultaneously maintaining public trust in the trading with the Company's securities and their price formation.
Following the MAR becoming effective on 3 July 2017, the Company no longer has a register of public insiders and the Company no longer maintains a permanent company-specific insider register. The Company shall, when required and by decision of the Chairman of the Board of Directors, set up a project-specific insider register to cover all persons who are involved in the preparation of a specific project containing insider information.
The Company's managers with a duty to notify include members of the Board of Directors and the CEO. The holdings of such managers and their related parties is public. Each of them have an individual duty vis-à-vis the Company and the competent supervisory authority to notify all transactions executed with the shares and other financial instruments of Metsä Board. Metsä Board will publish all such notifications by means of a stock exchange release.
Trading in the Company's shares and other financial instruments is prohibited during a period starting at the end of each reporting period and lasting until the results release has been published (always at minimum 30 days; "closed window"). This prohibition applies not only to managers with a duty to notify but also to such other persons specified by the Company who participate in the preparation of financial reports.