Payments of principal, interest and other amounts owing on or in respect of the notes in global form will be made to the paying agent, which will make payments to Clearstream and Euroclear. Thereafter, those payments will be credited to Clearstream and Euroclear participants’ accounts that hold book-entry interests in the notes in global form and credited by such participants to indirect participants. After payment to the common depositary for Clearstream and Euroclear, none of the Company, the Trustee or any paying agent will have any responsibility or liability for any aspect of the records relating to or payments of interest, principal or other amounts to Clearstream and Euroclear, or to owners of book-entry interests. Accordingly, if you own a book-entry interest in the notes, you must rely on the procedures of Clearstream and Euroclear and, if you are not a participant in Clearstream and/or Euroclear, on the procedures of the participant through which you own your interest, to exercise any rights and obligations of a holder of the notes under the Indenture.
Unlike holders of certificated notes, owners of book-entry interests do not have the direct right to act upon our solicitations for consents or requests for waivers or other actions from holders of the notes. Instead, you will be reliant on the common depositary to act on your instructions and/or you will be permitted to act only to the extent you have received appropriate proxies to do so from Clearstream and Euroclear or, if applicable, a participant. Procedures implemented for the granting of such proxies may not be sufficient to enable you to vote on any requested actions on a timely basis.
Similarly, upon the occurrence of an event of default under the Indenture, unless and until definitive registered notes are issued in respect of all book-entry interests, if investors own book-entry interests, they will be restricted to acting through Euroclear and Clearstream. The procedures to be implemented through Euroclear and Clearstream may not be adequate to ensure the timely exercise of rights under the notes. See “Description of the Notes—Book-entry procedures.”
The notes have minimum specified denominations of €100,000.
The notes have minimum denominations of €100,000 and multiples of €1,000. The notes may be traded in amounts in excess of €100,000 that are not integral multiples of €100,000. In such a case, a holder of notes who, as a result of trading such amounts, holds a principal amount of less than €100,000 may not receive a definitive certificate in respect of such holding (should definitive certificates be printed) and would need to purchase a principal amount of notes such that its holding amounts to at least €100,000.
The European Commission has proposed a financial transactions tax in certain member states of the European Union which, if adopted, could apply in certain circumstances to secondary market trades of the notes both within and outside of those participating member states.
On February 14, 2013, the European Commission (the “Commission”) published a proposal (the “Commission’s proposal”) for a Directive for a common financial transactions tax (“FTT”) in Belgium, Germany, Estonia, Greece, Spain, France, Italy, Austria, Portugal, Slovenia and Slovakia (each, other than Estonia, a “participating Member States”). On March 16, 2016, Estonia formally withdrew from enhanced cooperation on the FTT leaving ten remaining participating Member States. The Commission’s proposal has a very broad scope and could, if introduced, apply to certain dealings in the notes (including secondary market transactions) in certain circumstances. The issuance and subscription of the notes should, however, be exempt.
Under the Commission’s proposal, the FTT could apply in certain circumstances to persons both within and outside of the participating Member States. Generally, it would apply to certain dealings in the notes where at least one party is a “financial institution,” and at least one party is established in a participating Member State. A financial institution may be, or be deemed to be, “established” in a participating Member State in a broad range of circumstances, including (a) by transacting with a person established in a participating Member State or (b) where the financial instrument which is subject to the dealings is issued in a participating Member State.
The Commission’s proposal remains subject to negotiation between the ten remaining participating Member States and the legality of the proposal is uncertain. It may therefore be altered prior to any implementation, the
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