This notice comes into force on 1 December 2021 and is revoked on the close of 30 November 2026.

This notice relates to shares and managed investment products that are offered by horse bloodstock syndicates and bloodstock companies that are bound by the rules of New Zealand Thoroughbred Racing Incorporated or Harness Racing New Zealand Incorporated to comply with a code of practice under the Racing Industry Act 2020 in relation to the offer of those financial products.

Clauses 6 to 8 relate to new offers of shares and managed investment products that are offered on and after 1 December 2016. The clauses exempt horse bloodstock syndicates and bloodstock companies from the disclosure and governance requirements in Parts 3 and 4 of the Financial Markets Conduct Act 2013 (the FMC Act) in respect of those shares and managed investment products. This notice also provides that those offers are not regulated offers under the FMC Act. This means that the other requirements of the FMC Act, or other Acts, that apply in connection with regulated offers (such as the requirement for a scheme to be registered and the financial reporting requirements) will not apply. Any other financial market conduct obligations that the exempted entity may have, including obligations under Part 2 of the FMC Act, are not affected.

Clauses 9 and 10 relate to shares and managed investment products that were offered in reliance on the Securities Act (Bloodstock) Exemption Notice 2002 or any earlier notice that, with or without modification, was replaced by or corresponded to that notice (the Securities Act notice). They provide relief from certain ongoing obligations of the FMC Act that apply to the shares and managed investment products, that is, subpart 4 of Part 3 of the FMC Act (ongoing disclosure), Part 4 of the FMC Act (governance of financial products), Part 7 of the FMC Act (financial reporting and audit), section 388 of the FMC Act, any regulations made for the purposes of subpart 4 of Part 3, Part 4, or Part 7 of the FMC Act, and any other provision of the FMC Act relating to the enforcement, application, or effect of subpart 4 of Part 3, Part 4, or Part 7 of that Act. This notice exempts horse bloodstock syndicates and bloodstock companies from those ongoing disclosure, governance, financial reporting, and audit requirements in respect of those shares and managed investment products and exempts the manager of a horse bloodstock syndicate from the requirement to be licensed.

This notice replaces, on substantially the same terms, the Financial Markets Conduct (Equine Bloodstock) Exemption Notice 2016, which is revoked on 30 November 2021.

The Financial Markets Authority (the FMA), after satisfying itself as to the matters set out in section 557 of the Act, considers it appropriate to grant the exemptions because—

• the codes of practice reflect the unique disclosure, governance, and financial reporting and audit requirements for investments in interests in horse bloodstock used for breeding or racing and the existing supervisory and enforcement regime under the Racing Industry Act 2020. The requirements in the codes of practice will ensure that disclosure, governance, and financial reporting and audit requirements apply to those interests to enable effective monitoring and to reduce governance risks and that timely, accurate, and understandable information is provided to investors:

• allowing exemptions in these circumstances, where the existing regime is long established and where there is provision for disclosure, governance, financial reporting, and audit requirements, will enable the continuation on the same basis of the horse bloodstock syndicates and bloodstock companies that have relied on the Securities Act notice:

• if no exemption were provided, existing horse bloodstock syndicates and bloodstock companies might be wound up, or other procedural steps might be required to be taken to re-establish them on substantially the same basis in order to make new issuances, generating unnecessary compliance costs. It is likely these costs would be passed on to investors. New vehicles could not exist in their current form without an exemption.

As such, the FMA is satisfied that—

• the granting of the exemptions is desirable in order to promote the purposes of the FMC Act, specifically to avoid unnecessary compliance costs and to promote flexibility in financial markets; and

• as the exemptions would be available only to issuers that are required to comply with the codes of practice of either New Zealand Thoroughbred Racing Incorporated or Harness Racing New Zealand Incorporated made under the Racing Industry Act 2020, the exemptions are not broader than reasonably necessary to address the matters that gave rise to them.