Notification of major interests in shares

RNS Number : 3666H

Carphone Warehouse Group PLC

26 May 2011

 



RNS Announcement

Thursday 26 May 2011

For Immediate Release

Carphone Warehouse Group plc ("Company")

TR-1: Notification of Major Interests in Shares

1. Identity of the issuer or the underlying issuer of existing shares to which voting rights are attached:			Carphone Warehouse Group plc
2 Reason for the notification (please tick the appropriate box or boxes):
An acquisition or disposal of voting rights				√
An acquisition or disposal of qualifying financial instruments which may result in the acquisition of shares already issued to which voting rights are attached
An acquisition or disposal of instruments with similar economic effect to qualifying financial instruments
An event changing the breakdown of voting rights
Other (please specify):
3. Full name of person(s) subject to the notification obligation:		TIAA-CREF Investment Management, LLC on behalf of the accounts listed in Exhibit B Teachers Advisors, Inc. on behalf of the funds listed in Exhibit C
4. Full name of shareholder(s)  (if different from 3.):		See number 3
5. Date of the transaction and date on which the threshold is crossed or reached:		23 May 2011
6. Date on which issuer notified:		25 May 2011
7. Threshold(s) that is/are crossed or reached:		3%

8. Notified details:

A: Voting rights attached to shares

Class/type of shares if possible using the ISIN CODE

Situation previous to the triggering transaction

Resulting situation after the triggering transaction

Number of Shares

Number of Voting Rights

Number of shares

Number of voting rights

% of  voting rights

Direct

Direct

Indirect

Direct

Indirect

GB0008787029

13,851,646

13,851,646

13,242,024

13,242,024

0

2.90%

B: Qualifying Financial Instruments

Resulting situation after the triggering transaction

Type of financial instrument

Expiration date

Exercise/ Conversion Period

Number of voting rights that may be acquired if the instrument is exercised/ converted.

% of voting rights

N/A

N/A

N/A

N/A

N/A

Total (A+B)

Number of voting rights

Percentage of voting rights

13,242,024

2.90%

9. Chain of controlled undertakings through which the voting rights and/or the financial instruments are effectively held, if applicable:
The College Retirement Equities Fund ("CREF") hereby informs you that on May 23, 2011, CREF sold 333,013 shares of Carphone Warehouse Group Plc, bringing its total holdings in your company to 13,083,326 shares. CREF owns these shares through two of its investment accounts, the Global Equities Account and the Stock Account.  It is our understanding the total voting shares outstanding of Carphone Warehouse Group Plc are 457,054,123 bringing CREF's ownership in your company to a 2.86% level. For your information, CREF is a U.S. based investment company, which is registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC"). CREF has multiple investment accounts, each with separate investment objectives and policies.  All assets in the accounts are beneficially owned by CREF, and all the accounts are managed by TIAA-CREF Investment Management, LLC, an SEC registered investment adviser. Additionally, affiliates of CREF sold 276,609 shares of Carphone Warehouse Group Plc, bringing its total holdings in your company to 158,698 shares. These holdings are owned by the TIAA-CREF Funds ("Funds"), and the TIAA-CREF Life Funds ("Life Funds"), each of which are SEC registered investment companies.  The Funds and Life Funds are managed by Teachers Advisors, Inc., an SEC registered investment adviser that is affiliated with TIAA-CREF Investment Management, LLC.  These affiliated funds, aggregated with those of CREF, own a total of 13,242,024, or 2.90% of the outstanding voting shares of your company. Because Teachers Advisors, Inc. and TIAA-CREF Investment Management, LLC follow the same policies when voting these shares, we are aggregating the holdings for purposes of this letter. (See Exhibit A)
Proxy Voting:
10. Name of the proxy holder:	TIAA-CREF Investment Management, LLC / Teachers Advisors, Inc.
11. Number of voting rights proxy holder will cease to hold:	N/A
12. Date on which proxy holder will cease to hold voting rights:	N/A

Further information:

Tim Morris                                [phone]

Exhibit A.

	TIAA-CREF Investment Management LLC
	CREF Global Equities Account	CREF Stock Account	Total Holdings CREF	Total Percentage Held
Holdings as of  23 May 2011	8,277,790	5,138,549	13,416,339	2.935%
Transactions as of 23 May 2011	-	(333,013)	(333,013)
Holdings as of 24 May, 2011	8,277,790	4,805,536	13,083,326	2.863%

	Teachers Advisers Limited
	TIAA-CREF Life Growth & Income Fund	TIAA-CREF Funds Growth & Income Fund	Total Holdings Mutual Funds	Total Percentage Held
Holdings as of  23 May 2011	15,000	420,307	435,307	0.095%
Transactions as of 23 May 2011	(9,532)	(267,077)	(276,609)
Holdings as of 24 May, 2011	5,468	153,230	158,698	0.035%

Aggregate Holdings as of 24 May 2011
Total Shares Held	13,242,024

Voting Shares Outstanding as of 24 May 2011
Total Voting Shares	457,054,122

Total Percentage Held
23 May 2011	3.031%
24 May 2011	2.897%

Exhibit B.

TIAA-CREF Investment Management, LLC

College Retirement Equities Fund ("CREF")*

·     CREF Stock Account

·     CREF Global Equities Account

*Registered Investment Company

Exhibit C.

Teachers Advisors, Inc.

TIAA-CREF Funds*

·     Growth & Income Fund

TIAA-CREF Life Funds

·     Growth & Income Fund

* Registered Investment Companies

 

END

 

 

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