Holding(s) in Company

RNS Number : 7168D

WH Smith PLC

07 December 2009

 



TR-1: NOTIFICATION OF MAJOR INTEREST IN SHARES

1. Identity of the issuer or the underlying issuer of existing shares to which voting rights are attached:

WH Smith PLC

2 Reason for the notification (please tick the appropriate box or boxes):
An acquisition or disposal of voting rights		X
An acquisition or disposal of qualifying financial instruments which may result in the acquisition of shares already issued to which voting rights are attached		X
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:	BlackRock, Inc.
4. Full name of shareholder(s) (if different from 3.):	N/A
5. Date of the transaction and date on which the threshold is crossed or reached:	1st December 2009
6. Date on which issuer notified:	4th December 2009
7. Threshold(s) that is/are crossed or reached:	Holding has gone above 5%

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
GB00B2PDGW16	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	7,686,448	N/A	4.97%

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

C: Financial Instruments with similar economic effect to Qualifying Financial Instruments
Resulting situation after the triggering transaction
Type of financial instrument	Exercise  price	Expiration  date	Exercise/ Conversion  period	Number of voting  rights instrument  refers to	% of voting rights
CFD				137,904	Nominal	Delta
					0.09%

Total (A+B+C)
Number of voting rights	Percentage of voting rights
7,824,352	5.06%

9. Chain of controlled undertakings through which the voting rights and/or the financial instruments are effectively held, if applicable:

BlackRock Investment Management (UK) Limited - 7,824,352 (5.06%) On 1 December 2009, the Barclays Global Investors (BGI) business was acquired by BlackRock, Inc.  The combined holdings of BlackRock, Inc. following this acquisition triggered this disclosure requirement.

Proxy Voting:
10. Name of the proxy holder:
11. Number of voting rights proxy holder will cease to hold:
12. Date on which proxy holder will cease to hold voting rights:

13. Additional information:	BlackRock Compliance Disclosures Team
14. Contact name:	Stuart Watchorn
15. Contact telephone number:	020 7743 5741; [e-mail]

 

END

 

 

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