In order to benefit from the exemption provided for in Article 8 of Directive 2003/6/EC, a buy-back programme must comply with Articles 4, 5 and 6 of this Regulation and the sole purpose of that buy-back programme must be to reduce the capital of an issuer (in value or in number of shares) or to meet obligations arising from any of the following:
((a))
debt financial instruments exchangeable into equity instruments
((b))
employee share option programmes or other allocations of shares to employees of the issuer or of an associate company