Japan's financial regulator wants to change the rules on out-of-hours share trading after a row over a take-over battle for Nippon Broadcasting System Inc (NBS) that involved such trading, the Nihon Keizai Shimbun said on Sunday. Where a company plans to buy more than a third of the shares in a listed company in after-hours trade, it will be required to announce in advance how many shares it will buy, the price and the period over which it plans to buy them, the business newspaper said. Failure to comply with the rules would mean a fine of at least 5 million yen ($47,600), the paper said.

The new regulations are to be discussed by a Financial Services Agency (FSA) committee early next month and a bill may be presented to the current session of parliament, the paper said.

Similar rules are already in place for over-the-counter trading. Internet firm Livedoor Co triggered an uproar in media and business circles when it snapped up 35 percent of NBS in a surprise challenge to a bid for NBS from Fuji Television Network Inc early in February.

Livedoor did not have to announce a formal take-over bid since it made the purchase on the Tokyo Stock Exchange's after-hours trading system.

Financial Services Minister Tatsuya Ito said on February 15 that the agency would review the after-hours trading rules.

Copyright Reuters, 2005