Amendments to Beneficial Ownership Reporting Requirements

The Securities and Exchange Commission is today adopting amendments to its rules relating to the reporting of beneficial ownership in publicly held companies. These amendments make the short- form Schedule 13G available, in lieu of Schedule 13D, to all investors beneficially owning less than 20 percent of the outstanding class that have not acquired and do not hold the securities for the purpose of or with the effect of changing or influencing the control of the issuer of the securities. The purposes of the amendments are to improve the effectiveness of the beneficial ownership reporting scheme and to reduce the reporting obligations of passive investors.