1. This Directive shall apply to companies the shares of which are admitted to official listing on a stock exchange situated or operating in a Member State, whether the admission is of the shares themselves or of certificates representing them and whether such admission precedes or follows the date on which this Directive enters into force.
2. This Directive shall not, however, apply to investment companies other than those of the closed-end type.
For the purposes of this Directive "investment companies other than those of the closed-end type" shall mean investment companies: - the object of which is the collective investment of capital provided by the public, and which operate on the principle of risk spreading, and - the shares of which are, at the holders' request, repurchased or redeemed, directly or indirectly, out of those companies' assets. Action taken by such companies to ensure that the stock-exchange value of their shares does not significantly vary from t