About

Cur­rently, hold­ers of Rus­sian de­pos­it­ary re­ceipts are be­ing asked to ex­change them for the un­der­ly­ing ori­ginal shares. How­ever, a func­tion­ing ex­change pro­cess has not yet been established.

The pur­pose of de­pos­it­ary re­ceipts is to make shares that are not trad­able abroad nev­er­the­less trad­able there. The back­ground to this per­miss­ible de­tour is the dif­fer­ent re­quire­ments of na­tional le­gis­lat­ors for list­ing shares on dif­fer­ent trad­ing venues.

Rus­sian DRs are also de­pos­it­ory re­ceipts that cer­tify the right to own­er­ship of a share. The de­pos­it­ory re­ceipts are is­sued by so-​called DR pro­gram banks (also is­suers), mostly lead­ing in­ter­na­tional in­vest­ment banks such as Bank of New York Mel­lon (BNYM), Citi Bank or JP Morgan.

In April 2022 Rus­sian law­makers ordered the ter­min­a­tion of all DR pro­grams. As of April 27, 2022, DR hold­ers can­not ex­er­cise vot­ing rights or re­ceive di­vidends on the un­der­ly­ing shares. How­ever, un­paid di­vidends can be claimed by a DR holder after re­turn­ing the DRs and re­ceiv­ing the un­der­ly­ing shares.

Options for action for investors

The in­ter­na­tional cent­ral se­cur­it­ies de­pos­it­ory Clearstream an­nounced on 13.07.2022 to re­sume the ex­change of de­pos­it­ory re­ceipts (ADRs / GDRs) as of 18.07.2022. How­ever, the time frame is tight: the ex­change is to be pos­sible up to and in­clud­ing 31.07.2022. The back­ground is that the Rus­sian Cent­ral Se­cur­it­ies De­pos­it­ory (NSD – Rus­sian se­cur­it­ies de­pos­it­ory) has an­nounced that it will not charge any fees dur­ing this period.

At present, how­ever, any fore­cast is difficult.

Should you wish to act now, the fol­low­ing ad­vant­ages are avail­able to you:

• Pay­ment of a large part of the fee only in case of success
• ADR con­ver­sion takes place
• The shares will be re­gistered in your name
• Be­ne­fit from more fa­vor­able con­di­tions if you are an SdK mem­ber or be­come one now

Video (German): How to convert Russian ADR/GDR into shares

What you have to do

In or­der to be able to rep­res­ent you as a law­yer, please send us the power of at­tor­ney and the re­mu­ner­a­tion and li­ab­il­ity agree­ment signed by you.

• Man­date documents

Contact

We will be happy to an­swer any ques­tions you may have. Please con­tact us by e-​mail at the fol­low­ing ad­dress: ADR@​schirp.​com.