State Duma adopts law on receipt-to-share conversion
Depositary receipts for shares of domestic issuers whose ownership rights are recorded by Russian depositories will be converted into local shares traded in the domestic market. The relevant law was approved by the State Duma in the third reading.
The document will allow holders of receipts to save their investments and receive the underlying assets — Russian shares, which is currently impossible to do due to the blocking of transactions by foreign infrastructure.
The conversion will be done automatically with no additional actions of receipt holders required. Its procedure will be established by the Bank of Russia Board of Directors. The regulator will also determine the start date of operations.
Issuers who were previously entitled to keep depositary receipt programmes will be able to reapply to the Government Commission on Monitoring Foreign Investment in the Russian Federation for permission to either not do automatic conversion or postpone it.