Deadline expires for filing requests for mandatory conversion of depositary receipts and transfer of Russian securities from abroad

MOSCOW. Nov 11 (Interfax) - The deadline for filing applications for mandatory conversion of depositary receipts of Russian companies into shares and transfer of securities of domestic issuers from foreign depositories to Russian ones ended on November 10, according to law N381-FZ.

Depositaries will have to credit Russian securities to the accounts of the applying investors or refuse to conduct operations no later than November 24, 2022.

Investors were granted the right to file such applications after the adoption of law N319-FZ in July 2022. It allowed holders of receipts rights to which are accounted for by foreign depositories to claim the need for mandatory compulsory conversion of securities into shares of Russian companies. This law allowed investors to forcibly transfer accounting of securities of domestic issuers into Russian infrastructure, if a foreign depository prevents operations with such securities. For this purpose, an investor had to apply to a Russian depository where a depo account of a foreign nominee holder was opened.

Initial plans called for investors to be permitted to submit such applications through October 11, but the deadline was then extended by a month - through and including November 10. The reason for extending the deadline was the difficulty in gathering the necessary documents because foreign depositories were not prepared to provide them in the required format and difficulties in mailing documents to Russia, an Interfax source said earlier.

On Wednesday, the State Duma Financial Market Committee again proposed extending the deadline for filing applications. It also attributed its initiative to the difficulties investors encountered in submitting documents.