Global Ports receives confirmation of removal from Cyprus registry
MOSCOW. Feb 8 (Interfax) - Global Ports, part of the Delo group of companies, received confirmation on removal from the Cyprus registry on January 31, 2024, the company said in a statement.
Global Ports' re-domiciliation to Russia is thereby complete. The company's shareholders took the decision on re-domiciling at an extraordinary general meeting on March 2, 2023.
As reported on December 19, 2023, International Joint Stock Company Global Ports Investments (IJSC GPI) was registered in the Unified State Registry of Legal Entities (USRLE) on Russky Island in the Primorsk Territory.
The company said that converting Global Ports' GDRs into IJSC GPI ordinary shares would occur automatically or forcefully under the requirements of Russian legislation. The automatic conversion is complete. Investors whose GDRs are not subject to automatic conversion and whose securities are held in a foreign accounting system may take advantage of the forced conversion.
"The board of directors of the Central Bank of Russia (CBR) will take the decision on the procedure and timeframes for forced conversion, and the CBR has not implemented a decision at the time of this press release," Global Ports said.
Current Russian legislation obliges companies "moving" to a Special Administrative Region (SAR) to confirm their exit from the register of legal entities in their country previous registration within two years. However, not everyone can fulfill this requirement due to refusals to cooperate on the part of foreign government agencies, foreign notaries, lawyers, etc., Russian officials said repeatedly throughout 2022-2023. At the beginning of February 2024, the existence of this problem was again confirmed by First Deputy Minister of Economic Development Ilya Torosov to journalists. He said there are cases when companies with Russian roots are unreasonably denied exclusion from a foreign register when they "move" to the SAR.
In order to resolve this issue, a law was passed in December 2023 that allowed SAR residents to repeatedly extend their periods of "separation" from previous jurisdictions through the government commission on foreign investment if their request was "refused unreasonably or for reasons beyond their control" by foreign officials. In addition, at the beginning of 2024, a presidential decree provided for the possibility of recognizing SAR residents as having fulfilled this obligation regardless of refusals by foreign structures.
The list of these resident companies will be compiled by the President based on proposals from the Russian government. It already includes IJSC Wandle Holdings Limited, Adorabella International LLC and Clovis International LLC.
Global Ports is the largest operator of sea container terminals in Russia. The company owns container and multifunctional terminals throughout Russia (Petrolesport, First Container Terminal, Ust-Luga Container Terminal and Moby Dick in the Baltic, Eastern Stevedoring Company in the Far East) and two container terminals in Finland, in Helsinki and Kotka (managed by Multi-Link Terminals Oy, JV Global Ports and CMA Terminals). It also manages the Yanino Logistics Park internal terminal near St. Petersburg. The largest shareholder in Global Ports is the Delo group of companies belonging to Sergei Shishkarev and Rosatom.