The Central Bank told about the rejection by depositories of 20% of investors’ applications for the conversion of receipts

Depositories rejected 20% of investors’ applications for the forced conversion of depositary receipts (DR) of Russian companies into local shares. This was reported in the press service of the Central Bank “Interfax”.

Investors became eligible to apply in July 2022. Applications were accepted until November 10th. The depositaries had the right to refuse in two cases: if there were reasonable doubts about the completeness and reliability of the information provided, or if they received an application for more securities than were included in the account.

The press service of the Bank of Russia added that the investor will not be able to settle the dispute with depositories out of court. All operations with depositories were carried out before November 24 last year.

“The law does not provide for an extension of this period. In this connection, the possibility of carrying out forced conversion operations by the depository outside the specified period has not been established,” the regulator said.

Relevant services were provided by five depositories: Raiffeisenbank, JPMorgan, Gazprombank and Sberbank. In January-March of this year, dozens of investors applied to the Moscow Arbitration Court to oblige Citibank, Gazprombank and Raiffeisenbank to forcibly convert DR into securities. It was alleged that investors were denied conversion due to complaints about the execution and translation of documents.

Lusine Balasyan