MOSCOW, August 15. /TASS/. Gazprom plans to complete automatic conversion of depositary receipts, the rights to which are recorded in Russian depositories, into ordinary shares in September.
"PJSC Gazprom has notified Gazprombank (Joint Stock Company) of the necessity to perform automatic conversion of depositary receipts into PJSC Gazprom's shares. The indicative timeframe for completing the automatic conversion of PJSC Gazprom's depositary receipts into shares is September 2022," the gas producer said in a statement on Monday. The law requires that depositary receipts, the rights to which are recorded in Russian depositaries, shall be automatically without holders' participation converted into the corresponding number of ordinary shares issued by Russian entities.
Meanwhile, up to October 12, 2022 inclusively, holders of depositary receipts, the rights to which are recorded in foreign depositaries, may request Gazprombank for the declarative conversion of such depositary receipts into Gazprom's shares, "if they are unable to receive the shares on their own due to imposed restrictions or hostile actions of foreign countries, international organizations, or foreign financial organizations," the company said.
Gazprombank is responsible for the custody of ordinary shares of Gazprom that represent receipts issued under the depositary receipts programs. "The issuer of the depositary receipts (The Bank of New York Mellon) has a depo account under the depositary programs opened at Gazprombank to record the title to PJSC Gazprom shares," the statement said.
Earlier, Gazprom announced the termination of circulation of depositary receipts for its shares in London and Singapore.
In April 2022 Russian issuers were obliged by the law to scale down the programs of depositary receipts and convert them into shares. However, difficulties appeared in such procedures due to sanctions-relations restrictions. The Bank of Russia is starting the automatic conversion of depositary receipts in custody of Russian depositories into shares on Monday, August 15, 2022. Investors will not have to submit any applications. Automatic conversion enables investors to receive shares instead of receipts bypassing foreign registration infrastructure.