According to the Russian administration’s decision in April, all shares of Russian companies traded on stock exchanges outside the US must be delisted. The deadline for that seems to be August 3rd, thus if you want to keep your shares you must transfer them to a Russian broker.
If you bought Gazprom at $2.85 per share as I did, your return is currently 166% as the Moscow share is traded a 244 rubles, equivalent to a share price of $7.6 (each unit traded in the US or London is equivalent to 2 units traded in Moscow). Thus, it is worth the effort.
How to convert the ADRs to local shares traded on the Moscow stock exchange?
All the details are in Gazprom’s publication here (in Russian, translated into English with Google):
https://www.gazprombank.ru/docs/drcancellation/
(You can download a PDF version of the above page from this link if the website doesn’t load)
Please note: I am not a legal expert, I do not know in depth the details of the sanctions on Russia, so the things I am writing here are based on my personal understanding of Gazprom’s publication. I recommend that you read things carefully before submitting the forms.
Step 1: Open a Russian account to transfer the shares to
Assuming you are not a Russian citizen and do not have a bank account in Russia, the next step is to open a sort of dedicated account only for storing the shares in Gazprom’s bank (yes, Gazprom also has a bank…). This is called a depo account of type C.
To do this, fill in one of the following questionnaires:
Questionnaire 1 if your trading account is a private account.
Questionnaire 2 If your trading account is registered under a company name.
US citizens should also fill out this W-9 form.
and send it to Gazprombank to this email address:
After the account is opened and you get the account number you can move on to the third and final step.
Step 2: Contact your broker and ask to transfer the ADRs to you Gazprombank account
Contact your broker that currently hold the Gazprom shares for you and ask him to submit a request to transfer your units to the Russian Depository Trust Company (DTC) to an account with the following details:
Member number: 2504
Account number: 016201
Operation type: FOP
Step 3: Contact the custodian and ask him to convert the ADRs to common shares
Send the following two forms to BNY Mellon (the custodian of Gazprom ADRs) at the email address after you have filled in your details in the required places DRsettlements@bnymellon.com :
In Appendix 2, fill in the following details:
Russian Issuer: Gazprom OGZD for London ADRs or Gazprom OGZPY for US ADRs.
DRs Canceled: the number of units that you hold in your account
DR ISIN / CUSIP: in London US3682871088, in USA US3682872078
Executing bank / broker-dealer: The name of your broker
Account receiving Shares in Russia: Write down the account number you received at Gazprom Bank
Date: the settlement date for converting the ADRs.
I will keep you updated if there are any new developments.
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