EAHCISS News (English)

Article 6 of the recently adopted Federal Law No. 514-FZ of December 28, 2025 "On Amendments to the Federal Law "On Limited Liability Companies" and Certain Legislative Acts of the Russian Federation" allows Russian issuers to exchange, until the end of 2026, bonds issued in currencies of countries that are considered unfriendly under Russian law to bonds in Rubles. The exchange will take place at the official exchange rate set by the Central Bank of Russia on the day of the decision to exchange the bonds. Other aspects of the bonds, such as maturity dates, will remain the same. The legislation can be accessed here: http://actual.pravo.gov.ru/content/content.html#pnum=0001202512280026

Earlier this month we wrote about the change in Russia legislation that allows for the payment of dividends on depositary receipts (ADRs) of all Russian issuers. Earlier we also wrote about the dividend of 143.55 Rubles per Ozon share / depositary share that was approved by the general meeting of shareholders of Ozon on the 10th of December 2025, with a dividend registration record date of the 22nd of December 2025. Ozon has now published the procedure for the payment of the recent dividend to ADR holders. The procedure is similar to claiming dividends of other issuers. Applications for the payment of dividends can be submitted up to the 20th of February 2026 to the registrar of Ozon, which is Register Proton. The full procedure is published on the website of Ozon under the header 'dividends': https://ir.ozon.com/corporate-governance It is our understanding that the dividends that are not claimed by investors directly before the 20th of February 2026 will be stuck in a type C a...

Further to our last post, we would like to note that Cifra has published a new fee schedule that will enter into force on the 15th of January 2026. In that fee schedule a fee has been added for holding shares in type C accounts via NSD. This fee is high. It is set at 0.25% of the holdings in the type C account per month (see point 2.1.3. in the new fee schedule). The new fee document can be accessed via this website: https://cifra-broker.ru/about/company/news/ooo-tsifra-broker-obnovilo-reglamentiruyushchie-obsluzhivanie-klientov-dokumenty-57044/ Unfortunately, it is our understanding that other Russian brokers also started charging similar fees to hold funds via type C accounts. Investors may consider opening accounts in the share registers to see if holding via the share register may be more cost effective for investors. In the mean time we aim to discuss the new fee structure with Cifra Broker.

Many western investors in Russia use Cifra Broker as their brokerage firm.  Cifra has recently updated their fees. Investors that hold shares via a type C account may have noticed an additional fee being charged recently. This is due to the updated fee schedule by Cifra Broker. This fee does not display in the 'cash movements' in the Cifra App, but can be viewed via brokerage reports. In addition the fee can be seen on the Russian tax tickets that are sent to your email address after paying for the fee.  The fee that Cifra charged is 0.25% of the value of the type C account. If the shares are not traded and no trading price can be established then 0.25% will be charged over the nominal value. The fee is a holding fee for holding shares by Cifra directly in the share registry of the various Russian issuers.  Some may remember that Decree 840 of the President of the Russian Federation mandated that Russian brokers - that would normally hold their shares via the Russian cent...

In October 2025 Cian underwent redomiciliation from Cyprus to Russia. The 120 day window for the forced conversion of Cian depositary receipts started on the 15th of December 2025. Owners of depositary receipts have until the 14th of April 2026 (inclusive) to apply for forced conversion via Rakurs Invest. The procedure is similar to other procedures for forced conversion that we discussed in more detail recently (see the webinar on Ozon). More information can be found on the website of Cian (https://ir.ciangroup.ru/ru/shareholders/conversion/) and on the website of Rakurs Invest (https://rakursinvest.ru/services/conversion/).

We receive a fair amount of questions regarding the payment of dividends. In this post we aim to describe the current situation as the regulations have changed over the years. Dividend payments on ADR's are again possible  At the end of November 2025 the regulatory framework regarding the payment of dividends on ADR's was significantly changed. In the past no dividends were paid on ADRs unless the Russian issuer had received permission to extend their depositary receipt program. Various companies, such as Novatek, were granted such permissions, but no dividends were paid on the majority of Russian ADR's. On November 28, 2025, Federal Law No. 431-FZ entered into force. Articles 6 and 7 of this law removed the restriction for dividend payments on shares underlying depositary receipts. New dividends can therefore be paid on depositary receipts (ADR's)! In addition, Article 16 of the law, changed the period for claiming previously unpaid dividends. Unpaid dividends can now...