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Showing posts with the label Mobile Telesystems

Compensation from broker for Russian CFD (contract for difference)

The UK Financial Ombudsman has ordered Interactive Brokers (IB) to compensate an investor that invested in a Russian CFD (contract for difference). In this case the CFD was for 10.000 Sberbank ordinary shares. Interactive Brokers refused to close the position because they could not trade the underlying Sberbank shares Interactive Brokers had bought to cover the CFD contract. From March 2022 onwards, IB raised the margin required for the position to 100%. By August 2024 the interest alone charged on the position had amounted to around USD $12,000.  The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) introduced a margin close-out rule in 2018 that states that CFD providers have to close positions once the net asset value in the investor's account drops to 50% of the required margin. The Financial Ombudsman ruled that Interactive Brokers was required to stop charging interest and other charges on the CFD position once they had to close the position on the basis of the ESMA 50% margin...

JP Morgan liquidated shares underlying MTS ADRs

In April 2026 JP Morgan accounced that it has liquidated the shares underlying the ADRs of Mobile Telesystems (MTS): https://api.markitdigital.com/jpmadr-public/v1/cms/document?cmsId=8043843bdfc5456fafcbf1f694cc0f6a&sequenceNo=1 JP Morgan sold the underlyings shares for $0.820352 per share, so $1.640704 per ADR. This amount is quite a bit less than the tender offer by MTS back in 2024 for 95 Rubles per ordinary share ( https://ir.mts.ru/en/tender_offer ). JP Morgan did not participate in the tender offer back then. After fees and the correction for missing underlying shares due to forced conversion the cash distribution per ADR will be $ 1.582695 upon cancellation of the ADRs. The liquidation sale was executed at a significant discount to the current price at the Moscow Stock Exchange (MOEX) is approximately 220 Rubles per ordinary share (so 440 Rubles per ADR). JP Morgan has so far sold the underlying shares of three Russian ADR-programs at significant discounts to the share price...