EAHCISS News (English)

Yesterday was the last day for submitting applications for obtaining Evraz NTMK shares for Evraz Plc shareholders. Congratulations to all that managed to apply successfully.  Today there were two Evraz updates that we wanted to inform you about.  1. Transfer of Rasp en Timir from Evraz Plc to Evraz KGOK   Today Putin authorized the transfer of RASP ("Raspadskaya") and Timir shares from Evraz Plc to a subsidiary of Evraz NTMK (Evraz KGOK). Although we do not know the exact arrangement, it is likely that a lot of value was, or will be transferred from Evraz Plc to Evraz NTMK.  2. Evraz NTMK announced a delay in sending transfer instructions   Evraz NTMK announced today that, due to the high number of applications received, they need a bit more time to send out the settlement instructions. Evraz NTMK announced that they will now send the reference and settlement information between the 5th of December and 8th of December 2025. If you do not receive the settlemen...

From the 1st of December 2025 "Reestr Proton", the new Russian registrar of Ozon, will start accepting applications for the forced conversion of depositary shares of Ozon. Ozon recently underwent redomiciliation from Cyprus to Russia. Applications for forced conversion can be submitted until the 31st of March 2026.  It is likely that this may be the only chance for holders of depositary shares to convert their depositary shares of Ozon into ordinary shares. If one does not participate in the current procedure the ordinary shares underlying the depositary receipts may well be liquidated for a discount once the depositary bank BNY may be able to do so. Magenta Legal recently published a video in which they explain the process. EAHCISS may organise a webinar on this topic too to help investors navigate the fairly complex procedure of forced conversion. The video by Magenta Legal can be viewed via YouTube: https://youtu.be/Xir-ZeLMeOM

Yesterday was the first day of trading of Ozon on the Moscow stock exchange after the process of redomiciliation from Cyprus to the Russian Federation was completed.  The 11th of November 2025 was also the day that Reestr-Proton, the registrar for Ozon, published the procedure for the forced conversion of depositary shares into local ordinary shares. This information can be found here: https://reestr-proton.ru/for_shareholders   EAHCISS is contemplating hosting a webinar to explain the process of forced conversion of Ozon depositary shares.  It is well possible that shareholders that do not apply for forced conversion may not have the chance to obtain ordinary shares of Ozon afterwards and that BNY will liquidate the Ozon shares that underly the depositary shares if they see a possibility to do so. Unfortunately voluntary conversion of depositary shares of Ozon has, in practice, not been possible due to a global lock that was placed on the depositary shares by the DTC in ...

In this post we provide a sixth update on recent Russian court decisions.  Case 6: If you did not apply for 'Forced Conversion' in 2022 you can't ask a Russian court to force Raiffeisenbank to do so now  This case involves Ms Staroseltseva that bought depositary receipts of Polyus in August 2023. She was allowed to do so since Polyus was granted an extension of their depositary receipts program beyond April 2022 by the Russian government committee.  However, as the purchased the depositary receipts beyond the deadline for forced conversion in 2022, she could not participate in the forced conversion.  She therefore decided to start legal proceedings against BNY and Raiffeisenbank Russia in the Russian courts. She was trying to get a Russian court order that would force Raiffeisenbank Russia to take the underlying shares out of the depositary account for the Polyus depositary receipts program and to transfer these ordinary shares to her own account.  The Moscow ar...

BNY has put out a notice in which they inform holders of depositary receipts of Solidcore (formerly known as Polymetal; AUCOY) that they have sold the shares underlying the depositary receipts. BNY will process a cash distribution of $ 4.09 per depositary receipt.  The notice can be found via this link: https://www.adrbny.com/content/dam/adr/documents/corporate-actions-dr/files/AD2000242.pdf

Magenta Legal has now also published a video on the share distribution of Evraz NTMK shares that Evraz Plc sharholders can apply for. The video focuses on slightly different aspects than the video published by EAHCISS so it may also be an interesting video for those that joined or watched the webinar hosted by EAHCISS. https://youtu.be/dzRQAKEX-zk

Thank you all very much for joining yesterday's webinar on claiming Evraz NTMK shares! We have now published the video on YouTube ( https://youtu.be/G5EAAPb1GyI ). I want those shares! How to apply for Evraz NTMK shares as a shareholder in Evraz Plc. In this webinar, hosted on the 27th of September 2025, we aim to inform investors in Evraz about the process of applying for direct ownership in Evraz NTMK.  Topics that are covert are the opening of a brokerage account with Cifra broker, the basic conditions for claiming Evraz NTMK shares and how to go through the process if you either were issued Evraz share certificates before August 5th 2022 (lucky you!) or if you held your shares via a broker after the 4th of August 2022 (this means the process is a bit more complicated). We have added the presentation from the webinar as an attachment for your reference.

Thank you all very much for joining our webinar on claiming Evraz NTMK shares today! We'll aim to make the video available on our YouTube channel. We have added the presentation from the webinar as an attachment for your reference.

On the 27th of September at 10:00 UK time (11:00 CEST; 12:00 MSK) EAHCISS will host a webinar on the topic of claiming Evraz NTMK shares ( link to invitation ). The webinar is free of charge and can be joined via this link: https://meet.google.com/jqp-norp-iua?hs=122&authuser=1 I want those shares! How to apply for Evraz NTMK shares as a shareholder in Evraz Plc. In this webinar we aim to inform investors in Evraz about the process of applying for direct ownership in Evraz NTMK. Topics that will be covert are the opening of a brokerage account with Cifra broker, the basic conditions for claiming Evraz NTMK shares and how to go through the process if you either were issued Evraz share certificates before August 5th 2022 (lucky you!) or if you held your shares via a broker after the 4th of August 2022 (this means the process is a bit more complicated). Add to Google calendar.

Sunday the 5th of October 2025 at 10:30 CEST we will host an EAHCISS Open Mic event in German. The goal is to facilitate conversion between like minded investors. Topics that may be touched are geopolitics, investments, and the further development of EAHCISS. This session will be in German. We consider hosting monthly social Open Mic events in English and German if there is interest for these events. The Open Mic event will be hosted via the Discord group. Feel free to join us on the 5th of October via: https://discord.gg/mdaVZY92?event=1419256846547419287

This Saturday at noon (12:00 CEST) we will host an EAHCISS Open Mic event. The goal is to facilitate conversion between like minded investors. Topics that may be touched are geopolitics, investments, and the further development of EAHCISS. This session will be in English. We consider hosting monthly social Open Mic events in English and German if there is interest for these events. The Open Mic event will be hosted via the Discord group. Feel free to join us this Saturday via: https://discord.gg/mdaVZY92?event=1418275923144478731

Many investors in Globaltrans have been waiting for the dividend payment that distributes the receipts of the recent sale of the Russian subsidiaries. Globaltrans Investment PLC has now announced that the payment of the special interim dividend to the eligible registered shareholders (including the Depositary Bank) has been dispatched (https://www.globaltrans.com/investors/news/detail/2572). The distribution of the special interim dividend was approved by the decision of the Board of Directors of the Company on 18 April 2025 (https://www.globaltrans.com/investors/news/detail/2557). In accordance with the Depositary Agreement between the Company and the Depositary Bank, the dividend payment to holders of the Company’s Global Depositary Receipts will be arranged by the Depositary Bank.

On July 22, 2025, the Arbitration Court of the Moscow Region approved the Ministry of Industry and Trade’s request to suspend EVRAZ plc’s corporate rights over NTMK. As a result, NTMK shares can be allocated among EVRAZ plc shareholders according to their ownership percentage, following Federal Law No 470-FZ. Russian citizens or residents holding EVRAZ plc shares must directly acquire NTMK shares, while non-residents may choose to do so. The shareholder register as of July 22, 2025, determines eligibility for NTMK share distribution for most transaction in the Russian Federation. Holders outside of Russia would normally need to have acquired the shares before on the 5th of August 2022. Eligible EVRAZ plc shareholders as of July 22, 2025, can apply for NTMK shares by submitting the required documents by November 24, 2025, as specified by regulation. EAHCISS created a guidance document to help investors. Investors can also use the paid assistance that is offered by a Russian law fir...

Exante, a Cyprus based EU broker, informed clients that they effectively consider Russian shares to be frozen under sanctions. Clients were given the option to write off these shares completely and receive a tax credit (if applicable) or to continue holding these shares for a daily fee of € 25.  EAHCISS considers the information provided by Exante to be factually incorrect and urged Exante to retract the information sent to its clients. The full response of EAHCISS can be read here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1oFLBfX8pL44A3sGrBHs-28vXl_nicUja/view?usp=sharing https://drive.google.com/file/d/1oFLBfX8pL44A3sGrBHs-28vXl_nicUja/view?usp=sharing

On the 18th of July 2025 the Council of the European Union introduced a transaction ban with many Russian financial institutions, including Sberbank. EAHCISS is concerned about the impact this transaction ban may have on European investors that cannot avoid transactions with these Russian financial institutions due to (automatic) dividend or interest payments. Today we sent a letter to the Council of the European Union and the responsible department within the European Commission (Directorate-General FISMA) to express our concerns. The full letter can be read via this link: https://drive.google.com/file/d/140ybZCyVZLWnwDPhg32ad09VVpvFMPqT/view?usp=sharing

The Russian Central Bank took a decision on the 6th of June 2025 that provides for a new round of automatic conversion of DR's ([global or American] depositary receipts / GDR's / ADR's) that are stored in Russian infrastructure.  The decision by the Russian Central Bank is based on Russian legislation that allows the Central Bank of Russia to set the date for a (new) round of automatic conversion. The legislation does not allow the Central Bank of Russia to set a date for a new round of so called 'forced conversion', where investors can request the 'forced conversion' of DR's stored outside of Russian infrastructure, without any support of western brokers or depositary banks. The date for forced conversion / forced transfer (of ordinary Russian shares) was set in the law itself. Unfortunately, this new round of automatic conversion will not be helpful to most western investors that seek to convert their Russian DR's, as their DR's are kept with...

Gazprom declared record dividends of 51.03 Rubles per ordinary share (=102.06 Rubles for the 2 ordinary shares that represent 1 depositary receipt [ADR]) over the first half of 2022. Many investors were not able to convert their Gazprom depositary receipts into ordinary shares because of the refusal by brokers and (sub) custodians to facilitate this. As many of you are aware: Gazprom depositary receipts are not eligible for the payment of dividends due to changes in Russian legislation in April 2022. Once the depositary receipts are converted, investors can claim the unpaid dividends. At least 800 million euros in unpaid dividends is likely to fall back to Gazprom post September 2025. This is due to the statute of limitations in relation to unpaid dividends (3 years). In practice the amount will likely be higher as many investors that converted their ordinary shares post October 2022 have not yet claimed unpaid dividends due to the complexity of the procedure. According to Gazprom, 5.9...

The court in Zug (Switzerland) is responsible for the bankruptcy procedures of Nord Stream II. The court announced today (https://zg.ch/de/gerichte/zivil-und-strafrechtspflege/kantonsgericht#Mitteilung) that a debt restructering agreement was confirmed by the court. This should avoid the bankruptcy of Nord Stream II. The court's ruling has not yet been made public. We have attached the previous court ruling of the 9th of January 2025 for your reference. The full court press release consists of the following text (translated from German): " Press release dated 9 May 2025 By decision of the Cantonal Court of Zug EN 2022 2 of 9 May 2025, the restructuring agreement (dividend settlement) of 30 April 2025 concluded between Nord Stream 2 AG and its creditors, including Annexes 1 and 2, was confirmed by the court. Pursuant to Art. 307 para. 1 SchKG, the decision on the debt restructuring agreement may be appealed under the Code of Civil Procedure. Pursuant to Art. 307 para. 2 SchKG, ...

The article published by Reuters yesterday raised some questions by some members. In this post we'll try to explain the situation.  On 19 March 2024, the President of the Russian Federation signed Decree No. 198 “On additional temporary measures of economic nature related to the performance of obligations under certain securities” (“Decree 198”): https://www.consultant.ru/document/cons_doc_LAW_472406/  Decree 198 establishes the procedure for receiving securities related payments owed to certain categories of holders from funds blocked in Type C accounts of nominee holders such as Clearstream and Euroclear. Article 9 of Decree 198 sets out what the Central Securities Depository (National Settlement Depository, NSD) has to do to have its obligations to international securities settlement systems duly performed under Russian law.  NSD waived its rights to an equivalent amount of balances on its accounts with Euroclear and Clearstream Banking, which remained blocked under EU...

Reuters published an article today on the unblocking of funds by Euroclear. This unblocking of funds is essentially part of an asset swap. Under Russian legislation NSD used the money in Euroclear's type C account to pay / compensate Russian investors for dividend and bond payments that were frozen in NSD's account in Euroclear. Now Euroclear is using these frozen funds to compensate Western investors for the money NSD took out of Euroclear's type C account in Russia. We will post a more extensive post on the Telegram channels over the coming days.