Reform for corporate actions

On July 4, 2016 the provisions of Federal Law No.210-FZ “On introducing amendments to certain legislative acts of the Russian Federation and on recognizing void certain provisions of legislative acts of the Russian Federation” dated June 29, 2015 (the “Law”) took effect, changing the procedures for certain corporate actions for joint stock companies.

In particular, the Law establishes a new procedure for the interaction between joint stock companies and their shareholders exercising their rights through nominal holders (depositaries). Under the new rules, joint stock companies must now send information to actual owners not directly, but rather through the appropriate nominal holders.

The Law also provides for an opportunity to hold electronic voting at a general meeting of shareholders, using one of the following options:

‐   e-proxy voting – voting in electronic form using the services of a depositary;

‐   e-voting – voting in person in electronic form using a resource on a web site or sending a filled out bulleting by email, if such is provided by the company charter.

Furthermore, the Law provides for the creation of a Center for Corporate Actions within the National Settlements Depository, where joint stock companies with nominal shareholders must post information on corporate actions, along with disclosing such information as provided by the Federal Law “On securities market.”

Therefore, the National Settlements Depository will receive status of a unified source of official information on corporate actions of joint stock companies.