In brief
By Decision No. 34 dated 21 January 2021 (“Decision No. 34“), the National Securities and Stock Market Commission of Ukraine (“Securities Commission“) adopted a new regulation on the admission of securities of foreign issuers for circulation in Ukraine. Decision No. 34 came into effect on 6 April 2021 and replaced the existing regulation, which was adopted in 2012.
In more detail
Decision No. 34 updated the existing admission procedure as follows:
- It expanded the list of foreign stock exchanges where eligible securities should be admitted to trading prior to: (i) their admission for circulation in Ukraine or (ii) being included in the assets of a mutual investment fund. Such stock exchanges now include the London Stock Exchange and Japan Exchange Group, Inc.
- It permitted a domestic professional stock market participant (in addition to a foreign issuer and a central securities depositary) to file an application for admission to circulation of foreign securities in Ukraine.
- It introduced a procedure for the admission of securities that are included in stock indices (i.e., S&P 500, NASDAQ 100, FTSE 100, DAX, CAC 40 and Nikkei 225). The Securities Commission is now empowered to admit securities included in the specified stock indices.
- It prohibited admitting securities if the issuer is registered in a state carrying out an armed aggression against Ukraine as defined by Ukrainian law and/or if the issuer is directly or indirectly controlled by persons who are residents of such a state.
- It conferred power on the Securities Commission to maintain the register of admitted securities.
Key takeaways
The applicants that facilitated the admission of foreign securities for circulation in Ukraine are not required to take any action following the adoption of Decision No. 34 vis-a-vis the relevant admission. Foreign securities, the admission of which will be facilitated now, may benefit from a number of new features compared to the old regime, as indicated above.
