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The firm's leading Russia & CIS team is assisting the Kazakh telecoms operator with its strategic decision to terminate its GDR programme.
European law firm Fieldfisher has advised Kazakhstan mobile telecoms operator Kcell on the planned termination of its global depositary receipts (GDR) programme and the corresponding delisting of its GDRs from the London Stock Exchange (LSE) and Astana International Exchange (AIX).
The proposal was approved at Kcell's general shareholders meeting on 9 April. The GDR programme will be officially terminated on 12 June 2021 and the last day of dealings in its GDRs on the LSE and AIX is set for 14 June 2021.
GDRs are tradeable certificates that represent shares in a foreign company, which make it easier for international investors to trade the underlying shares.
Shares in Kcell, which is 75% owned by Kazakhtelecom (KT), the state-owned telecoms provider, will remain listed and traded on the Kazakhstan Stock Exchange (KASE) and the AIX.
Kcell has previously indicated to investors that maintaining the listing of GDRs on the LSE and AIX, together with the listing of the company's ordinary shares on KASE and AIX, has led to low levels of liquidity and fragmented trading trends across the three exchanges.
Kcell's board has said it believes that, by reducing the number of markets on which its securities are traded, and the resulting concentration of trading of the ordinary shares on the KASE, will improve liquidity levels and trading patterns.
The company has also stated it has no plans to turn to international equity exchanges in the near future in connection with its financing strategy, and that consequently the cost of maintaining the GDR programme and LSE and AIX listings is not justified.
Working with Kcell, KT and KT's financial adviser JP Morgan, with local legal advice from Kcell's in-house legal team and Dentons Kazakhstan, Fieldfisher's Russia & CIS team advised the company on the delisting of the GDRs and the termination of the GDR programme.
Commenting on the transaction, corporate partner Nodir Sidikov who is leading the Fieldfisher team advising Kcell, said:
"We are pleased to be assisting Kcell in this strategic decision for the business.
"Our Russia & CIS team is the largest of its kind in the City of London and we specialise in helping clients from the region with a UK presence to achieve their wider international objectives."
Nodir was assisted by Fieldfisher senior corporate associate Tamara Vasiljeva; associate Anastasiya Kapustina; corporate partner Jonathan Brooks; senior associate Irina Mikhnova; associate Galina Rivkina; director Natalia Schuster; paralegal Alisher Satimov; paralegal Yana Dorking; and translator Tatiana Seaman.
About Fieldfisher
Fieldfisher is a European law firm with market-leading practices in many of the world's most dynamic sectors. We are an exciting, forward-thinking organisation with a particular focus on technology, financial services, energy & natural resources and life sciences.
Fieldfisher has 25 offices across 11 countries. We operate across our offices in Amsterdam, Barcelona, Beijing, Belfast, Birmingham, Bologna, Brussels, Dublin, Düsseldorf, Frankfurt, Guangzhou, Hamburg, London, Luxembourg, Madrid, Manchester, Milan, Munich, Paris, Rome, Shanghai, Turin, Venice and Silicon Valley.