Depositary Receipts
ADRs are one type of depositary receipt (DR), which is any negotiable securities that represents securities of companies that is foreign to the market on which the DR trades. DRs enable domestic investors to buy securities of foreign companies without the accompanying risks or inconveniences of cross-border and cross-currency transactions.
Each DR is issued by a domestic depositary bank when the underlying shares are deposited in a foreign custodian bank, usually by a broker who has purchased the shares in the open market local to the foreign company. A DR can represent a fraction of a share, a single share, or multiple shares of a foreign security. The holder of a DR has the right to obtain the underlying foreign security that the DR represents, but investors usually find it more convenient to own the DR. The price of a DR generally tracks the price of the foreign security in its home market, adjusted for the ratio of DRs to foreign company shares. In the case of companies domiciled in the United Kingdom, creation of ADRs attracts a 1.5% stamp duty reserve tax (SDRT) charge by the UK government. Depositary banks have various responsibilities to DR holders and to the issuing foreign company the DR represents.
Read more about this topic: American Depositary Receipt
Famous quotes containing the word receipts:
“The personal touch between the people and the man to whom they temporarily delegated power of course conduces to a better understanding between them. Moreover, I ought not to omit to mention as a useful result of my journeying that I am to visit a great many expositions and fairs, and that the curiosity to see the President will certainly increase the box receipts and tend to rescue many commendable enterprises from financial disaster.”
—William Howard Taft (1857–1930)