Portugal Telecom ADR delisted from the NYSE

Portugal Telecom (PT) ADR delisted from the New York Stock Exchange(NYSE) recently. With this delisting, none of the companies from Portugal trade on the U.S. Exchanges any more.

According to a filing with the SEC, PT plans to have its ADRs traded on the OTC market but details have not yet been finalized. The last date for the ADR to trade on the NYSE was today – March 30th. Here are the full details about the delisting:

The Board of Directors of Portugal Telecom, SGPS, S.A. (“PT SGPS” or the “Company”) has approved the delisting of its American Depositary Shares (“ADSs”) from the New York Stock Exchange (“NYSE”). Each ADS of PT SGPS represents one ordinary share of PT SGPS.

PT SGPS has provided written notice to the NYSE of its intent to delist its ADSs and expects to file a Form 25 with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) on or about March 19, 2015 to effect the delisting. Unless the Form 25 is earlier withdrawn by PT SGPS, the delisting of the ADSs will be effective ten days after the filing of the Form 25. Accordingly, PT SGPS anticipates that the last day of listing of ADSs on the NYSE will be on or about March 30, 2015.

Following the delisting of the ADSs from the NYSE, PT SGPS’s ordinary shares will continue to trade on the Euronext Lisbon.

Delisting from the NYSE will consolidate trading on PT SGPS’s primary exchange, the Euronext Lisbon. In addition, PT SGPS has received a letter from the NYSE, dated February 6, 2015, giving notice that PT SGPS was below the continued listing criteria set forth in Section 802.01C of the NYSE Listed Company Manual because the average closing price of its ADSs had been less than $1.00 over a 30 consecutive trading day period. In light of these factors, and in order to achieve cost savings by eliminating the costs associated with maintaining a listing on the NYSE, PT SGPS has decided to delist the ADSs.

PT SGPS currently intends to maintain its American Depositary Receipt facility, which will enable investors to retain their ADSs and trade those ADSs in the U.S. over-the-counter market. PT SGPS has not arranged for listing and/or registration of the Company’s ADSs on another U.S. securities exchange or for quotation of the Company’s ADSs on any other quotation medium in the United States.

In addition, the Company will continue to be subject to the reporting requirements of the U.S. Securities Exchange Act of 1934, including the requirement to file annual reports on Form 20-F and to submit reports on Form 6-K.

Source: SEC

The ADR used to trade under the ticker PT. The stock last closed at under 1$ at $0.66.

What to do if you hold PT ADRs?

Since the company continues to trade as ordinary shares on the Lisbon exchange it is possible to convert your ADRs to the ordinary shares. However the company has no allow this process and PT has not published any details on this.Similarly the depository Deutsche Bank also has no further information on this process. So it is likely that the ADRs which under $1 for a long time has become effectively worthless. You may want to write it off as a tax loss.

For the final confirmation on exactly what to do with the ADRs you hold, it may be a good idea to contact the depository or the PT investor relations whose details are listed below. As of this post, the depository has not established a listing on the OTC markets. Hence no ticker can be found.

Contact Links:

  1. Portugal Telecom Website
  2. Deutsche Bank, the depository for PT:

Contact DR Team
General Depositary Receipt Inquiries

Service Group Line
Phone: +1 212 250 9100
Email: [email protected]
New York

Shareholder Services Contacts

General: +1 866 249 2593

Source: Deutsche Bank Depository site

Update – 4/6/15:

Currently Portugal Telecom trades on the OTC market under the ticker PTGCY.

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