National Bank of Greece has announced the termination of its ADR program. The bank’s ADR used to trade on the NYSE under the ticker NBG and crashed hard during the soverign debt crisis and implemented 3 reverse stock splits. Then when that did not work the bank started trading on the OTC market from Dec, 2015 under the ticker NBGGY.
Finally the bank decided to shut down its ADR program altogether and issued the following termination notice to holders yesterday:
NBG will today instruct the Depositary to terminate the Agreement and NBG expects that the Depositary will provide notice of termination to holders of ADRs shortly in accordance with the terms of the Agreement. NBG expects that the termination of the Agreement will become effective on or about March 15, 2018 (the “Termination Date”). Holders may surrender their ADRs to the Depositary for cancellation in exchange for the delivery of the underlying ordinary shares of NBG. NBG and the Depositary further intend to enter into an amendment to the Agreement, to become effective on the Termination Date, to shorten the period during which the Depositary may sell any shares underlying ADRs that have not been surrendered following the termination of the Agreement from one year to any time following such termination, as set out in a notice to owners of ADRs from the Depositary. Accordingly, at any time after the Termination Date, the Depositary may sell any shares underlying ADRs that have not been surrendered and may hold the uninvested net proceeds from of any such sale for the pro rata benefit of the holders of any such outstanding ADRs.
The termination notice can be found at the BNY Mellon Depository site here.
Today NBGGY closed at $0.258 a share and the bank had a market cap of $2.4 billion.
What can you do if you are holding NBGGY?
The best option is to sell out on the open market now and move on. On March 15th of next year the ADR program will terminate and trading of NBGGY will end. So better to sell asap and take the loss if you are in the red. I do not think exchanging to ordinary shares on the domestic market is worth it for this bank. Besides the depository may not offer this option.
Anyway after years of maintain the listing on the US markets National Bank of Greece has reached the end of the line RIP NBG!.
**** Update 4/25/18: Please visit this post for updated information: National Bank of Greece S.A: ADR Termination and Cash Distribution
Disclosure: No Positions
SCREWED. I was not notified in time, nor was any press release issued by my broker TD Ameritrade.p
Sorry to hear that. TD won’t issue press releases in such cases. It is the job of the depository bank such as BNY Mellon or Citi.
I was never notified. TDA has been no help with any advice at all. Is there anyone in a fiduciary relationship with the holders of the old shares? How can I find out what, if anything, is happening?
Same here, lack of information screwed me.
Any idea what my options are? I read that an exchange to ordinary shares is possible, but how? Or do I just take the 100% loss and move on?
TD Ameritrade it is my broker. Save your money and stay away from them. They do not inform me for what happen with National Bank of Greece and I am loosing 80.000 shares. Point the finger to Mellon or any body else. For whatever is worth.
Exchange to ordinary is complicated and may not be possible now as it is too late. If I were you I would just take the loss and move on.
Well your only option is to get a hold of the Depository @ BNY Mellon and see if they can help you. Right now I think it is too late but worth a try. Otherwise write it off as a tax loss and move on.
David, are you saying there will be no possible return on our investment? Is the system so broken (or corrupt) that institutions like BNY Mellon can simply ignore us who were not notified? Are there not rules and regulations by which such transactions are governed? Is there not someone who can be held responsible and known to us so we can contact them? And, you suggest taking a loss. How can I even do that when I still show on my TDA account I am holding NBG shares?
Bnym sold nbggy to nbg and they paying out April 29 td Ameritrade from Nebraska offce
Day for pay out is 27 April not 29 for nbggy
Petros
Cool. Thanks for the update on this. I am sure other readers will find this info useful.
-David
I just got cash for my NBGGY shares in TDA. I too am PISSED that they didn’t in any way notify me, but I did get paid the same as the market value the week that the B.S. bomb was dropped. I’m saying that I was completely blindsided, and frozen out. However even though I took no action, I did get the money in my account on April 30 without even requesting it.
TDA people, you need to set a weekly reminder on your phone to check “shareholder library” – it’s a tab under History & Statements under My Account. Note there are two tabs: Corporate Actions and eDocuments. Check BOTH. Repeat for each of your accounts.
That’s some work, but unless you want to place you fate in getting emails from TDA, check it once per week, for each account.
Thanks for the update. Glad at least you get some money back.
Thanks for the tip too on getting Shareholder alerts at TDA. I am sure it will be helpful to other readers.
-David