Dublin-listed firms face deadline to keep shares trading post-Brexit

Companies with shares or debt listed on Euronext Dublin have less than five months to hold shareholder meetings and get paperwork in order to ensure that trading in their securities can continue post-Brexit, corporate registrar firm Avenir Registrars has warned.

For the past two decades the settlement of trades has been carried out by a UK-based central securities depositary (CSD) called Crest, operated by Euroclear UK & Ireland in London. However, Crest will lose its automatic right to passport services into the Republic as the UK leaves the EU.

A law signed by President Michael D Higgins on Christmas Day 2019 set out a way for the settlement of Irish shares and bonds held in electronic form to move from Crest in the UK to Euroclear's Euroclear Bank in Belgium before the end of next March. European authorities have allowed for Crest to continue to settle securities traded in Dublin until then, even though the Brexit transition period is due to end in December.

Companies with shares or debt listed in Dublin must tell Euronext Dublin, the stock exchange operator, by February 24th that they have passed necessary corporate resolutions to allow for the migration of their securities to the new holding and settlement system in Belgium on March 12th.

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“Failure for issuers to meet the deadline means they risk a delisting, something which would have a meaningful impact on their valuation and if sufficiently widespread, would put the Dublin exchange under something of a spotlight,” said Hardeep Tamana, managing director of Avenir Registrars, which has been operating in Ireland since 2015 but is seeking to use the migration to increase its slice of the market.

“This is an increasingly pressing situation and one which collectively all market infrastructure participants need to address. Successful migration will drive Ireland’s position as a global hub for issuing securities into Euronext, but the risk here is real.”

Computershare and Link Group have been the main players in this field in the Irish market, but Avenir is the first registry provider to sign agreements with Euroclear Bank.