Thanks to changes made by US regulator the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 which came into effect late last year, non-US securityissuing corporates no longer need to apply for exemption from SEC filing and reporting requirements. In effect, if they fulfil a few basic conditions – such as posting their domestic financial reports on a website in English, and conducting at least 55% of the trading volume of their equities on a primary exchange in their home market – they are automatically exempted and so can establish unsponsored and sponsored level I American Depositary Receipt (ADR) programmes for their shares.
