Securities administration - Latvia
Income collection
Note: Ex-date is not applicable for bonds. For Baltic equities, the ex-date is mandatory and is set based on the T+2 settlement cycle, that is, the ex-date is a date preceding the record date by one settlement cycle (T+2) minus one business day.
| Market Record Date | Payment Date | Basis for entitlement | Standard interest calculation rule |
| Coupon payment | |||
| According to the Prospectus | Bonds issued before 1 October 2008: RD+1 business day Bonds issued after 1 October 2008: RD+2 business days and at the latest RD+10 business days | Settled position on Record Date | Government short-term bonds: Actual/360 Government long-term bonds: Actual/Actual Rules for corporate bonds are defined by the issuer |
| Dividend payment | |||
| Not earlier than 10 business days after General Meeting decision taken on dividend payment | PD depends on the issuer; we cannot guarantee that PD will be RD+1 | Settled position on Record Date | Not applicable |
Corporate actions
Entitlements for debt securities and equities are determined based upon the Record date. Record and Payment dates are approved by the AGM.
Most common corporate events
The most common corporate events in Latvia are as follows:
- Non-voluntary: cash dividends, coupon payments and final redemptions.
- Voluntary: take over bids.
Organisation of AGM/EGMs
According to the Commercial Law, issuers are required to announce shareholder meetings at least 30 days prior to the meeting date. When announcing a meeting, the listed company should also announce a website on which shareholders can find the agenda, the draft resolutions and the proxy forms, if any.
Information for listed companies is additionally announced on Nasdaq Riga and Nasdaq CSD websites.
An Annual General Meeting must be held every calendar year at least within four or seven months from the end of the financial year depending on the size of the company. The Extraordinary General Meeting can be convened by the Board or by the request of supervisory Council, auditors or shareholder/s, representing at least 5% of total shares.
Record date is set at five (5) business days prior to the meeting date.
Within one business day after the meeting the issuer advises the CSD about the closing of the meeting. The issuer has an obligation to advise the CSD about the cancellation of the meeting or postponement to a later date not later than on the next business day after the decision on cancellation or postponement has been taken.
Within one business day after receipt of a written announcement from the issuer about closing, cancellation or postponement of the meeting, the CSD forwards an instruction to unblock securities to all custodians. The issuer has to inform the CSD about decisions made on the meeting by forwarding a written notification.
Within 14 days after the meeting company announces full voting results on its website.
Proxy voting
There is no restriction on foreign investors to vote in Latvia. However voting in Latvia is usually only possible via a direct representation; that is, voting in person or through authorised representatives. Voting electronically or by mail is optional for the issuer and is available only in cases where the company has provided such voting in its by-laws, which is not a common practice.
All shareholders holding the shares as on record date are eligible to vote at the meeting. However, this applies to beneficial owners only, therefore for voting purposes, nominee account holder within two business days after the record date should provide local custodian with following information about the beneficial owners of the shares:
- Data identifying the person:
- For private persons - name and surname, personal ID or other identity feature, country of residence;
- For legal entities - company name, registration number and date or other identity feature, country of residence;
- ISIN code of shares;
- Number of owned shares.
Custodians forward information about beneficial owners of shares to the CSD on the third business day after the record date. The CSD summarises information received from custodians about owners of shares and submits the list of shareholders to the issuer on the third business day after the record date.
The authorisation for appointing a local representative to participate to the meeting on its behalf should be made by the beneficial owner, whose name appears on the shareholders list. Any person, representing a beneficial owner of shares at the meeting should, when attending the meeting, have a Power of Attorney from that beneficial owner duly notarised apostilled and translated into Latvian.
Other market specifics
Shares are blocked until the announcement of the decisions of the AGM.