REG - JPMorgan Emerg. EMEA - Russian Court Order - Update

JPMorgan Emerging Europe Middle East & Africa SecuritiesAnnouncement

14/08/2025 15:00

For best results when printing this announcement, please click on link below:
https://newsfile.refinitiv.com/getnewsfile/v1/story?guid=urn:newsml:reuters.com:20250814:nRSN4034Va&default-theme=true

RNS Number : 4034V  JPMorgan Emerging EMEA Securities  14 August 2025

 

 

LONDON STOCK EXCHANGE ANNOUNCEMENT

 

 

JPMORGAN EMERGING EUROPE, MIDDLE EAST & AFRICA SECURITIES PLC

('the Company' or 'JEMA')

 

Legal Entity Identifier: 549300II3MHI98ZLVH37

 

Russian Court Order - Update

 

Further to the Board's previous RNS announcements regarding the lawsuit filed
by VTB Bank in Russia claiming $439 million against eight J.P. Morgan legal
entities and the Company, the Board announces the following updates from the
Company's Manager (in italics):

 

"We wanted to make you aware of a recent application filed by VTB Bank seeking
to avoid paying  its 2024 dividends  which were due on VTB equity positions
held via JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A's foreign nominee holder account at J.P.
Morgan Bank International (JPMBI). VTB Bank has argued to the Court that these
dividends should be retained by it to offset the $439 million judgment it
obtained against eight J.P. Morgan entities and the Company. On July 23rd
2025, the Court issued an order granting VTB's application. The Dividend
Payment Date for these dividends was July 24(th) 2025.

 

J.P. Morgan is taking appropriate legal steps to cancel the Courts ruling.
J.P. Morgan will credit clients  with the dividends if and when funds are
made available to J.P. Morgan.

 

Clients are reminded that as previously disclosed J.P. Morgan has appealed the
$439 million judgment, and the appeal hearing was rescheduled by the Russian
Courts to September 10th, 2025. J.P. Morgan continues to take appropriate
legal and regulatory steps, including, where applicable, challenging claims
and appealing judgments."

 

In response to the above information, Eric Sanderson, the Chairman of the
Company commented that:

 

 "I would like to reiterate the following comments from the Chairman's
statement in the Company's Half Year Report & Financial Statements for the
six months ended 30th April 2025 (in italics):

 

At present the dividends paid from the Russian securities in the Company's
portfolio are held in a custody 'S' account in Moscow. The balance on the 'S'
account as at 21st May 2025 was equivalent to approximately £42.6 million at
the exchange rate applicable on that date. The Company's Manager is monitoring
the receipts into the 'S' account against dividends announced by the portfolio
companies although there is no certainty that the sums in the 'S' account will
ever be received by the Company. The Board also monitors the underlying local
value of the Russian assets, although there is much uncertainty of these
values ever being realisable by the Company.

 

As at 21st May 2025, an additional £10.3 million of dividends have been
announced but are yet to be received. Your Board also monitors this in order
to assess whether all dividends due are in fact accurately recorded in the 'S'
account. As previously detailed, these dividends cannot be remitted to the
Company and may never be received. They are not recognised in the Company's
net asset value or in its income statement."

 

The balance on the 'S' account as at 13th August 2025 (at the exchange rate
applicable on that date) was equivalent to approximately £43.2 million. No
dividends have been received from VTB Bank to date. An additional £9.7
million of dividends have been announced but are yet to be received. This
includes approximately £850,000 due from VTB Bank.

 

The Company's full portfolio listing including recent valuations are available
on the Company's website: www.jpmeemeasecurities.com
(http://www.jpmeemeasecurities.com) .

 

The Board will provide further updates to you as the cases progress.

 

 

14th August 2025

 

For further information:

 

Paul Winship, Neil Martin, JPMorgan Funds Limited             0800
20 40 20

Hugh Jonathan, Deutsche Numis
 
            020 7260 1000

This information is provided by RNS, the news service of the London Stock Exchange. RNS is approved by the Financial Conduct Authority to act as a Primary Information Provider in the United Kingdom. Terms and conditions relating to the use and distribution of this information may apply. For further information, please contact
rns@lseg.com (mailto:rns@lseg.com)
 or visit
www.rns.com (http://www.rns.com/)
.

RNS may use your IP address to confirm compliance with the terms and conditions, to analyse how you engage with the information contained in this communication, and to share such analysis on an anonymised basis with others as part of our commercial services. For further information about how RNS and the London Stock Exchange use the personal data you provide us, please see our
Privacy Policy (https://www.lseg.com/privacy-and-cookie-policy)
.   END  UPDGPUBWRUPAGWC