What should I do, if I have purchased restricted shares or received them as a gift?

The restricted shares whose owner has changed based on share purchase or a gift, are first entered in the waiting list in the new owner’s name. The new owner has three options:

What should I do, if I have inherited restricted shares or acquired them through marital right, executive auction or from a bankrupt’s estate?

Restricted shares that have been acquired through marital right, executive auction or from a bankrupt’s estate, they will also first be entered in the waiting list in the new owner’s name. In order to have the right to vote with the restricted shares, the new owner is not required to apply for the Board’s consent. However, the company shall be given an adequate explanation of this so that the company is able to notify Euroclear Finland Ltd, which maintains the company’s list of owners, that the said restricted shares can be entered in the shareholder register. Registration requires, however, that the restricted shares in question were already registered in the shareholder register in the name of the previous owner.

Entry to shareholder register (digital form, to be signed with Finnish online banking codes or Mobile ID)
Entry to shareholder register (pdf form)

If the restricted shares were not in the shareholder register in the previous owner’s name, but instead on the waiting list, the new owner can either keep the shares on the waiting list, apply for consent on the basis of being a full-time farmer or apply for conversion of shares into free shares (see instructions above).

What is the difference between shareholder register and waiting list?

Euroclear Finland Ltd is by law responsible to maintain the shareholder register for and on behalf of the companies whose shares are linked to the book-entry system.

Raisio plc’s share register is divided into shareholder register and waiting list. Shares in the shareholder register give their owner all the rights prescribed by law and the articles of association – the most important of these rights being the right to dividend and the right to participate and vote in general meetings.  The ownership of shares on the waiting list entitles e.g. to dividend and produces preferential right in the issue of shares, but it does not produce the right to participate and vote in general meetings.

The restricted shares whose owner has changed are always first entered in the waiting list in the new owner’s name. This is the procedure regardless of the how the restricted shares were obtained or whether the new owner already has restricted shares in the shareholder register. As a result of such a change of ownership, restricted shares entered in the waiting list also remain on the waiting list until they are either entered in the shareholder register as restricted shares based on the consent procedure or converted into free shares.