PRODUCT PROFILE

Latest Dublin Prices

Investors buy more Irish shares via DRs

Friday, February 22 10:10:52

International investors still have an appetite for investing in Irish listed companies through depository receipt (DR) programmes, according to figures from BNY Mellon released today.

A number of Irish-listed companies operate DR programmes, which allow investors to buy stocks in foreign companies through their local stock exchanges.

The Irish-listed companies that operate these programmes include CRH, Elan, Bank of Ireland, Kerry Group, Datalex, Greencore and Ryanair.

This means investors in the US and elsewhere can buy into these companies in dollars.

BNY Mellon tracks the volume and value of dealings in American Depositary Receipts and has published figures for 2012 that show an increase in the volume of shares traded in Irish companies to $16.6 billion.

Elan remains one of the most actively traded US-listed DRs globally with 855 million shares traded with a value of $10.5 billion - up from $8.2 billion in 2011.

One of the biggest movers year-on-year was drinks group C and C which saw international investors trading 1.8 million shares (compared to just 30,000 two years ago) to the value of $24 million ($31,000 in 2010). This trend was replicated globally with the beverage sector outperforming all other sectors with an 18pc increase in trading volume during 2012.

According the Christopher M Kearns, deputy CEO of BNY Mellon's Depository Receipts business, "International portfolio diversification through Depository Receipts has offered a viable option to many investors, even as geopolitics led to periods of unsettled markets and made companies cautious about committing capital."

A total of 157 billion DRs were traded on the world's markets and exchanges, 10pc less than 2011, but higher than the previous two years, while the overall value of DRs traded shrank 26pc to $2.79 trillion.

The BNY Mellon Classic ADR index posted an 18pc return last year, beating the 16pc gain by Standard and Poor's 500 Index of US shares.

The returns for Europe were up more than 20pc last year. Overall, the best performing country indices were those for Australia (+25pc), China (+25pc), France (+24pc) and Switzerland (+22pc).