March 15, 2012 Alok Gupta Probate, Resealing Grants of Probate, Sale & Transfer of Investment Securities, Sale of Investment Securities

The Importance of Direct Registration Statement – Cadbury Case

When Cadbury spun off its Dr. Pepper and Snapple brands in 2008, it created a US Company and issued shares in that company to existing Cadbury shareholders. Usually, the English shareholders simply received a Direct Registration Statement from Computershare stating how many Dr. Pepper Snapple shares were owned by the English shareholder.

We have been helping numerous clients and solicitors firms in recovering these shareholdings and then either selling the shareholding and accounting to the solicitors for the net proceeds of the sale, or we have been transferring such shares to the beneficiaries entitled to the same.

Sometimes we have even been receiving instructions directly from clients to sell their shareholdings, as in many cases the shareholdings are relatively small (say less than 1,000 shares). As these shareholdings can be quite small, there is also the problem when a death occurs of uncashed dividends that have not been paid for several years. We have been able to recover those dividends for the deceased’s estate.

Therefore, it is important to retain the original Direct Registration Statement (dated around 6 May 2008) as frequently this is the only evidence that the deceased owns any shares in Dr. Pepper Snapple.