OREANDA-NEWS. May 26, 2011. BM&FBOVESPA hereby announces the opening of the fifth bidding process to select a depositary institution authorized to issue Unsponsored Level I BDRs – Brazilian Depositary Receipts. The winner will be authorized to issue the next allotment of 10 (ten) Unsponsored Level I BDR programs, backed by shares issued by companies with stocks traded in the United States. The depository institutions that wish to take part in the selection process should forward their proposals by June 22, 2011. The rules for the bidding process are described in the Bid Notice and the winner will be announced on June 29, 2011.

There are currently 20 Unsponsored Level 1 BDR programs available for trading on BM&FBOVESPA, which have Deutsche Bank S.A. and Citibank Distribuidora de Titulos e Valores Mobiliarios S.A. as their depositary institutions. A third lot is in the registration phase and shall be presented to the market soon by Itau Unibanco S.A.. Banco Bradesco S.A. and Citibank DTVM S.A., the winners of the third and fourth selection processes, should soon request the registration of another ten programs each.

The Unsponsored Level 1 BDR is a certificate representing stock issued by a foreign-headquartered publicly traded company or the like. It is thus considered a foreign investment from Brazil, in keeping with the definition of CVM Instruction 332/00.  The issue and registry of Unsponsored Level 1 BDRs is the responsibility of a depositary institution in Brazil in which none of the companies represented has a stake.

BDRs can be traded by financial institutions, investment funds, portfolio managers and stock consultants authorized by the CVM (the last two in the list are only permitted to invest own capital) and by supplementary private pension plans and individuals and companies with financial investments of over BRL 1 million. Other individual investors (with financial investments of under BRL 1 million) can only participate in this instrument via funds.