Step by step guide for holders of CRH share certificates

[Brendan Burgess]

This is for holders of share certificates only. If you own CRH shares through your stockbroker account, this is not for you.

I have read through the documentation and this is what you need to do

1) First priority and do it now - it's quick and simple
Fill in the US tax form W-8 and send it back in the prepaid envelope to Computershare
All you are doing is stating that you are a resident of Ireland and giving your PPS number, date of birth etc.
Notes
Your TIN (Tax Identification Number) is your PPS Number
Your date of birth is in the Month first format.

If you don't send this form back, CRH will withhold American tax on your dividends.

2) Register now with Investor Centre Ireland (part of Computershare)

Click on: www.investorcentre.com/ie

Note: Entering CRH plc in the company name is not enough. When you enter it, a box will pop up with CRH plc in it and you need to click on this.
User ID - is something you choose yourself.

After I did it successfully, a message flashed up to say that they would send me a letter by post to confirm my identity.
But I was able to go to my portfolio and see my shares, so not sure what I need this letter for.

 

[Brendan Burgess]

After 25th September but before 19th October, register your bank account details

Your shares will be moved to Computershare US on 25th September.
They will send you a HAN

When you get this, you should log on and register your bank account details.
They will pay your dividend directly to your bank account.

If you don't do this, you will get a cheque in US dollars which might be awkward to cash.

 

[Brendan Burgess]

If you want to sell your shares before the 25th September...

You will be able to transfer your shares to your broker.
Not sure how this works - ask your broker.

If you want to sell your shares after 25th September ...
You will need something called a Medallion Signature Guarantee
Your broker should be able to arrange this.
But it might take time to arrange.

Question:
Should I transfer my shares now from Computershare to my online broker as I may wish to sell some of them in October?

 

[Brendan Burgess]

Thanks S Class

So register them with Computershare Ireland and then move them to your own online stockbroker?

Brendan

 

[S class]

Yes

 

[Brendan Burgess]

I rang Computershare.
I thought I had dematerialised my shares but I haven't. All I have done is registered my shareholding with Computershare.
My shares are still in share certificates and will be digitalised on 25th September with Computershare USA.

I rang De Giro and they cannot accept share certificates.
They said that they can do the transfer after 25th September from Computershare USA.

So do I transfer my shares to Davy's now?

Brendan

 

[S class]

Selling them now and buying back when they are listed in New York would probably be the easiest option. If you end up in computershare USA you will have difficulty selling them. My experience of transferring shares is that it can take weeks or months to complete. Computershare might not complete the transaction before the transfer to computershare USA deadline. I transferred CRH shares from Saxo a few years ago. Interactive Brokers would not accept them and in the end I transferred to Degiro. This process lasted for months.

 

[Brendan Burgess]

Thanks S class

Selling them is not an option due to the CGT liability.
Davy's has said that they will accept share certificates up until tomorrow but after that they won't be able to clear them in time.

A lot of people have shares in American companies and I had not heard them reporting problems in selling those shares.

Brendan

 

[S class]

Go for Davy's so.
There is no difficulty selling American shares. There is however great difficulty in selling American shares held by computershare USA unless you are a US resident.

 

[Brendan Burgess]

Ah, I see. That makes sense.

Computershare can be very difficult to deal with.

Brendan

 

[S class]

Your only hope to avoid defaulting into computershare USA would be to contact computershare.ie or CRH and ask is there any way they can transfer you out before the deadline. If they cannot the worst case scenario is that you will have to pay for the Medallion signature guarantee.

 

[Brendan Burgess]

Today is the last day for Davys to accept CRH shares.
I dropped in the certs today and there seemed to be a few other clients doing the same thing.

Brendan

 

[Opus2018]

Ah, I see. That makes sense.

Computershare can be very difficult to deal with.

Brendan

Hi Brendan,

You're being very generous to them! ( I won't get into the saga of United Drug PLC!) While the person I was onto was very nice, the poor man was clueless - my only option now effectively is to wait until I have the shares converted electronically and then try to move them to DeGiro. The Computershare rep wasn't sure if I needed the MS guarantee or not just to transfer shares but the material from CRH seems more definitive.

I have filled in the Tax documentation and have registered with Computershare Ireland (will be soon US) so now I have 4 online accounts with them. Maddening!!

The only good thing is I do have a US bank account, but I realise I'm very lucky on this point.

Best,

Opus2018

 

[Hen]

I've just registered on the new investor centre and it seems to be 50% cheaper to get a cheque rather than an international wire. Am I correct in saying that it will be cheaper to get my dividends by cheque?

 

[Ollie11]

"Your TIN (Tax Identification Number) is your PPS Number"

I am completing this online for my father and it is not accepting his pps NUMBER.

I have checked it on revenue.ie and it is correct. ( it does however start with a zero, is this an issue?)

This is error message i am getting
"You have entered an incomplete or invalid Taxpayer Identification Number. Please try again."

Any advice?

I have contacted them online but awaiting response

 

[Ollie11]

"Your TIN (Tax Identification Number) is your PPS Number"

I am completing this online for my father and it is not accepting his pps NUMBER.

I have checked it on revenue.ie and it is correct. ( it does however start with a zero, is this an issue?)

This is error message i am getting
"You have entered an incomplete or invalid Taxpayer Identification Number. Please try again."

Any advice?

I have contacted them online but awaiting response

I figured it out , I needed to fill out the FTIN field.

 

[DazedInPontoon]

I'm trying to help a relative navigate this. They went through the initial registration process on computer share (provided email address, phone number, account recovery question answers) and registered with a User ID and password.

They can log in with this User ID and password, but then arrive at this page as shown in the pic attached. "Confirm your stock" but no stock is shown and there are no options except Cancel and Recover User ID (why?? we're already logged in with the User ID at this point).

Anyone else get stuck at this point?

I saw that the original letter says they'll be sent an authentication code to "finalize and activate" the account. Maybe the online account is in some kind of limbo until then. I've also no idea where that code is supposed to be entered even if they get it.

Any help welcome at this point.

 

[Brendan Burgess]

Hi DIP

I helped a friend and experienced the exact same problem. It is very frustrating.

If I recall correctly, you had to identify CRH as the company before inputting the shareholder HAN.

So I started from scratch ignoring the account I had set up.

When I got this stage, I input the CRH HAN

Maybe I had omitted that at the first attempt.
But it worked fine at the second attempt but I had to set up a completely new account. (It didn't mind that I had the same email address for both accounts.)

When you have done everything, you will get a note "Thank you for registering, we will now send you a letter with an access code". I assumed that a letter meant a physical yoke in an envelope, but they emailed my friend that evening with it.

Brendan

 

[Brendan Burgess]

A couple of more booby traps to look out for.

You get a choice

I selected International Wire although I am not familiar with the term. I presume that is the same as an EFT?

They ask for a SWIFT Code.
I input the BIC code here. I assume that is correct.

And when it was all done, it came back with a red message "your bank account details are wrong, please check them/"

So I changed the Account number from IE35Aibk... to IE35AIBK - in other words, using all capital letters and it seemed happy enough.

Brendan

 

[DazedInPontoon]

Hi DIP

I helped a friend and experienced the exact same problem. It is very frustrating.

Thanks for the reply....

If I recall correctly, you had to identify CRH as the company before inputting the shareholder HAN.

Oh, do you mean that even though both fields are on the same page of the form and the HAN appears before the company on that page that you must first select CRH as the company then go back up and put in the HAN?

If so I guess my relation can try that on another attempt. Otherwise I've no idea what they did wrong, as I monitored what was already their second attempt to do this and they put in the HAN, selected "not a U.S. resident", selected "CRH - CRH PLC" from the autocomplete etc... they seemed to do everything right from what I could see. The last successful part was receiving the email with confirmation link to click. After that logging in results in getting stuck at the earlier screenshot I provided.