Form F-3DPOS Files Dataset

The Form F-3DPOS Files Dataset is a complete EDGAR archive of post-effective amendments filed on Form F-3DPOS by foreign private issuers under the Securities Act of 1933. Each record is a single accession-level submission — the amendment to a previously effective Form F-3D registration statement covering securities issued through a dividend or interest reinvestment plan (DRIP/DRP). The dataset packages, for every accession number, a structured metadata.json manifest plus the original EDGAR documents (the primary HTML post-effective amendment and any non-image exhibits such as legal opinions and auditor consents). Coverage begins on 1998-05-01, when EDGAR began accepting these submissions, and continues to the present, with monthly container ZIPs refreshed as new filings are accepted.

Dataset APIs

Dataset Files

What This Dataset Contains

The dataset captures every Form F-3DPOS submission that has reached EDGAR since May 1998. Form F-3D is a specialized variant of Form F-3 used by foreign private issuers (FPIs) to register securities offered exclusively pursuant to a dividend or interest reinvestment plan; the "D" suffix denotes "Dividend reinvestment" and parallels the domestic-issuer instrument Form S-3D. Because such plans run continuously, registrants must from time to time amend the live registration to reflect changed plan terms, issuer reorganizations, deregistration of unsold securities, name changes, share-amount increases, or auditor consents. That post-effective amendment is filed on Form F-3DPOS.

A post-effective amendment under Securities Act Rule 462 operates within the registration-statement framework rather than as a fresh registration: it inherits the original SEC file number (the 333- series identifier), keeps the original effective registration in force, and is sequentially designated ("Post-Effective Amendment No. N to Form F-3"). Within this corpus the dominant use case is deregistration — a recital removing unsold securities from registration following a merger, plan of arrangement, scheme of arrangement, going-private transaction, or termination of the dividend-reinvestment plan — rather than substantive prospectus revision. Substantive amendments updating plan terms or adding shares do appear, but are the minority pattern.

The dataset is distributed as monthly ZIP containers. The file types found inside the containers are TXT, JSON, and HTML; image files referenced by the filings (GIF/JPG/PNG logos and signature scans) are excluded by dataset policy. The form-type scope is exactly F-3DPOS — no adjacent forms (F-3D, F-3, Form F-3/A, Form S-3DPOS, POS AM) are bundled into the same dataset.

Content Structure of a Single Record

What one record represents

One record is a single complete EDGAR submission of a Form F-3DPOS filing — a post-effective amendment to a previously effective Form F-3D registration statement filed by a foreign private issuer under the Securities Act of 1933. The unit is the accession-level submission, not an individual document or extracted clause. Each record is a directory whose name is the 18-digit accession number with dashes removed, grouped under a YYYY-MM period directory inside the dataset's monthly ZIP container. The directory holds a metadata.json file describing the EDGAR submission and the original filed documents from that submission, with image files (GIF/JPG/PNG logos and signature scans) excluded. For the overwhelming majority of F-3DPOS records this resolves to two files — the JSON metadata file and one HTML primary document — with exhibits, when filed, appearing as additional sibling files inside the same accession directory.

Content layers of a single record

A record carries three stacked layers inside one accession folder:

1. Submission-level metadata in metadata.json, derived from the EDGAR submission header and the EDGAR filing index. This layer captures filer identity, accession identifiers, EDGAR URLs, document inventory, and structured filer attributes.
2. The SGML document envelope that wraps the primary filing. Even though the filed document is HTML, EDGAR stores it inside an SGML-style <DOCUMENT> block recording document type, sequence, original filename, description, and the <TEXT> payload. The envelope is preserved at the head of the .htm file, so the type/sequence/filename/description tags sit physically above the <HTML> body.
3. The narrative body of the post-effective amendment itself, written in HTML (with inline styles, EDGAR page-break comments, and Unicode ballot-box glyphs) and following the cover-page-then-recital-then-signature structure inherited from Form F-3.

The metadata.json object

The metadata file is a single JSON object describing one submission. Its principal fields are:

• formType — always "F-3DPOS" for this dataset.
• accessionNo — the dashed accession number (e.g. "0001213900-25-041813"); the parent folder name is the same value with dashes stripped.
• filedAt — ISO 8601 timestamp with timezone offset capturing the EDGAR acceptance instant.
• effectivenessDate — the date the post-effective amendment becomes effective (YYYY-MM-DD); for many post-effective amendments this matches the filing date because Rule 462(d) makes deregistration amendments effective on filing.
• description — the EDGAR human-readable form description for F-3DPOS.
• linkToFilingDetails — URL to the primary HTML document on www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/....
• linkToTxt — URL to the complete EDGAR submission .txt file (the SGML wrapper containing every document in the submission).
• linkToHtml — URL to the EDGAR -index.htm page enumerating every file in the submission.
• linkToXbrl — empty string for this form type.
• id — a 32-character hex internal record identifier.
• documentFormatFiles[] — one object per filed document, with sequence, size, documentUrl, description, and type (form code, or a single space for the bundled submission text file). The primary F-3DPOS document is sequence "1" with type "F-3DPOS" and a description such as "POST-EFFECTIVE AMENDMENT NO. 1 TO FORM F-3".
• entities[] — one object per filer (typically one), with companyName (suffixed by the EDGAR role, e.g. "(Filer)"), cik, fileNo (the original 333- series number), filmNo, type (mirroring formType), sic (SIC code plus description, with HTML-encoded ampersand), act (Securities Act number, "33"), stateOfIncorporation (an EDGAR jurisdiction code — for foreign issuers, a foreign country or province code such as A0 for Alberta), fiscalYearEnd as MMDD, and tickers[] (multiple cross-listing tickers are common for foreign issuers).
• seriesAndClassesContractsInformation[] — populated only when the filer is an investment company referencing series/class identifiers; empty for ordinary corporate F-3DPOS filings.
• dataFiles[] — structured data attachments; routinely empty for this form type.

The SGML envelope around the primary document

The primary .htm file is not bare HTML; it begins with the EDGAR SGML <DOCUMENT> envelope that demarcates the boundaries between filed documents inside a submission. The head structure is:

          1
          <DOCUMENT>
        

          2
          <TYPE>F-3DPOS
        

          3
          <SEQUENCE>1
        

          4
          <FILENAME>ea0240806-f3dpos_vereninc.htm
        

          5
          <DESCRIPTION>POST-EFFECTIVE AMENDMENT NO. 1 TO FORM F-3
        

          6
          <TEXT>
        

          7
          <HTML>
        

          8
          ... full HTML body ...
        

          9
          </HTML>
        

          10
          </TEXT>
        

          11
          </DOCUMENT>
        

The four header tags (TYPE, SEQUENCE, FILENAME, DESCRIPTION) plus the opening TEXT tag carry the same identifiers exposed in documentFormatFiles[], but at the document level. Exhibits, when filed, sit in their own <DOCUMENT> blocks with TYPE values such as EX-5.1 (legal opinion), EX-23.1 (consent of auditors or experts), EX-FILING FEES (filing-fee exhibit, post-2022), or EX-99.x (additional materials). Page breaks within the HTML body are encoded as EDGAR-style HTML comments (<!-- Field: Page; Sequence: N -->) wrapping divs that produce printed page-number rules.

Section-by-section anatomy of the F-3DPOS body

The HTML body inside <TEXT> follows the standard front-matter conventions of an F-3 registration statement, narrowed for the post-effective-amendment use case. The components appear in a fixed order:

1. Filing-stamp line — "As filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on <date>" together with the original registration number (e.g. Registration No. 333-205592), aligned to the upper right of the cover page.
2. SEC banner — "UNITED STATES SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION / Washington, D.C. 20549" centered below the filing-stamp line.
3. Form caption — "POST-EFFECTIVE AMENDMENT NO. N TO FORM F-3" (occasionally "TO FORM F-3D"), naming the amendment number sequentially relative to prior amendments to the same registration.
4. Registrant name block — the foreign private issuer's exact legal name in large font, occasionally followed by an English transliteration of a non-English name and "(Exact name of registrant as specified in its charter)".
5. Registrant identification table — a two- or three-column table giving (i) jurisdiction of incorporation or organization (frequently a non-U.S. jurisdiction such as "Alberta, Canada", "England and Wales", "Cayman Islands", or "Bermuda"), (ii) primary standard industrial classification code if applicable, and (iii) IRS Employer Identification Number, which is typically "Not Applicable" for foreign filers.
6. Principal executive office block — full street address abroad with telephone number and country code, captioned "(Address, including zip code, and telephone number, including area code, of registrant's principal executive offices)".
7. Agent for service of process — name and U.S. address of the registrant's authorized agent for service, almost always a corporate-services entity such as CT Corporation System, Cogency Global, or Puglisi & Associates, with telephone number; this satisfies Section 6(a) of the Securities Act for foreign filers.
8. Copies-to table — names, firm names, and addresses of registrant counsel and U.S. counsel, sometimes including transfer agent contact information.
9. Securities Act check-box section — the standard registration-statement check-boxes covering offerings under Rule 415, Rule 462(b), Rule 462(c), Rule 462(e), General Instruction I.C., and the emerging-growth-company elections including the Section 107(b) accounting-standard transition election. The boxes are rendered with Unicode ballot-box glyphs (☐ unchecked, ☒ checked).
10. Body recital — the substantive content of the amendment. The recital is most often a "DEREGISTRATION OF SECURITIES" or "EXPLANATORY NOTE" section narrating the original F-3D filing, identifying the corporate event that has terminated the offering (a plan of arrangement, scheme of arrangement, merger, going-private transaction, or formal termination of the DRIP), and stating the registrant's intent to deregister all unsold securities and remove them from registration. Less commonly, the body contains an updated prospectus or prospectus supplement describing revised plan terms — share-amount increases, plan-administrator changes, pricing-mechanism updates, eligibility changes — in which case the full prospectus narrative (cover, summary, plan description, use of proceeds, plan of distribution, legal matters, experts, incorporation by reference) follows.
11. Signature page — a "SIGNATURES" heading, the certification language required by the Securities Act and Form F-3 instructions, and the signature table itself, with By: /s/ <name> lines, printed name, title, and date. A bracketed footer such as [Signature Page to Form F-3D Post-Effective Amendment] typically closes the page. Where the amendment requires it, additional signatures by directors and by the U.S. authorized representative appear, satisfying the requirement that the registrant, its principal officers, and a majority of its board sign.

Included content

Each record contains the primary F-3DPOS HTML document with its SGML envelope intact, the structured metadata.json, and any non-image exhibits filed alongside the post-effective amendment. The file-types found in the dataset are TXT, JSON, and HTML; in practice the HTML primary document plus the JSON manifest are the two files present in nearly every accession folder. When exhibits are filed they may include opinions of counsel as EX-5.1, consents of auditors or experts as EX-23.1, calculation-of-filing-fee tables as EX-FILING FEES (post-2022), or additional prospectus materials as EX-99.x.

Excluded or separate content

Image files referenced from the HTML body — GIF/JPG/PNG company logos, signature scans, plan-cover artwork — are stripped from the record per dataset policy; references to them remain in the HTML markup but the binary files themselves are not present. The complete EDGAR submission text wrapper (linkToTxt) is not unpacked into the accession folder; only the per-document files are. The original underlying Form F-3D registration statement to which this is an amendment is a separate filing under the same 333- file number and is not duplicated into the F-3DPOS record. Documents and information incorporated by reference — the registrant's most recent annual report on Form 20-F, interim reports on Form 6-K, and other filings — remain external; only the explicit references to them are present inside the HTML body.

Changes in required content and structure over time

The F-3D / F-3DPOS framework has remained unusually stable since EDGAR began accepting registration statements in the mid-1990s, but several structural overlays have accumulated on the cover page over the dataset's coverage period:

• Securities Offering Reform (2005) — the SEC's 2005 reforms restructured shelf registration under Rule 415, introduced the well-known seasoned issuer concept, and created the free-writing-prospectus regime. While the F-3D/F-3DPOS dividend-reinvestment use case largely sits outside the WKSI-shelf machinery, the cover-page check-box list was rewritten in this period to reflect the reorganized Rule 415 framework.
• Smaller Reporting Company regime (2008) — the cover page added the smaller-reporting-company / non-accelerated-filer / accelerated-filer / large-accelerated-filer matrix, although it is primarily relevant to domestic forms.
• JOBS Act (2012) and Section 107(b) election — emerging-growth-company status check-boxes and the accounting-standard transition election were added to the cover page in 2012 and appear consistently on F-3DPOS amendments filed thereafter, even though most foreign private issuers do not qualify.
• Filing-fee table modernization (2022) — the SEC's amendments to Rule 457 and the new Exhibit 107 reshaped how registration fees are computed and disclosed; F-3DPOS amendments filed after the effective date carry an EX-FILING FEES exhibit when fees are being paid, although deregistration amendments typically do not require a fee table.
• Cover-page glyph rendering — check-boxes shifted from typewriter-style [ ] / [X] markers in the ASCII era to Unicode ballot-box characters (☐ / ☒) once HTML became the dominant filing format.

The substantive deregistration recital — "Pursuant to the undertaking made in the Registration Statement … the Registrant hereby removes from registration any and all securities registered but unsold under the Registration Statement" — is templated language that has changed only marginally across the entire EDGAR era.

Changes in data format over time

EDGAR has accepted F-3DPOS submissions since May 1998, the start of this dataset's coverage. Over that span the source-file format has evolved through three phases visible inside the records:

• ASCII / plain-text era (1998 to early 2000s) — early F-3DPOS filings were submitted as plain ASCII text inside the SGML <DOCUMENT> / <TEXT> envelope, with monospaced column-aligned cover pages, typewriter check-boxes ([ ] / [X]), and form-feed page separators. The SGML header tags (<TYPE>, <SEQUENCE>, <FILENAME>, <DESCRIPTION>) were already in their present form during this era.
• HTML era (early 2000s onward) — HTML became the dominant filing format, with inline STYLE attributes, table-based cover-page layouts, and EDGAR-style page-break HTML comments. The SGML envelope was retained verbatim above the <HTML> body, so a record from this era carries both layers concurrently.
• Modern HTML with structured filing-fee exhibits (2022 onward) — the filing-fee table exhibit introduced in 2022 may carry an associated XML structured representation, although for the predominantly deregistration-flavored F-3DPOS corpus this is uncommon.

Interpretation notes

Several nuances are worth keeping in mind when working with these records.

• Amendment numbering anchors to the original registration, not to the dataset. "Post-Effective Amendment No. 3 to Form F-3" refers to the third amendment to the underlying F-3D registration, regardless of how many F-3DPOS records exist for that issuer in this dataset.
• Heavy reliance on incorporation by reference. Substantive plan terminology in an F-3DPOS is typically incorporated by reference to the original F-3D prospectus and to the registrant's annual report on Form 20-F; the amendment itself usually does not restate the dividend-reinvestment plan in full.
• Check-box block distinguishes filing intent. The Securities Act check-box section signals whether an amendment is a substantive prospectus update (where Rule 462(b)/(c)/(e) or General Instruction I.C. boxes may be marked) or a pure deregistration filing.
• Foreign-issuer signals are present in metadata. The entities[].stateOfIncorporation field uses EDGAR foreign jurisdiction codes — A0 for Alberta, M0 for British Virgin Islands, country-level codes for other sovereigns — rather than U.S. state codes, and IRS Employer ID is routinely "Not Applicable", both reliable foreign-private-issuer signals.
• Form type is authoritative in <TYPE>. The SGML envelope's <TYPE>F-3DPOS value is the authoritative form-type marker; the <DESCRIPTION> value frequently reads "POST-EFFECTIVE AMENDMENT NO. N TO FORM F-3" rather than "FORM F-3DPOS", so machine extraction should rely on <TYPE> (or on the JSON formType), not on <DESCRIPTION>.
• Image references may be dangling. Image elements inside the HTML may resolve to missing assets because images are stripped from the record; the surrounding text remains intact and self-sufficient for narrative interpretation.

Who Files or Publishes This Dataset, and When

Who files

Form F-3DPOS is filed by the foreign private issuer (FPI) that originally registered securities on Form F-3D. The same registrant that put the underlying short-form registration in place files every post-effective amendment to it.

"Foreign private issuer" is defined in Rule 405 under the Securities Act of 1933 (with a parallel definition in Rule 3b-4 under the Exchange Act). Under Rule 405, any non-governmental foreign issuer is an FPI unless both (i) more than 50% of its outstanding voting securities are held of record, directly or indirectly, by U.S. residents, and (ii) any one of the following is true: a majority of its executive officers or directors are U.S. citizens or residents, more than 50% of its assets are in the United States, or its business is administered principally in the United States.

The filer population is therefore narrow:

• Foreign issuers that are Exchange Act reporting companies (Section 12 registration or Section 15(d) reporting).
• Issuers that meet Form F-3 eligibility (reporting history plus public-float or transactional criteria), since Form F-3D borrows F-3 eligibility for the limited purpose of registering DRIP shares.
• Issuers that sponsor a dividend reinvestment plan (DRIP/DRP) under which holders reinvest cash distributions into newly issued or treasury shares of the same issuer.

The legal filer of record on EDGAR is the FPI itself, not the third-party plan administrator (typically a transfer agent or trust company) that runs day-to-day plan mechanics.

When the record is created

Form F-3DPOS is purely event-driven. There is no periodic deadline; the obligation arises whenever the issuer needs to amend an already-effective F-3D registration. Typical triggers, in roughly chronological order across a plan's life cycle:

1. Material plan-term change. Changes to eligibility, pricing or discount mechanics, fees, share source (newly issued vs. open-market), enrollment, or suspension provisions require an updated prospectus and a corresponding post-effective amendment, usually filed before the amended terms take effect.
2. Prospectus refresh. Updates to risk factors, tax disclosure, plan administrator information, or share-pricing mechanics that exceed what a Rule 424(b) supplement can carry, including updates needed to keep prospectus information current under Section 10(a)(3) of the Securities Act.
3. New or amended exhibits. Fresh legal opinions, auditor consents, amended plan documents, or service agreements added to the registration statement.
4. Successor registrant. Following a merger, consolidation, or scheme of arrangement, a successor FPI may file an F-3DPOS to continue or wind down the predecessor's plan.
5. Loss of FPI or F-3 eligibility. If the issuer no longer qualifies under Rule 405 or fails F-3 criteria, it typically deregisters unsold shares and re-registers on the appropriate domestic form.
6. Deregistration of unsold securities. At plan termination, suspension, delisting, going-private, or Exchange Act deregistration, the issuer files an F-3DPOS to remove unsold registered shares from the shelf. This is the most common end-of-life filing.

Authority to amend post-effectiveness comes from Section 8(c) of the Securities Act, with effectiveness mechanics governed by Rule 462 (immediate effectiveness on filing for qualifying amendments) and Rule 473. Consistent with the F-3D auto-effective regime, F-3DPOS amendments are generally effective upon filing without staff review.

Filing is made electronically on EDGAR as form type "F-3DPOS" under Regulation S-T. Dataset coverage begins May 1998; pre-EDGAR paper amendments to F-3D registrations are not included.

Important distinctions

• F-3DPOS vs. F-3/A. F-3/A is a pre-effective amendment filed before the registration becomes effective. F-3DPOS is only filed after the underlying F-3D is already effective.
• F-3DPOS vs. POS AM. POS AM is the generic post-effective amendment type. F-3DPOS is the specific code reserved for amendments to a Form F-3D.
• F-3DPOS vs. S-3DPOS. Same mechanism, different filer class: S-3DPOS is for domestic registrants amending an S-3D; F-3DPOS is for FPIs amending an F-3D. A change in FPI status normally forces termination on one side and a fresh registration on the other rather than a cross-regime amendment.
• F-3DPOS vs. Rule 424(b) supplement. Routine prospectus updates can ride on a 424(b) supplement; F-3DPOS is used when the change is material or alters the registration statement itself (exhibits, registrant identity, registered amount, deregistration).
• Excluded filers. Domestic operating companies (use S-3D / S-3DPOS), Canadian MJDS issuers (use the Form F-10 / Form F-80 family), and registered investment companies including closed-end funds with DRIPs (use the N-series, e.g., Form N-2) do not produce F-3DPOS records.

How This Dataset Differs From Similar Datasets or Filings

Form F-3DPOS sits at the intersection of three axes: foreign-private-issuer registration, dividend or interest reinvestment plans, and the post-effective amendment mechanic. The closest comparisons relax exactly one of those constraints.

Form F-3D (the parent registration)

F-3D is the original FPI registration statement for shares issued under a DRIP. F-3DPOS is the post-effective amendment to that same filing, used to revise plan terms, refresh share allotments, or replace exhibits such as auditor consents and counsel opinions.

• Use F-3D for the initial registration, original plan terms, and the universe of FPIs operating a DRIP.
• Use F-3DPOS for every subsequent revision to those plans.

The two are complementary: an F-3DPOS is unintelligible without its underlying F-3D, and an F-3D alone misses every later change.

Form S-3D and S-3DPOS (domestic-issuer counterparts)

S-3D / S-3DPOS are the U.S. domestic mirrors of F-3D / F-3DPOS. Form mechanics are nearly identical; the difference is filer population and the disclosures that follow from it. F-3DPOS prospectuses routinely include ADR mechanics, depositary arrangements, currency conversion for cash dividends, and home-country tax treatment that S-3DPOS filings do not.

• Use S-3D / S-3DPOS for U.S. domestic issuer DRIPs (Form 10-K / Form 10-Q reporters).
• Use F-3D / F-3DPOS for FPI DRIPs (20-F / Form 40-F reporters), including ADR programs.

Form F-3 and F-3/A (general FPI shelf registration)

F-3 is the broad short-form FPI registration covering debt, equity, rights, secondary resales, and shelf programs. F-3/A is its pre-effective amendment. F-3DPOS differs on two dimensions: scope (DRIP-only vs. general offerings) and timing (post-effective vs. pre-effective).

• Use F-3 / F-3/A for general FPI capital-raising and shelf activity.
• Use F-3D / F-3DPOS for DRIP-specific issuance to existing holders.

Form F-1 and F-1POS (long-form FPI registration and amendment)

Form F-1 is the long-form FPI registration used by IPO-stage or unseasoned issuers who cannot rely on F-3. Form F-1POS shares the post-effective amendment mechanic with F-3DPOS but covers a far broader disclosure scope: business, financials, risk factors, and the entire securities offering. F-3DPOS amendments are narrow, touching only DRIP terms or related exhibits.

• Use F-1 / F-1POS for IPO-stage or unseasoned FPI registration and its amendments.
• Use F-3DPOS for ongoing DRIP maintenance by seasoned FPIs.

Form 424B prospectus supplements (and Rule 425 communications)

Form 424B is a prospectus supplement filed under Rule 424 to deliver pricing or other updates within an already-registered scope; it does not amend the registration statement. F-3DPOS is a formal amendment to the registration itself, typically with new exhibits, refreshed consents, and re-executed signatures. Form 425 covers business-combination communications and rarely intersects DRIP activity.

• Use 424B for pricing terms, plan supplements, or routine updates within existing registered scope.
• Use F-3DPOS when the update materially changes the plan, registers additional shares, or otherwise requires amending the registration.
• 425 is generally not relevant to DRIP research.

Generic POS AM and POSASR (post-effective amendments outside DRIP)

POS AM is the generic post-effective amendment under Rule 462, applicable to non-DRIP registrations (Form S-1, Form S-3, F-1, F-3, etc.). POSASR is the post-effective amendment for automatic shelf registrations by well-known seasoned issuers (WKSIs). F-3DPOS shares the post-effective mechanic but is reserved exclusively for amendments to F-3D filings.

• Use POS AM for post-effective amendments to general (non-DRIP) registrations.
• Use POSASR for post-effective amendments to WKSI automatic shelf registrations.
• Use F-3DPOS only when the underlying registration is an F-3D.
• For a complete picture of all post-effective amendment activity, aggregate POS AM, POSASR, F-1POS, S-3DPOS, F-3DPOS, and other type-specific POS variants.

Boundary summary

F-3DPOS isolates a single, narrow intersection: post-effective amendments (not initial registrations, not pre-effective amendments, not prospectus supplements) to DRIP registrations (not general offerings) by foreign private issuers (not domestic filers). Each adjacent dataset relaxes exactly one constraint — F-3D the amendment dimension, S-3DPOS the FPI dimension, F-3/A and F-1POS the DRIP dimension, 424B the formal-amendment dimension, and POS AM / POSASR the form-family dimension. The dataset's small footprint reflects the narrowness of that intersection, not incompleteness. Use F-3DPOS directly for FPI DRIP maintenance questions; treat it as one component within a broader compilation when studying FPI capital formation, DRIP populations, or post-effective amendment activity overall.

Who Uses This Dataset

The F-3DPOS corpus is small but the user base is well-defined: anyone working on foreign private issuer dividend or interest reinvestment plans, cross-border equity registration, or EDGAR-completeness products has to handle exactly this form. Each role reads a specific slice of the metadata JSON, prospectus body, signature pages, and exhibit list.

Securities Lawyers and Corporate Paralegals

US counsel to FPIs (in-house and at outside law firms) are the heaviest direct users. When a client amends DRIP mechanics (pricing, eligibility, share reservation, plan administrator, fee schedule, foreign-tax withholding), they pull precedent F-3DPOS filings to draft the amendment. They read the prospectus body for substantive plan language, the cover page for incorporation-by-reference statements, signature blocks for the US authorized representative, and Exhibit 5 opinions and Exhibit 23 consents. From the metadata JSON they take formType, filedAt, cik, companyName, and accessionNo to reconstruct the amendment chain back to the original F-3D. Outputs: redlines, opinion-letter precedent banks, disclosure checklists.

Capital Markets and Corporate Finance Bankers

Bankers covering FPI clients use the corpus to scope DRIP set-up or refresh mandates. They map which jurisdictions and issuer types (depositary-receipt versus direct ordinary-share) use F-3D / F-3DPOS, how often plans are amended, and typical share-reservation sizes. They pull issuer identifiers from the metadata JSON, then read the prospectus for plan size, pricing discount, and administrator identity. Output: pitch benchmarking and share-reserve sizing.

Transfer Agents and DRIP Administrators

Plan administrators treat F-3DPOS as the operative legal description of the plan they run. On amendment, they update participant disclosures, recordkeeping rules, share-issuance instructions, reinvestment pricing logic, and foreign-withholding handling. They read the prospectus body for plan terms, the cover page for effective date, and exhibits for updated plan agreements. The dataset also supports competitive intelligence on fee schedules, optional cash-purchase windows, and partial-share treatment when responding to FPI RFPs.

SEC Filing Data Engineers

Engineers building EDGAR-derived products (filing search, registration trackers, prospectus libraries, RAG corpora) need F-3DPOS coverage to claim full F-series completeness. They consume the dataset programmatically: accessionNo, cik, companyName, formType, filedAt, and the document inventory feed indexing pipelines. Because F-3DPOS is rare, explicit handling prevents misclassification as F-3, F-3D, or POS AM. Output: normalized records feeding filing alerts, peer-issuer queries, and full-text search.

Academic Researchers

Researchers in cross-border equity issuance, FPI capital-raising, ADR programs, and dividend-policy implementation treat the corpus as a small, clean subpopulation. They use issuer attributes from the metadata JSON, filedAt for survival and amendment-frequency analysis, and the prospectus body to hand-code plan features (market discount, dividend versus interest reinvestment, share-source rules). Output: working papers and event-study datasets on cross-border DRIP usage.

Investor Relations and Corporate Secretaries at FPIs

IR officers and corporate secretaries at FPIs operating or considering a DRIP benchmark peer issuers: how comparable FPIs describe plan terms, amendment cadence, and which supporting exhibits accompany an amendment. They read the prospectus body for disclosure language and the signature page for signing conventions. Output: peer-disclosure dossiers supporting board approval and shareholder communications.

Equity Research and Risk Analysts

Analysts covering FPIs treat F-3DPOS as a low-frequency but informative signal. An amendment can flag plan expansion, administrator change, capacity reduction, or wind-down; co-occurrence with Form 15F or Form 25 activity can flag deregistration or going-private trajectories. They pull cik, companyName, and filedAt from the metadata, then scan the prospectus and exhibits for changes to plan capacity, administrator, or termination provisions. Output: coverage notes, share-count adjustments, red-flag lists for cross-border portfolios.

Compliance Officers at Distributors and Depositary Banks

Compliance teams at broker-dealers, depositary banks, and asset managers holding or distributing FPI securities track F-3DPOS filings to keep prospectus-delivery and Rule 415 / Rule 462 obligations aligned with the issuer's current registration state. They read formType, filedAt, and accessionNo to confirm the operative prospectus version, the cover page for incorporation language, and exhibits for current opinions and consents. Output: updated delivery records, surveillance entries, and sign-offs confirming distribution materials match current registration.

Specific Use Cases

The corpus is small and tightly scoped, so use cases tend to be operational rather than statistical. The patterns below tie directly to fields in metadata.json and to specific sections of the post-effective amendment body.

1. Building a precedent bank for FPI DRIP amendment drafting

Securities lawyers drafting a post-effective amendment for an FPI client pull prior F-3DPOS filings to source language for share-reservation increases, plan-administrator substitutions, pricing-discount changes, and foreign-tax-withholding clauses. The workflow filters records by entities[].stateOfIncorporation (Alberta A0, Bermuda, Cayman, England and Wales) and by amendment number parsed from the <DESCRIPTION> tag, then extracts the body recital and any EX-5.1 opinion or EX-23.1 consent from sibling files in the accession folder. Output: a redline-ready precedent library keyed to jurisdiction and amendment type.

2. Tracking deregistration of unsold DRIP shares after corporate events

Equity analysts and compliance teams covering FPIs use F-3DPOS as the operative signal that a DRIP is being wound down following a plan of arrangement, scheme of arrangement, merger, or going-private transaction. The pipeline scans the DEREGISTRATION OF SECURITIES or EXPLANATORY NOTE recital for the templated "removes from registration any and all securities registered but unsold" language, ties it to accessionNo, filedAt, effectivenessDate, and the original 333- fileNo from entities[], and joins to Form 15F / Form 25 activity for the same CIK. Output: a deregistration event feed and adjustments to outstanding-share models for cross-border portfolios.

3. Maintaining current-prospectus state for prospectus delivery

Depositary banks, broker-dealers, and transfer agents distributing FPI DRIP securities use the dataset to confirm which version of the prospectus is operative for Rule 415 / Rule 462 delivery purposes. The workflow reads formType, filedAt, effectivenessDate, linkToFilingDetails, and the documentFormatFiles[] inventory to swap in the most recent F-3DPOS body and refresh the linked EX-5.1 and EX-23.1 exhibits in delivery packets. Output: updated prospectus-delivery records and surveillance entries reconciling distributed materials to the current registration state.

4. Closing the F-series taxonomy gap in EDGAR-derived products

Data engineers building filing-search, registration-tracker, or RAG products ingest F-3DPOS explicitly so it is not silently misclassified as F-3, F-3D, or POS AM. They key on the SGML <TYPE>F-3DPOS tag (authoritative) rather than <DESCRIPTION> (which usually reads "POST-EFFECTIVE AMENDMENT NO. N TO FORM F-3"), normalize accessionNo, cik, companyName, filedAt, and tickers[], and reconstruct the amendment chain by joining on the original 333- fileNo. Output: normalized filing rows, peer-issuer queries, and full-text-search indices that correctly bucket FPI DRIP amendments.

5. Identifying foreign private issuers operating DRIPs

Capital-markets bankers and academic researchers use the corpus as a clean subpopulation of FPIs running dividend or interest reinvestment plans. They filter on entities[].stateOfIncorporation foreign codes plus act = "33", treat "Not Applicable" IRS Employer ID and the foreign-jurisdiction line from the registrant identification table as confirming FPI signals, and pull tickers[] to map cross-listings (NYSE / TSX / LSE). Output: a benchmarked FPI-DRIP universe for pitch decks, share-reserve sizing, and event-study panels on cross-border dividend reinvestment.

6. Harvesting Exhibit 5 opinions and Exhibit 23 auditor consents

Lawyers and audit-firm knowledge managers extract EX-5.1 opinions of counsel and EX-23.1 consents of auditors filed alongside F-3DPOS amendments to track which firms support which FPI DRIPs and to source language for new opinions and consents. The harvester walks each accession folder, identifies non-primary HTML/TXT files matching exhibit <TYPE> values, and links them to companyName, cik, jurisdiction, and filedAt. Output: a counsel- and auditor-attribution table plus a clause bank of opinion and consent paragraphs scoped to FPI DRIP filings.

7. Detecting substantive plan-term updates versus pure deregistrations

Transfer agents and DRIP administrators triage incoming F-3DPOS amendments by separating substantive plan-term revisions (pricing-mechanism, eligibility, share-source, fee-schedule changes) from pure deregistration filings. The classifier reads the cover-page Securities Act check-box block (Rule 462(b)/(c)/(e), General Instruction I.C.) — rendered as Unicode ballot-box glyphs ☐ / ☒ — alongside the body recital heading, and routes substantive amendments into participant-disclosure, recordkeeping, and reinvestment-logic update queues while routing deregistrations into plan-shutdown queues. Output: an amendment-classification feed driving downstream plan-administration changes.

Dataset Access

The Form F-3DPOS Files Dataset is accessible through three complementary endpoints: a public JSON index for discovery and monitoring, a full archive download, and per-container downloads for incremental retrieval. Downloads are authenticated with a sec-api API key passed as a token query parameter.

Dataset Index JSON API: https://api.sec-api.io/datasets/form-f3dpos-files.json

This endpoint returns dataset-level metadata and the complete list of available container files. The response includes the dataset name, description, last updated timestamp, earliest sample date (1998-05-01), total records, total size in bytes, the form types covered (F-3DPOS), the container format (ZIP), and the file types contained inside each container (TXT, JSON, HTML). It also provides the full dataset download URL and a containers[] array, where each entry describes a single archive with its key, downloadUrl, size, records, and updatedAt timestamp.

This endpoint does not require an API key. It can be polled to monitor which containers were refreshed in the latest run, allowing clients to download only the containers that changed since the last sync rather than refetching the entire dataset.

          1
          {
        

          2
            "datasetId": "1f13365b-9ae0-6a39-9fd1-3d6d889cfd81",
        

          3
            "datasetDownloadUrl": "https://api.sec-api.io/datasets/form-f3dpos-files.zip",
        

          4
            "name": "Form F-3DPOS Files Dataset",
        

          5
            "updatedAt": "2026-04-16T08:37:28.691Z",
        

          6
            "earliestSampleDate": "1998-05-01",
        

          7
            "totalRecords": 121,
        

          8
            "totalSize": 769216,
        

          9
            "formTypes": ["F-3DPOS"],
        

          10
            "containerFormat": "ZIP",
        

          11
            "fileTypes": ["TXT", "JSON", "HTML"],
        

          12
            "containers": [
        

          13
              {
        

          14
                "downloadUrl": "https://api.sec-api.io/datasets/form-f3dpos-files/2026/2026-03.zip",
        

          15
                "key": "2026/2026-03.zip",
        

          16
                "size": 13818,
        

          17
                "records": 2,
        

          18
                "updatedAt": "2026-04-16T08:37:28.691Z"
        

          19
              }
        

          20
            ]
        

          21
          }
        

To programmatically iterate over containers, fetch the JSON index, loop through the containers[] array, append ?token=YOUR_API_KEY to each downloadUrl, and stream each ZIP to disk. Compare each container's updatedAt against a locally tracked timestamp to download only refreshed archives.

Download Entire Dataset: https://api.sec-api.io/datasets/form-f3dpos-files.zip?token=YOUR_API_KEY

Returns the full dataset as a single ZIP archive containing every monthly container from May 1998 to the present. This endpoint requires a valid sec-api API key.

Download Single Container: https://api.sec-api.io/datasets/form-f3dpos-files/2026/2026-03.zip?token=YOUR_API_KEY

Returns one monthly container ZIP rather than the full dataset. Use the downloadUrl values from the index containers[] array to retrieve specific months. This endpoint requires a valid sec-api API key.

Each container ZIP is organized by accession number. Decompress it with any standard ZIP tool (for example unzip on the command line, zipfile in Python, or java.util.zip on the JVM). For each accession number, the archive contains a metadata.json file with filing-level fields such as CIK, company name, form type, filing date, and accession number, alongside the original EDGAR submission documents (the post-effective amendment and any attached exhibits) as TXT and HTML files. Image files are excluded. A typical workflow is to read metadata.json first to filter or index filings, then load the corresponding HTML or TXT documents for content extraction.

Frequently Asked Questions

What form does this dataset cover?

The dataset covers exactly one form type — F-3DPOS, the post-effective amendment to a Form F-3D registration statement. Form F-3D itself is the short-form registration used by foreign private issuers to register securities offered under a dividend or interest reinvestment plan; F-3DPOS is the amendment mechanism for already-effective F-3D registrations.

What does one record in this dataset represent?

One record is a single complete EDGAR submission identified by its 18-digit accession number. It is delivered as a folder containing a metadata.json manifest plus the original filed documents from that submission (the primary HTML post-effective amendment and any non-image exhibits), with image files excluded.

Who is required to file Form F-3DPOS?

The foreign private issuer that originally registered DRIP securities on Form F-3D files every post-effective amendment to that registration. Foreign private issuer status is defined under Rule 405 of the Securities Act, and the filer must also have met Form F-3 eligibility (reporting history plus public-float or transactional criteria) at the time of the underlying F-3D. Domestic issuers, Canadian MJDS issuers, and registered investment companies do not produce F-3DPOS records.

When are F-3DPOS filings made?

F-3DPOS filings are event-driven; there is no periodic deadline. They are triggered by material plan-term changes, prospectus refreshes, new or amended exhibits (such as fresh Exhibit 5 opinions or Exhibit 23 consents), successor-registrant transitions, loss of FPI or F-3 eligibility, or — most commonly in this corpus — deregistration of unsold DRIP shares following a merger, scheme of arrangement, going-private transaction, or formal plan termination.

How does F-3DPOS differ from F-3D, S-3DPOS, and POS AM?

F-3D is the original (parent) FPI DRIP registration, while F-3DPOS is the post-effective amendment to it. S-3DPOS is the domestic-issuer counterpart filed by U.S. operating companies, whereas F-3DPOS is reserved for foreign private issuers. POS AM is the generic post-effective amendment code used for non-DRIP registrations; F-3DPOS is the form-specific code reserved exclusively for amendments to F-3D filings.

What time period does the dataset cover, and what file format is it distributed in?

Coverage begins on 1998-05-01, when EDGAR began accepting these submissions, and continues to the present. The dataset is distributed as monthly ZIP containers; inside each container the file types are TXT, JSON, and HTML. Image files (logos, signature scans) referenced from the filings are excluded by dataset policy.

How should machine-extraction pipelines identify F-3DPOS filings?

Use the SGML envelope's <TYPE>F-3DPOS tag, or the formType field in metadata.json, as the authoritative form-type marker. Do not rely on the <DESCRIPTION> tag, which typically reads "POST-EFFECTIVE AMENDMENT NO. N TO FORM F-3" rather than "FORM F-3DPOS" and would otherwise cause misclassification as F-3, F-3D, or generic POS AM.