The Form F-6EF Files Dataset is a structured corpus of every Form F-6EF submission accepted by EDGAR — the auto-effective variant of Form F-6 used by depositary banks to register American Depositary Shares (ADSs) evidenced by American Depositary Receipts (ADRs) over the deposited equity of a foreign private issuer. One record corresponds to a single EDGAR accession, materialized as a self-contained folder that bundles the F-6EF registration statement, the standard exhibit set (form of ADR, opinion of U.S. counsel, Rule 466 certification, and where applicable a standalone deposit agreement and amendments), and a metadata.json index that captures the structured filing header and the dual-entity block naming the depositary as filer and the foreign private issuer as subject. Filings are made by depositary banks — predominantly The Bank of New York Mellon, Citibank N.A., JPMorgan Chase Bank N.A., and Deutsche Bank Trust Company Americas — at the moment a new sponsored or unsponsored ADR program is established, additional ADSs are registered under an existing program, or a successor depositary takes over a program. The dataset covers EDGAR F-6EF accessions from January 2002 to present and is distributed as monthly ZIP containers.
Programmatically retrieve the full list of dataset archive files, download URLs and dataset metadata.
Dataset Index JSON API
Download the entire dataset as a single archive file.
Download Entire Dataset:
Download a single container file (e.g. monthly archive) from the dataset.
Download Single Container:
The dataset materializes the full population of Form F-6EF registration statements filed on EDGAR from January 2002 forward. Each filing registers a discrete ADR program — one foreign issuer, one class of deposited securities, one depositary — and discloses the contractual mechanics of that program rather than financial information about the issuer or the depositary. The "EF" suffix designates filings that elect immediate effectiveness under Rule 466 of the Securities Act: the registration takes effect at the moment EDGAR accepts the submission, with no separate declaration of effectiveness by the staff, conditioned on the depositary having a previously effective F-6 with identical terms of deposit (other than the identity of the deposited securities and the ADS-to-ordinary-share ratio) and on the depositary's Rule 466 designation authority not being suspended.
The document is layered: a brief registration cover and signature page carry almost no narrative, while the exhibits carry essentially all substantive content (the form of ADR, the deposit agreement, counsel's legal opinion, and the Rule 466 certification). The dataset ships as monthly ZIP archives that materialize the textual and structured documents — HTML, JSON, TXT, and PDF — and a per-accession metadata.json index. Image attachments and the full SGML submission .txt envelope are referenced in metadata but deliberately not bundled.
One record is a single Form F-6EF submission as accepted by EDGAR, identified by its 18-digit accession number and materialized as a self-contained folder. The folder bundles the registration-statement document, the standard F-6EF exhibit set (form of American Depositary Receipt, opinion of U.S. counsel, Rule 466 certification, and where applicable a deposit agreement and amendments), and a metadata.json index that captures the structured filing header, the inventory of every document EDGAR received, and the two entities that always appear on an F-6 — the depositary bank acting as filer and the foreign private issuer named as subject company.
Form F-6EF is the auto-effective variant of Form F-6, a Securities Act of 1933 registration statement that registers depositary shares evidenced by American Depositary Receipts (ADRs) issued against deposited equity securities of a foreign private issuer. Substantively the filing registers a discrete ADR program — one foreign issuer, one class of deposited securities, one depositary — and discloses the contractual mechanics of that program rather than financial information about the issuer or the depositary. The document is layered: a brief registration cover and signature page carry almost no narrative, while the exhibits carry essentially all substantive content.
The dataset ships as monthly ZIP archives keyed by filing month under the path pattern <YYYY>/<YYYY-MM>.zip. Each monthly ZIP unpacks to a folder named after the month (e.g. 2025-05/); underneath that month folder there is exactly one subfolder per filing, named with the EDGAR accession number stripped of dashes (e.g. 000119380525000751). All files belonging to a filing live directly inside the accession folder with no further nesting.
Inside each accession folder the dataset materializes:
metadata.json — always present, exactly one per accession.<TYPE>F-6EF, <SEQUENCE>1).Image attachments listed under documentFormatFiles[] with <TYPE>GRAPHIC (typically depositary logos or certificate vignettes) are deliberately not bundled — the dataset materializes only the textual/structured documents. The full SGML submission .txt is referenced through linkToTxt and as a trailing documentFormatFiles[] entry but is also not bundled.
Filenames inside an accession folder are not normalized. Filers use their own conventions such as formf6ef.htm, tm2514894d1_f6ef.htm, e664572_f6ef-reece.htm, or f-6_registration_statement.htm; exhibit filenames range from descriptive (d_opinion_white_case_llp.htm, rule466.htm, depositagreement.htm) to opaque (tm2514894d1_exa.htm, e664572_ex99-d.htm). The authoritative way to classify a document is the type field on the corresponding documentFormatFiles[] entry, not the filename.
The file-types found in the dataset are HTML, JSON, TXT, and PDF. JSON appears only as metadata.json. HTML dominates the document bodies for all modern filings; TXT and PDF appear in older or atypical submissions.
metadata.json — the per-accession indexmetadata.json is the structured header for the record and the authoritative cross-reference between the dataset's flat folder of files and EDGAR's submission model. Top-level fields:
formType — fixed string "F-6EF".accessionNo — EDGAR accession in dashed canonical form (e.g. "0001193805-25-000751").filedAt — ISO-8601 timestamp with timezone offset capturing the EDGAR acceptance moment, which for an F-6EF is also the moment of effectiveness.description — constant human-readable label "Form F-6EF - Registration of American Depository Receipt shares, immediately effective".linkToFilingDetails — URL of the primary F-6EF document on EDGAR.linkToHtml — URL of EDGAR's filing-index page.linkToTxt — URL of the full SGML submission .txt.linkToXbrl — empty for F-6EF; the form does not carry XBRL data.id — internal 32-character hexadecimal identifier.documentFormatFiles[] — an ordered list of every document EDGAR received. Each entry carries sequence (its position in the submission, as a string), size in bytes (as a string), documentUrl (canonical EDGAR archive URL), type (the EDGAR document-type label, e.g. F-6EF, EX-99.(A), EX-99.(D), EX-99.(E), EX-99.1, EX-1, EX-4, EX-5, GRAPHIC), and an optional description. A trailing entry with blank sequence and blank type and description "Complete submission text file" points to the full submission .txt.dataFiles[] — empty for F-6EF.seriesAndClassesContractsInformation[] — empty for F-6EF.entities[] — the dual-entity block described next.Every F-6EF involves two distinct EDGAR entities, and entities[] always carries both as a fixed-length pair.
The first entity is the depositary bank, marked (Filed by) in companyName — typically Citibank N.A./ADR, Deutsche Bank Trust Company Americas/ADR Group, JPMorgan Chase Bank N.A./ADR Depositary, or The Bank of New York Mellon/ADR Division. Its record carries cik, companyName, stateOfIncorporation, irsNo, fiscalYearEnd, sic (commonly "8880 American Depositary Receipts"), and type (echoing "F-6EF").
The second entity is the foreign private issuer, marked (Subject) in companyName — the operating company whose ordinary shares back the ADRs (for example Reece Limited/ADR, James Hardie Industries plc, MARFRIG GLOBAL FOODS S.A., Techtronic Industries Co Limited/ADR). The Subject entity carries the same core demographic fields plus act ("33" for Securities Act registrations), fileNo (the 333-prefixed Securities Act registration number assigned to this ADR program, e.g. "333-287671"), filmNo, and frequently a tickers[] array listing the ADR symbol and any underlying ordinary-share symbol. stateOfIncorporation on the Subject is an EDGAR jurisdiction code (a two-letter U.S. state for U.S.-domiciled depositaries on the filer side; a non-U.S. country code such as "C3" for Australia, "L2" for Ireland, etc., on the Subject side).
This split — filer versus subject — is the structural signature of an F-6: the depositary is the legal registrant, but the regulated identity for the registration program is the foreign issuer.
Every HTML document in the dataset is wrapped in EDGAR's SGML <DOCUMENT> envelope before the actual HTML body:
1
<DOCUMENT>
2
<TYPE>EX-99.(D)
3
<SEQUENCE>3
4
<FILENAME>e664572_ex99-d.htm
5
<TEXT>
6
<html>... (full HTML body) ...</html>
7
</TEXT>
8
</DOCUMENT>
The wrapper exposes <TYPE> (matching documentFormatFiles[].type), <SEQUENCE> (matching the sequence number), <FILENAME> (matching the filename inside the accession folder), and frequently a <DESCRIPTION> line such as EXHIBIT (A) or OPINION OF COUNSEL. Inside <TEXT>...</TEXT> is the document HTML — typically legacy tag-cased markup with uppercase <TABLE>, <TR>, and inline <P STYLE=...> constructs. Consumers should strip or recognize the SGML wrapper before treating the content as standalone HTML, or feed the file through an SGML-tolerant reader rather than a strict HTML parser.
The F-6EF document itself is short — the substantive contract content is exhibitised. The cover/facing page reads FORM F-6 / REGISTRATION STATEMENT / UNDER / THE SECURITIES ACT OF 1933 FOR DEPOSITARY SHARES EVIDENCED BY / AMERICAN DEPOSITARY RECEIPTS and identifies, in tabular and inline form:
The cover-page items are followed by a brief description-of-securities cross-reference (typically incorporating the form of ADR by reference rather than restating it), the signatures of the depositary's authorized officers and of the foreign issuer's authorized U.S. representative, and an exhibit index that enumerates each attached exhibit under the F-6 exhibit lettering scheme.
The substance of an F-6EF lives in its exhibits. Form F-6's exhibit table designates exhibits by parenthesized letter; EDGAR receives them under document types EX-99.(A), EX-99.(D), EX-99.(E), etc., or under sequential numeric labels (EX-1, EX-4, EX-5) depending on filer convention. The standard composition:
Exhibit (A) — Form of American Depositary Receipt (EX-99.(A) or EX-1). Almost always the largest document in the filing (commonly 60 KB to several hundred KB). It opens with the engraved-style NUMBER / AMERICAN DEPOSITARY SHARES certificate header and reproduces the full text of the ADR. Embedded inside the form of ADR, in most modern programs, is the entire deposit agreement among the depositary, the foreign issuer, and all holders and beneficial owners of ADRs from time to time, governing: deposit and withdrawal mechanics for the underlying securities; issuance and cancellation of ADSs; voting of deposited securities; dividend, distribution, and rights mechanics; charges and fees of the depositary (issuance, cancellation, distribution, and servicing fees); transfer and surrender procedures; pre-release; tax and FATCA mechanics; amendment and termination; governing law and jurisdiction; and limitations on liability of the depositary and the issuer.
Exhibit (B) — Underlying contracts, where applicable, reproducing any pre-existing depositary or custodian arrangements that govern the deposited securities.
Exhibit (C) — Documents establishing the deposited securities, where required by the form's instructions.
Exhibit (D) — Opinion of U.S. counsel (EX-99.(D) or EX-4). A short legal opinion (typically a few kilobytes) addressed to the depositary, opining that the ADSs, when issued against deposit of the underlying securities and against payment of the relevant fees, will be legally issued and will entitle holders to the rights specified in the form of ADR and the deposit agreement. Names the issuing law firm (e.g. Patterson Belknap Webb & Tyler LLP, White & Case LLP, Emmet, Marvin & Martin LLP) and is dated as of the filing date.
Exhibit (E) — Rule 466 certification (EX-99.(E) or EX-5). A short certification by the depositary required for auto-effective F-6EF treatment, asserting that the depositary has previously had an F-6 declared effective with terms of deposit identical to those in the present filing other than the identity of the foreign issuer and the deposited-share-to-ADS ratio, and that the depositary's ability to designate the registration as immediately effective under Rule 466 has not been suspended. Signed by an officer or attorney-in-fact for the depositary.
Optional additional exhibits. Some programs reference a master form of deposit agreement that exists separately from the form of ADR, in which case the deposit agreement and any amendments appear as standalone exhibits — frequently labeled EX-99.1 (amended and restated deposit agreement), EX-99.2 (amendment number 1), and so on — alongside the standard (A)/(D)/(E) lettered set.
What the record includes:
metadata.json;What the record does not include:
GRAPHIC entries in documentFormatFiles[]), listed in metadata but excluded from the ZIP;.txt envelope, referenced through linkToTxt and as a trailing documentFormatFiles[] entry but not bundled per accession;dataFiles[] and linkToXbrl are always empty.The documentFormatFiles[] listing is the canonical inventory of the submission — including the excluded image and submission-text entries — so a consumer can always reconcile what was filed against what the dataset materializes.
Form F-6EF's substantive disclosure model has been stable across the dataset's coverage: Rule 466's auto-effective mechanism, the (A)/(B)/(C)/(D)/(E) exhibit lettering, and the dual depositary/foreign-issuer registrant structure are unchanged in form. What has evolved is the document-format profile of the filings and the texture of the deposit agreements riding inside Exhibit (A).
entities[] as a fixed-length pair: depositary bank ((Filed by)) and foreign issuer ((Subject)). The 333- registration number, film number, and ADR tickers live on the Subject entity; the SIC code 8880 and U.S. depositary identifiers live on the Filed-by entity.type, not filename. Filenames such as tm2514894d1_exa.htm, e664572_ex99-d.htm, or rule466.htm are filer-chosen and not normalized; map documents to roles via documentFormatFiles[].type and the <TYPE> in the SGML wrapper.EX-99.(A), EX-99.(D), EX-99.(E)) and a numeric scheme (EX-1, EX-4, EX-5); both refer to the same Form F-6 exhibit roles. When a deposit agreement is filed standalone, it commonly appears as EX-99.1 with subsequent amendments as EX-99.2, EX-99.3, etc. Consumers should normalize across these conventions.<DOCUMENT> envelope; the wrapper's <TYPE>, <SEQUENCE>, and <FILENAME> are redundant with metadata.json but useful for in-stream classification when a document is processed without its companion metadata.Each record is a Form F-6EF registration statement filed on EDGAR by a depositary bank as the registrant and statutory issuer of the ADSs. Although the underlying equity is issued by a foreign company, the ADSs are a separate security under U.S. law, and it is the depositary — not the foreign company — that registers them under Securities Act Section 5.
The foreign company whose shares are deposited is named on the cover page as the "subject company" (or "issuer of the deposited securities") and must qualify as a foreign private issuer under Rule 405 of the Securities Act and Rule 3b-4 of the Exchange Act. The subject company is described in the filing but does not sign it and is not the registrant. The depositary signs, certifies, pays the Section 6(b) fee, and assumes Section 11 liability for the registration of the ADSs.
Filings are dominated by the four banks that handle most U.S. depositary business — The Bank of New York Mellon, Citibank, N.A., JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A., and Deutsche Bank Trust Company Americas — with a small tail of other institutions that occasionally sponsor or assume ADR programs.
Form F-6 is the dedicated registration form for ADSs evidenced by ADRs that meet the eligibility conditions in General Instruction I to Form F-6: (i) the ADR holder may withdraw the deposited securities at any time, subject only to limited exceptions; (ii) the deposited securities are issued or guaranteed by a foreign issuer; and (iii) as of the filing date, the issuer of the deposited securities is either an Exchange Act reporting company or is exempt under Rule 12g3-2(b), or the program otherwise meets the relevant program-tier standard.
Form F-6EF is not a separate form in substance. It is the auto-effective variant of Form F-6 filed in reliance on Rule 466 under the Securities Act (17 CFR 230.466). The "EF" suffix means the depositary has designated the registration statement to become effective immediately upon filing, without staff action. Disclosure, exhibit, and signature requirements remain those of Form F-6; Rule 466 governs only the mechanics of effectiveness.
Rule 466 requires all of the following:
Where any condition fails — typically a depositary's first F-6 or a materially novel program structure — the depositary must file standard Form F-6 and wait for the Commission to declare effectiveness under Section 8(a) of the Securities Act.
A Form F-6EF filing arises from one of these depositary-program events:
Routine administrative or fee-schedule changes that do not register additional ADSs are normally handled through a post-effective amendment (form type F-6 POS), not a new F-6EF.
The depositary computes the Section 6(b) fee on the registration fee table under Rule 457(k), which for Form F-6 bases the fee on the proposed maximum aggregate offering price of the ADSs registered — commonly the number of ADSs multiplied by a nominal per-ADS amount (often $5.00), reflecting the depositary's issuance-fee economics rather than the market value of the underlying foreign shares. The fee is paid via the SEC's lockbox or Fedwire process, with wire confirmation referenced in the filing.
The registration statement is signed by the depositary as registrant, by an authorized officer of the depositary, and by directors or officers as required by the Form F-6 signature instructions. In contrast to F-1, F-3, F-4, and similar forms, the foreign private issuer does not sign Form F-6EF. Section 11 liability for the registration statement attaches to the depositary and its signing persons; the subject company is described but is not a registrant.
Under Rule 466(a), a properly designated F-6EF is effective immediately upon filing, with no Section 8(a) order. The EDGAR accession timestamp marks effectiveness, and the depositary may immediately issue ADSs against deposits of the underlying securities.
Form F-6 was adopted in 1983 (Securities Act Release No. 33-6459) to consolidate ADR registration onto a dedicated form, with Rule 466 adopted shortly afterward to allow auto-effectiveness for depositaries operating from established templates. Pre-EDGAR filings exist only on paper. The dataset captures EDGAR F-6EF accessions from January 2002 forward, by which point depositary ADR registrations had become uniformly electronic. Each accession represents one auto-effective registration event by a depositary, with its deposit agreement, form of ADR, Rule 466(a)(2) Exhibit (e) certification, opinion of counsel, consents, and registration fee table.
Form F-6EF's narrow scope — Securities Act registration of depositary shares evidenced by ADRs, made auto-effective under Rule 466 — places it next to several adjacent filings that are easy to confuse on form-number or subject-matter grounds. The comparisons below sharpen the boundaries.
Same form, same disclosure content (description of depositary shares, form of ADR certificate, deposit agreement, fees, holder rights), filed by the same depositary bank. The only difference is procedural: a plain F-6 goes through SEC review and requires a separate declaration of effectiveness, while F-6EF invokes the Rule 466 election for same-day effectiveness (available when the depositary's prior F-6 for that issuer is already effective or other Rule 466 conditions are met). Use F-6EF for the auto-effective subset; use F-6 for filings that went through standard review. Together they cover the full population of original ADR registrations.
Form F-6/A is a pre-effective amendment to a pending F-6; Form F-6 POS is a post-effective amendment to an already-effective F-6 or F-6EF, typically filed to modify the deposit agreement, raise the registered cap on depositary shares, or change other ADR-program terms. Neither establishes a new program. F-6EF tells you when an ADR program was created; F-6 POS tells you how its terms evolved afterward.
Filed by the foreign operating company, not the depositary. Contains audited financials, MD&A, risk factors, and governance disclosure about the underlying issuer. It references the ADR program but does not register depositary shares. Use Form 20-F for the issuer's business and financials; use F-6EF for the structure, economics, and legal mechanics of the ADR vehicle (fees, ratios, depositary identity, holder rights).
Securities Act registrations filed by the foreign issuer for its own equity, debt, or deal consideration: Form F-1 is the long-form IPO/initial registration, Form F-3 the seasoned-issuer shelf, Form F-4 the M&A and exchange-offer form. The decisive distinction is the security being registered. F-1/F-3/F-4 register the underlying foreign-issuer shares or notes. F-6EF registers the ADR wrapper that evidences deposits of those shares. A registered US offering of a foreign issuer's equity in ADR form typically involves both: an F-1 or F-3 for the underlying shares plus an F-6/F-6EF for the ADRs. Use F-1/F-3/F-4 for prospectus content, use of proceeds, and underwriting; use F-6EF for the depositary mechanics.
Annual notice under the Investment Company Act of 1940 filed by open-end funds and UITs to report shares sold and remit registration fees. Different statute, different filer, different subject. Listed here only because researchers occasionally confuse the form numbers; there is no substantive overlap with Form 24F-2 and F-6EF.
Exemption from Section 12(g) Exchange Act registration for foreign private issuers that post home-country disclosure electronically. Submissions under 12g3-2(b) make foreign-language or home-jurisdiction materials accessible to US investors but register no securities. A 12g3-2(b) issuer can have an unsponsored ADR program (registered on F-6 by the depositary) without ever filing 20-F, and unsponsored ADRs commonly coexist with 12g3-2(b) reliance. Use 12g3-2(b) materials for unregistered home-country disclosure; use F-6EF for the ADR registration itself.
Form CB notifies the SEC of cross-border tender offers, rights offers, and business combinations involving foreign issuers. Form 425 carries prospectus and written communications in registered business combinations. Schedule 13D and Schedule 13G report beneficial ownership above 5% of a registered class. All are event-driven; none register ADRs. A tender offer for a foreign issuer's ADRs will generate CB, 425, and possibly 13D filings, but the ADR program being tendered for was originally registered on F-6 or F-6EF. Use these for transactional and ownership analysis; use F-6EF for the existence and terms of the ADR vehicle.
Form 8-A is the short-form Exchange Act registration used to register a class for listing on a national securities exchange. The exchange listing itself (NYSE Listed Company Manual, Nasdaq Rule 5000 series) is handled through a separate exchange application. F-6EF is the Securities Act leg, registering the depositary shares for issuance. Form 8-A is the Exchange Act leg, registering the class for listing. Level I sponsored ADRs trade OTC and are registered on F-6/F-6EF without an 8-A. Use F-6EF to identify all SEC-registered ADR programs; use 8-A plus exchange materials to identify the exchange-listed subset.
F-6EF is the only filing that captures, at the moment of auto-effective registration under Rule 466, the full deposit-agreement-level architecture of an ADR program: depositary identity, underlying issuer and class, ADR-to-share ratio, fee schedule, and holder rights. It is narrower than 20-F and F-1/F-3/F-4 (which cover the underlying issuer or its primary offerings), distinct from F-6 POS and F-6/A (which amend rather than originate), and entirely separate from event-driven cross-border deal filings, ownership schedules, and exchange listing materials. For questions about ADR program terms at inception under Rule 466, F-6EF is not substitutable by any neighboring dataset.
The dataset serves a narrow set of professional users, each keyed to specific parts of the record.
Capital markets associates and partners advising depositaries, foreign private issuers, and underwriters use the dataset as a precedent bank for new and amended deposit agreements. They diff fee schedules (issuance, cancellation, cash-distribution, ADS-services), pre-release limits, voting-instruction mechanics, governing law, and tax pass-through language across peer programs. Most-referenced fields: the deposit agreement fee schedule, the form of ADR, and the ADR-to-deposited-security ratio. Output: redlines, precedent libraries, and negotiation memos.
Depositary-bank product, operations, and legal groups monitor competitors' filings to track fee-schedule drift, template revisions, and program wins, losses, and depositary transfers. Operations focuses on ratio changes, cash-handling, and pre-release language; product tracks fees over time and by jurisdiction (via EDGAR jurisdiction codes); legal flags novel sanctions, tax, and corporate-action provisions. Workflow: pricing models, issuer RFP responses, and migration analyses.
Securities counsel at non-US issuers considering a US listing or restructuring an existing program use the dataset to see what the depositary will file on their behalf, what the standard fee schedule looks like for jurisdiction and industry peers, and where atypical provisions (rights offerings, non-cash distributions, mandatory exchanges) have been negotiated. They read the deposit agreement, the form of receipt, and cover-page metadata to identify peer depositary choices.
Bankers and underwriters' counsel structuring ADR-backed offerings coordinate F-6EF with the F-1 or F-3 and the exchange listing application. They confirm the ADR ratio and underlying-share denomination support the intended offer size, that the deposit agreement supports the distribution mechanics, and that the Exhibit (E) Rule 466 certification and signatures properly invoke the auto-effective path.
Counsel issuing the validity opinion on the depositary shares pull the dataset for precedent opinions on analogous structures and for the form currently accepted by staff. The Exhibit (D) opinion, the deposit agreement governing-law clause, and the form of ADR are the central inputs. Output: the closing validity opinion.
Data engineering teams at securities reference-data vendors and academic researchers studying cross-listings and ADR economics build structured universes of sponsored ADRs from the corpus. They parse metadata.json for filer CIK, filing date, and accession number; extract depositary name, ADR ratio, and deposited-security identifier from the registration statement; and mine the fee schedule for cost-of-cross-listing studies.
Index research teams maintaining ADR indices and managers running ADR strategies or ETFs use the dataset to identify newly registered sponsored ADRs, separate sponsored from unsponsored programs, and detect terminations or restructurings affecting index membership. Cover-page metadata, the deposited-security list, and the ratio drive eligibility, free-float adjustments, and basket construction.
Product-onboarding and compliance teams confirming an ADR is registered under the Securities Act and eligible for unrestricted US retail sale verify the existence of an effective F-6EF. They key on metadata.json (filer, accession, filing date) and the Exhibit (E) Rule 466 certification as evidence of effectiveness, supporting product-eligibility decisions and sponsored-versus-unsponsored surveillance.
Filing agents and paralegals preparing F-6EF submissions reuse recent filings as templates, focusing on cover-page formatting, exhibit indexing, signature blocks, EDGAR header tagging, jurisdiction codes, and each depositary's most current standard deposit-agreement language. The dataset cuts preparation time and reduces formatting rejections.
Merger-arbitrage and special-situations desks tracking going-private transactions, schemes of arrangement, mandatory exchanges, and dual-listing changes affecting foreign private issuers read deposit-agreement provisions that govern how such events flow through to ADR holders: conversion mechanics, cash-out terms, and notice requirements. This drives trade structuring on ADR-listed targets.
In aggregate, drafting counsel, depositary banks, and issuers work the deposit agreement and fee schedule; deal teams and opinion counsel work Exhibit (D), Exhibit (E), and signatures; index, asset-management, and brokerage teams work metadata and the ADR ratio; vendors, researchers, and filing agents work the full structured corpus. Each group reads a different slice of the same record.
Concrete workflows that researchers, counsel, depositary teams, deal teams, index providers, and compliance groups run against the F-6EF corpus. Each use case names the question being answered, the parts of the record it draws on, and how the workflow proceeds.
ADR program counsel and depositary product teams compare issuance, cancellation, cash-distribution, and ADS-services fees across peer programs to support fee benchmarking and new-program negotiation. The workflow extracts the fee table from inside Exhibit (A) (form of ADR / embedded deposit agreement), or from the standalone deposit agreement when filed as EX-99.1, and pivots fees by depositary (entities[0].companyName on the Filed-by side), Subject jurisdiction (stateOfIncorporation on the Subject), and filedAt year. Output: redline-ready fee comparables and a depositary-by-depositary fee-drift time series.
Reference-data vendors, ADR-focused portfolio managers, and academic researchers studying cross-listings build a master list of every Rule 466 auto-effective ADR program. The pipeline reads metadata.json for accessionNo, filedAt, the depositary CIK on entities[] (Filed by), the foreign-issuer CIK and fileNo (333- number) on (Subject), and the ADR / underlying tickers on tickers[], then parses the F-6EF cover page for the ADR-to-ordinary-share ratio and the registered ADS amount. Output: a clean issuer-depositary-ratio-fee-number panel keyed on accession.
Index research teams maintaining ADR indices and ETF managers detect newly registered sponsored programs and separate sponsored from unsponsored. The job pulls month-level ZIPs as they land, filters on formType == "F-6EF" and the presence of an Exhibit (E) Rule 466 certification, joins the cover-page ADR ratio and registered-ADS amount, and emits add/drop candidates plus float-adjustment factors. Combined with later F-6 POS amendments it also surfaces ratio changes that trigger basket rebalances.
Broker-dealer product and compliance teams confirming that an ADR is Securities Act-registered and eligible for unrestricted US retail distribution verify the existence of an effective F-6EF for that depositary-issuer pair. The check keys on metadata.json (accessionNo, filedAt, Subject fileNo, depositary CIK) and the presence of EX-99.(E) / EX-5 Rule 466 certification signed by the depositary, with filedAt taken as the effectiveness moment. Output: a positive or negative eligibility flag attached to the ADR security master.
Merger-arbitrage and special-situations analysts tracking going-private offers, schemes of arrangement, and mandatory exchanges affecting foreign private issuers read the ADR-holder mechanics directly out of Exhibit (A). They locate the deposit-agreement sections governing tender offers procedures, cash-out treatment, voting instructions, distribution-of-rights, and notice periods, then map them onto the deal timeline. Output: deal-flow models for ADR-listed targets and trade-structuring memos that account for the depositary's intermediary role.
EDGAR filing agents, financial printers, and capital-markets associates preparing a new F-6EF reuse recent filings by the same depositary as templates. They pull the latest accession for the chosen depositary, copy cover-page formatting, exhibit indexing, EDGAR header tags (<TYPE>, <SEQUENCE>, <FILENAME>), jurisdiction codes, and the depositary's current standard deposit-agreement text from Exhibit (A), and use the prior Exhibit (D) opinion and Exhibit (E) certification as form starting points. Output: a drafting-ready submission package and a reduced rate of EDGAR formatting rejections.
Outside counsel writing the Exhibit (D) validity opinion on a new ADR program search the corpus for precedent opinions on analogous structures (same depositary, same governing law, similar deposited-security class). The query targets documentFormatFiles[].type == "EX-99.(D)" or EX-4, joined to the form-of-ADR governing-law clause inside Exhibit (A) and to the issuing firm's name on the opinion. Output: a curated set of precedent opinions feeding the closing validity opinion.
Depositary product strategy and competitive-intelligence teams measure new-program wins, losses, and depositary-of-record changes. The analysis groups records by Filed-by depositary and Subject CIK, joins with subsequent F-6 POS amendments to detect changes in fees or registered amount, and joins with later F-6/F-6EF filings naming a different depositary for the same Subject as evidence of program migration. Output: quarterly market-share dashboards and a migration log keyed on Subject CIK.
Researchers studying ADR economics, unsponsored-program waves, and the post-Rule 12g3-2(b) 2008 cohort assemble panels of ADR programs with their economic terms. They join the dataset against the Subject's 20-F filings (where one exists) and against home-market price data, using F-6EF fields for the registration date, ratio, registered ADS amount, and depositary identity, and the Exhibit (A) fee schedule for cross-listing-cost regressions. Output: papers on cross-listing premia, fee competition, and home-bias effects.
Broker-dealer AML and surveillance teams distinguishing sponsored from unsponsored ADR programs use the dual-entity structure plus the deposit agreement's signatory block. Sponsored programs carry the foreign issuer as a counter-signatory inside Exhibit (A) and on the F-6EF signature page; unsponsored programs are signed by the depositary and its agent only. Output: a sponsored/unsponsored flag attached to each ADR symbol and feeding suitability and supervisory routines.
The Form F-6EF Files Dataset covers filings from January 2002 to present, packaged as monthly ZIP containers. Each container holds the original EDGAR submission documents (HTML, TXT, PDF) and a JSON metadata file per accession number. There are three ways to access the data.
Dataset Index JSON API: https://api.sec-api.io/datasets/form-f6ef-files.json
Returns dataset-level metadata (name, description, last updated timestamp, earliest sample date, total records, total size, form types, container format, file types), the full dataset download URL, and the list of all monthly container files with per-container size, record count, updated timestamp, and download URL. Poll this endpoint to detect which containers changed in the most recent refresh and download only the affected slices. This endpoint does not require an API key.
Example response:
1
{
2
"datasetId": "1f13365b-9ae0-6925-9a73-55cfbb82028a",
3
"datasetDownloadUrl": "https://api.sec-api.io/datasets/form-f6ef-files.zip",
4
"name": "Form F-6EF Files Dataset",
5
"updatedAt": "2026-04-25T03:02:47.848Z",
6
"earliestSampleDate": "2002-01-01",
7
"totalRecords": 31361,
8
"totalSize": 230612573,
9
"formTypes": ["F-6EF"],
10
"containerFormat": "ZIP",
11
"fileTypes": ["HTML", "JSON", "TXT", "PDF"],
12
"containers": [
13
{
14
"downloadUrl": "https://api.sec-api.io/datasets/form-f6ef-files/2026/2026-04.zip",
15
"key": "2026/2026-04.zip",
16
"size": 1843221,
17
"records": 47,
18
"updatedAt": "2026-04-25T03:02:47.848Z"
19
}
20
]
21
}
Download Entire Dataset: https://api.sec-api.io/datasets/form-f6ef-files.zip?token=YOUR_API_KEY
Downloads every monthly container as one ZIP archive covering the full date range from January 2002 to present. Use this for a one-shot bulk load of the complete corpus. This endpoint requires an API key.
Download Single Container: https://api.sec-api.io/datasets/form-f6ef-files/2026/2026-04.zip?token=YOUR_API_KEY
Downloads one monthly ZIP container, which is the most efficient option when only a specific month or date slice is needed, or when incrementally syncing newly updated months identified via the index API. Replace the year and month path segments to target a different period. This endpoint requires an API key.
One record represents a single Form F-6EF submission accepted by EDGAR, identified by its 18-digit accession number and materialized as a self-contained folder containing the F-6EF registration-statement HTML, the standard exhibit set (form of ADR, opinion of U.S. counsel, Rule 466 certification, and where applicable a standalone deposit agreement and amendments), and a metadata.json index. Each record corresponds to one auto-effective ADR program registration event — one foreign issuer, one class of deposited securities, one depositary.
Form F-6EF is filed by a depositary bank — predominantly The Bank of New York Mellon, Citibank N.A., JPMorgan Chase Bank N.A., or Deutsche Bank Trust Company Americas — as the registrant and statutory issuer of the ADSs. The foreign private issuer whose shares are deposited is named on the cover page as the "subject company" but does not sign the registration statement and is not the registrant; Section 11 liability attaches to the depositary and its signing persons.
Both forms have identical disclosure, exhibit, and signature requirements, and both are Securities Act registration statements for ADSs evidenced by ADRs. The difference is procedural: Form F-6 goes through SEC staff review and requires a separate declaration of effectiveness under Section 8(a), while Form F-6EF invokes Rule 466 to take effect immediately upon EDGAR acceptance — conditioned on the depositary having a previously effective F-6 with no material variation other than the identity of the deposited securities and the ADS-to-share ratio. The presence of an Exhibit (E) Rule 466 certification is the structural marker that distinguishes F-6EF from a standard F-6.
Almost all substantive content lives in the exhibits, not in the F-6EF document itself. Exhibit (A) — the form of American Depositary Receipt (EX-99.(A) or EX-1) — is typically the largest document in the filing and embeds the full deposit agreement governing deposit/withdrawal mechanics, ADS issuance and cancellation, voting, dividends and rights, depositary fees, pre-release, FATCA tax mechanics, and amendment and termination. Any extraction targeting fees, voting rights, withdrawal rights, or deposit mechanics must operate on Exhibit (A) (and any standalone deposit-agreement exhibits filed as EX-99.1/EX-99.2), not on the F-6EF cover document.
The dataset covers EDGAR F-6EF accessions from January 2002 forward and is distributed as monthly ZIP containers under the path pattern <YYYY>/<YYYY-MM>.zip. Each accession unpacks to a folder named with the accession number stripped of dashes, containing a metadata.json index plus the registration-statement and exhibit documents in HTML, TXT, or PDF. JSON appears only as metadata.json; HTML dominates the document bodies for modern filings, with TXT and PDF appearing in older or atypical submissions.
entities[] block?Every F-6EF involves two distinct EDGAR entities, and entities[] always carries both as a fixed-length pair. The first entity is the depositary bank, marked (Filed by) in companyName and carrying SIC code 8880. The second entity is the foreign private issuer, marked (Subject), which carries the 333-prefixed Securities Act file number, the film number, the non-U.S. jurisdiction code, and frequently a tickers[] array with the ADR symbol and any underlying ordinary-share symbol. This split — filer versus subject — is the structural signature of an F-6: the depositary is the legal registrant, but the regulated identity for the registration program is the foreign issuer.
No. Image attachments listed under documentFormatFiles[] with <TYPE>GRAPHIC (typically depositary logos or certificate vignettes) are referenced in metadata.json but are not bundled in the ZIP. The full SGML submission .txt envelope is referenced through linkToTxt and as a trailing documentFormatFiles[] entry but is also not bundled per accession. The documentFormatFiles[] listing remains the canonical inventory of the submission, so a consumer can reconcile what was filed against what the dataset materializes.
Form 20-F is the foreign private issuer's annual report, filed by the operating company and containing audited financials, MD&A, risk factors, and governance disclosure about the underlying issuer. Forms F-1, F-3, and F-4 are Securities Act registrations filed by the foreign issuer to register the underlying foreign-issuer shares or notes. Form F-6EF, by contrast, registers the ADR wrapper that evidences deposits of those shares — capturing depositary identity, the ADR-to-share ratio, fee schedule, and holder rights at the moment of auto-effective registration. A registered U.S. offering of a foreign issuer's equity in ADR form typically involves both an F-1 or F-3 for the underlying shares and an F-6/F-6EF for the ADR program.