Foreigners may hold local shares but they are not be entitled to attend shareholders meetings, receive dividends or receive rights issues. In order to get these entitlements, foreign investors may ask the Thailand Securities Depository Co., Ltd. (TSD) to convert their local shares to foreign shares. The conversion can be done if the proportion of shareholdings of Thais and aliens is within the level as required by the law. Foreign investors may also convert their local shares to a NVDR share, a new type of share, which was first issued in 2001. These shares have all the financial rights of a common share but no voting rights. There is no limitation on converting shares to NVDR.