What is Fully Paid Ordinary?

Answer 1

When it comes to trading international security you can purchase American Depository Receipts (ADRs) or Foreign ordinary shares.

American Depositary Receipts are a domestically traded security that represents claims to shares of foreign stock held in the vaults of U.S. commercial banks and entitles the shareholder to all dividends and capital gains. Most ADRs trade on the over-the-counter (OTC) market, while a few trade on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) or American Stock Exchange (AMEX).

Foreign ordinary share are the exact same shares that trade on the foreign exchange, but are given a proxy symbol to trade here with in the U.S.

You can tell the different between the two types of securities by the trading symbol. The symbol for foreign ordinary shares will always end in a "F" where as ADR symbols end "Y".

Both ACMEF and ACMEY can represent the same company, but ADR's can only be traded in the U.S., where as Foreign ordinary shares can be traded in the U.S. or routed to the foreign exchange.