For the first time, blocked assets were released for a group of investors

As Kommersant learned, the first public example of unlocking assets abroad has appeared in practice based on a collective application submitted by a management company (MC) – for 250 clients in total for more than $33 million. The procedure for obtaining such a license is similar to an individual one, but from -due to a large number of participants, applications are more difficult to implement. On most collective management applications, European treasuries have not yet made decisions or have so far given refusals.

The Delcredere Bar Association told Kommersant that last week they received a license based on a collective application to unlock assets. The company explained that a positive response from the Belgian Treasury came at the request of a “large Russian management company”, refusing to disclose the name. The amount of unlocked assets (foreign bonds and shares, depositary receipts, structured notes and cash) exceeded $33 million.

This is the first officially known case of a license based on a collective application, emphasized Andrey Timchuk, co-head of the sanctions practice of the Delcredere Bar Association. “The received license makes it possible to unfreeze the assets of a total of more than 250 of our clients,” he clarified. “These are both individuals and legal entities.”

In recent months, the Belgian Ministry of Finance has already issued several similar licenses, but on individual applications, both to individuals and legal entities (see Kommersant of June 28). Last week, Fontvielle Investment Company reported that it had received permission from the regulator to transfer blocked client assets held in NSD’s Euroclear account to an account in a foreign bank.

According to AB NSP partner Alexander Nektorov, most of the individual licenses received relate to applicants who have a European presence (residence permit/permanent residence permit or passport of an EU member state). But there are also licenses that are obtained by investors without a foreign residence permit.

Collective requests for a license to unlock assets were submitted by professional participants in the Russian market to the Ministries of Finance of Luxembourg and Belgium at the end of 2022 and the beginning of 2023. For the most part, decisions on such requests have not yet been made.

“At the moment, we have not received any response,” said Oleg Goransky, director of legal affairs at Pervaya Management Company. According to Dmitry Lesnov, head of the client service development department of Finam Financial Group, only one message was received, back in the spring – in fact, that the application had been received.

Several market participants received refusals – in particular, in Belgium, the applications of Alfa Capital and Digital Broker were rejected. “Objections and a request to reconsider the decision were sent to the Treasury itself, and an administrative complaint about the refusal to unblock was also filed with the higher State Council of Belgium in compliance with the procedure and deadlines for such an appeal,” Alfa Capital explained.

The low speed of consideration of collective applications may be due to the large number of requests to the Ministries of Finance of Belgium and Luxembourg and their slowness. According to Alexander Nektorov, Russian investors submitted several thousand applications (collective and individual).

Group applications are more difficult to implement due to the larger number of interested parties within the application. “One of the requirements (of obtaining a license.— “Kommersant”) is that the assets must remain within the EU. It is much easier for one person to open an account in the EU than to do this for all participants in a collective application,” explains Andrey Timchuk.

As Andrey Trifonov, manager of private investment funds Gloveq & Eagle Management, notes, the process of considering collective applications is complicated by the introduction of sanctions against a number of banks and brokers. As a result, Mr. Trifonov notes, more and more investors “decide to take matters into their own hands and send an individual application on their own or through a bank or broker.”

In the current situation, professional participants are exploring the possibility of filing claims against Euroclear in Russian courts. In July, Management Company Pervaya filed a lawsuit against Euroclear in the Moscow Arbitration Court. Oleg Goransky says that if applications for unblocking are refused, claims will be filed in EU courts. Management Company “Pervaya” promises to use “other mechanisms for protecting the rights of clients”, without specifying details.

Vitaly Gaidaev