Lease rights are pledged

As Kommersant learned, the Ministry of Economy has returned to the idea of ​​allowing residents of special economic zones (SEZs) to pledge lease rights to state-owned land plots they use. This initiative is aimed at expanding the possibilities of attracting loans at the construction stage – now SEZ residents are faced with refusals to receive loans due to this restriction and are forced to either reduce the volume of the first stage of investment or look for other collateral.

The Ministry of Economy has prepared draft amendments to the law “On Special Economic Zones” and to the Land Code (available to Kommersant), which removes the ban on the transfer by SEZ residents as collateral of rental rights to land plots they use that are in state or municipal ownership. It is proposed to provide this opportunity so that SEZ residents can receive loans for the implementation of investment projects at the construction stage.

The Ministry of Economy explained to Kommersant that lease rights themselves are not a liquid asset for creditors, but the need to lift the ban is due to the fact that in order to obtain a loan at the construction stage of an object, it is necessary to pledge not only the object under construction, but also the rights to the land – in this case, rental rights. “Without collateral of lease rights to land, lenders refuse to provide debt financing to residents of the SEZ, who cannot transfer them due to the ban,” the department added.

In fact, the initiative brings the rules of land turnover in the SEZ closer to market ones. The idea itself is not new: lifting the ban was proposed back in 2022, when the bill on reforming the SEZ was discussed (see Kommersant, April 21, 2022), but these provisions were not included in the final text of the law.

As noted in the explanatory note to the project, the need of the regions and potential investors for such changes, as well as the interest of banks in them, has been “confirmed.” Lifting the ban will help attract investors to the SEZ – often the residents are new companies without assets that can only attract financing for a facility under construction.

General Director of the Lipetsk SEZ Alexander Bazaev notes that he has more than once encountered a situation where a resident could not obtain financing from a bank due to restrictions – as a result, either the volume of the first stage of investment was reduced, or the time frame for obtaining financing was extended due to the search for other collateral . Director of the Association of Clusters, Technoparks and SEZs of Russia Mikhail Labudin agrees that the mechanism will expand the possibilities of attracting loans, which is “extremely important when creating new production facilities in the SEZ aimed at import substitution.” However, he believes, at the by-law level it is necessary to clarify that if a SEZ resident fails to fulfill his loan obligations, the bank will not be able to sell rental rights at auction to any person – “the rights to the site should be transferred only to a company with resident status.” Otherwise, explains Mikhail Labudin, when the lease rights are transferred to a company outside the perimeters of the SEZ, “it will not be able to do anything in this area until it receives resident status, and an unused land plot will appear in the SEZ itself,” which will negatively affect the efficiency of the zone.

Evgenia Kryuchkova