Unlocking of assets is delayed – Kommersant FM

Unlocking of assets is delayed – Kommersant FM

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Unlocking investors’ assets may take until 2025. This was stated by the director of the department of investment financial intermediaries of the Central Bank of the Russian Federation Olga Shishlyannikova at the conference “Financial Market. New guidelines in a changing world”, which was organized by Kommersant. The regulator’s representative recalled that in 2023 the president signed a decree that provides for the payment of frozen income from funds received in type “I” accounts.

According to Shishlyannikova, NSD has already begun similar operations, and the money will arrive gradually. Investors of the first and partially second stages received payments on frozen securities, Olga Shishlyannikova said:

“The remaining investors are waiting for new income to flow into these accounts, through which they will continue to compensate for losses. Decree No. 844 provides for the possibility of repurchasing blocked foreign securities from retail investors. At the end of 2023, the Bank of Russia adopted the necessary decisions of the board of directors that regulate how this should proceed.

Already in 2024, the powers of the commission’s rights to accept the terms of such buybacks were added. We expect that in the near future the legal commission will consider and adopt such documents, then we will move from the theoretical side of this issue to the practical. Much will depend on whether foreign investors who have money in “C” accounts, through which it is expected to buy back such assets, will come, and how involved they will be.

We have some expectations based on the negotiations that have already taken place. We think that foreign investors still have interest in this project. This means that, in aggregate, a fairly large amount of small investments will be released from the lock-up.”

As the Central Bank noted, it is now impossible to exchange all blocked assets; there are simply not enough funds in type “C” accounts for this. But the interest from foreigners is not as high as the Central Bank claims, noted Dmitry Lesnov, head of the client service development department of the Financial Group Finam:

“Based on open sources, we cannot confirm that foreign investors have any great interest in this exchange, while we have the opposite information. Many refuse due to the difficulties associated with obtaining additional permission from local regulators.

As for the postponement, of course, when it was announced that it would be January-February 2024, it was hard to believe, because it is almost impossible to create a large enough infrastructure to carry out exchanges in such a short time. Therefore, thoughts about transference seem quite natural and logical.

Let’s hope that we still don’t know all the information, and there are some major foreign participants. As for the lack of funds, in principle, it was clear in advance that the ratio of assets of Russian investors blocked in foreign depositories and assets blocked in type “C” accounts is not in favor of Russian investors.”

Foreign investors are confused not only by the complex rules, but also by the terms of the exchange itself. In its current form, the proposed scheme does not look attractive, believes Andrey Timchuk, co-head of the sanctions practice of the Delcredere Bar Association: “We can agree with the brokers that we are not seeing that much interest from foreigners.

Firstly, because, most likely, they will have to obtain permission for such an unlocking from their regulators. Secondly, the size of the portfolios that they can buy back is quite small. The limit for one Russian investor is 100 thousand rubles, and in order to buy out a portfolio, you need to take on certain risks, incur some expenses, participate in the established bidding procedure, and all this in order to buy out such small briefcase. And the more portfolios, the more difficulties and risks.”

The Moscow Exchange also told Kommersant about its plans at the conference; in 2024, the platform expects more than 20 primary and secondary placements of securities. Last year there were 13 such transactions.


Everything is clear with us – Telegram channel “Kommersant FM”.

Maria Shirokova, Ivan Koryakin

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