MOSCOW (Reuters) – The Russian broker organising an asset swap scheme that could free up frozen funds for Russian and foreign investors said it would start accepting bids from non-resident investors for the purchase of blocked foreign securities from Monday.
Over 1 million offers were submitted by Russian retail investors during the transaction’s first stage, with a total value of 35.31 billion roubles ($391.85 million), the broker, Investitsionnaya Palata (Investment Chamber), said.
Moscow has presented the plan as a way for both Russian and foreign investors to free up assets that have been blocked by Western sanctions and Russian countermeasures since the start of the conflict in Ukraine more than two years ago.
Under the swap deal, foreign investors would have the opportunity to use funds frozen in Russia to buy the assets of Russian companies that have been immobilised in Europe – and vice versa.
“In total, approximately 60% of the foreign securities included in the pool are shares and depositary receipts of foreign issuers and approximately 40% are units of exchange-traded funds (ETFs) composed of foreign shares,” Investitisionnaya Palata said in a statement.
The broker has formed 100 lots of securities that can be bid for. The average value of the lots is 353.1 million roubles. Bids can be submitted until July 5.
Investitsionnaya Palata CEO Alexey Sedushkin told Reuters last month that he would consider the unblocking of securities worth 40-50 billion roubles a good result.
The broker is not under sanctions, but investors on both sides are wary of how trading restrictions between Russia and the West may impact any deal.
($1 = 90.1100 roubles)
(Reporting by Elena Fabrichnaya in Moscow and Alexander Marrow in London; Editing by Bernadette Baum)
