On 29/11/2023, a major private investor, client of LINNIKOV & PARTNERS, has received a notice from his Russian broker on the successful completion of the transfer to Russia of a significant portfolio of securities of Russian issuers – leading energy companies of Russia.
“Since 2022, the Belgian Euroclear, Clearstream of Luxembourg and custodians from other so-called “hostile” jurisdictions have “frozen” massive assets of Russian investors held in their foreign accounts, as well as stopped making payments on Russian securities deposited abroad. The process of transferring such securities to Russia takes a lot of time and requires coordination with European depositories and regulatory authorities,” – says Sergey Kloss, Chief financial analyst at L&P, who closely followed the documentary side of the operation.
“Significant difficulties arise in communication with the brokers and depositories, since, due to complicated counterparty verification procedures and in-depth assessment of sanctions risks, each broker sets its own requirements, terms and deadlines that cannot be challenged. Moreover, Russian and foreign brokers are overloaded with clients’ requests for transfers of securities and simply don’t have sufficient time to process them. Despite all these difficulties, we managed to return Russian securities to our client. He is now able to freely dispose of his properly, collect coupon income, and be properly paid, once the bonds in his possession reach the maturity date”, – comments attorney Anton Minakov.
