Russian President Vladimir Putin has approved new legislation banning the holding of shares of Russian companies on foreign stock exchanges abroad.
Russian President Vladimir Putin this week dropped another bomb on Russian oligarchs, informing them that they could no longer list their memberships on foreign exchanges, Bloomberg reported today. Putin signed a memorandum of understanding on April 16, in which Russian companies are required to delete the listings of their shares on world stock exchanges within 10 days. In doing so, Putin ended the move that had already begun with the invasion of the Crimean peninsula in 2014.
The new law will force Russian tycoons to redefine the ownership structure in businesses they hold in part by foreign stocks, which pay dividends in foreign currency. Since the invasion of Ukraine most of the world stock exchanges have frozen trading in ETFs of Russian companies. Western sanctions on banks, companies, assets and even on Russia’s foreign exchange reserves have lowered the value of Russian companies traded on foreign exchange exchanges to the floor.
Now, according to a report in News 12, these companies will have to delete their listings by April 26. Companies will be able to request special permission not to do so. The foreign holders of the revoked ETFs will receive shares of the company in their place, and due to the bans on foreigners selling Russian financial assets they will also not be able to trade in them at this time.
“The rights of shareholders who trust Russia and who have invested in Russian markets for many years are violated,” Russian steel tycoon Vladimir Lessin said in an interview, referring to the legislation. “They have nothing to do with politics and there is a chance that their property rights will simply be lost.”
Few things have shown Russia’s entry and assimilation into the world economy in the late 1990s and early 2000s such as the listing of giant Russian companies on the New York, London and Frankfurt stock exchanges. Since the peak of $ 17 billion in IPOs in 2007, the value of Russian companies registered abroad has decreased significantly. -6 billion dollars only.