The asset buyout organizer promised not to pit non-residents against each other.

The Investment Chamber, which is organizing the asset exchange, will not disclose the price offers of foreigners wishing to participate in the auction, said the company's head, Alexey Sedushkin, in an interview with Timofey Martynov, founder of the Smartlab community of traders and investors.

The auction for the sale of Russian securities to non-residents will be closed, Sedushkin clarified. Potential foreign participants will be asked to place a bid (that is, indicate how much they want to pay for the lot) immediately upon submitting their application. "We then collect the best bids to sell all the lots," Sedushkin explained. The organizer will not make non-resident bids publicly available (including to participating foreigners), he emphasized.

"They can compete locally, gather somewhere near Wall Street, and haggle. We don't pit them against each other; we have completely closed pricing," Sedushkin noted.

Sedushkin clarified that the composition of the lots to be formed from Russian securities and their starting price will be open to all bidders. This will be determined based on the market prices of the assets at the close of trading on March 22, 2024 , data from the primary listing exchanges.

Foreigners will not be able to purchase assets below the starting price of the lot; the option to sell at a price above the market price is provided, the head of the Investment Chamber recalled. In the latter case, any additional payment by foreigners will also be distributed among Russian private investors participating in the exchange, proportionate to the number of bids submitted, Sedushkin added. In addition to the actual asset price , foreign buyers will also pay the organizer a small commission for executing the transaction, he clarified. The entire procedure will be free for Russian investors.

According to Sedushkin, foreigners are already showing interest in the exchange. "We see demand, we're already talking to potential buyers, although we haven't yet begun the active phase of collecting offers. But many potential buyers have already approached us with clarifying questions, and some have already voiced potential volumes they're willing to buy," the head of the Investment Chamber explained.

But foreign buyers still have to go through the compliance process and obtain approval from their regulators, he noted. "It could potentially turn out that no one will receive legal approval at home. It's possible that some restrictions will come from regulators, massive ones. Let's be honest, the worst-case scenario is that Europe could simply tell them point-blank that they're banning European professional participants from participating in this procedure," he allowed. The most significant downside for a Russian participant in the exchange in this case would be the return of their blocked assets; no personal information from investors would be disclosed, Sedushkin said.

President Vladimir Putin signed a decree on the exchange of blocked assets with foreigners in November 2023. The document stipulates that, as part of the exchange, foreigners will be able to purchase foreign securities from Russian private investors using funds from Type C accounts. Foreign securities and fund units (the full list is here) can be submitted for redemption for a total of no more than 100,000 rubles per investor. In March 2024, the Ministry of Finance announced that the broker "Investment Chamber" would organize the asset exchange with non-residents. According to the scenario presented by the company, the exchange will be conducted in four stages, from March to July 2024. The actual redemption transactions are scheduled for early to mid-July. They will take place over-the-counter. On July 29, "Investment Chamber" plans to transfer all the funds received from foreigners for the assets to the brokers, who will then distribute them among private investors.