MOSCOW, March 11 (Reuters) -
Russians who own frozen foreign securities will be able to apply from March 25 to sell them to foreigners with frozen assets in Russia, the Russian finance ministry said on Monday.
The transactions will take place through a Russian broker, in line with a decree issued by President Vladimir Putin last November that paves the way for Russian and foreign investors to unblock assets that have been frozen by Western sanctions and Russian counter-measures since the start of the war in Ukraine.
Applications must be placed with Russian broker Investitsionnaya Palata (Investment Chamber) between March 25 and May 8, and settlement of transactions should be completed by Sept. 1, 2024, the ministry said.
As a result of sanctions, more than 3.5 million Russians have frozen assets abroad worth around 1.5 trillion roubles ($16.3 billion).
The new mechanism allows citizens of what Russia deems "unfriendly" countries to buy these assets using funds from special "type-C" accounts in Russia, which are otherwise effectively blocked.
The finance ministry said the Russian-owned foreign securities will be pooled into lots that the foreign buyers can bid for between June 3 and July 5.
If the foreign buyers' applications are approved, they will be able to transfer the securities freely from a Russian depository to a foreign one.
The broker will set an initial auction price of the securities in roubles, based on the closing price at March 22, and the eventual sale price must be at this level or higher.
Russians can't apply to sell more than 100,000 roubles worth of foreign securities under the scheme. According to the central bank, 80% of affected Russian investors have frozen foreign assets up to that threshold. (Reporting by Elena Fabrichnaya in Moscow and Darya Korsunskaya in London; writing by Mark Trevelyan; editing by Mark Heinrich)
