The EBRD sold 5% of the capital of the Moscow Stock Exchange to the Softline group – Forbes

As Forbes’ interlocutor explained, a subcommittee of the government commission for monitoring foreign investment in the Russian Federation “requested a discount on the value of the stock market.” It amounted to 60%, even though the average value is 50%. Plus, as part of the deal, I had to pay a 20% “exit tax.”

The EBRD, like Softline, did not comment on the deal. The EBRD entered the capital of the Moscow Stock Exchange in 2012, purchasing, together with the Russian Direct Investment Fund, 6.29% and 1.25% of the shares, respectively.

The structure was the largest shareholder of the Moscow Stock Exchange. At the beginning of April, the EBRD owned 5.3% of the site’s shares. At 15:00 on October 20, the value of the package was 22.76 billion rubles. Taking into account the 60% discount, the cost of the package is estimated at 9.1 billion rubles.

After paying the exit tax of 1.82 billion rubles, the EBRD will receive about 7.28 billion rubles as a result of the sale of the asset.

Russia joined the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development in 1992 and its contribution amounted to 1.2 billion euros. In the spring of 2022, due to the outbreak of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, the international organization froze Russia’s access to the bank’s resources. Although the EBRD has closed its branches in Moscow, Russia remains a shareholder in the bank.

Last May, the EBRD announced plans to exit all Russian assets. Investment in the projects was suspended in 2014, shortly after Russian authorities established control over Crimea.