The Ministry of Digital Development plans to tighten the requirements for developers applying for their software to be included in the national software registry, Vedomosti has learned. Talks are underway to increase the minimum share of Russian shareholders in such companies to 90%.
In the proposed version, there is a risk that this will deprive Yandex or Positive Technologies, whose securities are traded on the stock exchange, of access to the developer registry.
The Ministry of Digital Development is analyzing the possibility of adjusting the current restriction, according to which the applicant company must be owned by Russian natural or legal persons by more than 50%. We are talking about raising this threshold to 70-90%, two federal officials told the newspaper.
Thus, the Ministry of Digital Development is trying to ensure that “this type of company has exactly national investors.” At the same time, the agency understands that the proposed measure will limit the ability of listed companies.
“Now, the Ministry of Digital Development is in dialogue with experts and specialized associations to develop mechanisms that allow the products of listed companies to be included in the software registry, so that the ownership share of Russian natural and legal persons in them can change dynamically, but subject to the preservation of control by Russia “, — said the publication of the representative of the Ministry.
Publicly traded company developments are now included in the national software registry. For example, more than 60 Yandex developments are included in the registry, more than 20 from Positive Technologies, these companies meet the current 50% requirement.
The share of economic shares of “Yandex”, which are in free circulation, is 87.5%, but 51.8% of voting shares are held by the main shareholders and employees of the company . Shareholding in publicly traded Positive Technologies is about 11%, a company representative said.
Maxim Pustovoi, managing director of Positive Technologies, told RB.RU that the company had not yet heard of this initiative and no problems with the software’s inclusion in the registry were noted.
“After we went public, there was no talk that our technologies could be excluded from this registry in any way. In addition, we, as a public company, entered the Russian stock exchange (Moscow Stock Exchange), neither before nor after the listing did we attract foreign investors, and 99.9% of our shareholders are individuals who are citizens and residents of the Russian Federation. Therefore, we consider the described risks to be irrelevant to us,” Pustovoy said.
Difficulties may arise for developers whose software has not yet been included in the registry. In early June, several large Russian companies with foreign shareholders petitioned the government to lower the criteria for company ownership in order to include their products in the national software registry (including Ozon, Avito, Cian, HeadHunter, Tinkoff and VimpelCom).
Author:
anastasia mariana
Source: RB
I am Bret Jackson, a professional journalist and author for Gadget Onus, where I specialize in writing about the gaming industry. With over 6 years of experience in my field, I have built up an extensive portfolio that ranges from reviews to interviews with top figures within the industry. My work has been featured on various news sites, providing readers with insightful analysis regarding the current state of gaming culture.
