Foreign investors from unfriendly countries have their assets blocked on the Moscow Exchange.
Jim Rogers is no exception. In an interview with RBC Investments, he said that he believes in these investments and will continue to hold the papers
American investor Jim Rogers will not participate in the procedure for exchanging frozen assets, when foreigners buy frozen securities from Russians using funds from type C accounts. The billionaire expects that after the end of hostilities in Ukraine he will again be able to manage his investments. Rogers himself spoke about this in an interview with RBC Investments.
“I know that people talk about such things (exchange of blocked assets. – RBC Investments)
I don’t know the details because I doubt I’ll be a part of it,” he said.
Jim Rogers is known for co-founding the Quantum Fund with George Soros in the 1970s, which brought investors 4,200% return in ten years. Rogers has also invested in Russian assets; his portfolio includes shares of AFK Sistema, PhosAgro, Aeroflot, Moscow Exchange, as well as ruble government bonds.
According to Jim Rogers, hostilities always end, after which everything returns to normal. For this reason, the investor is also not interested in selling Russian shares from his portfolio.
“I’m still an optimist. I think that Russia has a good future in many areas. And I want to own Russian shares.
I don’t want to sell my Russian shares,” Rogers explained his position.
Since February 2022, residents of unfriendly countries cannot sell Russian assets through Russian brokers. Subsequently, special type C accounts were opened for such investors, into which only rubles are credited. In type C accounts, for example, foreigners receive coupons on bonds and dividends on stocks. The functionality of such accounts is limited – withdrawal of funds is possible only in a small number of cases. As of November 2022, the total volume of funds in type C accounts with the Central Bank was estimated at more than ₽280 billion. In April 2023, Deputy Minister of Finance Alexey Moiseev reported that the total volume of assets in type C accounts is comparable to the volume of frozen Russian assets abroad.
Jim Rogers is ready to put up with the fact that his Russian assets are effectively blocked. “I won’t say everything is fine.But I don’t mind, because I won’t sell my Russian shares under any circumstances,” he said. At the same time, the billionaire noted: buying shares of companies that suffered greatly during difficult times usually provides good opportunities in the future. Rogers said that companies such as Aeroflot or Moscow Exchange will not disappear anywhere; someday they will do very well again.
In November 2023, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree that allows foreign investors, using funds in their type C accounts, to buy back from Russian investors their securities blocked in European depositories due to sanctions against NSD. Participation in the transaction is voluntary on both sides, and it is assumed that non-residents must themselves obtain the appropriate permissions from their regulators, since the papers they will receive from the Russians have yet to be unfrozen. Russian financial authorities have repeatedly said that they do not directly negotiate asset swaps with foreign investors and regulators.
