Russia adds hurdles for exiting foreign companies

Foreign companies seeking to leave Russia face additional hurdles after Russia's finance ministry added new requirements involving corporate exits, including a two-year limit on options to buy shares back, reports Reuters.
Navigating the rules has become harder and harder for Western firms aiming to withdraw from Russia after its invasion of Ukraine, executives have told Reuters, with uncertainty and even the threat of nationalisation hanging over those still present.
The government commission that monitors foreign investment has to grant approval for deals involving companies from so-called "unfriendly" countries - those that have imposed sanctions against Russia over the Ukraine war.
This week, the finance ministry added requirements that had been previously mooted by the authorities to the commission's list.
New owners of assets purchased from companies leaving the country must float up to 20 per cent of the acquired shares on the stock exchange within a specified timeframe, something the central bank has said will give investors in Russia more variety.
That stipulation would not apply to previously completed deals, the central bank has said.
Clauses giving the departing foreign owners an option to buy shares back, which many exiting companies have inserted into contracts, must expire within no more than two years.
The Vedomosti daily on Friday quoted a source close to the government as saying that the logic behind the adjustments was to make it harder for companies to exit.