Desperate times call for desperate measures - and with Russia in crisis, foreign creditors must look for alternative means of recovering many of their loans to Russian companies.
The cash and liquidity problems that Russian debtor companies face are compounded, in the case of hard-currency denominated debt, by the volatile and rapidly devaluing rouble. Moreover, the moratorium on payments to foreign creditors imposed on August 17 by the Russian government, which afforded debtor companies some relief from repayment of loans to foreign creditors, has now expired, requiring debtor companies to once again fulfil their legal obligations.
Taking equity in certain otherwise well-managed Russian companies that are suffering perhaps unjustly from the overall financial crisis may be an attractive option to some foreign creditors.
Legal infrastructure
Virtually all Russian commercial enterprises that may have sought and received foreign capital are either joint stock companies (JSCs) or limited liability companies (LLCs).
In general,...
