ZURICH/MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russian billionaire Viktor Vekselberg is transferring some assets registered overseas to his home country in the wake of Moscow’s clampdown on offshore money, a Swiss newspaper reported on Sunday.
Russia endorsed tighter regulation of offshore business last year, after Western sanctions were imposed on some of its biggest companies, businessmen and officials, restricting them in foreign fund raising or travel to certain destinations.
The move was also aimed at forcing Russians to pay more taxes at home, as the country’s budget was hit by sanctions and low oil prices, a cornerstone of the country’s revenues.
Tighter regulations meant keeping assets in a network of holding companies in tax havens like Cyprus, Panama and the Caribbean has lost attractiveness, the newspaper NZZ am Sonntag said.
Vekselberg is one of Russia’s richest men with assets ranging from construction to aluminium.
A spokesman for Vekselberg’s investment company Renova Holding told the paper that assets in Russian companies such as telecom giant Akado and Russian Utility Systems (RKS) as well as in chemical manufacturer Orgsyntes Group and Aeroporty Regionov had been transferred to Russia. Stakes in other companies were being transferred as well.
A spokesman for Renova told Reuters that the group had re-registered a number of its companies in Russia over the past one-and-a-half years. He did not name assets.
“All these companies have Russian assets and they are being managed from Russia by boards of directors and chief executives, the same as it was,” the spokesman said.
He confirmed NZZ am Sonntag’s report that the changes would not affect the day-to-day running of any of the businesses.
“Changes affected shareholding structures only but not the management process,” the spokesman said.
Data from Russian financial monitor SPARK showed the assets were moved from Cyprus to Russia at the end of 2015, the newspaper said.
Vekselberg’s holdings in Swiss industrial groups like Sulzer (SUN.S) and Oerlikon (OERL.S) were not affected by the transfer, but would also be reorganised, the newspaper said.
The tycoon also controls 40 percent of Swiss steelmaker Schmolz+Bickenbach (STLN.S), which reported a loss on Thursday.
(This version of the story corrects company’s name to Russian Utility Systems not space in sixth paragraph)
(Reporting by Brenna Hughes Neghaiwi; additional reporting by Polina Devitt and Katya Golubkova in Moscow; Editing by Susan Fenton)
