The peculiarities of the exchange interaction between the carrier spin and localized spin moments of magnetic ions near the semimetal-semiconductor transition have been studied in semimagnetic quaternary solid solution systems, Hg1-x-yCdxMnySe and Hg1-x-yCdxMnyTe by means of Shubnikov-de Haas oscillations and photolumincscence. The measurements show that the exchange constant alpha is actually a somewhat complicated function of energy gap and electron concentration. The exchange interaction is responsible for the spin-Rip transitions observed both in the PL and magnetoresistance measurements in narrow-gap Hg1-x-yCdxMnyTe.