Dec 5
Last week, I visited two highly regarded universities to speak to students about investment in Russia & CIS, and the state of the private equity industry in those markets. Continue Reading
When looking for suitable opportunities, smart investors of course study the minutiae. And this means paying close attention to specific industries, companies and even individual innovations rather than just glancing at the – often misleading – big-picture statistics of national economies. This is not to say that headline figures are wholly irrelevant, but as I’ve already discussed at some length here macroeconomic indicators like GDP have their limits when it comes to serving as accurate measures for growth. In this post I outline a few examples where regional innovation hotspots are as likely to reveal attractive investment conditions as published GDP figures. Continue reading
Buried in recent news articles regarding Russian gas supply was a Vedomosti article reporting that in the third quarter of this year investors spent almost $1.8 billion on commercial properties in Russia. Industry data, supplied by international property consultants Colliers International, showed that performance in Russia was strengthening. The figure was significantly higher than investments recorded in the sector in the first six months of this year ($1.3 billion). continue reading
“Заграница нам поможет!”
О. Бендер (И.Ильф, Е. Петров “Двенадцать стульев”)
“The foreigners will help us!”
Ostap Bender, a character in the famous Soviet novel The Twelve Chairs
by Ilya Ilf and Evgeniy Petrov
The Financial Times published two articles in recent weeks about the PE market in Russia. One discussed at length the current struggles of the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF), whilst another noted US firm Blackstone’s withdrawal from Russia. Both painted a rather negative picture.
Those General Partners that currently operate in the country, myself included, admit that the next couple of years will be tough for Russia’s investment climate (see Moscow Times, “Private Equity Funds Predict Years of Hardship in Russia”). Yet the 6th Annual Private Equity Conference in Moscow last month demonstrated that the withdrawal of the international community has provided a unique opportunity for Russians to take the driving seat in navigating the local PE industry through the challenges it faces. continue reading
Earlier this week there were reports that Google is expected to establish an asset management branch. The FT writes how this development – which is said to have been on the table for a couple of years – has sparked concern across the financial services industry, especially amongst smaller funds, as Google could swamp the market. continue reading
The Russian Government’s bond auction last week was an important indicator of the state of the country’s economy. After months of geopolitical unrest upsetting the markets, it showed that attitudes towards the industry are calming, yields are stabilising and the Rouble is picking up. continue reading
‘What do you find on the last six pages of a Lada instruction manual?
Bus and train timetables’
Popular Russian joke
A piece which caught my eye in the Financial Times this week contains a message which has been doing the rounds lately: that Russia’s worsening relations with the EU and US are pushing it into a relationship with China in which it will inevitably be the inferior partner. As I have previously discussed in “Russia’s East I: An Introduction”, Sino-Russian cooperation is longstanding and therefore the surprise which many commentators have expressed at recent deals between ‘the bear and the dragon’ is misplaced. continue reading
It turns out it’s not only the Russian authorities who are looking to step up trade with China! Last week the UK Chancellor, George Osborne, announced he would be signing a £2.4 billion trade deal as part of an annual Anglo-Chinese dialogue on economics and finance. continue reading
Judging by reports in the western media on Russia’s current economic situation, the whole country is in a state of collapse and does not represent a suitable home for foreign capital.
Clearly, this is not the case and some of the world’s top investors recognise that amidst the temporary problems being experienced by some Russian sectors, quality opportunities continue to present themselves.
As I illustrate here with a couple of examples from the world of Russian real estate, the wisest investments can sometimes be staring you in the face. continue reading
Live as if you were to die tomorrow;
Learn as if you were to live forever
Ghandi
When I was 22, I promised myself, and more importantly my mother-in-law, that by the age of 40, I’d have retired and would be sailing around the world with my family, with all the time in the world to read all the books in the world. That age is fast approaching and I’m still far from fulfilling that dream, and abandoning the security, challenges and mental stimuli of having a job. continue reading
Andrey Yakunin 