Jun 2
In recent weeks the Western media has begun to argue that ongoing altercations with the West are forcing Russia to enlist stronger economic reliance on the great hegemony of China. What is being overlooked, however, is that this isn’t a new phenomenon for 2014; the Sino-Russian relationship has been strengthening over the past twenty years and Russia already has a strong and profitable eastern connection with China.
I was interested to read last week that the Russian Central Bank is considering lifting foreign currency restrictions for open-ended investment funds. According to Vedomosti, industry leaders in Russia are pushing for the Central Bank to relax restrictions on funds investing in foreign markets. continue reading
Private equity as an industry is now reaching “middle age”. By that, I mean it is somewhere around 40 years old, having been born in the early 1970’s. There was a frustrating article in the Economist recently which suggested, it’s becoming dull and boring – no longer truly worthy of its status as an “alternative” asset class. I beg to differ. continue reading
Tom Stabile in Sunday’s Financial Times raises the conundrum of how smaller more niche investors, like VIY Management, attain the support of large investors who want to invest in non-traditional emerging funds, but are often discouraged by the time and financial costs involved.
In 2007 a ‘bombshell’ hit the well established European tourism market: Alexey Mordashov of Severstal, a Newcastle University MBA alumnus, bucked the trend and invested in a leading European tour operator TUI AG. Over time Mr Mordashov’s G-Groupe became the largest shareholder of the GBP 5.0 billion tourism behemoth. He hasn’t done badly – at least doubling his investment over the last 6 years. continue reading
Reuters and Russian financial paper, RBK Daily, report that Goldman Sachs is “bucking” the trend by continuing to recognise the investment opportunities available in Russia. I have already blogged about Goldman Sachs making “bitesize” investments in Russia in recent years, and this was confirmed once again with yesterday’s announcement that the European investment branch bought a 6% stake in the Russian company O1 Properties. continue reading
“Russia remains a land of opportunity for investors” reads the title of a comment piece in Tuesday’s Financial Times. It surmises many of the opinions I have already discussed on my blog about the misconceptions of the Russian investment climate. The author, Chris Weafer, has long been on the side of Russian investment and I would encourage you to read his contributions to the blog Russia other points of view to see how he is fighting to promote a more positive perception of Russia. continue reading
Earlier this year, Della Bradshaw, in an article for the Financial Times, raised several interesting questions regarding the changing make up of the MBA programme. Bradshaw discussed how two forces – demand and competition – are steering a move away from the traditional two-year American MBA model. As a businessman who studied an MBA between LBS and Colombia, I take a great interest in the future workforce that will be generated from the next generation of MBA students. Continue reading
Apr 14
After a busy month I finally have a few days away for a bit of ‘R and R’, and a chance to catch up on some reading. Of course, ‘time out’, ‘switching off’ and ‘escaping the office’ are phrases a businessman does not fully comprehend, and as such my holiday reading matter is made up of the likes of LBS’s alumni magazine and Jim O’Neill’s The BRIC Road to Growth.
It was a feature in the March edition of Financial World though which got me thinking. The article by Professor Diane Coyle of the University of Manchester questions the validity of GDP. Now, this is an old debate, but I was interested in Coyle’s analysis of how GDP fails to represent the whole picture, yet continues to play a key role in decision making. continue reading
This week’s edition of Global Capital made me smile. At a time when the media is focused on the widespread reticence for doing deals with Russia, this article shows banks are always prepared and always willing to make money from any situation! Apparently the West hasn’t done a deal with the “wobbly” Russian bond market for over a month. Yet VimpelCom, Russia’s third largest phone company, has just received a credit facility worth almost $1.8bn from several international banks. The media should report more on how companies are bucking the trend!
Andrey Yakunin