Translated material
Operation Citadel
Foreign investors believe Russia's GDP will double by 2010
The week of active communication between the Russian authorities and foreign investors, which began with Vladimir Putin’s St. Petersburg meetings with representatives of large American and German businesses last weekend, continued yesterday in Moscow. On the Russian side, Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov picked up the baton.Western businessmen from 20 investment companies invited to a political walk in Russia by Vneshtorgbank are apparently not afraid of anything. In any case, yesterday after a meeting on Moscow soil with the Prime Minister of Russia, they arrived in a wonderful mood. The founder of the Citadel company, Kenneth Griffin, told reporters that “Russia’s current political course opens up enormous opportunities for Western investors.” His colleague, managing director of Deutsche Bank, London, Dalinch Ariburnu, also radiated optimism. He advised investors to immediately “increase their appetite” and boldly enter the Russian market.
What exactly from the Russian Prime Minister's speech made Mr. Ariburna so excited remains unknown. They say that bankers from the VTB landing party asked the prime minister with passion when, in fact, they would be able to take over Russian financial and credit organizations. They were told that in principle they could. True, they didn’t say how soon. But at such meetings there are often enough half-answers and half-hints for the mood of Western investors to immediately improve. Even the YUKOS affair does not seem to have left a bad feeling for the investment giant, which, according to Mr. Ariburnu, manages three and a half trillion dollars.
“The adoption of the latest laws (meaning the planned regulation of repeated tax audits and the reduction of the statute of limitations for privatization transactions. - Ed. ) has made the YUKOS case a thing of the past,” Kenneth Griffin said quite seriously. He is also not afraid of either the slowdown in the growth rate of the Russian economy or the outflow of domestic capital. “That’s enough!” - says Mr. Griffin. And unlike German Gref, the founder of Citadel believes in doubling Russia’s GDP by 2010.
In general, the team of large investors under the leadership of the head of Vneshtorgbank Andrei Kostin turned out to be quite loyal not only to the economic course of the Russian authorities, but also to the political one. To consolidate this belief, the delegation was received yesterday by key Russian officials - the head of the Central Bank Sergei Ignatiev, the Minister of Finance Alexei Kudrin, the head of the Federal Service for Financial Markets Oleg Vyugin. The visit program also included a meeting with presidential aide Igor Shuvalov.
Mr. Kostin himself also strongly encouraged the rosy atmosphere. True, he refused to talk to journalists about the privatization of VTB and, in particular, about the purchase of a stake in Vneshtorgbank by one of the Western investors. Vremya Novostei learned that plans still include the prospect of privatizing the bank in 2006. It's up to the government to decide. So, perhaps yesterday Andrei Kostin at the same time introduced the prime minister to the possible co-owners of Vneshtorgbank.
List of participants in Mikhail Fradkov’s meeting with foreign investors
From the side of international investment companies: Dalinch Ariburnu - Managing Director of Deutsche Bank, London; David Todd Posen -- Managing Director, Deutsche Bank, New York; Patrick Dineyley Holt Walter - Managing Director of Deutsche Bank, London; Peter James Knez - Chief Operating Officer of Barclays Global Investors; Kenneth Griffin -- co-owner/partner of Citadel; David John Zezza -- co-owner/partner of Citadel; Adam Jason Levinson - Chief Managing Director of Fortress Investments Group LLC; Benjamin Heller is a co-owner/partner of NVK Investments LP; Beverly Daniel Evans - Chief Managing Director of Merrill Lynch Asset Management; Robert Charles Gibbins - founder of Autonomy Capital, London; Trifon Natsis - co-owner/partner of the company "Breven Howard Asset Management"; Michael Ganske - Chief Managing Director of Deka Investments, Frankfurt; Christian Schivek - Chief Managing Director of DWS, Frankfurt; Crean Paul Raymond Fitzgerald - founder of Finister Capital, London; Robert Drizkonnen - Chief Managing Director of ING Investments Asset Management; Bernt Tallaksen is the Chief Managing Director of Thames River Capital, London.
From the Russian side: Vladimir Khrebtov - Assistant to the Prime Minister of the Russian Federation; Andrey Kostin is the President and Chairman of the Board of OJSC Vneshtorgbank.