Banker Andrey Serebryakov worked in Andrey Kostin’s team. A few years later, VTB agreed to become the first investor in his private equity fund. Serebryakov offers to make money on this and others

The Cathedral of Christ the Savior is flooded with sunlight. Opposite the temple, on the veranda of the Vanilla restaurant, it is still fresh, despite the July heat. “Do you go to church?” — a smiling middle-aged man, who had taken off his business jacket at brunch, suddenly asks the correspondent. Such spontaneity is disarming, and the conversation about private equity flows smoothly into children, hobbies and recreation.

Partly thanks to his ease of communication and ability to win over his interlocutor, the former chairman of the board of Russian Commercial Bank (a subsidiary of VTB Bank in Cyprus) Andrei Serebryakov made a successful career. His ability to charm investors should still help him today. Serebryakov is raising money for his new project - the direct investment fund Effective Capital, of which VTB will be a major investor. For $1 million (minimum investment) Serebryakov is ready to make you a partner of the state bank. An unexpected proposal, isn't it?

Serebryakov, a graduate of the Institute of Asian and African Studies at Moscow State University (speaks five foreign languages), began his career in 1994 at Imperial Bank, where VTB President Andrei Kostin and billionaire Alexander Lebedev then worked in the foreign investment department. And when Lebedev and Kostin created the National Reserve Bank in 1996, Serebryakov headed its trading operations department, rose to deputy chairman of the board, and received an MBA degree from London Business School in 2001. “And then Kostin took him to Cyprus,” recalls Lebedev.

At the age of 29, Serebryakov headed Russian Commercial Bank. The managers of the VTB Group, who bought 40% of its shares for $39 million in 2009, received dividends of $92 million by 2011. “I’m proud that I prepared the platform for such a successful transaction,” Serebryakov laughs it off and says that he has nothing to do with it .

In 2005, Serebryakov, under the patronage of Kostin, as newspapers wrote at the time, was appointed chairman of the board of the International Investment Bank (IIB), created by the countries of the socialist camp back in 1970 to develop economic cooperation. Serebryakov tried to turn the IIB into a modern development bank with a commercial approach to risk assessment. I had to communicate with the governments of eight countries - the bank's shareholders and knock on the thresholds of the offices of Russian officials. It was a good school of life.

Four years later, Serebryakov escaped, as he says, to freedom - he became the first deputy chairman at Mikhail Prokhorov's MFK bank, his shareholders were other members of the Forbes Golden Hundred: Alexander Abramov, Viktor Vekselberg, Suleiman Kerimov. But attempts to develop corporate lending and invest in troubled companies like the bankrupt travel agency Capital Tour were not very successful. A year and a half later, most of the bank’s team, led by Chairman Alexander Popov, left. And Serebryakov decided to start his own business, unsuccessfully trying in court to recover 13.1 million rubles from the IFC - bonuses for 2010 and wages. Chairman of the Board of IFC Bank Oksana Lifar says that the requirements for the payment of bonuses were unlawful. Serebryakov does not comment on the court.

“Private equity relieves the investor of the neurosis that he can get on liquid markets in the next year or two,” Serebryakov explains the choice of the fund’s strategy. Investments in the real sector can save you in a crisis when investors flee the stock market. However, this does not always happen. In 2009, private equity fund managers had to actively help their companies, negotiate debt restructuring, and seek financing.

New Russia Grow partner Alexey Panferov, who has been involved in private equity since 2006, believes that it is now very difficult to attract money to a private equity fund. Investors, observing the debt crisis in the eurozone, prefer not to invest in such projects. Only by May of this year did Effective Capital, which plans to raise $250 million at the first stage, have its first investor, but what kind: a preliminary agreement to invest money in the fund was signed by VTB. The bank, according to its press service, will contribute $25 million to the fund if Serebryakov finds investors for the remaining $225 million.

To what extent can the activities of Effective Capital be integrated into the business of a state bank that sometimes conducts dubious transactions? Remember how the VTB Leasing company bought Chinese drilling rigs through an intermediary, a Cypriot company, in whose accounts $150 million was deposited. Blogger Alexei Navalny, who disclosed this scheme, called VTB employees “effective managers.” Serebryakov assures that the fund’s relations with the bank will be built as with any other investors and dubious transactions are excluded.

Serebryakov’s goal is to raise up to $500 million for the fund in two stages. His partners should help him achieve this difficult task. One of them is Dmitry Elkin, a native of the Russian UFG, who once worked at Kohlberg Kravis Roberts (KKR - the world's largest private equity firm) and Lehman Brothers.

Elkin was one of four partners of UFG Private Equity, which, after the collapse of financial markets in 2008, was able to form a private equity fund worth $225 million. The UFG Private Equity II fund, which invested in Yandex and Kinostar Deluxe cinemas, turned out to be one of the most successful on the Russian market. I was lucky then, maybe I'll be lucky now. “Of course, we understand that a new attempt is the height of self-confidence,” says Elkin, “but we hope we will succeed.”

Where is Serebryakov and Elkin’s fund going to invest? The partners claim that they are negotiating with a dozen Russian companies, whose names are not disclosed. Serebryakov says that one of them produces auto components, the other produces filters for water purification. Another direction is retail and confectionery production, which are less dependent on the cyclical nature of the economy than other industries.

Elkin says that the fund intends to buy blocking stakes in companies and quite actively use the leverage buyout scheme. It involves purchasing companies using borrowed funds and then selling them to a new owner. The fund is designed for 5 years, the management company's remuneration is standard - 2% of the value of assets under management and 20% of profit. Will there be anyone willing? Serebryakov knows how to become a friend in an hour of presentation.

Recipe for success: communication skills plus VTB money