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said Stuart phillips, director at
pKF and GreeFF chairman.
He brings working relevance to
the GreeFF chair as he worked
in neighbouring Kazakhstan for
one of the major accountancy
firms for a number of years in
the late 1990s and then in russia
for five years before moving to
Guernsey at the end of 2007.
the establishment of this group
coincides with russia-based fund
managers and banks seeking to
attract investment from abroad.
‘there are many large reputable
names in russia, and they are
keen to work with well-regarded
financial centres such as Guernsey,
to help tackle this perception of
corruption and help allay some
of the nervousness investors
feel,’ said Michel Davy, managing
director of ipes Guernsey and
a member of GreeFF.
a qualified chartered certified
accountant, he has worked with
clients across the private equity asset
class and has been instrumental in
building ipes’s russian client base.
Many financial service providers
in Guernsey have been working in
russia throughout these turbulent
years, building up an impressive
list of well-established and wellregulated
client contacts including
Baring Vostok (see case study),
VtB capital (the investment arm
of one of russia’s largest banks)
and raven russia, leading to a
number of success stories.
‘Guernsey has some historical
business with russia going back
to the start of private equity
houses using Guernsey for fund
structures. We are now seeing a
resurgence in interest spanning
different asset classes,’ said andrew
Boyce a partner in the corporate
and finance group of carey olsen
and also a member of GreeFF.
The Russian opportunity
there has been much talk of an
emerging markets-led recovery and
one trend that the firms within
GreeFF have seen is a real growth in
interest from both european and
russian fund managers seeking to
raise funds with european money for
inward investment into russia.
indeed, as the country emerges
from the downturn with Q2 GDp
up 5.4% and the russian economy
expected to expand by 4% this
year (vs. a decline of 7.9% in
2009), opportunities in russia
look set to grow even further.
For its part, russia has never
shirked from aiming high – the
Kremlin has long-term plans
to turn the rouble into a global
reserve currency. earlier this
year president Medvedev himself
appointed one of the country’s most
‘For its part, Russia has
never shirked from aiming
high – the Kremlin has
long-term plans to turn
the Rouble into a global
reserve currency.’
powerful politicians to spearhead
the Kremlin’s latest push to turn
Moscow into an international
financial centre, a slightly less lofty
ambition but one likely to clash with
the old perceptions and embryonic
state of russia’s regulatory system.
the global economic crisis has
identified that russia is not selfsufficient
in its ability to raise
capital and that it urgently needed to
improve its financial regulations and
corporate governance in order to alter
its global financial image and bolster
investor confidence. For example,
foreign shares still cannot be listed
on the russian stock exchange
and there is no law against insider
trading. While very few would
say that these goals are achievable
in the immediate short-term, the
open acknowledgement of this
ambition is the first step in driving
the necessary structural reforms.
indeed, since the crisis, there is
evidence of russia moving away from
relying purely on exports of natural
resources (oil, minerals, agriculture,
etc) to drive the economy, with
prime Minister Vladimir putin
actively seeking to attract foreign
investors to drive future growth.
the recent Financial times
special report investing in
russia confirms the extent of
opportunities which exist in the
country, noting that senior ➜
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