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Nowadays investing in Russia is considered to be very risky

Last year took place the fall of currency in Russia, there was the crash of the stock market and now Moscow is constantly at risk of getting new sanctions, which will make the economic situation much worse. As it is known, oil has always been one of the main exports, but it has experienced a meltdown also. Nevertheless billionaire David Bonderman confirms there are a lot of advantages in Russia. His equity firm has been investing into Russian market for a long time. The asset prices in Russia sustained losses since the beginning of the conflict with Ukraine and this fact attracts David Bonderman a lot. And Russia really lacks of capital investment.

At the Milken Global Conference in Los Angeles David Bonderman said that returns tended to be better in places where either the troops were in the street, or the prices were low.

 

Is it really high time to buy Russia?

Those who decided to invest in Russia again are really brave. The ruble keeps on falling, now the selling rate is two times more than before. The raise of oil prices and interest rate increase by the Central bank of Russia contributed to the currency.

The most part of investments was made by TPG Capital. Bonderman is one of its founders. It was founded in 1992 and nowadays it is one of the most active and biggest equity firm. For example, in 2011 $100 million were invested in VTB Group (a financial institution in Moscow).

When the U.S.A. and Europe imposed economic sanctions against an affiliated company of VTB, that investment became really awkward. And as the things became even worse, Bonderman stopped stepping down from a VTB supervisory board.

Bonderman said it was of real importance for the investors not to conflict about the sanctions, but he himself is much less concerned with the influence of these sanctions on the economy.

He considers the sanctions to exist only for a political statement, in his opinion they do not absolutely work. It is real for the U.S.A. to deprive Russia of the financial access and to immobilize its economy therefore. He also mentioned the possibility of Russia being nudged aside Swift (the system for making transactions used by the banks all over the world). Also Bonderman added that nobody needed or wanted the sanctions to be effective, they exist only as an aggravator.

 

The cost of the sanctions will be about $100 billion for Russia

One of the Russian businessmen, Ruben Vardanian, admitted that he agreed with Bonderman being so bullish on Russia. By the way, in his point of view the sanctions are positive for common sensible investors.

Bonderman affirms that limitations even help to make more money. So many investors find Russia a good opportunity to invest due to its huge market. He knows very well about the unpredictability and unstable situation in Russia, but he sees some factors to outweigh it, like companies' high profit margins.

Ruben Vardanian said that they made much more money in Russia than other countries. Russia is a huge market and it looks very attractive for many foreign investors.

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