By John Helmer in Moscow
Russia’s ports used to be run by gangsters, because it was one of the easier assets in post-Communist Russia to control by simple violence. The history of the International Longshoremen in the US and Jimmy Hoffa’s Teamsters make this feature of port life unexceptional the world over.
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By John Helmer in Moscow
Endeavour Financial Corporation, a Cayman Island goldmine investment fund, announced on Monday that it has found buried treasure in a surprising place — in Alexei Mordashov’s pocket.
The fund, which is listed in Canada and controlled by Frank Giustra, has announced that it had sold out its 43% shareholding in Crew Gold — a junior goldminer with a sole producing mine in the west African republic of Guinea — for a cash payment of $215 million. Since Endeavour Financial had paid just $134.5 million when it started buying its stake in January, and then fought Mordashov for shareholding control in the company, Mordashov’s purchase has given Endeavour Financial a profit of $81.5 million in just eight months – a 124% rate of return on an annual basis.
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By John Helmer in Moscow
This is the year that makes five hundred since Filofei, a very clever monk of Pskov, wrote an appeal to the ambition of Vasily III, Grand Duke of Muscovy, letting him know that if he played his cards right with the Church, the Church would take care of him better than it had managed in faithless Constantinople. “Now two Romes have fallen, but the third stands, and the fourth there shall never be… No one will replace your Christian Tsardom”, Filofei wrote in either of three letters, or in all three, starting in 1510; or possibly in 1525; or possibly later.
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By John Helmer in Moscow
Until the Beest of Fleet Street – aka Richard Beeston, Foreign Editor of the London Times – referred to President Dmitry Medvedev as Vladimir Putin’s “diminutive partner”, none of the establishment media in the world had thought to make an issue of the physical size and proportions of either of Russia’s current rulers.
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By John Helmer in Moscow
An announcement last week by LUKoil’s number-2 executive and shareholder, Leonid Fedun (see image), that the Russian oil producer expects to find more crude oil in Africa than in Russia was intended to set off alarms bells at the Ministry of Finance in Moscow. That is where Fedun is negotiating for tax concessions for his company’s newly developed oilfields in the Russian sector of the Caspian Sea and in western Siberia. Company sources admit there was nothing new about the African projects in what Fedun had to say. Whether the Finance Ministry intends to offer tax benefits to temper LUKoil’s African enthusiasm remains to be seen. And for the time being, West African spending represents a small fraction – maybe less than a tenth – of LUKoil’s global exploration budget.
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By John Helmer in Moscow
A Moscow brokerage named Metropol has recommended buying Alrosa shares with the promise of a 72% upside in value. But there’s a catch. At present, it isn’t quite legal for those who don’t already own shares in the closed joint stock company form of Alrosa to buy and sell them.
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By John Helmer in Moscow
The Valdai International Discussion Club is a collection of journalists, academics and erstwhile opinion-makers from countries whose hostility towards the Kremlin has traditionally been a problem. Neutralizing that sentiment has been the principal reason the club’s annual autumn trip to Russia and talk-show with Vladimir Putin have been organized and paid for out of the state’s information budget.
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By John Helmer in Moscow
The promoters of United Company Rusal at Bloomberg have kicked off a new marketing campaign for Oleg Deripaska’s heavily indebted aluminium company, disclosing this week that “Rusal is planning Russia’s first offering of bonds in China, spurred by McDonald’s Corp.’s debut sale in yuan.” A roadshow to test whether the Chinese taste for McDonald’s will carry over to an appetite for Deripaska risk products is planned with investors and banks in about a fortnight’s time. Yuriy Humber, Bloomberg’s ace reporter on Rusal’s affairs, found a source in Frankfurt, Germany, who says: “For Hong Kong-based investors, this issue will be a great diversification play with significant yield pick-up compared to the majority of local bonds.”
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By John Helmer in Moscow
Even in ignominy or retirement, a big boy’s toys are worth playing with.
Uralkali is Russia’s dominant producer of potash fertilizer and will soon merge with Silvinit to become the national potash champion, according to a government scheme first reported here on June 15. At the time, the head of investor relations for Uralkali, Anna Batarina, called this report disreputable nonsense.
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