Blankfein, Pandit & Dimon Go To Russia
Medvedev wants our most corrupt bankers to help Moscow.
(Bloomberg) -- Russian President Dmitry Medvedev talks about efforts to modernize his country, plans to create a sovereign fund to attract foreign capital and the outlook for economic growth. Speaking with Bloomberg's Ryan Chilcote yesterday at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Medvedev also discusses corporate law and corruption in Russia, the nation's judicial and political systems, and the security situation following the Jan. 24 suicide bombing at a Moscow airport.
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Lloyd says Moscow traffic is the biggest impediment to growth.
Goldman Sachs Chief Executive Officer Lloyd Blankfein held talks with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev near Moscow today on investment opportunities in the country.
The men discussed the U.S. bank’s possible participation in a new fund Russia’s government is setting up to attract investment and expertise, the Kremlin said in a statement on its website. They also discussed Medvedev’s project to turn the Russian capital into a global financial center.
Medvedev is creating a “special sovereign fund” to attract capital and help “modernize” the economy of the world’s largest energy supplier, the president said in January at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
Russia’s government last year picked 23 banks including Goldman Sachs to help manage its $34 billion privatization program over three years.
Medvedev also named 27 people, including Blankfein, JPMorgan Chase & Co’s CEO Jamie Dimon and Citigroup Inc’s CEO Vikram Pandit to an advisory board on creating an international financial center in the Russian capital.
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Blankfein Sees Moscow Traffic Stymieing Finance Hub Plans
Goldman Sachs Chief Executive Officer Lloyd Blankfein said Moscow’s traffic jams are the biggest obstacle to turning the capital into a financial hub, according to Deputy Finance Minister Dmitry Pankin.
Blankfein and President Dmitry Medvedev discussed investment opportunities in Russia and Medvedev’s plans for the capital at a March 15 meeting outside Moscow that Pankin attended.
“The first question we asked was about the main problem for creating Moscow as a financial center,” Pankin said in an interview in Moscow yesterday. “He said it was bottleneck from the airport to the city center.”
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Mar 18, 2011 at 6:50 PM
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London court blocks Russia's VTB bid to gain control of Bank of Moscow - Vedomosti
http://en.rian.ru/business/20110303/162843825.html
[snip]
The London Court has seized Goldman Sachs' 3.9% stake in Bank of Moscow, preventing a bid by Russia's second largest bank VTB to gain control of the Moscow government's lender, Vedomosti business daily reported on Thursday.
In mid-February, the VTB supervisory board approved a gradual acquisition of 100% of shares in Bank of Moscow. On February 22 the state-controlled lender started its takeover bid, with a purchase of a 46.48% stake held by the Moscow government and a blocking interest in Stolichnaya Insurance Group, which owned 17.3% of the Moscow bank, the paper said.
VTB stake in Bank of Moscow still below controlling interest - official
http://en.rian.ru/business/20110321/163123655.html
[snip]
The Vedomosti business daily reported on Monday that VTB had purchased 2.77% in Bank of Moscow from Credit Suisse and another 1.7% from a Swiss fund to gain control of the Moscow government lender. It said that a 3.88% in the bank, held by Goldman Sachs but recently seized by an injunction of a London court, would be sold to Russian billionaire Suleiman Kerimov.