Campbell Bethwaite spoke out about foreign investments in Russia.
Business breakfast of “Vedomosti” newspaper concerning “Foreign investments in Russian business of 2020: risks vs opportunities” has assembled Russian and foreign investors.
“As it could be expected, investors’ views were divided, during the discussion many of them agreed that it’s a good time now for portfolio investors partly thanks to high rates and dividend growth. But for direct venture capital investors the risks are still high because of legal field vagueness, however, undoubtedly, there is a positive trend”, – said Campbell Bethwaite, Red Stone Capital Investment Holding Managing Partner.
The main topics of discussion were the direct foreign investments in Russia and whether it would be possible to rank Russia in the Top 5 globe economies with the growth rate of GDP higher than the global average, while maintaining the low inflation rate without attraction of foreign capital by 2024?
Foreign investments drive up the economic growth, but the outflow of foreign investments resulted in the biggest one since 2014 amounting to $23,1 bln, but at the end of the last year the indicators dropped a third as much and showed the lowest level for 10 years according to Central Bank analytics.
Jim Rogers, a famous foreign investor, is among those who believe in return and long-term benefits of the Russian market, gave his optimistic opinion on investing in Russia.
Business breakfast participants:
- Tom Blackwell, CEO, EM;
- Elena Ivashentseva, Senior Partner, Baring Vostok Capital Partners;
- Stuart Lawson, Member of the Board, Association of European Businesses;
- Senior Advisor, EY; Tanaka Masafuy, SBI Holdings JAPAN representative in Russia;
- David Stewart, partner, Latham & Watkins legal firm (Moscow, London);
- Boris Titov, Commissioner for the Protection of Entrepreneurs’ Rights under the President of the Russian Federation (business ombudsman)
- and other guests.