The West’s latest sanctions might deal a heavier blow than we think April 29, 2014 Despite being criticised for their mildness, the newest sanctions imposed on Russian companies and indviduals by the US and EU send out a clear message on elements of Russia's way of doing business. Russian officials have warned the country’s hi-tech sector could be affected and Gazprom, Russia’s massive gas company, has said the sanctions have the [...]
How the West’s utopians damned Ukraine to Russian dominance April 14, 2014 THERE is little doubt that Ukraine stands perilously on the edge of disaster, if not full invasion, as Russian troops assemble on its borders and pro-Russian activists violently demonstrate in key eastern cities. So why, in response, has the West floundered? There is a critical division between the major western foreign policy schools of thought [...]
BP: From Russia with Love April 10, 2014 Many of the shareholder questions at BP’s annual meeting today were on the topic of Russia, Ukraine and the oil major’s stake in Rosneft. The FTSE 100 firm is particularly exposed to the ongoing tensions between Ukraine and Russia over the sovereignty of Crimea, due to its near 20 per cent stake in the Russian [...]
Russia’s Rosneft offers $1.5bn for minority stakes in TNK-BP September 30, 2013 RUSSIAN oil giant Rosneft yesterday said it plans to buy the remaining shares in TNK-BP Holding for a fraction of the price it paid BP and a group of oligarchs for their stakes, in a worrying development for minority shareholders in Russian companies. Rosneft bought the holding company and its parent TNK-BP last year in [...]
London is the super-rich capital of the world with 72 billionaires May 11, 2014 LONDON is now home to 72 billionaires, making it the world’s capital city for sterling billionaires and giving the UK the highest number of super-rich residents per head in the world. The number of British-based billionaires has exploded in the last decade, rising from 30 to more than 100. However, Alisher Usmanov has lost his [...]
Sanctions on Russia will hurt – but doing nothing also has a price April 23, 2014 EUROPEAN leaders were quick to say Russia’s annexation of Crimea was “unacceptable”, but mostly accepted it. Others say they know Russia is behind the violence in eastern Ukraine, but still do nothing. Talk is cheap. The real test is whether the EU will move from rhetoric to real action and impose meaningful sanctions on Russia. [...]
Arip to take part in Exillon auction September 19, 2013 Maksat Arip, the founder of Russian oil producer Exillon Energy, yesterday said he planned to take part in the sale process for the company after its directors gave the sale the green light on Wednesday. Arip, the company’s largest shareholder with a 30.17 per cent stake, had initially approached the company in late July. Arip [...]
Gold ETFs in tug of war between Ukraine fears and US growth April 28, 2014 There has been mixed research on gold today. According to Saxo Bank, gold saw a sixth consecutive week of outflows in exchange traded products last week. Investors traditionally buy gold as a safe-haven asset at times of uncertainty, but ongoing fears about the political crisis in Ukraine have been offset by confidence in the US [...]
Russian trading drags on ITE Group January 29, 2015 BRITISH trade show organiser ITE Group said like-for-like sales in Russia, its biggest market, have been running 20 per cent behind last year’s over the past two months. “Trading conditions in Russia have deteriorated over the past two months following the fall in oil prices and the consequent fall in the value of the rouble [...]
City Moves for 16 April 2014 | Who’s switching jobs April 15, 2014 Turner & Townsend Steve Waltho has been appointed director and head of the consultancy’s UK and Ireland property cost management service outside London. He joins from Aecom, where he is currently European managing director of project and cost management. BDO The accountancy and business advisory firm has appointed Mark Hunt as head of its financial services [...]