Vadim Kleiner admits that "in the early days" his
job could be a little dangerous, but now he assures me he has
good relations with many of his old "enemies". He says: "They
understand it's just business. Purely money. Nothing
personal."
Kleiner has worked at Hermitage Capital Management for five
years. But this being Russia and Hermitage being the famously
activist investment company set up by Bill Browder, Kleiner's work
remit is different from that of the average equity analyst. He
says: "I sit on boards, negotiate with government ministers, battle
on the legal front and then send out reports and research
notes."
One such report recently landed him in hot water. In December,
he made a presentation to the Adam Smith Institute's Russian
banking conference in London, entitled: "Hermitage's Plan To Boost
Sberbank Value". The report, in...
