If a market is mature when its founders move on, the Czech Republic has Finally come of age. Richard Wood was one of the First expatriates to arrive in Prague after the fall of the Berlin Wall and built from scratch the internationally respected stockbroking Firm Wood&Co. But ever alert to the prospects for exciting times and doing business, Wood has recently moved to Istanbul.
| Wood: switching to Istanbul | ||||||
“I now take a boat across the Bosphorus every morning to get to work,” says Wood, reflecting on the contrast between the minarets, heavy traffic and general disorder of Istanbul and the church spires, historic squares and relative peace of Prague (except, that is, for when the IMF is in town).
Wood is an enthusiast for waterborne activities and was on his yacht in Spain when Euromoney contacted him. So his new journey to work suits him just Fine. But when he arrives at the Istanbul office his role is rather different from the one he had during the early days in what was then Czechoslovakia.
Wood famously arrived in Prague in 1990 driving a car bought in Copenhagen with all his belongings in the back. He spent the First year learning the language and exploring the country. The company he originally set up imported electronic equipment as, initially, there was no stock market.
The switch to Turkey is altogether a more sophisticated affair. Wood&Co is now the largest broker in the Czech Republic and has operations in Poland and Hungary.
Institutional clients requested the move into Turkey because they wanted good on-the-ground research.
Wood responded by hiring a chief operating officer to be based in Prague and taking himself off to Istanbul. But this time there is no chance to look around, sit in coffee bars and learn the language. In Istanbul Wood is working 10 hours a day getting the business off the ground.
The bullish outlook for Turkish stocks makes the venture very timely but Wood’s experience of emerging markets teaches him that they are volatile. “It’s like riding a horse,” he says, “you have to loosen the reins to allow it to run and tighten them up when it wants to walk.”
In the Czech Republic there has been more walking than running. The two bull markets were in 1993-94 and 1996-97. In the First one investors, desperate to put their money in, sought Wood out in foreign hotels and pleaded with him to take their cash. But shortly after it all went sour when the US raised interest rates. Wood then had to learn how to tread water and soothe dashed expectations.
Wood will no doubt need this skill again in Turkey when things go off the boil.
