Further proof – if any were needed – of Russia’s increasing financial clout on the international capital markets came one balmy Friday evening in July.
While the rest of the City of London was taking full advantage of the summer slowdown, and getting ready for the weekend’s World Cup football finals, staff at the London Stock Exchange were busy looking after some special Russian visitors.
The Russians were in town to film a segment for the second series of the Russian version of The Apprentice, the hugely popular reality TV show that involves a business leader testing a group of wannabe entrepreneurs, sending one contestant home each week with the killer phrase: “You’re fired!”
In the Russian version, known as Kandidat, Vladimir Potanin, oligarch and chairman of the mighty Interros Group, which counts Norilsk Nickel, Power Machines and Rosbank among its assets, takes on the role pioneered by Donald Trump in the US original.
Filming for the show, to be broadcast in Russia this month, was already at an advanced stage when Potanin decided to give the remaining five hopefuls a trip to the LSE. Although Potanin himself was too busy to turn up, his two advisers were on hand to show the final five around. The LSE visit was not part of a challenge, but a “treat” devised by Potanin for his contestants, who had been flown all the way from Norilsk, deep in Siberia, for the visit.
Most surprising of all, Norilsk Nickel only has Level 1 ADRs listed on the LSE. It just goes to show how far stock exchanges will go to cultivate business, especially when it comes from the potentially lucrative Russian market.
