Moscow is Hot, Hot, Hot

We’d all just come from London and there was barely an unscarfed neck in sight. The local English language newspaper, The Moscow Times, said that it was the hottest day in the city for a century.

This week I’ll be reporting for peHub (from an air conditioned ballroom) on the developments in Emerging Europe’s hottest private equity market from the third annual Russian and CIS Private and Venture Capital forum.

Kicking off tomorrow’s sessions is Andrey Sharonov, deputy minister of economic development and trade in the Russian Federation. I’ve had a look at the notes on his remarks and he is expected to discuss new government initiatives such as the Russian Venture Company – the Government-backed fund of funds. Petr Rojicek, CIO of Alpha Associates and Gleb Davidyuk, a partner at Mint Capital will talk about avoiding industries which are likely to end up on Russia’s political agenda.

Someone I’m looking forward to meeting is Michael Calvey, managing partner of Baring Vostok Capital Partners. If you remember this is the group got Index Ventures and Cisco Systems to make their first investments into Russia two months ago when it offered up an US$18m financing round of online retailer Ozon.ru. Baring Vostok has been investing in Russia for over a decade and is most private equity players’ local partner of choice so I’m expecting an interesting session and a few investment tips too.

For those of you with cash earmarked for Asia, Allsher Djumanov, managing partner of Ansher Fund Management in Uzbekistan is going to talk about the most lucrative investments in Central Asia in banking and natural resources. And Leslie Hawrylyshyn, managing partner of Euroventures Ukraine will let us know how to get money out of the region with an exit strategy review.

Nurbek Raev, chairman of the National Innovation fund of Kazakhstan rounds out the day with his keynote address on the Kazak boom and funding high tech products in that country.

Keep checking peHub and EVCJ.com for these stories and many more plus all the gossip from the cocktail party.