Russia has PR fight to win on overseas ambitions

By Alexander Smith

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian companies face strong resistance when it comes to buying assets overseas, but a combination of ambition and cash will ultimately win the day, business leaders at the Reuters Russia Investment Summit said.

"We have experienced this at our level. There is ... discrimination against Russian business. But Russians can't sit and blame the West for this. Their PR is bad, that is one of the big reasons," leading Moscow-based financier Boris Jordan said.

Jordan, who helped advise on the country's first privatizations in the 1990s and now runs a $2 billion private equity and advisory firm called Sputnik Group, is confident Russian companies won't be deterred.

"We will see more Russian companies going abroad than foreign companies coming to Russia ... You will see more cross-border deals involving Russian companies," Jordan said.

He highlighted metals, mining and energy as sectors where Russian companies would continue to flex their muscle abroad.

"They have got strong national champions which are looking to expand," he added.

A combination of strong cash generation and access to debt and equity markets has until now enabled Russian companies to make some big overseas acquisitions.

Earlier this year Norilsk Nickel (GMKN.MM: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), the world's largest nickel and palladium miner, outbid Xstrata Plc (XTA.L: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) to buy LionOre Mining for $6.5 billion. Russia's steel and aluminum giants have also been on the acquisition trail.

But Russian gas exporter Gazprom's (GAZP.MM: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) expansion plans have caused concern among politicians outside Russia who have threatened to block any acquisitions because of the Russian state's controlling interest in it.

Gazprom, the world's top gas producer and supplier of a quarter of Europe's gas, is actively looking to buy distribution assets in Western Europe.

CASH AND AMBITION

Another Russian company with global ambitions is services conglomerate Sistema (SSAq.L: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), whose main assets are telecoms groups MTS and Comstar.

Vladimir Yevtushenkov, Sistema's chairman, underlined that cross-border deals are only possible with political backing.

While Sistema could raise $10-12 billion in debt, in addition to the $7 billion it has on its balance sheet, if the right acquisition opportunity arose, any large purchase would require the buy-in of politicians in the target's country.

Yevtushenkov said his attempt last year to create a "gigantic global company" with Deutsche Telekom (DTEGn.DE: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) came unstuck because it was a "sacred cow" in Germany, although he did not rule out doing a deal in the future.  Continued...