一家西方瑞典私募为何加注俄罗斯

Russia is not a place where Western private equity wants to play right now. Too much conflict, too many sanctions.

俄罗斯现在可不是西方私募基金争相投资的地方。那里的冲突太多，制裁也太多。

For example, The Blackstone Group recently said that it was “giving up” on the country, just weeks after a group of ex-Goldman Sachs bankers abandoned plans for a $2 billion emerging markets fund that was expected to have a major Russian allocation. And then there are the PE bigs who either are leaving the advisory board of the $11 billion state-owned Russian Direct Investment Fund, or who are at least reconsidering their involvement.

比如，黑石集团（The Blackstone Group）最近就表示将“放弃”这个国家。数周前，一群前高盛（Goldman Sachs）银行家也放弃了一个20亿美元的新兴市场基金计划，该基金原本打算对俄罗斯进行高比例配置。还有一些私募巨头打算离开资产规模达110亿美元的俄罗斯国有直接投资基金(Russian Direct Investment Fund)顾问委员会，至少也在重新考虑他们的参与程度。

So why is Sweden-based private equity firm CapMan not only maintaining its Moscow team, but this morning announcing that it has closed its second Russia-focused fund with nearly EUR100 million in capital commitments?

那么，为什么总部位于瑞典的私募股权公司CapMan不仅保留了其莫斯科团队，日前还宣布，第二只专注投资俄罗斯的新基金已完成近1亿欧元的资本认缴额？

Jerome Bouix, CapMan’s head of biz dev and investor relations, tells me that most of the fundraising occurred last year (i.e., before Russia’s annexation of Crimea), acknowledging that many promising leads dried up as the geopolitical situation intensified in 2014. But he says that none of the 2013 commitments bailed, and argues that the sanctions should not be too problematic for the fund, which focuses on “consumer-driven” small and mid-sized companies inside of Russia.

CapMan公司业务开发和投资者关系事务主管杰罗姆o布伊告诉本文作者，大部分募资发生在去年（即俄罗斯吞并克里米亚之前）。他承认，随着地缘政治局势在2014年趋于紧张，很多原本前景很好的投资线索最终不了了之。但他表示，2013年认缴的资本无一退出，并力称制裁不会给该基金造成太大问题，这只基金专注于投资俄罗斯国内“受消费驱动的”中小企业。

For starters, the Russian consumer isn’t going anywhere. Second, some of these companies actually are in an improved position today, as a combination of sanctions and the ruble’s devcaluation have made locally-produced goods more affordable than rival imports. Third, many of CapMan’s historical exits of Russian portfolio companies were trade sales to Russian buyers (of course, many were not, which seems to be a plausible cause for concern).

首先，俄罗斯消费者没有离开。其次，有些公司所处的环境其实还比以前更好，因为制裁和卢布贬值使得国产商品比同类进口商品更可承受。第三，CapMan公司过去撤出投资的很多俄罗斯公司都是卖给了俄罗斯买家（当然，也有很多不是这样，这似乎是一个值得担忧的因素）。

“We started in Russia in 1996, and have had a lot of similar discussions in years like 1998 and 2000,” Bouix explains. “We are confident that the companies were are investing in will find buyers in the future.”

“我们是1996年进入俄罗斯的，在1998年和2000年等年份也有过很多相似的讨论。”布伊解释说，“我们有信心，过去和现在进行投资的公司未来将找到买家。”