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"With both domestic and international appetite for Russian corporate assets growing all the time, the exit markets are now quite fluid, which is one of the most positive changes for private equity in Russia" Ulf Persson, Mint Capital |
IMAGINE IT’S 2000 again. Russia is still in the doghouse with investors after the August 1998 financial melt down, the tech bubble has burst spectacularly and venture capital-type investments are about as popular as a dose of bubonic plague. So what do you do? Set up a tech-focused Russian private equity fund, of course. And what happens next? Your first investment, a broadband buildout in the Moscow region, goes belly up after you have fallen out with the company’s owner. Great. Lesser mortals might have caught the first plane home after such a start but Ulf Persson, managing partner and co-founder of Mint Capital, is clearly made of sterner stuff. Some seven years later he’s sitting in Mint Capital’s plush Moscow offices – all blond wood and understated Scandinavian designer furniture – and if not exactly laughing about the dark days of 2000, then at least managing to summon up a wry smile.