Dawn raiders turn into gentlemen
"Mr Potanin cannot just pick up the phone like he can with Norilsk Nickel and Sidanko and tell us what to do," says Renaissance Capital's managing director of investment banking, Leonid Rozhetskin, rejecting speculation that following the merger of Renaissance and Unexim associate bank ICFI, the new company, MFK Renaissance, will be beholden to Unexim.
Boris Jordan, who founded Renaissance in May 1995 after leaving the Moscow branch of CSFB and who will be chief executive of the new company, is equally firm: "Unexim has very aggressive positions on certain industrial assets and competitors are not happy about it. But as an investment banker I have to work with everyone, not just Unexim-related companies. This year 80% of Renaissance's revenues were from non-Unexim-related clients and I don't expect that figure to fall after the merger."
All the same, his relationship with Potanin appears to be the cause of Jordan's latest visa difficulties. In October the 37-year-old American had his visa taken away at Moscow airport before boarding a plane to London. Unexim's rivals may have been behind it.