Denis Kamyshev Gazprombank. Kamyshev Denis Valentinovich "Roadmap" to combat corruption

"News"

Brazil backs US in information war with Russia

This time, the blow is delivered by the hands of the largest Brazilian publication, Estadão.

The largest right-wing conservative Brazilian newspaper Estadão, known for its support of the dictatorship in the 60s, joined the US information war against Venezuela and Russian companies in Latin America.

This time the target was Gazprombank, which was unfoundedly accused of legalizing criminal proceeds in an article titled "The Russian Chavista Money Laundering Scheme" (Rússia monta com chavistas esquema para lavar dinheiro em paraísos fiscais).

Gazprombank: Russian banks will work more actively with regional banks in China

MOSCOW, July 4 - RIA Novosti / Prime. In the future, Russian banks will be able to develop cooperation with regional banks in China more quickly, since they directly finance only projects in the Middle Kingdom, which means they are less subject to sanctions pressure, Denis Kamyshev, first vice president of Gazprombank, believes.
RIA Novosti https://ria.ru/economy/20160704/1458325800.html

"Roadmap" to combat corruption

Corruption is a complex phenomenon in which politics, economics and the state of society are intertwined. Therefore, the fight against corruption should be a complex set of measures. To deal with different aspects of the phenomenon, different measures are needed.
link: http://www.vedomosti.ru/opinion/news/1812497

Revolution at the Polytechnic

The managerial model of the renovated museum is created by Ernst & Young, and consultants work for free. Yesterday, consultants from both companies met in the museum building on New Square and agreed to coordinate the development. To create recommendations for the Polytechnic, consultants analyzed the experience of 11 of the best technology museums in the world, such as the Exploratorium in San Francisco, the National Museum of Science and Industry in London, said Denis Kamyshev, partner at Ernst & Young.
link: http://www.ukrrudprom.ua/ digest/Revolyutsiya_v_ Politehnicheskom.html

Moderate protectionism on the eve of WTO accession

Denis Kamyshev, a partner at Ernst & Young, called the system not too strict. “The Russian system is more liberal than what we see in some other markets. I don’t think it’s worth picking on her,” he said.
link: http://www.gradient-alpha.ru/ru/press/publication/4753/

The new structure of the Polytechnic Museum will be developed by Ernst & Young

“The recommendations proposed by Ernst & Young will make it possible to form a new museum management model in accordance with modern tasks, forms and directions of museum activity for the effective implementation of the new concept of the Polytechnic Museum,” said Ernst & Young partner Denis Kamyshev.
link: http://investsecret.ru/linenews.php?id_news=7437

The Polytechnic Museum, together with Ernst & Young, is developing a new organizational structure

Denis Kamyshev, a partner at Ernst & Young, notes: "The recommendations proposed by Ernst & Young will allow us to form a new model of museum management in accordance with modern tasks, forms and directions of museum activity for the effective implementation of the new concept of the Polytechnic Museum."
link: http://eng.polymus.ru/rv/?s=234&d_id=1252

Swedbank held a conference for representatives of corporate business in Kaliningrad

The event was attended by Raimo Valo, Chairman of the Management Board of Swedbank OJSC, Raimo Valo, Minister of Economy of the Government of the Kaliningrad Region, Alexandra Smirnova, Member of the Management Board, Head of the Corporate Business Department of Swedbank OJSC Sergey Dzyubenko, Director of Consulting Services Department of Ernst & Young Denis Kamyshev, Director of OJSC Branch Swedbank in Kaliningrad Dmitry Danilov and other experts.
link: http://www.press-release.ru/branches/finance/49f58c24bc1d7/?print=yes

Risks and opportunities - into results

“The impact of the last crisis is still being felt,” says Denis Kamyshev, Partner, Head of Corporate Risk Management Services. – Unbalanced cost cutting in many companies in the course of overcoming the consequences of the 2008 crisis has exacerbated a number of risks in the field of investment management, maintaining the integrity of infrastructure, and providing highly qualified personnel. It is their management that is given increased attention today.”
link: http://www.kapital.kz/gazeta/resursi/riski

THREE-HEADED "Econika"

Denis Kamyshev, director of consulting services at Ernst & Young, sees another advantage in diversified companies like Ekonika. “They are often formed by a limited group of shareholders who are willing to quickly mobilize the resources of an existing business to invest in a new one,” he explains. Mr. Kamyshev believes that such a business model is resistant to systemic industry crises, but in times of global economic instability it becomes more vulnerable. “The results of our research show that over the past six months, the trend towards the sale of non-core business by large companies has intensified,” the expert states. However, the owners of Ekonika are clearly not going to sacrifice any of their offspring, hoping to keep them all. How they succeed, the next two or three years will show.
link:

Reading 5 min. Views 898 Published on 04/28/2019

Gazprombank is one of the largest financial institutions in Russian Federation. The organization's services are used by 5 million individuals and 45,000 legal institutions. The management of Gazprombank sets the direction of the organization's work. Therefore, the competence of the top of the board must be undeniable. The further development of the bank in the Russian market depends on its composition.

Gazprombank: history of the company

The creation of a banking institution falls on 1990. Gazprombank was restructured to the form of a limited liability company by August 1996. In 2001, another transformation took place. Bank of utility company became a closed joint stock company. But due to a change in the legal form of the state in 2007, it switched to the form of open investment. Because of this, the name was changed to an open joint stock company.

The expansion of assets occurs through the acquisition of other banking organizations. For example, in 2007 a 94% stake in Areximbank CJSC was purchased. These include both the main number of documents and additional issues.

Already in 2008, the company continued to buy back shares and took the last 6% from Raiffeisenbank. As a result, it is the Russian bank that is 100% the owner of the Armenian financial institution Areximbank.

In terms of capital, Gazprombank is recognized as the third in Europe - in terms of the Central and Eastern parts. The same, third place, was awarded to the financial institution within the Russian Federation, but already in terms of the main performance indicators.

Who manages the financial group

The management structure of the company consists of several parts. Depending on this, the powers and responsibilities of employees and owners are divided. There are two main groups - the board of directors and the board of Gazprombank. Separately from this, positions are structured according to the management of the branches of the organization. They are determined depending on the autonomous region and the main cities in them.

Gazprombank also allocates the position of chief accountant, since he is responsible for monitoring all reports. For 2019, Andrey Aleksandrovich Shustrov is the leader in this area. He has three deputies who can equally carry out his functions.

Information about everyone who is on the Board of Directors of Gazprombank can be found on the official website of the financial institution. This is open and reliable data updated by the company itself.

Alexey Borisovich Miller is the Chairman of the Council. He holds the position of Chairman of the Management Board of Gazprom. The deputy is Akimov Andrey Igorevich, who has been working since June 2003. In parallel, he was appointed as Chairman of the Management Board of Gazprombank.

Another seven people are regular members of the Board of Directors. They also occupy other positions in the system of the Gazprom group of companies. For example, Vasilyeva acts as the chief accountant of an enterprise. On Gazaryan Yu.G. obligations were assigned to the deputy chairman of the state corporation VEB.RF.

Since Gazprom is a member of the Russian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, this structure is represented by V.A. Dmitriev. He is the Vice President of the organization.

The Deputy Chairmen of the Bank's Management Board are also members of the Council. These include Eliseev and Kruglov.

In April 2019, there was a change in the composition of the Board of Directors. Kirill Seleznev was removed from his post. In his place was elected Gennady Sukhov. He was also appointed head of Department 314 in the PJSC Gazprom group. Sukhov will hold his position for five years.

bank board

This collegiate body is responsible for immediate response in terms of company management. The Management Board consists of 16 people in total. Chairman - Akimov Andrey Igorevich. A number of deputies were also appointed, there are only ten of them. Among them from this date work:

• Belous - since August 2017;
• Sauers - since February 2013;
• Borisenko - since September 2015;
• Komanov - since March 2007;
• Kulik - since December 2017;
• Matveev - since July 2003;
• Muranov - since December 2004;
• Sable - since November 1999;
• Stepanov - since November 2014.

Eliseev Ilya Vladimirovich, although he is the Deputy Chairman, he is also a member of the Board of Directors. The situation is identical with other members of the Board. For example, the First Vice-President of Gazprombank is not alone. For 2019, there are four of them - V. N. Vinokurov, D. V. Kamyshev, I. V. Rusanov, V. M. Ryskin. All of them are members of the Management Board. Another member of the management elite holds the position of head of Gazprombank's asset management, which is in the process of restructuring. This is Khachaturov Tigran Garikovich.

Strategy and directions in the development of Gazprombank

The main directions of the bank's work are servicing the strategic sectors of the Russian Federation. These include gas and oil production, chemical and petrochemical processing, metallurgy, electric power, mechanical engineering, construction and communications. The bank is also interested in cooperation with the retail business. For private clients, the financial institution offers several products:

• lending in various areas;
• deposit programs;
• carrying out settlement functionality;
• plastic cards and accounts.

Consistent development of the organization is also observed in the field of investing in Russian and foreign banks. For 2019 Gazprombank is the owner of blocks of shares in financial institutions in the territory of the post-Soviet countries, in Asia - China and India. Assets are also placed in European countries - Switzerland and Luxembourg.

conclusions

The work of Gazprom Bank for 2019 is one of the most stable in the Russian Federation. The company is gradually expanding both in the domestic and foreign markets. The skillful management of the financial group contributes to this. It changes depending on the vote. Representatives of the top of the bank have extensive experience in the financial sector and the appropriate level of education. The elective structure, on the other hand, makes it possible to remove those who have shown inefficiency in their posts.

Gazprombank is one of the leaders in the Russian financial market. The credit organization is widespread in our country. In addition, the institution belongs to the government of the Russian Federation, which means that it conducts its activities in accordance with Russian legislation. Among the bank's clients are individuals and legal entities, as well as financial institutions and investors. For the effective management of the financial group, competent managers and managers were involved. In the article, we will consider the entire leadership of Gazprombank.

About bank

The first mention of Gazprombank appeared in 1989. At that time, Viktor Stepanovich Chernomyrdin became the head of the gas producing concern. He served in the Soviet Union as Minister of the Gas Industry. Already in 1990, Gazprom became a bank with a limited liability company form of ownership.

In 1991, the collapse of the Soviet Union took place, and in those years, banks lost most of their capital, so only a few of them received state benefits. Among them was Gazprombank. In 1995, the first shareholders' council was held, and in 1996 the credit institution issued its first shares on the stock market. In subsequent years, the bank was distinguished by high stability and positive dynamics of development.

Please note that Gazprombank has a high state stake, 35% of the shares are owned by Gazprom, 47% by NPF Gazfond, which is also founded by the Government of the Russian Federation.

bank management

Chairman of the Board of Gazprombank - Andrey Igorevich Akimov. He has been holding his position in the bank since November 21, 2002. It was then that, by decision of the board of directors, he was appointed to his high-ranking position, before him Yuri Lvov was the chairman of the board.

The board of directors of Gazprombank is headed by Andrey Borisovich Miller. His career at Gazprombank began in 2001, when he was appointed Chairman of the Board. A year later, he was appointed deputy chairman of the board of directors. Andrey Miller is a candidate of economic sciences, in 2010 he took 3rd place in the ranking of the world's most effective top managers according to the foreign edition of Harvard Business Review. Miller was included in the US Kremlin sanctions list in 2018 and fell under sanctions.

First Vice President of Gazprombank

Vinokurov V. N. and Kamyshev D. V. Vinokurov have been in office since 2014. Job Responsibilities vice presidents are in the development and implementation of projects in the field of banking security.

Kamyshev took up his post in 2017. The main activity of the vice president is to develop the bank's policy on expanding the customer base, the overall efficiency of corporate business, the implementation of international projects and international infrastructure.

Andrey Igorevich Akimov

Deputy chairmen of the board are presented in the table. We advise you to familiarize yourself with them for a better understanding of the overall picture.

FULL NAME	Date of appointment	Job Responsibilities
Belous A.P.	August 17, 2017
Borisenko E. A.	September 30, 2015	Management of structural divisions within the framework of the powers granted
Ryskin V. M.	May 24, 2019	Ensuring the interaction of the bank with other banks, the Central Bank and other financial institutions.
Rusanov I.V.	February 4, 2013	Maintaining a policy on management issues, assets, liabilities and interest income, managing the bank's interaction with the external and internal market
Stepanov A. M.	November 21, 2014
Sobol A.I.	November 11, 1999	Management of structural divisions inwithin the limits of the granted powers
Muranov A. Yu.	February 9, 2005	Management of structural divisions inwithin the limits of the granted powers
Matveev A. A.	July 4, 2003	Management of structural divisions inwithin the limits of the granted powers
Komanov V. A.	March 1, 2007	Management of structural divisions inwithin the limits of the granted powers
Sauers D.V.	February 4, 2013	Management of structural divisions inwithin the limits of the granted powers

All important management decisions are made by the board of directors, its chairman is Alexey Borisovich Miller. In addition to him, 8 more people go to the board of directors, among them:

• Vasilyeva E. A., she is also the chief accountant of the bank;
• Gazaryan Yu. G., he is simultaneously the deputy director of the state corporation VED.RF;
• Gavrilenko A. O., General Director of Closed Joint-Stock Company Leader;
• Dmitriev V. A. - Vice-President of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of the Russian Federation;
• Dmitriev K. A., he is the General Director of LLC Management Company of the Russian Direct Investment Fund;
• Eliseev I.V. - Deputy Chairman of the Board of Gazprombank;
• Ivanov Sergey Sergeevich General Director of PJSC ALROSA.

Please note that information about the management of Gazprombank is current as of mid-2019.

Andrey Borisovich Miller

Conclusion

The head of Gazprombank is Akimov Andrey Igorevich. It is he who is at the head of one of the largest state banks. 50% of the credit institution's securities are owned by the state. It provides comprehensive financial support to the credit institution, due to which the bank expands its presence in the domestic and foreign markets. All important decisions on the management of a financial institution are made by the board of directors, which includes only effective top managers and economists.

Chairman of the Board of Gazprombank 61-year-old Andrey Akimov avoids public events. He does not like press conferences, briefings and interviews, but he made an exception for Forbes. A rare bank employee can get into his cozy, classically decorated reception room in the office of Gazprombank on the Moskva River embankment overlooking the Kremlin. He is also poorly known in Gazprom, whose board of directors he has been a member of for four years. Once in a monopoly, trying to convince Akimov to give an interview to a corporate newspaper, they conducted a study and found out that only 1% of the employees of the central office know him by sight. The banker is fine with that.

What is he like in life? Tight, energetic brunette with a strict look. The movements are confident, sometimes choppy. In a narrow circle of acquaintances, he can open up and, laughing, tell a funny story from his life. There are many mysteries in it. Akimov is not from the Soviet "golden youth". But his career developed rapidly from the student bench. Work in the system of Vneshtorgbank from the fourth year of the Moscow Financial Institute, first in Moscow, and then in Zurich. At 34, Akimov is already the general director of the Austrian Donaubank, the youngest head of the Soviet foreign bank. Having lived for many years in Austria, in the early 2000s he traded a measured life on the banks of the Danube for a hectic job in Moscow.

“Akimov is a banker of the first galaxy, but Andrey would not be interested in managing just a commercial bank. Building empires is another matter,” says Rair Simonyan, chairman of the board of directors of UBS in Russia, who has known Akimov for decades. Under the leadership of Akimov, Gazprom's captive bank has become one of the largest financial and industrial holdings in the country: the third largest bank in Russia, a network of subsidiary banks in the country and abroad, industrial enterprises, the media, and an investment collection of contemporary art.

Akimov recalls how in the late 1980s, while living in Vienna, he wrote detailed letters to Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev with excerpts from the Marshall Plan "about how to do perestroika, how to find money for the country's suffering economy and how to transfer its debts in the long term." Many years later, the Russian leadership seems to have begun to listen to the highly experienced banker. Since 2007, his name can be found on the lists of participants in important meetings with Vladimir Putin among the names of government members, ministers and heads of state-owned companies. And finally, it is Gazprombank that is involved in solving the most delicate international issues, such as exporting gas to Ukraine or signing the "deal of the century" - the Chinese gas contract.

"Remember Stefan Zweig's Chess Novel?" - says Simonyan in response to a request to tell what kind of person has headed Gazprombank for more than 10 years. The protagonist of this short story, Dr. B., in his youth falls into the dungeons of the Gestapo and, using a stolen book, without even having a chessboard, learns to play multi-way combinations in his mind. Years passed, and somehow traveling on a ship, in front of an astonished audience, he easily beats the world chess champion. “So Andrey Akimov is the same: he knows how to play complex combinations in his head,” explains Simonyan. “People for him are pieces on the board, and you never know what piece you are in the game of his mind.”

"Akimov-san, how old are you?"

A tiny office with a small window looking at the wall of the Bolshoi Theater in the building of the Vneshtorgbank of the USSR in Kopyevskiy Lane is crammed from floor to ceiling with documents for collection. The tedious work of parsing these papers was entrusted to Andrey Akimov, an intelligent student from the Moscow Financial Institute, who came to practice in the accounting department. There are no computers, all the data must be processed manually: check the documents, put the order for execution and enter information about payments in the ledger.

A graduate of an English special school, Akimov, dreamed of studying at MGIMO, but he understood that he would not enter: the children of the elite studied there. One of Akimov's classmates, who wished to remain anonymous, recalls: "It was Soviet time- corruption was not allowed to become mainstream, it was, so to speak, a dessert, an addition. Even those who were tacitly considered thieves were often objectively well prepared. That is, they could well do without any cronyism. Although they also could not have acted, which they tried to prevent by pulling.” As a result, Akimov chose the recently opened International Economics Department of the MFI. The competition was not very high - there were five people for a place, and at the open day of the Faculty of International Economics, teachers promised that graduates would be sent to work at Intourist, Ingosstrakh and Sovzagranbanks, recalls another classmate of Akimov, Valery Lyakin, who now heads VTB Bank (Deutschland) AG.

Both MGIMO and MFI went to study those who wanted to “connect their future profession with work abroad, with the active use of knowledge foreign language", says Lyakin. The only difference is in the contingent of students: “comrades who were at the top of the social ladder” bypassed MFIs with their attention. This university was chosen by people from simpler families - "there were many technical intelligentsia, there were many children of the military." Akimov was one of those. Born in 1953 in Leningrad, but at the age of three months he moved with his parents to Moscow. His father was a military engineer, he was engaged in the development of weapons in the USSR Ministry of Defense, and his mother taught mathematics at school.

At the institute, Akimov avoided noisy companies, concentrating on his studies. At the Faculty of International Economics, MFIs even taught marketing. “At the time when they were imprisoned for speculation, it seemed like a breakthrough,” Akimov recalls. The course was taught by the outrageous Mark Ryskin, who liked to perch right on the table in his red socks and red suspenders. Over time, Akimov made a friend - Vladimir Dmitriev, the current chairman of the board of VEB. Akimov still keeps photographs from the construction team, in which he and Dmitriev are depicted.

Andrei studied well and Lyakin was remembered as a man who read a lot: “He loved, knew Russian literature well, and modern Soviet and foreign literature. In addition to textbooks, I constantly saw some thick magazines or a volume in his place. Akimov became addicted to reading at school - the teacher of literature made him read a lot. In addition, Akimov inherited a large library from his grandfather: he says that after reading his books, he exchanged them with friends for other books. In those years, he liked Camus (especially the story "The Outsider"), Saint-Exupery, Hemingway. The habit of reading a lot came in handy when he came to Vneshtorgbank for practice. “Without being distracted by anything, I read everything that was on the shelves: I came home with folders of documents and studied them until three or four in the morning,” recalls Akimov.

That collection room became his first office and the starting point of his career. When the bosses realized that Akimov was coping with collection operations, he was transferred to the economic department. In his fifth year, he got into the department of foreign loans. It seemed to him that he found himself “in a real physical laboratory”, where scientific experiments are being carried out: in the 1970s, the USSR only received foreign loans. Akimov was directly involved in the organization of one of them.

The Soviet Union was preparing for the development of the shelf of Sakhalin Island, prospecting and exploration work there had been going on since 1958. After lengthy negotiations in September 1975, the Soviet Ministry of Foreign Trade signed a general agreement with the Japanese company Sakhalin Sekyu Kaihatsu Kyoryoku Kabushiki Kaisha (or simply Sodeko), specially created for the project, “On cooperation in the field of exploration, field development, oil production and / or natural gas on the shelf of Sakhalin Island and on the supply of these goods to Japan. Akimov took part in the preparation of the agreement. He says that he remembered this document by heart. The USSR received a loan of $ 100 million for the development of deposits and had to return it only in case successful implementation project. Two years later, a young employee of Vneshtorgbank became an expert on a government delegation that went to Japan to negotiate the supply of consumer goods and large-diameter pipes - this was his first trip abroad. “The Japanese were surprised and asked: Akimov-san, how old are you?” - Akimov laughs.

Between 1976 and 1989, three oil and gas condensate
deposits - "Odaptu", "Chayvo" and "Arkutun-Dagi", according to the report of the Accounts Chamber. The volume of recoverable reserves is estimated at 2.3 billion barrels (307 million tons) of oil and 485 billion cubic meters. m of natural gas. Sakhalin-1 is still considered one of the most successful offshore projects in Russia. And the Japanese loan, with which it was possible to launch the project, was written off in 1995 when a production sharing agreement (PSA 1) was signed.

In students, few people reveal themselves - this happens when you start to engage in active professional activities, Lyakin argues. Unlike other students who did internships in several departments of Vneshtorgbank, usually for a month in one department, Akimov concentrated on working in the management of foreign bank loans. “Therefore, naturally, he was able to gain more knowledge and professional experience than many others,” Lyakin believes. - Andrey Igorevich was one of the few young people who quickly entered the profession, proved themselves to be active and initiative. Therefore, he quickly began to move up the career ladder.

Didn't return to work

After graduating from the Faculty of International Economics, Akimov, of course, dreamed of working abroad. After the first business trip to Japan in 1977, the opportunity to get another appointment presented itself pretty soon. In 1978, he went on an internship to Luxembourg at East-West United Bank for six months, and in 1981 to Sweden, to negotiate a loan for $100 million with an export agency. The day of arrival in Stockholm, December 13, Akimov remembered well: in Poland martial law was introduced, which lasted a year and a half. He was afraid that he would leave Sweden with nothing, but the negotiations were still successful. Shortly after this trip, Akimov received multiple permission to travel abroad and visited many countries, including Switzerland - in the famous Soviet foreign bank "Voskhod Handelsbank" (Wozchod Handelsbank).

All Soviet foreign banks were supposed to contribute to lending to the USSR and the countries of the socialist camp. And the Swiss bank also had an exclusive function - to trade gold on the instructions of the Politburo. There was also an instruction to manipulate the price of gold.

In his book The History of Soviet and Russian Banks Abroad, Nikolai Krotov wrote with reference to eyewitnesses of those events that gold from the USSR was transported to Switzerland under the seats of passenger planes. “The connection of the Union to the world market has led to the fact that we began to seriously influence the world price of gold. We were number two among the supplier countries after South Africa. They gave 700 tons of gold out of the world annual volume of 1100-1200 tons, we - 200-300, sometimes more, ”recalled Yuri Karnaukh, currency director of Wozchod Handelsbank, in an interview with Expert in 2000.

But in 1984, an audit began at Wozchod through Vneshtorgbank, and then bankruptcy. It turned out that one of the traders opened large positions, betting on the rise in the price of gold and the fall in the dollar, but lost. Later, Viktor Gerashchenko, who worked a lot in the system of Soviet foreign banks, recalled that "we then lost a lot of money in Switzerland." Akimov was instructed to "sort out the loan portfolio" of Wozchod Handelsbank. He needed the help of an auditor, and he decided to involve Pricewaterhouse. But the Moscow comrades began to doubt, Akimov recalls with a smile: was Pricewaterhouse a product of American imperialism? He prepared a certificate stating that the company, which has existed since the 19th century, has English roots. After that, Pricewaterhouse was admitted to the balance sheets of the Swiss foreign bank. Pricewaterhouse also had to convince them to work with the Soviet structure and to open an office in Moscow without fail. “I explained to them that Russia in the future is a huge market, but they didn’t believe it: after all, then in the USSR they only argued whether to give land for rent,” Akimov recalls.

Having completed his work at Wozchod Handelsbank and passed the “test”, a few months later Akimov got the opportunity to live in Zurich, taking the position of deputy general director of the Swiss branch of Vneshtorgbank (the successor of Wozchod Handelsbank). Two years later, at the age of 34, Akimov moved to Austria, having been appointed to the post of CEO of Donaubank. Is it possible at that age to head a Sovzagranbank without being an employee of the special services? “It wasn't necessary,” says Simonyan, who met Akimov during the Donaubank days. - He was young, but very smart and already with connections abroad. He knew Austria well and the people in Austria.” Akimov himself explains to Forbes that his career in foreign banks developed under Mikhail Gorbachev, who himself became the youngest party functionary at the age of 47, and in 1985 became General Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee. The slogan "The road to the young" really took place, confirms the economist Oleg Ozherelyev, who in those years was in charge of the sector of economic sciences of the Central Committee.

Akimov, who settled abroad in April 1985, from the very beginning of perestroika, was very passionate about the ideas of economic reforms in the USSR. He looked for new directions for the development of Donaubank, “having foresight,” recalls Lyakin: “The process of change in the Soviet Union was underway, more and more entities appeared that had the right to engage in foreign economic activity, including joint ventures.” New divisions appeared in the bank, they expanded the range of activities. For example, Donaubank under Akimov began to organize international conferences. They gathered foreigners in New York, brought delegations from the USSR, held seminars explaining what was happening in the country, and made good money on it: they took $ 1,000 from each conference participant.

So Donaubank became one of the strongholds for those coming from the USSR to exchange experiences. Once, during one of these trips, Ozherelyev turned up in Austria. The economist recalls that he spent the night right in the Donaubank office - the 19th-century Colloredo-Mansfeld palace on the Ringstrasse. Through Ozherelyev, whom he received cordially in Vienna, Akimov then passed on his letters to Gorbachev with advice on perestroika. In general, he liked to receive people with extraordinary thinking, he supported the reformers in every possible way, recalls Rair Simonyan, who in those years worked at the Institute of World Economy and International Relations of the USSR Academy of Sciences.

Later, these connections, which began in the 1980s, helped Akimov in his own business. Back in 1985, having moved to Zurich, he decided to create a company - a financial consultant to attract investment in the USSR. The time for this came in 1990, when his business trip to Donaubank ended. Akimov registered the Investment Management & Advisory Group (IMAG) in Switzerland and did not return from a business trip to Austria: he did not go to work at the Moscow office of Vneshtorgbank at the appointed time, and he was forced to write a letter of resignation of his own free will.

After leaving the bank, Akimov, according to Simonyan, lost many benefits that were so dear to the Soviet people - a super job, a service apartment. But Akimov did not regret it: several years of living abroad "broadened my horizons and influenced the vision of the world." In IMAG, unlike Donaubank, he had more freedom of action, although there was also more risk. In addition, the Soviet Union was bursting at the seams. The backbone of the team is acquaintances from the 1980s: Alexander Medvedev, who was hired by Akimov at Donaubank at the suggestion of Simonyan, moved to work in the Vienna office of IMAG; Ozherelyev, who in 1991 managed to work as an assistant to the President of the USSR Mikhail Gorbachev, after the collapse of the Union, headed the Moscow office of the company.

There was a default in the country, everyone needed money, recalls Ozherelyev. went to companies different kind intermediaries, offered Financial services and deceived - there was a crisis of confidence. But Akimov's useful contacts in the Western financial community (he attracted IFC, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, the American Export-Import Bank, KKR, Pricewaterhouse, Deloitte & Touche, etc.), as well as Ozherelyev's old connections in high offices and enterprises in Russia could ensure success.

In the very first year of its existence, IMAG decided to participate in the first Russian privatization project. In partnership with Bear Stearns, the firm wrote a plan for the strategic development of AvtoVAZ. Fiat wanted to sell 30% of the shares of the Russian automobile giant, Ozherelyev says. But the influential oligarch Boris Berezovsky, who took control of the management and all the financial flows of the plant, was against it. “Once Akimov and I came to talk about AvtoVAZ with Berezovsky at his office,” Ozherelyev said. I remember him playing the piano for us. And then he says: “Guys, one sixth of the land is to be divided, we must take an active part in this, we cannot stand aside.” And we realized that it was useless to talk further.”

At first, IMAG was having a hard time. The firm was supposed to earn commissions on the deals, but there were none. Russian enterprises wanted to receive Western loans, but did not seek to pay for the services of a financial adviser. All the preparatory work, business trips, salaries of IMAG employees had to be financed at their own expense. “There were moments when tomorrow it was necessary to pay wages to employees of the company, but there was no money in the accounts. But Akimov found them somewhere - there was no case that the salary was delayed, ”recalls a former employee of IMAG. Akimov himself recalls that in such cases he issued loans to the company from personal funds (the company employed about 100 people, and the salary of one employee could reach $ 4,000 - a lot of money at that time).

Akimov's firm earned its first millions on debt trading. For example, they bought the debts of the GDR, which then cost 25% of the face value, and when the FRG agreed to pay these debts and they rose in price to 90%, they sold them. They made money on arbitration, buying some debts and exchanging them for others. And in 1993 there was the first major deal in Russia. The foreign trade association Agrohimexport, an exporter of mineral fertilizers, like everyone else at that time, needed money. IMAG arranged a loan for Agrohimexport, and then the financial obligations were exchanged for commodity deliveries - a scheme popular in those years. With the help of a partner, foreign trader Andre & Cie, IMAG sold pesticides at a good margin. The money from this transaction was enough for a long time to finance the current expenses of the company. “We worked almost around the clock. Once, Andrei Igorevich and I were driving together from work in the same car at three o'clock in the morning. And he, saying goodbye, says: “Well, now we’ll get a good sleep and at 8 in the morning we will meet again at the office,” the former IMAG employee laughs.

Over time, the circle of IMAG clients has increased. Thanks to the connections of Ozherelyev, who, together with Anatoly Sobchak, taught at the Leningrad state university, IMAG had several projects in St. Petersburg - this direction was supervised by Alexander Medvedev. Akimov's firm became a financial advisor to the St. Petersburg administration, working with Vladimir Putin's Office of Foreign Economic Relations and at the same time with Gennady Timchenko and his partners in Kirishineftekhimexport (Kineks), whom Akimov's firm helped to obtain special exporter status and provided working capital. With the assistance of IMAG, Kinex received a quota for the export of petroleum products. The proceeds from their sale were used by the mayor's office to purchase food. In addition to working capital tranches, IMAG has attracted tens of millions of dollars of Western funding for the reconstruction of the Kirishi Oil Refinery, which was the main supplier of oil products to the city. Akimov explains that no one knew the owners of Kinex at that time and foreign banks loaned them under his guarantee.

A brief summary of more than 10 years of IMAG's work in the financial advisory market - $3.5 billion of attracted investments in Russian enterprises: Tomskneft ($140 million), KamAZ ($750 million), Udmurtneft, Agrohimeksport, Purneftegaz, Kirishi refinery , Severstal. And personally for Akimov - acquaintance with Putin and the head of his apparatus, Igor Sechin, who in the future became the most influential people in the country. But the banker categorically refuses to discuss the very fact of acquaintance and the details of communication with them.

IMAG consultations helped form the basis for the future fortune of Gennady Timchenko, who has entered the Forbes list as one of the world's largest oil traders. The businessman did not stop working with Akimov even after the closure of IMAG: along with Sechin's Rosneft, Timchenko's structures were among the main clients of Gazprombank, which Akimov unexpectedly headed for everyone on the late evening of November 20, 2002, replacing Yuri Lvov.

Gas to power

“I was not assigned any special tasks when I was appointed to Gazprombank,” Akimov assures. “Gazprom occupied almost the entire balance of the bank, and something had to be done about it.” Gazprombank really was the main bank of Gazprom, and Gazprom with its structures was a shareholder with a share of 97.83% and the main client of Gazprombank. According to IFRS statements for 2002, the share of loans to Gazprom or under its guarantees reached 69% in the loan portfolio of Gazprombank ($1.763 billion), and the monopoly's deposits in the total volume of deposits and account balances - 58% ($1.502 billion). Under Akimov, Gazprom's influence on the bank's balance sheet began to decline (see p. 63). In 2003–2004, major metallurgical and oil companies (NLMK, MMK, Mechel, Norilsk Nickel, TNK, Surgutneftegaz, Rosneft), Russian Railways, Rosatom, and others became Gazprombank's clients.

The new chairman of the board of Gazprom, Alexei Miller, took up the return to the monopoly of the core assets lost under Rem Vyakhirev and the sale of non-core assets, but then they did not begin to reduce their share in Gazprombank. The bank began to develop investment ideas for Gazprom, focusing on its new strategy - the transformation into a vertically integrated energy group: from the well to each consumer. One of the first investment ideas was the purchase of Mosenergo shares in 2003.

“At that time, we ourselves developed the gas to power concept for Gazprom. They explained that there are several facts - the restructuring of RAO UES, the planned liberalization of electricity prices, and offered to combine all this, ”says a former top manager of Gazprombank. Gazprom agreed. Mosenergo was a major consumer of gas in Russia (24.3 billion cubic meters in 2003), while Gazprom was the largest buyer of energy (15 billion kWh). “We collected generation for Gazprom in several stages, and this process continued for more than two years,” recalls the former top manager. As a result, Gazprombank bought a blocking stake in Mosenergo and 10% of its parent company RAO UES from the market.

“Not everything went smoothly, the atmosphere was not the warmest,” explains the former top manager of the bank. Mosenergo management wrote excited letters to Kirill Androsov, Deputy Minister of Economic Development and Trade, saying that Gazprombank is actually Gazprom, that is, a gas monopoly, and buying up Mosenergo shares has nothing to do with gas trading. And the FAS with a creak coordinated with the bank the consolidation of companies created after the Mosenergo reform. Subsequently, the energy assets that Gazprombank collected for Gazprom became the basis of Gazprom Energoholding. "Gazprom" actually monopolized the market, using the huge financial resources and political weight of its superiors, and the government then had neither the desire nor the ability to resist this process, - comments one of the officials responsible for the reform of the electric power industry. - Anatoly Chubais then put up with "Gazprom" in the industry, believing that competition will continue thanks to the rest of the market participants. It is now clear that it was a mistake."

Gazprombank transferred the collected energy assets to Gazprom in exchange for Sibur, based on an estimate of 40.1 billion rubles for the entire petrochemical company. Akimov recalls that Sibur's debts reached $1 billion, and its assets were worth $900 million. And in 2011, Gazprombank resold the company to the main owner of Novatek, Leonid Mikhelson, already at an estimate of 150 billion rubles. “They made good money back then,” Akimov states. Later, his longtime acquaintance Gennady Timchenko became the co-owner of Sibur, who, through the mediation of Akimov, became Michelson's partner in Novatek. In 2014, Forbes estimated Timchenko's fortune at $15.3 billion.

Gazprom wanted to expand its downstream strategy not only to the domestic market, but also to the external one - such a task was faced by the then General Director of Gazprom Export, Alexander Medvedev, who came to Gazprom from IMAG several months earlier than Akimov, says the former employee of Gazprom Export. “We had to help Gazprom find an export strategy, understand how the markets in Europe work, and give this information to Gazprom, but not be associated with it,” Akimov explains. In 2003, Gazprombank created the Centrex group of companies in Austria, which began trading Gazprom's gas in Europe (there was a take or pay agreement) and bought a gas storage facility there. But it was not possible to get rid of the association with Gazprom: in one of the reports for 2005, the European Commission indicated that Centrex managers were “in close personal relations” with the leaders of Gazprom.

Within a few years, Centrex bought or created joint ventures with the group's granddaughter, Gazprom Germany. One of them, Vemex, in 2011 managed to acquire a 51% stake in RSP Energy a.s., which supplies gas and electricity to households and small consumers in the Czech Republic, Vedomosti wrote. It was convenient for Gazprom. And psychologically, this is a convenient (independent of the bank and Gazprom) mechanism for interception, overexposure, and the purchase of assets abroad, mainly Western European, - says an employee of one of Gazprom's subsidiaries. “But when the real buyer (Gazprom export) became clear, it caused a big fuss.”

According to him, this was Gazprom's "period of hopes" for acquiring assets abroad, and Vladimir Putin actively supported Gazprom in this desire to get from wells in Siberia to every gas column in Europe. Therefore, Gazprom had a goal - to buy as many different assets as possible, from large power plants to gas farms, which are owned by municipalities. At that time, there were indeed many deals that were in the process of being negotiated, and that's what Centrex was needed for. But most of the transactions did not take place. Both Akimov and Gazprom's managers admit that the Centrex project failed. “Ideas to build delivery to the end consumer in Europe and enter all industries - generation, distribution - met with resistance from national and pan-European regulators,” recalls a former employee of Gazprom Export.

“In the middle of the 2000s, Gazprom was given the task of obtaining ownership of energy assets located in Europe. The task itself was correct - Gazprom negotiated with many companies, bargaining for a variety of power generation facilities, but it was not possible to implement the tasks due to the fact that gas issue turned out to be too closely connected with politics, - explains the director of East European Gas Analysis Mikhail Korchemkin. - This state of affairs, when the fate of gas depends on Russian policy, did not suit Gazprom's European clients. And now things are moving towards a gradual refusal of Europeans from Russian gas. In the worst case scenario, by 2030 Russia and Iran will switch places. Now Iran ranks first in the world in terms of gas reserves, and exports less than 10 billion cubic meters. m per year.

Independent player

Transactions of Gazprombank were most often associated with Gazprom, even after Gazprom decided in 2006 to reduce the stake in the bank below the control. According to Akimov, this was necessary in order to facilitate the balance of Gazprom itself: “The Bank was included in Gazprom's accounts together with its liabilities. In order not to consolidate the bank's performance, it was necessary to either reduce the share or keep separate accounts,” explains Akimov. Press Secretary of "Gazprom" Sergei Kupriyanov confirms this. In 2005, Gazprombank bought back 10.13% of its shares from Gazprom Export and other subsidiaries of Gazprom, consolidating 12.51%. And in 2006, Gazprom reduced its stake in the bank to 41.73%, transferring 42.89% to Gazfond, which was managed by Leader Management Company. “But even when Gazprom was the main shareholder, there was no such thing that we had to jump as high as Gazprom would tell us. We discussed and did things together.

But with the advent of Akimov, Gazprombank really began to play an independent role, ”recalls a former top manager of Gazprombank.

Here is one of the latest examples of the independent game of Gazprombank and its leader. At the end of 2013, Mechel's debt load reached 12.4 EBITDA (see p. 68), and the company persuaded creditor banks (VTB, Sberbank and Gazprombank) to provide it with covenant holidays for 2014, but in April Sberbank and VTB announced on the readiness to initiate the bankruptcy of Mechel in the absence of state support. After that, the presidential administration and the government agreed on a plan for refinancing Mechel loans by VEB. And Russian Railways expressed their readiness to buy out the Ulak-Elga railway line, which was built by Mechel from the Elga deposit, subject to additional capitalization of Russian Railways from the budget. But after three months of discussion, VEB refused to refinance Mechel's debts. "Management considered all the proposed options for restructuring the company and its debt and recognized them as unprofitable for VEB," Vladimir Dmitriev, chairman of the bank, said on July 9. And Russian Railways was denied additional capitalization for the purchase of a railway line. In August, VTB, Sberbank and Gazprombank offered the owner of the company Igor Zyuzin to convert $3 billion of debt into a 75% stake in Mechel, but he refused, putting forward a counter offer - to buy the entire company from him for $500 million. Negotiations stalled, and in September " Mechel defaulted on loans from all three banks. And around this time, the roads of the banks diverged.

Sberbank and VTB went to court (in particular, VTB wants to recover a record 50 billion rubles, which exceeds the company's forecast EBITDA for 2014 - $690 million, or 43 billion rubles), and Gazprombank - to the government. Akimov called Prime Minister Medvedev, two sources familiar with the conversation told Forbes. According to them, Akimov said that he supports Zyuzin in refusing to convert debt into shares, and VTB and Sberbank are pursuing unclear interests that could lead to the collapse of the company. The head of Gazprombank also assured Medvedev that the bank and Zyuzin are in an agreed position on the future of Mechel and know how to preserve the integrity of the company. “This situation bothered us, because the position of Gazprombank is separate. We have a consolidated position of creditors, and Gazprombank is getting out of this position,” a source in Sberbank confirmed. According to him, assessments of these actions of Gazprombank in the market are “not very good”. Akimov refused to discuss this episode.

Why did Gazprombank suddenly change its position? Zyuzin very convincingly says that the worst stage for Mechel is already over, the main investments have been made and the return is about to begin, an investment banker who participated in one of Zyuzin's presentations shares his impressions. Moreover, the devaluation played into the hands of the metallurgical company. Due to the devaluation, the company's ruble debt was reduced by a third: in September, the ruble package was worth $1.673 billion, and by January 1, 2015 it had decreased to $1.099 billion. At the same time, a third of Mechel's revenue

and approximately half of EBITDA is in foreign currency. According to a Forbes source in Mechel, in 2015 the company plans to receive EBITDA of $1.1-1.4 billion, that is, twice as much as in 2014. However, according to the debt repayment schedule in 2015, Mechel needs to allocate $2.07 billion for payments.

Mechel is no worse than other companies that receive state support, Akimov explains: there are times when you don’t need to look at whether it is a private company or a state one, but simply show a state approach and help a large industrial enterprise. He did not discuss the details of the rescue plan for Mechel. “I'm sure that if Akimov believed Zyuzin, then he saw the prospects, and Mechel really has a chance to get out of this situation,” says the investment banker. - Akimov never plays like the others. And the story of the call to the prime minister is very similar to the truth.”

With the participation of Elena Khodyakova, Lyubov Martynova, Andrey Lapshin, Ivan Vasiliev