July 28, 2005
It's old news, but the London Stock Exchange announced on May 1 that it Russian would become its official second language. The largest new companies listing on the LSE were Russian. After reading the Financial Time's coverage (extended entry) of this decision, I cannot understand why the fellow who reads the FT every morning on the bus always looks so dour.
"This is a way to set ourselves apart from other exchanges, namely New York," said Lionel Loot, the exchange's Russian listing liaison. "Ever since that Enron nonsense, the Americans want to know everything about everyone. It has led to the most unspeakable rudeness on their part.
"Here in London, Russian entrepreneurs can expect to be addressed in their native tongue and treated always in a quiet, courteous and expeditious manner. We are British, after all. One will endeavour to avoid awkward moments."
It's statements like that that make me want to move to England, they really do.
The new language policy at the LSE was praised by Nastasya Filippovna, executive secretary of the Russian Union for Investor Needs (RUIN), a London-based educational organisation that has offices in Aventura, Florida; the Brighton Beach section of Brooklyn, New York; and the Pacific island nation of Nauru.
Because when you want credibility as a provider of financial services to Russians on the global market, you highlight your experiences in Nauru, the nation where the plan to get rich (again) quiyck through off-shore banking grew so notorious as a launderer of Russian mafia mone that most banks worldwide quit accepting checks drawn on Nauruan banks.
More seriously, though, there's been a lot of talk about capital flight out of Russia, especially in advance of the 2006/2007 presidential elections. In theory, Putin's constitutionally forbidden from taking a third term. Whether that will prove an absolute bar remains to be seen.
(Hat tip: Johnson's List)
#20
Financial Times (UK)
July 26, 2005
Russians are coming! Russians are coming!
By Robert Shrimsley
Russian companies have been the biggest source of primary equity issuance
for the London Stock Exchange this year. City bankers, lawyers, financial
advisers and public relations advisers have made tens of millions of
dollars from these deals.
LONDON, May 1, 2006 - The London Stock Exchange announced today that it
would adopt Russian as its official second language, meaning that all of
its communications will also be available in Cyrillic script.
Exchange officials said they were taking the step because the only large
companies listing in London lately have been from Russia and they saw an
opportunity for growth. Domestic issuance has been confined mainly to small
public relations consultancies.
"This is a way to set ourselves apart from other exchanges, namely New
York," said Lionel Loot, the exchange's Russian listing liaison. "Ever
since that Enron nonsense, the Americans want to know everything about
everyone. It has led to the most unspeakable rudeness on their part.
"Here in London, Russian entrepreneurs can expect to be addressed in their
native tongue and treated always in a quiet, courteous and expeditious
manner. We are British, after all. One will endeavour to avoid awkward
moments."
The new language policy at the LSE was praised by Nastasya Filippovna,
executive secretary of the Russian Union for Investor Needs (RUIN), a
London-based educational organisation that has offices in Aventura,
Florida; the Brighton Beach section of Brooklyn, New York; and the Pacific
island nation of Nauru.
"We have noticed that large numbers of widows and orphans from around the
world feel safe and secure coming to London to invest their money," she
said. "For whatever reason, many of these widows and orphans are scared to
go to Russia. So, now we are here, too."
Indeed, the announcement of the new policy had been anticipated by
forward-thinking circles in the City. Sebastian Evander-Holyfield, a UK
public relations consultant known for advising Russian clients, said he had
hired a tutor - recommended by Ms Filippovna - to help him brush up on his
Russian so that he would be fully prepared for the new era in finance.
"Dominika has proved to be very exacting instructor for such a young
woman," Mr Evander-Holyfield said. "I feel like a schoolboy again."
Mr Loot of the LSE said that the next step for the exchange would be to
appoint a high-level committee that will translate technical stock-market
terms into Russian.
As part of this effort, he said the stock exchange intended to get closer
to RUIN, enlisting the group's help to find just the right Russian
expressions for such terms as "extraordinary event", "exceptional item",
"pro forma earnings" and "ebita".
"It is this part of the work that gives us the greatest satisfaction as
financial services professionals," Mr Loot said. "Obviously, Russian
entrepreneurs are helping the City by listing in London. But there also is
so much that we can do to teach them about keeping investors in the loop."
2904
I'm back from the bar. It was a wretched experience, though I suppose I passed. However, among other interesting notes, at one poinnt I got to talking to the proctor who was assigned to hand out the green identity bracelets to all the candidates in my testing centre - it took him a while to affix the thing to my arm, since he was being nice enough to avoid the masses of arm hair. Not only was he friendly, but he turned out to be garlic farmer/hot sauce entrepreneur Chris Selkirk of Albany, who has been featured on Food Network, and a story in albany's Times Union. As to the latter, here's what the newspaper said about him:
"The 46-year-old, who spent more than 13 years working in quality control at Honeywell in Albany, had been content to grow slowly but steadily. He figured that that was the only way to ensure that the quality never faltered as he added new products.
Last year, however, Selkirk earned national recognition. Two of TC's marinades won first-place awards at Chile Pepper magazine's national contest, aired on the TV Food Network.
He had entered three items in the competition, thinking his brown mole-style hot sauce, Smoking Habs, had the best chance of making an impression on the judges' taste buds.
Instead, his Garlic Lovers dressing took top honors in the condiment dressing category and his Sam Pan Sing-A-Long was named No. 1 in the barbecue sauce-soy base category.
"I still don't get it," Selkirk muses. "The Smoking Habs is like 10 times hotter than either of the other two sauces, and it didn't win anything".
Anyway, I'm interested. So I think I'm going to pay Mr. Selkirk a visit in October when he's at the Virginia Wine & Garlic festival, and see what more he has to say. But in any case, you do meet the funniest people if you just ask.
2903