Russia
Russia, with its 17,075,400 square kilometres is by far the largest country in the world. Russia is also the ninth most populous nation in the world with 142 million people. Main source for Russia’s wealth are oil, gas, wood, metals etc. Most of the wealth is concentrated in Moscow followed by St.Petersburg, Yekaterinburg and Novosibirsk.The number of Russian billionaires jumped to 77 from 49 last year, according to the magazine. The combined wealth of Russia’s 10 richest men jumped 84% last year, to $139.3 billion. There are no exact numbers of HNWI in Russia. We would estimate that there are 80,000 to 140,000 dollar-millionaires in Russia, 60% of them in Moscow, followed by St.Petersburg and other cities. The average minimum level of assets to be invested we would estimate at $500,000-$1000000 though some HNWIs have $2000000-$5000000 Million to invest.
Russia has 1058 banks, 436 asset management companies and 1140 investment funds. Although this is the third-largest number of banks in the world, behind the United States with 7,475 banks and Germany with 2,400 most of these banks are very small and function in a family-office manner. Estimates suggest that Russian private banking market has about $25bn) in assets, with the potential to grow to $500bn. Most of the asset management companies offer only domestic equities and domestic real estate investments. Interest in western investments in Russia is growing. However, the professional level in Russia of asset managers is still far from Western standards because of a general lack of banking service within the country, the emphasis on other forms of investments (mostly fixed term deposits) and the consequences of the 1998 and current financial crisis, which retarded growth in the industry.
We see a growing demand for the western investment companies with a flexible investment approach, which can be used for investment portfolio diversification.