Andrey Filatov – Chairman, Tuloma Investment Company

My first significant business venture was Severstaltrans which I set up in 1996 [with partners Konstantin Nikolaev and Nikita Mishin and which is now known as N Trans]. It was a freight forwarding company that predominantly shipped goods in and out of the Port of Murmans for Servestal Steel. Tuloma is the name of a river that runs through the Murmansk oblast’s Kola Peninsula which is itself almost entirely within the Arctic Circle. The Tuloma river is unique in that it changes direction every day because the pressure from the sea is so strong that it pushes its waters back over the mountains. So, when I decided to consolidate all my business interests into one entity it seemed an appropriate name, because we are always ready to go against the flow if and when the time is right.

On the domestic front, I look at sectors that have export potential because I believe in the long term the rouble will continue to weaken. This means that there are some great profit margins to be made from exports, and I want a slice of that action; and because investors are now bailing out of Russia, it’s time for national investors to step in But in the end, I invest in those sectors I either believe in or love or both. Right now that ranges from natural gas all the way to art and wine.

I strongly believe in gas, because it is both a natural resource and also always very profitable. It has a huge potential as a part of the world’s energy infrastructure and the main export markets for the Uzbek fields are Chinese industrial and manufacturing sectors which are effectively on its doorstep. And, because the quality of life in China is improving so rapidly, there is a growing demand for environmentally healthy energy supplies which will see a gradual switch from coal to gas. Everything about gas looks promising to me.

It is clear that the Earth’s population is going to keep on growing for the next 50 years or so and we are going to have to produce more food and increase productivity to feed everybody. That is why I have invested in fertilizer and why I am a big fan of Rusagro because it is already exporting to 100 countries around the world. In addition to demand for its products being virtually guaranteed for many years to come, it also has high-quality management and pays good dividends.

When the Soviet Empire sprang to life, it was large and bright and turned an illiterate agricultural country into one that won a world war, sent the first person into space and invented atomic energy. They also showed the value of music to the world. But once the Iron Curtain came down, its culture got cut off from the world. As a result, the works of artists [such as Konstantin Maximov, Mai Danzig and Alexander Laktionov] now go for crazy money and the main buyers are usually Asian and mainly Chinese. Eight years ago, I set up the Art Russe foundation to promote Soviet-era art more systematically, and I decided that one way to generate even greater enthusiasm for Soviet art was to cross-market it with wine, which is another of my passions. When someone drinks wine and looks at a painting they start getting interested and then the prices go up.