Mints Boris Iosifovich biography. Boris Mints left with money
Mints Boris Iosifovich was born on July 24, 1958 in the small town of Rybnitsa, which is located in the Moldavian SSR. His parents were not rich people. Father - Joseph Samuilovich was born back in 1932 in Nevel, worked all his life as a military engineer. The mother of the Russian oligarch, Lyusya Izrailevna Milter, was born in 1936, her life was very difficult due to the Great Patriotic War. During the Second World War, she lived for three years in the Chechelnitsa ghetto, where conditions were terrible and 14 members of her family could not withstand the hardships of captivity and died. After the victory, she worked as a librarian at the local library, as she loved to read since childhood and taught her son to do so.
Since childhood, Boris Mints was fond of technical sciences; at school he liked to pay special attention to mathematics and physics. And already in 1980 he successfully graduated from the Faculty of Physics of Ivanovo State University. Boris Iosifovich was a very gifted and exemplary student at school and a student at the university, many took their example from him. After completing his bachelor's degree, he turned to science and successfully defended his dissertation, becoming a candidate of technical sciences. Then he decided to stay and work at the university and had the position of associate professor in the department of higher mathematics.
Labor activity
In parallel with his studies and work at the university, since 1983, the future government official worked at the Ivanovo Textile Institute. But he earned his first, serious and very long-awaited capital in his first official position at the Center for Scientific and Technical Creativity of Youth. Since 1990, Boris Iosifovich decided to pursue a political career and took the post of vice-mayor of Ivanovo.
Founder of the Museum of Russian Impressionism Boris Mints
The government official also held the position of head of the relevant committee, so his duties were to resolve issues related to the management of state property, which was allocated to the city of Ivanovo. Already in 1994, the young capitalist received a new position and became the head of the Main Directorate of the Ministry of State Property of the Russian Federation. Two years later, he was appointed to the post of head of the Presidential Administration of the Russian Federation for local self-government and social security organization.
Business of Boris Mints
At the beginning of the new century, in 2001, Boris Mints became the head of a world-famous media holding "REN-TV" and was its leader for two years. Already at the beginning of 2004, a government official founded the investment company O1 Group; this company specializes in asset management in real estate and the financial sector. In 2010, he became the founder of a new company, which also specializes in owning and managing assets and investments. After some time on the international market, this company becomes a leader in the management of business class office real estate throughout the Russian Federation.
During 2014 - 2015, Boris Iosifovich bought out all the shares of the Austrian company CA Immo, which is the direct and only partner of European commercial real estate. In 2016, by decision of Boris Mints, a financial group called “Future” was created; it managed pension assets of the Russian Federation and controlled the work of four non-state pension funds. In addition to founding various companies, Boris Iosifovich is a very distinguished entrepreneur and is one of the backbone of Russia's best industrialists. He is also a member of the Bureau of the Presidium of the Jewish Union of the Russian Federation.
Boris also created and is the head of the International Yegor Gaidar Foundation and was appointed guest of honor and professor at the university in Tel Aviv. Also, the entrepreneur founded the Institute for Solving Global Problems, named in his honor.
Business collapse
In January 2018, the United States Department of the Treasury published a list of entrepreneurs who will be subject to sanctions under the new US law. There were many businessmen and billionaires on this list, as well as Boris Mintz.
Mints and
At the end of spring 2018, information appeared in the press about the bankruptcy of his company O1 Group Finance. This organization did not pay 358 million rubles to bondholders worth 14 billion rubles. Later, the company did not go through with the offer to buy back a certain amount of paper worth 13.90 billion rubles, since there was simply no money in the company’s accounts.
On May 27, 2018, the media learned that the oligarch and his sons left for London for permanent residence, and his largest and very profitable asset, O1 Properties, goes to Riverstretch Trading & Investments - this is a Cypriot company that is associated with the Rosneft State Corporation and " Region".
It is now known that the entire Mintz family has moved to London. The media is trying to find out how long it will last, but no one from the family is commenting.
On May 30, Vedomosti reported that the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation was conducting a pre-investigation check because a statement had been received from the managers of FC Otkritie Bank, whose head is Mikhail Zadornov. It is known that he is a former partner of the O1 Group.
Founder of Otkritie Bank Boris Mints
Charity and hobbies of Boris Mints
Boris Mints founded the Museum of Impressionism; he has been collecting graphics and Russian painting for a long time. His collection includes works by many Russian artists: Konchalovsky, Serov, Kustodiev, Gerasimov, Kustodiev. The government official located his own museum on the territory of the Bolshevik confectionery factory. This establishment opened on May 28, 2016. Several years before the opening, the museum organized exhibitions throughout the Russian Federation.
In 2014, the oligarch became the first person in the history of the Russian Federation to receive the Mercy Award. This award went to the politician for achieving humanitarian goals, as well as for his public works and charity events. A well-known political figure around the world, philanthropist and entrepreneur was awarded the Ekaterina Romanovna Dashkova Prize.
The wealth of Boris Mints
According to analysts, Boris Mints is ranked 72nd in the magazine of the famous Forbes in Russia. But, he is in 1567th place in Forbes according to the global indicator. In September 2014, on the territory of the White Square center, Boris Iosifovich installed a spatial sculptural composition created by the world-famous academician Georgy Frangulyan. Thus, Boris Iosifovich supported the global trend towards the construction of art objects in cities.
The entrepreneur was the head of the board of trustees of the Conference of European Rabbis, and the philanthropist was very supportive of the Jewish people. In 2017, the capitalist made an expensive gift to the Pompidou Museum in Paris. He presented the work of Viktor Koshlyakov “Ministry of Foreign Affairs”. Mintz made such a present as part of the international “Collection!” event. In addition, he financially helps and supports the festivals “Territory”, “Golden Mask” and many others.
Personal life of Boris Mints
Boris Mints is married to Marina Mints. Their marriage has three sons - Alexander, Igor, Dmitry and a daughter - Alena. The capitalist hides family life and other details.
Boris Mints is a statesman, entrepreneur, businessman and philanthropist. Thanks to him, the impressionist style is developing in Russia.
In 1980 he graduated from Ivanovo State University. Candidate of Technical Sciences.
It is quite possible to meet people of various nationalities. One of those who has a serious influence on the country’s economy is Boris Iosifovich Mints. Let's study his main life milestones in more detail.
brief information
Mints Boris Iosifovich was born on July 24, 1958 in Rybnitsa, a city located in the Moldavian SSR. His father, Joseph Samuilovich Mints, was born in 1932 in Nevel and served most of his life as a military engineer. Mother - Lyusya Izrailevna Milter - lived from 1936 to 2007. During the Great Patriotic War, she spent three years in the Chechelnitsa ghetto, in which 14 people from her family could not withstand the hardships of captivity and died.
Family status
Mints Boris Iosifovich, for whom his family has always played a key role in his life, has been married for many years. His wife's name is Marina Vladimirovna. The couple had four children in their marriage: sons Dmitry, Alexander, Igor and daughter Alena, who was born when our hero turned 48 years old.
Education
In 1980, Boris Iosifovich Mints successfully graduated from the Faculty of Physics at Ivanovo State University. The current businessman was a gifted student and was eventually able to defend his dissertation for a candidate of technical sciences. He was an associate professor at the Department of Higher Mathematics.
Labor activity
For seven years, starting in 1983, Boris Iosifovich Mints worked at the Ivanovo Textile Institute. And Boris earned his first serious financial capital when he performed his functional duties at the Center for Scientific and Technical Creativity of Youth.
From 1990 to 1994 Mints served as vice-mayor of the city of Ivanovo. By nature of his service, he resolved issues related to the management of city property (he was the head of the relevant committee).
In 1994, Boris was appointed to the post of head of the Main Directorate of the Ministry of State Property of the Russian Federation. And two years later he moved to the chair of the head of the Russian Presidential Administration for Organization and Provision of Local Self-Government.
Going into business
In 2001, Boris Iosifovich Mints headed the REN-TV media holding and led it for two years.
In 2004, the man became the founder of the investment company O1 Group, which specializes in owning and managing assets in the financial sector and real estate.
In 2010, he created an investment management company, which over time became a leader in the ownership of elite class office real estate throughout Russia.
For the period 2014-2015 Mintz managed to buy out shares of a company from Austria called CA Immo, which works with European commercial real estate.
In 2016, on the initiative of Boris, the financial group “Future” was created, which manages Russian pension assets and controls the activities of the four leading non-state pension funds.
Also, Mints Boris Iosifovich, whose biography is given in the article, is part of the managing core of the Russian Union of Entrepreneurs and Industrialists and is a member of the bureau of the presidium of the Jewish Union of Russia. In addition, Boris founded and runs the International Yegor Gaidar Foundation and is recognized as an honorary professor at Tel Aviv University. In addition to the above, the entrepreneur created his own Institute for Solving Global Problems.
Hobby
Boris Iosifovich Mints, for whom the Impressionism Museum is his brainchild, loves collecting Russian paintings and graphics. The businessman keeps works by Kustodiev, Pimenov, Gerasimov, Konchalovsky, Serov. The Jew located his own museum on the territory of the former Bolshevik confectionery factory. The cultural institution opened to the general public on May 28, 2016. And two years before that, the museum held a series of exhibitions in Russia.
Public respect
In 2014, Boris Iosifovich Mints became the first person in history to receive the Mercy Award. He received such a high award for his clear commitment to achieving humanitarian goals. His public works aimed at implementing charitable events did not go unnoticed. And therefore Boris Iosifovich Mints, a philanthropist known both in Russia and abroad, was awarded the Ekaterina Romanovna Dashkova Prize.
Wealth
According to data for 2016, Boris Iosifovich Mints is ranked 72nd among the richest people in Russia. In turn, the authoritative Forbes magazine ranked the businessman 1567th in the world in terms of his wealth.
Active life
In September 2014, on the territory where the White Square business center is located, Mints initiated the installation of a spatial-sculptural composition created by the famous Russian academician Georgy Frangulyan. Boris took this step in order to support the growing global trend of introducing art objects into urban space, significantly enriching the surrounding world with exclusive new items.
Since Mintz heads the board of trustees of the conference of European rabbis, the entrepreneur provides serious support for Jews not only in the Old World, but also outside it.
And in 2017, our hero made a very expensive gift to the Paris Pompidou Museum in the form of a work by Viktor Koshlyakov called “Ministry of Foreign Affairs”. Such a broad gesture was made by Boris as part of the international campaign “Collection!”, which managed to contribute to the unification of the largest collectors of contemporary art.
Also, a wealthy Jew provides financial support to such festivals as “Golden Mask”, “Territory”, etc.
Problems
Due to the difficulties that have arisen in doing business, staff reduction is planned in the NPF Future controlled by Boris in the near future. At the same time, as the source of this information indicates, the dismissal will primarily affect ordinary employees, while top managers will remain untouched. The estimated number of people laid off will be about 20%.
In November 2017, it became known that the shares of the Cyprus company O1 Properties Limited and the Nevis business center were seized by the Moscow Arbitration Court. This happened at the request of one of the Russian banks, which is currently undergoing reorganization of the Central Bank. According to the financial institution, as a result of the machinations of the O1 company, it lost about 30 billion rubles. The bankers also demand that the termination of six transactions concluded with the oligarch’s company be registered immediately.
In general, Boris Iosifovich Mints (his biography and family are described above) may well become bankrupt. Indirect confirmation of this can be the words of the Minister of Labor and Social Development Maxim Topilin, who said that these days independent pension funds are more like tools for money laundering than full-fledged pension structures.
The businessman and his three sons, along with their families, left for London. “The situation is tense, it’s safer to leave,” a close friend of Mints explained to the Vedomosti newspaper.
Boris Iosifovich Mints was born on July 24, 1958 in the city of Rybnitsa, Moldavian SSR, into the family of Joseph Samuilovich Mints and Lucy Izrailevna Milter; both grandfathers (Samuel Iosifovich Mints and Srul Gershkovich Milter) died during the Great Patriotic War. He graduated from Ivanovo State University and worked at the Ivanovo Textile Institute. He made his first capital in one of the perestroika centers for scientific and technical creativity of youth (NTTM) - like Mikhail Khodorkovsky, etc. In a few months he cut down 150 thousand rubles - this is 1989, if that.
In the early 1990s, he served as head of the city property management committee and vice-mayor of Ivanovo. Elected president of the Association of Chairmen of Committees and Foundations of Russia. In 1994, Anatoly Chubais invited him to the structures of the State Property Committee of the Russian Federation, and immediately headed the Main Directorate of this department. After the 1996 elections, he moved (again on the initiative of Chubais’ friend) to work in the presidential administration, and until 2000 he headed the Department of Local Self-Government. At the beginning of the 2000s, at the suggestion of Chubais, he was the general director of Media-Holding REN TV LLC (when the main shareholder of REN TV was Chubais' RAO UES).
In 2004-13, he headed the largest private financial corporation Otkritie, which he created together with financier Vadim Belyaev. “The partners wanted to build a classic investment bank in the American sense,” notes RBC.
In 2004, he founded the O1 Group, a private international investment holding that manages assets in various sectors of the economy (including real estate and the financial industry) and is considered one of the largest owners of non-state pension funds in Russia (FUTURE Financial Group, which manages the NPF FUTURE , NPF "Education", NPF "Telecom-Soyuz", NPF "Social Development"). Chairman of the Board of Directors of O1 Group. And the board of directors of the key pension fund “FUTURE” was headed by Alexey Kudrin a few days ago. The same one. “We are delighted with the participation of Alexei Kudrin. He is a very deep and interesting person,” Mints rejoiced.
Mintz's main asset is the investment company O1 Properties, which specializes in owning and managing a portfolio of Moscow class A offices and, at the end of 2017, ranks 6th in the ranking of commercial real estate owners in the Russian Federation. O1 Properties owns one and a half dozen business centers with a total area of 584 thousand square meters. m. (the market value of this portfolio is 4.34 billion dollars), including the complexes "White Square" near the Belorussky station, "Aurora Business Park" near the Paveletsky station, "Bolshevik" on Leningradsky Prospekt, Silver City on Serebryanicheskaya embankment, Lighthouse on st. Gross, Ducat Place III on the street. Gasheka, iCube on Nakhimovsky Prospekt, Nevis on st. Shchepkina, Greendale on the street. Oktyabrskaya, White Stone in 4th Lesnoy Lane, "Legend" on Tsvetnoy Boulevard, "Vivaldi Plaza" on the street. Letnikovskaya, "Stanislavsky Factory" on the street. Stanislavsky, "Krugozor" on the street. Obruchev, "LeFORT" on the street. Elektrozavodskaya, "Zarechye" in Old Tolmachevsky Lane. Seventy percent of office space is leased to international tenants. In 2015, the British magazine Euromoney named O1 Properties the No. 1 company in Central and Eastern Europe. Mints is in the top ten (No. 7) in the ranking of Russian real estate kings. He also owns 26% of the Austrian company CA Immo, which owns and manages 105 commercial real estate properties in Austria, Germany and Eastern Europe.
Mints is an active state councilor of the Russian Federation, 1st class. Member of the board of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs (RSPP), long-time figure in the Forbes magazine rating, billionaire. As the media wrote, “Boris Mints is confident that entrepreneurial talent is inherited: many of his ancestors were entrepreneurs - they were engaged in the leather business.”
In 2000, at the request of Yegor Gaidar, he formed the organizational structure of the Union of Right Forces, until 2005 he headed the executive committee of the Union of Right Forces, was a member of the federal political council of the Union of Right Forces, and headed the financial and budgetary committee of the Union of Right Forces. Founder and Chairman of the Board of the Yegor Gaidar Foundation, initiator of the annual Gaidar Prize.
An authoritative figure in world Jewry: member of the Bureau of the Presidium of the Russian Jewish Congress (REC), chairman of the board of trustees of the Conference of European Rabbis (CER, unites more than 700 leaders of Orthodox Judaism communities in Europe), honorary professor, member of the Board of Governors and member of the Capital Campaign Cabinet of Tel Aviv University , founder, ideologist, sponsor and president of the Institute for Strategic Solutions to Global Problems. Boris Mintz (IBM) at Tel Aviv University. Together with the co-owner of Alfa Group Mikhail Fridman, the owner of Uvenco Boris Belotserkovsky and the head of the Moscow School of Management Skolkovo Andrei Rappoport, he repeatedly took part in the famous REC project - a pilgrimage through the Israeli desert in honor of the Passover holiday. On May 28, 2013, at the Great Synagogue of Brussels, he personally presented German Chancellor Angela Merkel with the Immanuel Jacobowitz Prize “for his great contribution to the defense of centuries-old Jewish traditions, in particular for the preservation of the ritual of Brit Milah (circumcision).”
From an interview posted on the RJC website: “I always knew that I was Jewish. My grandmothers spoke Yiddish, especially in those cases when it was necessary to hide something from my sister and me. I had real Jewish grandmothers, great women. Parents ", by the way, they also spoke excellent Yiddish, and always argued with each other over the pronunciation of this or that word. My mother was born near Odessa and ended up in Lipetsk, marrying my father. And my father was born in the city of Nevel, which is located in the Pskov region. When I was supposed to be born, my dad sent his wife, my mother, to give birth to his mother in Moldova, in the city of Rybnitsa. That's where I was born. I first encountered anti-Semitism when I entered Moscow State University. I passed two exams (two in mathematics), wrote an essay, but when I approached the board on which the names of those who passed were posted, I did not see my name. Strangely enough, I never had any thoughts about emigration. And although my parents left for Israel in 1994 I never intended to go with my older sister’s family. Then I came to them, looked at them and didn’t like it. Small country, not my scale. And in 1992, when I met Anatoly Chubais and joined his team, there was no time to leave at all. We were faced with serious problems that needed to be solved. Although it was not easy, it was interesting. We didn't succeed, but that's another story. I always remembered that I am a Jew. For a very long time I could not find a rabbi who would be interesting to me and would understand me correctly. I don’t read Hebrew, I don’t know prayers, I’ve tried to read the Torah many times, but it’s difficult for me. For me, a very correct person is Rabbi Pinchas Goldschmidt (chief rabbi of Moscow, head of the rabbinical court in the CIS and Baltic countries - Approx.). I honestly told him everything about my life, and he assessed it all correctly."
He is one of the world's largest collectors of Russian paintings and graphics of the late 19th - early 20th centuries. Based on his collection (works by Serov, Korovin, Polenov, Kustodiev, Konchalovsky, Pimenov, Gerasimov, Grabar, Yuon, Zhukovsky, Dubovsky, Lakhovsky, Bogdanov-Belsky, etc.), he opened in 2016 on the territory of a former confectionery factory owned by him " Bolshevik" private Museum of Russian Impressionism. “It’s painful for any collector to part, even conditionally, with things that he’s used to seeing at home, with which he’s become accustomed. In the end, I donated about 100 works to the museum. My wife is very upset about some of the paintings that have gone away. But we still have a lot left good things that do not fall under the theme of the museum, for example, a collection of graphics, paintings by World of Art participants,” Mintz said in an interview with Forbes. The total investment by O1 Properties in the Bolshevik project (business center and museum) amounted to $201 million.
Museum of Russian Impressionism
The eldest son, Dmitry Mints, was the chairman of the board of O1 Properties until March 2018. The middle son Alexander and the youngest son Igor work as managing directors of the O1 Group. “The main person in business is Dmitry, he provides general management. Igor is responsible for corporate finance, and Alexander is responsible for asset management. The last word remains with me,” Mintz Sr. said in an interview with RBC three years ago.
Dmitry Mints
Alexander Mints
Igor Mints
At the moment, Mints is hastily trying to sell off Russian assets. Negotiations are underway about the acquisition of O1 Properties by the Cypriot company Riverstretch Trading & Investments (RT&I), allegedly acting on behalf of Sechin's Rosneft. No buyers have yet been found for non-state pension funds.
Previously, Mints was unable to reach an agreement with several banks on loan restructuring. Thus, 01 Group owes the Moscow Credit Bank 25 billion rubles. Boris Mintz is mentioned in the so-called “Kremlin report” of the US Treasury - a list of Russian businessmen against whom sanctions may be imposed.
In January 2018, it was revealed that Mintz and members of his family had purchased Maltese citizenship. And now emigration to the UK. Although Boris Iosifovich admitted in an interview: “I don’t know English well, it’s difficult. I’m not a very capable person for foreign languages.”
Aleksey Ivanov
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— Do your opinions on business often differ?
D.M.: Happens. Basically we manage to convince Boris Iosifovich. But at the same time, there have not yet been cases when we could not convince him and he would have been wrong (laughs).
- So the elder is always right?
D.M.: In approximately 70% of situations, Boris Iosifovich agrees with us, in 30% he does not. And, as time shows, he turns out to be right.
— Do you have any differences in your political views?
D.M.: We have no political differences.
- Or do you just not talk about it just in case?
D.M.: We are very friendly with each other, we talk about everything.
B.M.: There is simply no situation that one of us is a revolutionary, so we have no contradictions.
Suspicious transaction
— Which of you made the decision to invest in shares of Promsvyazbank?
B.M.: They accepted it as usual. We have a procedure within which such decisions are made. Investment in Promsvyazbank is absolutely ordinary, but for some reason it caused a stir. Or rather, it’s clear why, but it has nothing to do with business.
- Why?
B.M.: Because although the issue of preserving the funded part was clearly decided by the chairman of the government at the end of April, not everyone likes this decision.
— The Central Bank is interested in this transaction, have you already received a request from it?
D.M.: He immediately became interested, we provided him with all the information. The Central Bank asked to clarify the price of the transaction, because at first some newspapers erroneously wrote that the bank was valued at 1.27 capital. But the deal actually went through at a coefficient of 0.83, and they know it. The shares were purchased on the stock exchange from shareholders (from Ananyev), after which he, in fact, donated this money to Promsvyazbank.
— Did the Central Bank ask for information about how the transaction was carried out on the stock exchange?
D.M.: Requested.
“Everything on the stock exchange was done very suspiciously.”
D.M.: What's suspicious?
— These shares are de facto not traded, but in two days there was a large volume of transactions, and the shares were included in the highest quotation list. It is logical to suspect manipulation.
D.M.: There is no manipulation. Promsvyazbank talked to the stock exchange, explained that they would now list a large number of shares on the stock exchange, and agreed in advance to be included in the list. What are the manipulations?
— The fact is that with shares with which no transactions were made, transactions for large sums took place in two days, and after that nothing happened again.
D.M.: That’s right, no one is saying that investors suddenly flew in from outer space, bought it, and then sold it to us. There was no offer, so there were no deals. The shareholders of Promsvyazbank decided to sell their shares, so they put them on the stock exchange and we bought them, as we wrote in the press release. Everything is absolutely transparent. The price, or rather its relation to capital, caused certain difficulties in calculating the multiplier for those who commented on our deal. But what's suspicious about this?
B.M.: Many people seem to think that the exchange is a garbage organization that doesn't understand anything at all. They added to this that I bought three times more expensive, and Ananyev and I shared all the excess. Although the Central Bank sees that this money has returned to the bank. The shareholders sold the shares and simply donated the money to the bank. This was a way of not registering the issue for six months. Ananiev actually lost on this, precisely because he gave the money he received to capital. That is, he donated 20%, and 20% of the money raised went to pension funds, due to this the multiplier became 0.83. For some reason, no one is interested in reading or writing about this.
— Can you tell us how this decision was made?
D.M.: All investment decisions, as we have already said, are made according to a standard procedure. It seems to me that it is more important to tell the logic that guided us. We believe in the Russian banking sector. Our funds' portfolio includes all the largest traded banks: we have a large number of shares in Sberbank and VTB (we are just small on the scale of Sberbank and VTB). Our position in VTB is twice as large as in PSB, but as a percentage of VTB it is much less. And we thought that it would be interesting to invest in Russian private banks. But how many are there? It is not worth investing in Vozrozhdenie now because of their internal problems: the main shareholder has died, the bank is merging with Absolut Bank, and will probably leave the stock exchange. The volume of transactions in its shares is very small. And we have an elegant problem with 200 billion rubles. governed by. Open a position for 150 million rubles. there is no point, I can’t monitor it, and it won’t affect anything in the fund’s portfolio. We already have Otkritie shares. Therefore, we negotiated with the Ananyevs, made an investment and believe that it is good. The bank has a good market share, normal positioning, and is universal. He has questions from rating agencies, mainly due to the lack of capital that we have added to him. For some reason you think that VTB is not scary to buy, but PSB is scary. Our logic is this: if a bank earns 15% on capital and the value of the bank itself grows, then within three to five years you can earn 20-25%. This is our basic model in numbers. VTB is now more expensive, Otkritie is much more expensive, Sberbank is too volatile because it is very liquid.
- Let me now take the position of a client of your fund and ask you - how will you get out of this investment? How and when will I see my money?
D.M.: We'll get out of this deal and you'll see your money. We believe that markets will recover, and we must believe in this. If we don’t believe in this, then we need to give all the money back and let the state deal with it. It will figure out what to spend it on. Banks always recover faster than the rest of the economy because the bank lives with a leverage of 1:10. It is correct to invest in banks when the market is near the bottom, but the truth is that the big question is always where the bottom is. I sincerely believe that in the next three to five years, private banks will make an IPO and we will calmly exit this investment.
- Do you rely only on your faith or do you have more serious reasons to think so?
D.M.: They are already moving towards this, they have created a quasi-tradable share. Tomorrow some fund will come and say: sell it to me, and I may sell it.
- Tomorrow you will go to the stock exchange and not sell.
D.M.: Not tomorrow, maybe the day after tomorrow I’ll sell it. Why not? Or maybe I’ll sell it tomorrow.
- To whom? There are no volumes on the exchange.
B.M.: There are no volumes because there is no supply. The banking system can only rely on pension funds - there is no long-term money anywhere else. No one disputes that the government allocated a trillion dollars to support the banking system and systemically important banks, but they did not give money to everyone. And it is completely clear, given the current budget situation, that the government will not give more money to the banks. And banks need it.
“I have no doubt that banks need money.
D.M.: They tell us: then you will all collapse, all the pension funds along with the banks. Yes, if we all collapse, then the country will collapse.
- I'm not saying you'll crash. I'm asking if you have an exit plan for this investment?
D.M.: We always have a plan.
- What's the plan?
D.M.: Sell on the stock exchange. PSB, I think, can earn a 15% return on capital at current interest rates. This is a lot. Especially in a world with zero rates. PSB is a large systemically important bank, which means it will be the fourth largest listed bank after Sberbank, VTB, and Otkritie. Why do you think that at the moment when investor interest in the market is restored, they will not be interested in buying PSB shares from us?
- I don’t count anything. I see that the shares are not traded on the stock exchange, that there is zero liquidity. And I just ask: what is the exit plan?
D.M.: If there is no supply, there is no demand. You now place an order for PSB to buy 0.5% of shares, I think that it will be executed at almost any price.
How was this decision made? Have you done the analysis?
D.M.: Certainly. Analysis is always carried out.
— Do you have an agreement with PSB on a buyback?
D.M.: Of course not.
B.M.: I'm reading in a reputable business newspaper and it says, "Too bad, they seem to have a buyback arrangement with a guaranteed return." Even if this were true, would it be good or bad?
— If I stand in the position of your client, then that’s good.
B.M.: Why then does everyone write that this is bad? “They bought it expensive” - it turned out to be inexpensive. Then they write - they are so bad, they must have a buyback agreement. But wait, if there is an agreement on a buyback, it means your risk is fixed from below. And if it also has a guaranteed profitability, then that’s great. Then what is the problem? Where do these estimates come from? But we do not have these agreements. The only agreement we had with Ananyev was that the money would be returned to the capital.
O1 Group: real estate and non-state pension funds
13 Moscow business centers owns O1 Properties
503 thousand sq. m— total rentable office space of O1 Properties in Moscow
70% office space O1 Properties are rented to international tenants
$4.2 billion— current value of assets in the O1 Properties portfolio
26% of the company CA Immo acquired O1 Group in 2014-2015. CA Immo owns 105 commercial real estate properties in Europe that generate rental income
RUB 214 billion— the volume of pension savings managed by non-state pension funds included in the O1 Group
26 billion rubles.— the volume of pension reserves managed by non-state pension funds included in the O1 Group
More 3.5 million people are insured in these NPFs, and about 600 thousand individuals are participants in NGO programs
Source: company data
Like in politics
— The head of the Central Bank, Elvira Nabiullina, says that during the inspections of the funds, the structure of assets was changed by 95 billion rubles. for all funds in total...
D.M.: I believe that the Central Bank is doing the right thing in the context of increasing confidence.
— What things are you doing to increase confidence? Do you have ethical standards that you follow?
D.M.: What do you have in mind?
— The entire investment world is trying to live by certain ethical standards, there is a certain code. Do you have it?
D.M.: No. Our situation is very simple, as in politics. For example, Michael Bloomberg, who became the mayor of New York, lived two terms very calmly, and no one ever had any complaints against him, because the man had $3 billion earned. Well, even if he stole another 3 billion, it would not change his position. We, unlike most of those who were involved in non-state pension funds when they were non-profit organizations and management was motivated to do ugly and wrong things, have something to lose. The remuneration structure of pension funds will become correct, we will receive 12% of profits, and this is a good motivation for future retirees to earn money.
— During the last reporting period you had negative profitability, you explained it by a change in strategy. What exactly has changed?
D.M.: We got the NPF ["Blagosostoy-OPS"], whose assets were spread over 200 positions, which we did not like. We believe that risks should be more concentrated so they can be managed more effectively. Therefore, we closed a large number of positions, which is why we incurred a loss. Some positions were illiquid, they were not revalued before, this contributed to the loss. On this we lost 3%, or 12% per annum. In addition, the fund kept money on deposits at 8-9% per annum, we closed them, returned the interest and opened them at a higher interest rate. Do you remember what the rates were at the beginning of the year?
- Yes, I did the same. Did you change bank at the same time?
D.M.: We told the banks: raise our rates or we will take the money. We took it from those banks that refused.
— There are rumors that the Central Bank asked for personal guarantees from fund shareholders when joining the insurance system. Did he ask you?
D.M.: He likely sought personal guarantees from those who had questionable assets in their funds. We have heard about this, but we don’t know for sure. This cup has passed us by.
— Will you be purchasing any more funds?
D.M.: Yes, we'll probably have enough for now. I do not rule out that if there is an interesting proposal, we will consider it, but overall we have reached critical mass. Too many pension funds are also bad.
— Are some of the assets of your funds invested in instruments of the Otkrytie group?
D.M.: In the instruments of the “Opening” group, yes. We have shares of Nomos Bank for a certain amount, they have a deposit. Just like we have deposits in VTB and Sberbank.
— Everyone at VTB and Sberbank has them.
D.M.: Yes. And in the ICD. Unfortunately, the list of counterparties is very narrow. In our country, when everyone starts saying: they are probably friends with these people, they are also friends with these people, they are also friends with these people - and then, bah, who else is there?
- Boris Iosifovich, how did you break up with Vadim Belyaev - good or tense?
B.M.: Okay, great. Nothing has changed in our relationship.
— Do you have joint business interests or are you completely separated?
B.M.: Belyaev and I were friends a lot without business. Therefore, the absence of direct business interests does not affect our relations in any way. We partner with him - we buy their shares, keep money in their bank.
— Alexey Kudrin, what role does he play in your business?
B.M.: I spent a long time persuading him to become chairman of the board of directors of the Future fund, which, after merging with NPF StalFond, should become the largest pension savings fund. Thanks to him for supporting us. I think this is very important. Moreover, he understands things, comes to the fund, holds boards of directors, and participates in the work of committees. We are delighted with the participation of Alexey Kudrin. A very deep and interesting person.
— Does Anatoly Chubais play any role in your business?
B.M.: Never played any role in our business.
Real estate and funds
— You have a lot of real estate in the group. Are you investing pensioners' funds in your real estate?
D.M.: Not in mine. Blagosostoyaniye OPS, when we bought it, had real estate worth 14 billion rubles on its balance sheet. These were mortgaged apartments, we sold them all. Now “Future” [the new name of “Welfare OPS”] has approximately 600 million rubles worth of mortgage participation certificates left, or less than 0.4% of assets. We are fighting to ensure that MIS remain among the permitted investment instruments, but we are fighting not as a non-state pension fund, but as a large real estate owner. What do you think the Central Bank doesn’t like about the ISU?
— The fact that through them the shareholders of pension funds invest in their own projects — that’s all.
D.M.: It seems to us that the point is not in who they belong to, but in the projects themselves. I think that's part of the problem they found in their audits. There are dubious real estate properties, and there are good shopping or office centers in Moscow, with normal cash flow. Such assets are in the portfolios of all pension funds in the world - from Norwegian to American. This is a good asset - it is stable, will not run away and brings money. The task of the Central Bank, as we see, is not to ban everything altogether...
— Eliminate conflicts of interest.
D.M.: Yes, it doesn’t even seem to me a conflict of interest. We don’t have ours, and we don’t plan to, but that’s not the point. But even if it were? I don't see this as a problem. If the rate is market, then what difference does it make whether I own it or not.
- No, there is a difference. If you have a conflict of interest, you can manipulate the rates, you have a motive.
D.M.: You say absolutely everything correctly, that’s why criteria are needed, and the task is not to ban mortgage participation certificates, but to correctly define the criteria so that the assessment is objective.
— How did you come up with the idea to enter the real estate market in 2009, just as it was falling, why did you decide to buy Horus Capital?
D.M.: We were involved in real estate within the framework of Otkritie for a long time, before the crisis. There were many opportunities in 2009. We looked at public companies that were very, very expensive at first, and then very, very cheap. It was obvious that the problem was not lack of cash flow, but debt, lack of focus. A company that does everything is very difficult to manage. We decided that we needed to take a specific sector and focused on offices. And we liked Horus because it is not just assets, but a platform.
— Do you have leverage (loans) now?
D.M.: Of course I have. We have a debt of more than 2 billion dollars, and assets of more than 4 billion. That is, the leverage is 0.6.
— This is a small loan.
D.M.: No, that's a lot. We studied what investors who buy public real estate companies think. So they believe that a public company should have a debt of 40-45% of the value of its assets. This allows you to free up cash and make purchases in times of crisis. Therefore, 60% is a little more than we would like.
Entrepreneurs Dmitry and Boris Mintsy (Photo: Oleg Yakovlev / RBC)
Business crisis
— A year ago, you, Boris Iosifovich, said that the impact of the crisis was not yet obvious either on the economy or on the company. Now, after a year, how do you assess the impact of the economic downturn on the company as a whole, including on the value of the real estate portfolio? Still, more than 4 billion is the pre-crisis estimate.
B.M.: This portfolio is now valued at $4.2 billion. The pre-crisis value was $4.5 billion. We take this calmly.
— Does the crisis affect your business, the space rental business? They say that there is now a very large outflow of tenants in the market.
D.M.: They don't leave us that easily. We have 510 thousand sq. m in our portfolio. m of rented space, of the 300 tenants, 70% are international companies with a credit rating close to or better than the Russian one. That’s why it’s so easy to just come and say: I’m leaving tomorrow and I’m not paying - they can’t and won’t. Although we have negotiated with some, mainly with those whose contract is about to expire. The total discount we have taken on the portfolio is 10% of net rental income. In absolute terms, this is almost $40 million a year.
— By what percentage has the share of vacant space increased?
D.M.: It was 4%, now it is 8% of the portfolio.
— And the market average is 17%.
D.M.: What do you think about the market? Our analytics are vigorous, as always. But we really know the situation much better than many.
— Have the rates dropped?
D.M.: Under newly concluded agreements - yes.
- How long?
D.M.: Depends on the object. For example, “White Square” fell no more than 15%. Lefort, I think, lost 25%, in addition, under the new agreements we are forced to fix the ruble exchange rate for a couple of years.
— Do you think the rates have now reached the bottom?
D.M.: I think yes. But such a conclusion must be correlated with a macroeconomic forecast, which we cannot give without a political forecast. But we cannot give a political forecast, because we simply do not know. In terms of the number of transactions, their volume, and the behavior of brokers, we are now repeating 2009 figure for figure. There are people who come and say: “Give us White Square for $300 per 1 sq. m. m, because we believe that this is now the new reality." We say that we don't think so yet.
— Have you ever had problems servicing your debt?
D.M.: It hasn't arisen yet. Our debt is good, long-term, and has low interest rates.
Asked to manage
— Previously, almost every second or third investment transaction that was concluded in the commercial real estate market was carried out by O1 Group, but now the transactions have come to a standstill, but at the same time we know that Western funds, in particular Hines, are negotiating the purchase of more one Metropolis tower, PPF is actively seeking assets.
D.M.: They are great. They have been on the market longer than us, they saw both 1998 and 2008, and they made money. We are also watching something.
— Returning to your strategy, you said that you are now looking at assets that are similar to your existing assets. But still, development projects and sites appeared in your portfolio at one time.
D.M.: We froze them, and we don’t need new ones yet. We have two such assets - class A office center projects Greendale on Sheremetyevskaya Street and Kutuzov on Vasilisa Kozhina Street, we want to build them, but now is not the time.
— You also have the Nevis business center, but you have always claimed that you are only a management company.
D.M.: That's right, there are two private owners.
— Why did you decide to manage it?
D.M.: We were asked.
— Are you ready to consider this opportunity to manage someone’s assets now?
D.M.: They're probably ready, but there's a problem. We don’t know how to manage retail, and in office management we most often have a conflict of interest. If now, for example, someone offers us a property opposite Lighthouse [the business center in which the office of O1 Group and O1 Properties is located], how will I talk to the potential tenant? Even if he chooses that object or mine myself, and I do everything honestly, I will never explain how this happened. Therefore, we periodically discuss this with different people, but often refuse.
— So this is a special investor?
D.M.: This is a personal relationship, and this is not an object that competes with ours, it is geographically isolated and small in itself.
— It is known that you are negotiating a business center on Paveletskaya with Forum Properties and this transaction involves an exchange of assets for shares.
D.M.: We have been negotiating with them since 2010. Prices and formats changed. Whether there will be a deal this time, I don’t know. But the deal, you are right, is being discussed not for money, but for shares of O1 Properties. They [the owners] left the country, and here they had their last major asset and a couple of very small ones. It is not profitable to maintain a team to manage this asset, so they want to sell, on the one hand. On the other hand, the owners feel sorry for leaving this asset at current prices. Therefore, our shares are a good alternative for him. He gets rid of management problems, we begin to manage it, his dividend flow according to the plan should be approximately the same as what he received from the lease. But at the same time, he still has a chance, when the market grows, to sell his shares for other money. Whether this deal will be or not, I honestly cannot tell you, precisely because we have been negotiating since 2010.
— What was the reason for the investment in the Austrian CA Immo? For you, is it a desire to gain access to Western funding or expand your business?
D.M.: We thought about where and how we should grow. In the class A office market, we are the largest player with a share of 20% (from 14 to 25%, depending on how you count), we can buy two or three more centers. A share of 25% is a lot, you start competing with yourself. Therefore, we decided to enter our own segment, but into a different market. Of all the possible alternatives, CA Immo seemed the most interesting to us. We interacted with this company for a very, very long time, we approached them on all the lame mares, but the first transaction took place only in October last year.
“This deal was followed by an attempt to gain control of Immofinnanz, which was unsuccessful. Why was this necessary and what will you do now with these 6% shares that you received?
D.M.: Immofinanz, unlike CA Immo, which is a normally organized company with a fairly high degree of focus, is present in six segments of the commercial real estate markets. For example, they own 49% in a company that rents out apartments in Austria and Germany. They also have Russian retail. That is, they are very large and very poorly controlled. We thought that if we got control of the situation, we could create additional value out of it. But there is a controlling shareholder who really did not want us to appear. So far they have fought us off. We are still thinking about what we will do with these shares.
— Recently there was news that you decided to invest in the construction of a nursing home. Will it be a network or did it happen by chance?
D.M.: No, this did not happen by chance. We have quite a lot of land, we thought for a long time what to do with it, and decided to build these houses. We found an operator in England, the company Danshell Group, with which we entered into an agreement. We are building a boarding house for the elderly, not a nursing home. This is a four star hotel with appropriate features and services, with additional medical functions. This market in Europe is huge. For example, in the UK, 500 thousand beds are available in the segment of paid - not state, but paid - nursing homes. We have less than 4000 of them. Neither you nor I, no matter how smart we are, will be able to build the right hotel without working and without understanding anything about this business. This market is just emerging in our country, so expertise is not enough. Therefore, the current houses are, in principle, of good quality, but they have certain shortcomings. We are trying, firstly, to create a boarding house of a new format for Russia from scratch, and secondly, to do this on the basis of the fairly extensive experience of a foreign operator who spends time and money on this. And how it will turn out, whether it will be a grid or not, I think it’s a question of how successful the first project will be. If we understand that we were not mistaken and the model works as we expect, then we will probably develop this project.
— You had a non-core investment in the construction of the Nebo shopping center. What with her?
D.M.: We financed our colleague there for a small amount.
— So your friends come to you and ask you to help, and you are ready to help?
D.M.: No, we sometimes place free liquidity.
— Have you left this asset yet?
D.M.: Almost completely gone, a little invested remains.
— How many stressed assets do you see on the market now? You said that in 2009 there were quite a lot of them, which allowed you to enter the market, but now?
D.M.: I’ll tell you a terrible thing: there were no stressed assets on the market in 2009. It's an illusion. We bought our assets in 2010 and 2011, and not in 2009. We got this house (Lighthouse Business Center) as stressful, but it was half built. We would probably still look at such a project from a purchasing point of view. And so Sistema Hals and Donstroy were taken by VTB, but these were not income-generating assets. It was development and land banking, and the expectation that a lot would be built.
— Can we expect deals from you before the end of the year?
D.M.: Maybe not, maybe yes. It's difficult to predict the future now. Tomorrow they will fight again in Ukraine, what kind of deals will be made in such a situation? We look at everything, count everything, monitor everything, so that if the stars suddenly align, we can quickly do something.
— What is your land bank now?
D.M.: Not small. Several hundred hectares.
— Will your iCube business center ever be full? I drive past it almost every day and look at it with sadness.
D.M.: There are actually tenants signed, but they are being slowly renovated.
— I noticed that you have a lot of modern art in your office. I understand that you love, collect and appreciate contemporary art.
D.M.: Boris Iosifovich collects Russian impressionism and even plans to open a museum. And we, separately, are big fans of Koshlyakov. All contemporary art in our office is Koshlyakov, we love and appreciate it. We probably have the largest collection between us.
Who is Boris Mints
Physicist-mathematician
Boris Mints was born in 1958 in the Moldovan city of Rybnitsa, 110 km from Chisinau, in the family of a military engineer and librarian. In 1980, he graduated from the Faculty of Physics of Ivanovo State University and worked at the Department of Higher Mathematics of the Ivanovo Textile Academy.
At the age of 27 he became a candidate of sciences, at 28 - an associate professor. In the 1980s, science remained the only area where one could feel relatively free, Mintz Sr. explained.
Politician
He became involved in politics during his teaching years and was a deputy of the city council. In 1990-1994 he served as vice-mayor of Ivanovo.
In 1994, at the age of 36, he moved to Moscow and became the head of the main department of the Ministry of State Property at the invitation of Anatoly Chubais.
After the 1996 elections, which Boris Yeltsin won, he went to work in the presidential administration - he headed the Department of Local Self-Government.
After leaving this post in 2000, Yegor Gaidar invited him to create a political party, and for about one year he was chairman of the executive committee of the Union of Right Forces.
Top manager
In 2001, Mints Sr., at the invitation of Chubais, headed the REN TV media holding (RAO UES, headed by Chubais, was then the main shareholder of the holding) and worked there for about three years.
In 2004, he became chairman of the board of directors and president of the Otkritie financial corporation, which he created with Vadim Belyaev: the partners wanted to build a classic investment bank “in the American sense.”
But gradually Mintz Sr. reduced his stake in Otkritie and in July 2013, at his birthday, he announced the sale of the remaining 11.7% to Belyaev and Ruben Aganbegyan, general director of Otkritie.
Businessman
Mintz Sr. earned his first capital when he was not even 30 years old - he helped enterprises create automated jobs, working in one of the “centers for scientific and technical creativity of youth.” As he recalled, he was very surprised when he managed to collect 150 thousand rubles. in a short time.
In 2004, he created the investment holding O1 Group, within which he established the O1 Properties company to manage real estate assets. In 2013, non-state pension funds became the second important business of O1 Group.
According to Forbes magazine, Boris Mints's fortune is $1.6 billion, and he ranks 53rd in the ranking of the richest businessmen in Russia.
Pilgrim
Mints Sr. is a member of the Bureau of the Presidium of the Russian Jewish Congress. He took part in pilgrimages through the Israeli desert in honor of the Passover holiday with Mikhail Fridman, Boris Belotserkovsky and Andrei Rappoport.
Father
The website of the Russian Jewish Congress says that Boris Mints did not set himself the task of making his sons businessmen. Nevertheless, on the website of the Snob project, Mintz writes: “I have three sons, all of them, unlike me, are financiers by basic education. In other words, there is someone to transfer the business to.”
Dmitry Mints, born in 1981, graduated from MGIMO with a degree in management and marketing. In 2003-2006 he worked at SDM Bank, in 2006-2010 he was senior managing director at Otkritie. Dmitry currently holds the position of Chairman of the Board of O1 Properties and is a member of the Board of Directors of O1 Group.
Owner of the private international direct investment company O1 Group Boris Mints left for London. This was reported by Vedomosti with reference to sources close to the Central Bank of the Russian Federation. According to the publication, Mintz moved to London with his family; his three sons also left for the UK with their families.
Boris Mints. Photo: RIA Novosti / Kirill Kallinikov
Mints is on the list of the richest Russian businessmen. In 2012-2013, his fortune was estimated at $0.9 billion, in 2015 he took 53rd place on the list with a capital of $1.6 billion, in March 2016 he was on 62nd line with a mark of $1, 2 billion. Last year, Mints took 72nd place in the ranking of the 200 richest businessmen in Russia. His capital was estimated at $1.3 billion.
Previously, the billionaire worked in the presidential administration, was the head of the Russian Presidential Administration for Local Self-Government and was considered a team member and business partner Anatoly Chubais.
In January, along with dozens of other entrepreneurs, Mints was included in the American “Kremlin report.” As one of Vedomosti’s interlocutors stated, the businessman, in the created “tense situation,” chose to leave Russia.
What else is known about Mints?
Boris Mints was born on July 24, 1958 in the city of Rybnitsa in Moldova in the family of a military engineer. Mother worked as a librarian.
In 1980 he graduated from Ivanovo State University with a degree in theoretical physics.
From 1990 to 2001 he worked in municipal and state structures and pursued a political career. He is an actual state adviser of the Russian Federation, 1st class.
From 2001 to 2003, he headed the REN TV Media Holding.
In 2004, he became chairman of the board of directors of FC Otkrytie, holding this position until 2013.
In 2004 he founded the O1 Group company and is the chairman of the board of directors of this company.
In 2010, he founded the investment company O1 Properties to manage real estate assets.
He is a member of the board of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs. Founder and Chairman of the Board of the International Foundation and Prize named after Yegor Gaidar.
He collects works of Russian painters and is the founder of the Museum of Russian Impressionism.
What does O1 Group do?
O1 Group is an investment company that owns and manages assets in various sectors of the economy in Central and Eastern Europe, including real estate and finance. O1 Properties is one of the largest owners of class A offices in Moscow. The company owns 15 business centers with a total area of 743 thousand square meters.
In February 2015, the company took out a loan from the Moscow Credit Bank for 106 million euros, and in June another one for nine billion. The collateral was shares of NPF Future and Telecom-Soyuz. In March 2016, FG "Future" took out a loan as collateral for the shares of NPF "Future" and the securities of NPF "Uralsib" being purchased. Then all collaterals were transformed into collateral for shares of FG “Future”. As a result, according to Vedomosti, 01 Group owed the Moscow Credit Bank 25 billion rubles. The financial organization transferred this debt to the Rossium concern, which transferred it to the Cypriot company Riverstretch Trading & Investments (RT& I) for restructuring. As a result, O1 Properties may soon go to RT&I. The sale of O1 Properties was caused by the fact that its owners were unable to reach an agreement with a number of banks on loan restructuring. According to Vedomosti, negotiations are currently underway; the deal could be closed within two weeks to several months. The company's market value is estimated at $4.23 billion, but taking into account loan obligations it can be reduced to $867.4 million, Vedomosti writes.
