Alexander Tamas (DST): It's hard to fight stereotypes about Russians

    The recent actions of Digital Sky Technologies (the purchase of Mail.ru balances from Naspers for $ 388 million) again attracted the attention of Western journalists to the Russian investment fund. This is not surprising: after the consolidation of almost 100% of Mail.ru shares in its ownership, as well as its shares in the projects Vkontakte, Odnoklassniki, Facebook, ICQ, Groupon, Zynga and others, the capitalization of DST could soon reach $ 4 billion . According to DST's own estimates, the company controls sites that generate 70% of page impressions on the Russian Internet .

    Yesterday, an interview with Alexander Tamas, one of the DST partners, was published in the All Things Digital online edition (ATD, part of The Wall Street Journal media holding) .

    Alexander Tamas was invitedat DST two years ago to manage overseas assets. Prior to that, he worked in the investment banking division of Goldman Sachs, where he oversaw IT companies.

    Analysts suggest that DST is consolidating assets for a reason. The company is preparing to offer Western investors "Runet in a beautiful wrapper", that is, to conduct an initial public offering on the London Stock Exchange. If so, then it is likely that Alexander Tamas (and Goldman Sachs) will deal with this.

    It should be added that the interview for ATD was organized by Kara Swisher, the same journalist who in February 2010 spread rumors that Yandex was claiming to buy ICQ. These assumptions of Kara were instantly replicated by hundreds of media and made her famous.

    Asked by Kara Swisher why DST is buying foreign assets, Alexander Tamas explained that shares in Facebook and other American projects are needed "to expand the main business in Russia." Mr. Tamas also said that DST is striving for full 100% control over its Russian portfolio.

    DST plans to invest in other social sites that have potential for exponential growth. In addition to the US, investors are eyeing assets in Asia and Europe.

    According to Alexeenendre Tamas, investments in Facebook, Groupon and Zynga attracted the unhealthy attention of the Western public to DST, which constantly asks questions about the origin of money, indicates a connection with Russian oligarchs. Even in a recent Merrill Lynch analytical report on the Naspers-DST deal, risks are mentioned, saying that expanding DST assets could attract the attention of the Russian government, which is able to intervene in the business, as is known from the example of Yandex . That is, there are risks specific to Russia in this area, which could negatively affect the value of DST shares in the event of a future IPO.

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