Russias richest Man sold all his shares in Apple & Facbook and put all his Money into China

[RussiaPrussia]

Billionaire Usmanov Aims at China After Apple, Facebook Sale - Bloomberg ('http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-03-17/billionaire-usmanov-turns-to-china-after-selling-apple-facebook.html')

By Ilya Khrennikov and Yuliya Fedorinova Mar 18, 2014 6:13 PM GMT+0100


Billionaire Alisher Usmanov sold shares in Apple Inc. ('http://www.bloomberg.com/quote/AAOL:US') and Facebook Inc. ('http://www.bloomberg.com/quote/FB:US'), focusing on technology investments in China such as Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. and may expand stakes in Russian assets, an executive said.

“Chinese companies account for about 70 percent to 80 percent of the portfolio of our foreign Internet investments,” Ivan Streshinskiy ('http://search.bloomberg.com/search?q=Ivan%20Streshinskiy&site=wnews&client=wnews&proxystylesheet=wnews&output=xml_no_dtd&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&filter=p&getfields=wnnis&sort=date:D:S:d1&partialfields=-wnnis:NOAVSYND&lr=-lang_ja'), head of Usmanov’s asset-management company USM Advisors LLC, said in an interview on March 14 in Moscow. Most of the investment is in “Alibaba, JD.com and some other companies with great potential,” Streshinskiy said.

Usmanov, 60, built his Metalloinvest Holding Co. iron ore business ('http://search.bloomberg.com/search?q=iron%20ore%20business&site=wnews&client=wnews&proxystylesheet=wnews&output=xml_no_dtd&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&filter=p&getfields=wnnis&sort=date:D:S:d1&partialfields=-wnnis:NOAVSYND&lr=-lang_ja') by acquisitions and is Russia’s richest man, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. He bought a stake of about $100 million in Apple last year and sold it recently this year, according to Streshinskiy. The sale follows a gradual reduction of Usmanov’s stake in Facebook, he said.

“We hope that our investments in China’s Internet companies may show the same and even better returns as we had with the American companies,” Streshinskiy said. China is Russia’s largest trading partner.

Alibaba’s estimated valuation rose to an average of $153 billion last month after the Chinese e-commerce company reported surging sales. The Hangzhou-based company is starting the process for what may be the biggest U.S. initial public offering in two years. Chinese online retailer JD.com may start an IPO next quarter and be valued at more than $20 billion, according to co-owner Tencent Holdings Ltd.

http://www.bloomberg.com/image/ik7YbzaeyDU0.jpg ('http://www.bloomberg.com/photo/billionaire-usmanov-aims-at-china-after-selling-apple-facebook-/-iGwowfXG9R6U.html')
Photographer: Simon Dawson/Bloomberg
Russian billionaire Alisher Usmanov at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum...Read More ('http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-03-17/billionaire-usmanov-turns-to-china-after-selling-apple-facebook.html#')

Apple Performance
China has refrained from criticizing the Kremlin for plans to annex Ukraine’s Crimea peninsula, abstaining from a United Nations Security Council vote on declaring the region’s referendum illegal. China and Russia have voted together about Syria and Iran, while President Xi Jinping was the most prominent foreign leader to attend the Winter Olympics in Sochi this year, as U.S. and most European Union leaders stayed away.

Apple shares have advanced about 23 percent since March 2013, when Usmanov first said he bought the stake. The Cupertino, California-based company’s stock has declined about 6 percent this year. Facebook initially plunged after its IPO in 2012 and has more than doubled in the last 12 months, taking its market value to about $176 billion.

Alibaba Value
When Usmanov acquired a Facebook stake in 2009, his fund persuaded founder Mark Zuckerberg to sell by giving up its voting rights. Usmanov, with a partner, bought about 10 percent of Facebook when the company was valued at $6 billion to $10 billion and sold some shares in the IPO, which valued the company at $104 billion, the businessman told state television at the time.



Alibaba, which operates online markets for products from Louis Vuitton bags to Boston lobsters, posted its fourth straight quarterly profit in the three months through September, according to a January presentation from Yahoo! Inc., which owns a 24 percent stake. The company, founded by former English teacher Jack Ma, may be worth as much as $200 billion, according to investment bank valuations, which would make it the second-biggest Internet company behind Google Inc.

Russia’s benchmark Micex index has declined about 11 percent since Feb. 17, the day before Ukrainian police fired on protesters in Kiev’s Independence Square, and Russian stocks may drop more following the March 16 referendum in Crimea on joining Russia, Streshinskiy said. If stocks fall further, Usmanov’s company may consider buying more shares of wireless operator OAO MegaFon ('http://www.bloomberg.com/quote/MFON:LI')and Internet company Mail.ru Group Ltd ('http://www.bloomberg.com/quote/MAIL:LI')., he said.

Crisis Opportunity
“Mail.Ru and MegaFon revenue is coming from Russia and people won’t stop making calls and using the Internet,” Streshinskiy said. “If the events will further escalate, we will be buying shares. Crisis is always a good opportunity as valuations become cheap.”

Mail.ru agreed to buy 12 percent of VKontakte, Russia’s biggest social network, raising its stake to 52 percent, and started to buy back $45 million of its own stock, the company said in statements today.

The operator of games and online networking services jumped ('http://www.bloomberg.com/quote/MAIL:LI') 10.5 percent to $36.70 at the close of trading in London, extending yesterday’s 2.3 percent gain and cutting Mail.ru’s decline this year to 18 percent. MegaFon, Russia’s second-biggest wireless operator and controlled by Usmanov, rose 5 percent in London, paring its decline this year to 20 percent.

Crimea, Sanctions
Usmanov’s Metalloinvest, Russia’s largest iron-ore producer, may switch to shipping to China and other markets should Europe apply sanctions on its exports due to the crisis in Ukraine’s Crimea region, Streshinskiy also said.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has backed an accord on annexing the territory, signaling he won’t back down after U.S. and European Union leaders imposed sanctions on Russian officials and threatened further measures.

“We are concerned with the possible sanctions against Russia but don’t see any dramatic repercussions for our business,” Streshinskiy said. “China is unlikely to impose any sanctions. So, we will be trading in rubles, yuan, Hong Kong or Singapore dollars.”



seems Obamas sanctions are working

[Unome]

Wise move, Apple is nothing without Steve Jobs. It will degenerate and collapse within a couple decades.

[RussiaPrussia]

http://www.alibaba.com/

its a cool chinese site, you can buy electronics and other chinese stuff for dirt cheap while the same stuff is being sold to ebay 3 times as much

[wvwvw]

Russia's stock market plunged by around 3 percent Friday, after slumping 10 percent in the past month. The beleaguered ruble rallied slightly, but projections show it continuing its recent dramatic downward slide.

The rating agency Standard & Poor’s downgraded Russia's credit outlook to negative, citing "heightened geopolitical risk." And the US-based companies Visa and Mastercard stopped processing payments for cardholders of at least four major Russian banks, a move that could hit ordinary Russian consumers.

"Society is very nervous. Ruble depreciation and the suspension of Visa card services is going to hit a lot of Russians hard," says Alexei Vedev, a senior economist at the Gaidar Institute in Moscow. "There is no doubt that these political tensions, and the sanctions, have brought a lot of uncertainty that will seriously worsen Russia's economic position."

About two dozen top Russian officials involved with Crimea face visa bans and asset freezes. These restrictions are largely symbolic, and some targeted individuals are reveling publicly in their new status as bêtes noires of the US.

For one, Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin has kept up a steady stream of defiance on Twitter, writing, among other things, "All these sanctions aren't worth a grain of sand of the Crimean land that returned to Russia."

Whether a coincidence or not, a sanction strategy nearly identical to the one pursued by the US was suggested in this week's New York Times op-ed by Russian anti-corruption crusader Alexei Navalny, currently under house arrest in Moscow. Mr. Navalny argued that instead of hurting average Russians, "Western nations could deliver a serious blow to the luxurious lifestyles enjoyed by the Kremlin’s cronies who shuttle between Russia and the West. This means freezing the oligarchs’ financial assets and seizing their property."

Mr. Navalny's list of inner-Kremlin tycoons to be sanctioned tracks very closely with those subsequently called out by the US.

Unintended side-effects

But there are serious doubts among some experts over what seems to be the main prong of the US strategy: to hit members of President Vladimir Putin's inner circle with targeted measures.

In fact, the US may be providing a boost to the Kremlin’s tactic to centralize power. Since returning to the presidency for the third term, Putin has pressured Russia's rich oligarchs to bring their money home and divest themselves of foreign property — a message he pounded again this Thursday in a room full of leading Russian businessmen. Laws passed last year restricted Russian officials from having bank accounts or real estate abroad, and now their implementation will be strengthened.

"I think Putin can actually benefit from these sanctions," says Nikolai Petrov, a professor at Moscow's Higher School of Economics.

"He has designed a kind of 'besieged fortress' model for Russia, and he realizes it's necessary to compel the elite to bring their assets home. Their loyalty can only be assured if they have no escape hatches, such as bank accounts and property in the West. Until now they have found all kinds of ways to avoid doing that, but if the West itself now drives them back to Russia, they will have no choice," Mr. Petrov says.

The key targets of Thursday's sanctions, according to a Treasury Department statement, are a leading Russian bank and four wealthy associates of Putin, whose vast business empires may be linked to his own fortune.

[Linebacker]

I don't even need to look at who posted the thread,when I see something "Russia" I instantly know its you.

[RussiaPrussia]

I don't even need to look at who posted the thread,when I see something "Russia" I instantly know its you.

whats the problem i post facts, the man sold all his stocks from american to chinese companies thanks to your government in washington

[Linebacker]

whats the problem i post facts, the man sold all his stocks from american to chinese companies thanks to your government in washington

Fuck off,you and that fat russian that sold his stocks