A well-known joke from years past: in Russia everyone is good at two things: football and politics. And today we can add a third point to this gentleman’s series: in recent years, a large part of Russians have become investors and, accordingly, are ready to argue until they are hoarse about which securities or assets are the right ones to invest money in. Another attempt to resolve this sacramental question was devoted to the intelligent conference Komsomolskaya Pravda Invest Day, which brought together an impressive number of representatives of the capital’s business, financial and government sectors.
VOLATILE FIVE-YEAR PLAN
The first session entitled “Invest in it. How money brings money” was opened by Oleg Skvortsov, Chairman of the Board of the Association of Russian Banks, who gave a retrospective review of the profitability of various asset classes in Russia over the past five years.
Skvortsov Oleg Viktorovich, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Association of Russian Banks.
Photo: Oksana ZUYKO. Go to Photobank KP
According to ARB, the largest income for domestic investors over the five-year period would come from ruble-equivalent gold (+117%), ruble-equivalent real estate (+55%) and bank deposits (+38.5%). Cumulative inflation for this period was 40%.
“If we consider the disadvantages for investors, first of all it is the level of market volatility, the unpredictability of which remains very high, which entails huge risks,” said Oleg Skvortsov.
He added that investors are very excited about the real estate sector.
– I remember that at the peak people took out mortgages in foreign currency and then the price in dollars doubled. We ended up with losses, even compared to a simple investment in dollars, – Skvortsov said, urging investors to be very careful in an overheated market.
Is it worth bringing money to NPF?
Vitaly Anoprienko, Head of the Directorate for Supervision of Non-State Pension Funds of the Investment Financial Intermediaries Department of the Bank of Russia, spoke about the long-term savings program launched in Russia on January 1, 2024.
Anoprienko Vitaly Mikhailovich, Head of the Department of Supervision of Non-State Pension Funds of the Investment Financial Intermediaries Department of the Bank of Russia.
Photo: Oksana ZUYKO. Go to Photobank KP
– The main advantages of the program are: the opportunity to transfer your pension savings from the compulsory pension insurance system to the program, state co-financing – up to 36 thousand rubles per year for 10 years, state investment insurance – up to 2.8 million rubles, and in addition, the accumulated state funds and your transferred pension savings will be reimbursed to you from the income received, a tax deduction for contributions is also provided – up to 400 thousand rubles per year, – noted a representative of the Central Bank. The contract is concluded for a period of 15 years or up to 55 years for women and 60 years for men, and in especially life situations, including the need to undergo expensive treatment, you can receive money ahead of schedule without terminating the contract. – added Vitali Anoprienko.
The task of non-state pension funds is to preserve and increase the investments of their clients. They invest in bonds, mutual funds, stocks, infrastructure projects and real estate.
– 28 out of 36 non-state pension funds have already become operators of the program. Citizens have already signed more than 800,000 long-term savings agreements. The volume of program funds, taking into account pension savings transfers and state co-financing, exceeds 40 billion rubles,” Vitaly Anoprienko shared statistics.
THREE SIMPLE RULES
In his speech, Market Power analyst Artem Varlamov mentioned four main factors that influence market movements in Russia: inflation, the central bank’s reference rate, unemployment figures and investor sentiment.
– According to our forecasts, the Central Bank will not reduce the interest rate until the end of the year. We expect a range of 18-20%. We expect that the unemployment situation (historical low) will not improve for now. New staff are growing, they are entering the labor market, but the staff shortage has not disappeared yet. This will cause inflation to remain at 8%. This is twice the target and we expect that inflation will not return to the target values until 2025. The dollar exchange rate will remain stable, Artem Varlamov suggested.
The expert proposed three simple rules that investors should follow in the market. First: the older the investor, the less risk he takes. Second: diversify risks not only by investment, but also by source of income (the more stable the salary at the main job, the more risky investment strategies can be used). And third: if you are not willing to spend a lot of time studying the market, then it is better to buy more mutual funds managed by analytical teams.
50% GROWTH PER YEAR
Igor Heresh, Head of Asset Management and M&A at Solar Group, focused his speech on the fastest growing segment of the IT market – the field of information security.
Kheresh Igor Anatolyevich, Director of Asset Management and M&A at Solar Group of Companies.
Photo: Oksana ZUYKO. Go to Photobank KP
– In addition to existing players, there are a large number of new companies on the market. One third of the information security market is made up of small companies that are growing by 50% year on year. Companies with revenues of up to $1 billion, i.e. relatively small, in total in 2023 earned revenues of 32 billion rubles, while in 2022 – 21 billion rubles, said Igor Heresh.
The Solar representative expressed confidence that the domestic information security market will experience rapid growth, as there is a need to replace the Western players who have left, as well as due to the rapid technological development of the IT industry as a whole. This creates opportunities for new teams hoping to find their niche in a promising industry. At the same time, there are tools to support young companies, for example the CyberStage program, which helps them become mature companies, helping to saturate the market with new technologies and products.
