Russian-language Swiss news websites have emerged; and this magazine is a most welcome by-product of Frenchspeaking Switzerland's “Russification”.
The reasons for all this development are not hard to fathom. Switzerland has a long reputation as a sound financial base for international business and foreign residents. A simple tax and regulatory system, a community which appreciates the finer things in life and an international banking scene second to none make this one of the destinations of choice for Russian expatriates and their business operations.
Thus we find the likes of Lukoil, Norilsk and Gunvor establishing their nerve centers in the city of Geneva.
Commercial connections generate familiarity and reciprocation, and Swiss companies such as Nestlé and SGS are developing their own business horizons across the CIS. Nestlé has recently expanded into the Kaluga investment zone, just south of Moscow, taking advantage of local authorities’ efforts to make the region investor-friendly by improving legislation and establishing business parks. Such is the Swiss commercial interest in the Russian market that Switzerland’s Secretariat for Economic Affairs has been organising exploratory trips for Swiss businessmen to the Russian Federation, so they can see the investment opportunities for themselves. The diplomatic traditions of Switzerland make its businesses prime candidates for investment in Russia’s sometimes tumultuous markets, and the high-tech products offered by Swiss companies are in increasing demand within Russia.
The growth in business relations is no less phenomenal in the banking sector, as Geneva’s venerable private banks see the growth in value of their Russian markets and are snapping up Russianspeaking employees wherever they can be found. In a time where the rest of Switzerland has taken a more hostile turn towards foreign immigration, the cantons of Geneva and Vaud remain refreshingly welcome to the many people from Eastern Europe and beyond who wish to make this calm region on the edge of a mountain paradise their home.
This Geneva-Moscow axis creates a wealth of commercial possibilities, and the law firm of Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP exists in force in both cities in order to help its clients explore this plethora of business opportunities.
Akin Gump is one of the largest Western law firms in the Russian Federation, having had an office in Moscow for almost twenty years. It has traditionally specialised in services to some of the largest Russian companies, in the utilities, energy, telecommunications and financial sectors amongst others. It has also provided advice to a number of large Western companies in acquisitions and start-up activities in Russia. Its team of 30 lawyers and advisors offer the full gamut of corporate and commercial legal services within the Russian Federation, including capital market transactions, mergers and acquisitions, complex domestic and international joint ventures, corporate structuring, energy tax and litigation.
One of the founding partners of the firm, Robert S.
(“Bob”) Strauss, was the first post-Soviet United States Ambassador to Moscow, and the firm knows and understands the Russian market and business environment like few others. Ambassador Strauss, a quintessential bi-partisan American diplomat, worked for both Republican and Democrat Presidential administrations, and was key in encouraging the United States to engage with the new Russian market after the end of the Communist era. Upon returning in November, 1992 to the private practice of law with Akin Gump, one of his priorities was the establishment of the Moscow office which has grown into a stronghold, achieving a degree of market penetration which other Western law firms envy but few can hope to match. Current Moscow office managing partner Richard J. (“Rich”) Wilkie and his team have unparalleled experience in big-ticket corporate transactions within the Russian market, and have represented the interests of some of Russia’s most substantial companies in operations abroad.
Naturally, much of the work of the Moscow office covers the oil and gas sectors; yet the client list extends to industries as varied as aviation, investment banks, manufacturing multinationals, and downstream service providers.
The office goes from strength to strength, as Russia’s enormous commodities market continues to demand increasing foreign investment and development.
Geneva has become a second home for the commodities transactions on which the engine of Russian economic growth is premised, further strengthening the cultural and economic connections between the two cities.
The firm works with clients both to assist investments outwards from Russia and to facilitate inbound investments in the Russian economy. The role of the Geneva office of Akin Gump is crucial in this regard. Akin Gump’s Geneva base sits within the shadow of Geneva’s Russian church, amidst the heart of the city’s charming and historical old town.
The office provides a range of services both to Russian clients engaged in business around the world and to Western and Asian companies seeking to explore or develop their interests in the Russian market. Its three primary areas of focus are international litigation and arbitration, international tax advice, and Swiss and international corporate structures and commercial law. With several fluent Russian speakers in the office, Akin Gump’s Geneva presence has proven to be very attractive to a variety of Russian and other international clients. Assisting Russian clients in the resolution of their international commercial disputes is a key plank of the office’s work, with recent and pending matters including arbitrations in Geneva, London, Moscow and Paris; litigation in London, the British Virgin Islands, Cyprus, South Africa and the Russian Federation; and project finance transactions in sectors ranging from mining to real estate and from banking to oil. Tax advice is also an office specialty, providing advice and assistance with respect to Russian double taxation treaties, Swiss tax issues, and resident non-domiciled and equivalent tax structures in a number of jurisdictions.
A solid Swiss and international corporate law capacity rounds out the office’s work as a general service provider to those who hail from Russia or seek to do business there.
Charles C. Adams, Jr., the Geneva office’s managing partner, has over thirty years of experience in helping clients from Russia and across Eastern Europe. He thinks now is the most exciting time to be involved in the market. “With the recession bottoming out and international assets available at deep discounts, the opportunities for Russian investors in markets across Europe and the rest of the world are unrivalled”, says Mr.
Adams. “The commodities boom has seen cross-border capital flows go both ways. Initially foreign investors wanted a piece of the Russian pie; but now, increasingly, Russian entrepreneurs are eyeing international opportunities as a vehicle for the investment of returns realized from projects at home. The reach of Russian business interests keeps on expanding. And a significant part of this expansion is taking place right here, in Geneva. Our Russian clients relish the pleasant lifestyle, the helpful business atmosphere, and the lack of political controversies.
It is the ideal stable base.” As one of the world’s leading law firms, Akin Gump also has an extended network of offices elsewhere around the world, to provide coordinated services in most regions in which its international client base is active.
Akin Gump’s head office in Washington, D.C. also provides coordinated regulatory and governmental relations services, with a team of lawyers and consultants widely regarded as being among the most politically savvy and best-connected in America’s capital city. The firm’s other offices in the United States, including New York, Houston, Dallas, Los Angeles and San Francisco, are complemented by additional international locations in London, Abu Dhabi and Beijing. The firm is keen to ensure that it is strategically located in the world’s principal growing markets.
Switzerland is riding out the global recession in remarkably good form, and its financial sector will remain a haven as the rest of the European Union seeks to regulate banks, commodities trading and derivatives in ever-more restrictive ways. The Swiss franc is proving to be the reserve currency of choice, and still more businesses and high net-worth individuals are looking to relocate here.
The opportunities and incentives for Russians to move to and work in the Geneva region seem likely to continue to expand.
