 | |
| Company type | Private ownership |
|---|---|
| Industry | Private equity |
| Founded | 1994 |
| Founder | Michael Calvey |
| Headquarters | Moscow, Russia |
| Products | Leveraged buyouts, Growth capital |
| Total assets | $3.7 billion[1] |
| Website | www.baring-vostok.com |
Baring Vostok Capital Partners is the largest independent private equity firm focused on investments in Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent States. The Baring Vostok Private Equity Funds invest across a broad range of industries including oil and gas, consumer products, media and technology, telecommunications and financial services.
The Investment Advisor of the Funds, Baring Vostok Capital Partners (Guernsey) several times since 2005 has been voted “Russian Private Equity Firm of the Year” by the readers of Private Equity International and Private Equity Online. The sub-advisor of BVCP has a branch office in Moscow with a team of 40 experienced investment professionals.[2]
From its founding in 1994 through 2004, the firm was a subsidiary of Baring Private Equity International which was an affiliate of Barings Bank. In addition to Baring Vostok, the affiliates of BPEP International include Baring Private Equity Asia[3] as well as Baring Private Equity Partners India, founded in 1984.[4] BPEP International's Latin America affiliate is known as GP Investments, a leading private equity firm in Brazil. Collectively, the firms represent over $12 billion in capital commitments as of the end of 2014.
With offices in Moscow, the firm has raised over $3.7 billion across five investment funds. The firm’s name vostok is the Russian word for "east". Additionally, the Vostok spacecraft was the first manned spacecraft, operated by Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin.
The firms founder Michael Calvey and five colleagues were arrested in February 2019 for allegedly defrauding Russian businessman Artem Avetisyan who is an associate of Putin and the FSB. Calvey maintained the charges were baseless, supported by a BBC investigation, and said the real reason for the arrest was Calvey was suing Avetisyan in a separate case in London, and winning, and Avetisyan used his connections with the FSB to have Calvey arrested in Russia. Avetisyan stood to gain 10s of millions if Calvey was convicted, and Calvey faced 10 years in the notorious Matrosskaya Tishina where Sergei Magnitsky died in custody.[5] Later the shareholders entered into a settlement agreement[6] and publicly stated that their shareholder dispute was not related to the criminal investigation.[7] After signing the settlement agreement, Baring Vostok returned 2.5 billion rubles to Vostochny Bank.[8] In August 2021, the court found the top managers of Baring Vostok guilty of embezzling Vostochny Bank's funds and sentenced them to suspended sentences.[9]
- ^ Capital raised since inception
- ^ Baring Vostok Wins Best Private Equity Firm In Russia Archived April 26, 2012, at the Wayback Machine. Private Equity Russia, 2010
- ^ Baring Private Equity Asia
- ^ Baring Private Equity Partners India Archived November 27, 2011, at the Wayback Machine (company website)
- ^ Amy Knight (March 4, 2019). "The Price of Doing Business in Russia: Prison". New York Review of Books. Retrieved March 4, 2019.
- ^ Olga Sherunkova (28 October 2020). "Vostochny Bank's shareholders entered a settlement agreement". Kommersant. Retrieved 1 April 2022.
- ^ Pavel Kazarnovsky (29 October 2020). "Peaceful settlement versus criminal prosecution". Газета Рбк. RBC. Retrieved 1 April 2022.
- ^ ""Восточный" сообщил о соглашении по возмещению ущерба по делу Калви" [Vostochny Bank reported on the agreement on compensation for damages in the Calvey's lawsuit]. RBC. 28 October 2022. Retrieved 1 April 2022.
- ^ "Суд назначил условные сроки фигурантам "дела Baring Vostok"" [The court decided on suspended sentences for the actors of Baring Vostok case]. Interfax. 6 August 2021. Archived from the original on 2021-08-06. Retrieved 1 April 2022.