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Eastern Europe
June 9, 2017 www.intellinews.com I Page 17
Global recruiter Antal returns to Russia via acquisition
bne IntelliNews
Global recruitment firm Antal International is re- turning to the Russian market and is expected to soon announce the acquisition of a local player as the country emerges from recession and a revival in commodity prices boosts employment, bne IntelliNews can reveal.
Tony Goodwin, chief executive of Antal, which op- erates from 143 offices in 32 countries globally, in May told bne IntelliNews that he was in talks about buying a major local operator and was near to completing a deal.
“The market has been in the doldrums for three years and I think the timing is right,” Goodwin said in an interview. “If we leave it till next year, my feeling is that Russia will have already recovered. There is still some pick-up needed but now is the right time to go back, especially as oil prices are improving and general sentiment is up.”
Nick Rees, former Russia country head at SThree Plc, is believed to be in the frame to lead the busi- ness. The initial team is expected to number 40-50 executive recruiters and could be doubled as the economy grows.
Goodwin left the Russian market after his sell- ing his business in 2008 before the global crisis for several “tens of millions of dollars” to FiveT- enGroup, a firm backed by private equity group Englefield Capital. The non-compete with Antal Russia, which is still run under the same name by some of Goodwin’s former colleagues, expired a number of years ago.
Now is the right time to go back to Russia, says Antal head Tony Goodwin.
Goodwin also offloaded his Polish business in 2013, but has been in an expansionary mode ever since. After the Polish deal, Antal opened new offices in Czech Republic and Slovakia. A Mexico operation was opened in 2013 covering the Central America region and Antal acquired Smart Moves in the UK in 2015 to expand its coverage of blue-chips. Most recently, he joined forces with Career International to expand on Antal’s already successful China business.
Antal is hoping to capitalise as several of its com- petitors have closed down or exited the market since the economy started contracting three years ago.
UK recruitment firm Michael Page closed its office in Moscow at the end of May 2015 after US and European sanctions – imposed after the Kremlin’s annexation of Crimea in 2014 – com- pounded the decline in commodity prices.
Other global and Russian search firms retrenched as foreign and domestic companies slashed head- counts. German lender Deutsche Bank closed their entire investment banking operations in the wake of a trading scandal, while investment banking rivals took the axe to hundreds of sales, trading and research staff. International energy companies were particu- larly hard hit by sanctions. Oilfield services giant Schlumberger axed all its expatriate staff as explora- tion and drilling activities almost ground to a halt.
Goodwin said the Western sanctions had ironically helped some other sectors to stimulate productiv- ity. “Russian manufacturing has benefited from the sanctions,” he said. “I am not saying they are