Page 12 - bne IntelliNews monthly magazine December 2023

12 I Companies & Markets bne December 2023
money to feed their families. Meanwhile, the quotas have negatively impacted the livelihoods of herders.
In China, the price of beef hovers between $7.4 and $10.4 per kilogram, while in Mongolia, it stands at a lower range of $4.6 to $5.35 per kilogram. This represents a significant price difference, ranging from approximately 60% to nearly 100%. Consequently, herders' incomes are nearly halved by the export quota.
Furthermore, the nation is witnessing a decline in export revenues, exacerbating its trade deficit with China. Also, as the export of cashmere remains more lucrative, and is not constrained by the quota, herders are increasingly turning to goat farming, contributing to the desertification of the grasslands. Over the last few years, the number of cashmere goats has increased from 13mn in 2010 to 27mn.
Goats are often considered to have a greater potential for causing damage to grazing land compared to sheep, horses and cows. The latter animals graze, eating the grass down to
the soil. Goats, by contrast, browse, meaning that they eat everything including shrubs, bushes and even tree saplings. What’s more, when goats eat, they rip the vegetation out of the ground, tearing it to the base. This leads to the depletion of vegetation, soil erosion and desertification.
As per the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), approximately 70% of Mongolia's grasslands have experienced some degree of damage due to overgrazing, primarily attributed to the rising population of animals, notably goats.
The government finds itself faced by a difficult dilemma. Allowing unrestricted meat exports can result in elevated domestic meat prices, causing hardship for Mongolian households. Conversely, implementing export quotas helps control domestic prices to some extent. The quotas, however, also reduce the income of herders, while encouraging
the expansion of goat herding for cashmere production, exacerbating the issue of desertification in the steppes."
Russia hedge fund Prosperity Capital
quits the UK for Abu-Dhabi
Jason Corcoran in London
Russia-focused hedge fund Prosperity Capital Management is quitting London as part of a move
to relocate its operations to Abu-Dhabi, citing
Brexit and the UK’s uncooperative business environment, bne IntelliNews can reveal.
The firm’s co-founder and chief executive, Mattias Westman, said the economic and political fallout from the UK’s decision to exit the European Union had triggered the move.
“[The] UK is getting increasingly insular and uncooperative in my view,” Westman told bne IntelliNews. “I guess Brexit was a specific reason to leave and [moving to] Abu-Dhabi is because it’s friendly.”
The winding up of the UK subsidiary, which had a swanky office in London’s West End on Regent Street, is expected to be completed by the end of this year.
The departure of Prosperity, a pioneering Russian hedge fund, from London marks the end of an era. Russian state- controlled investment banks Sberbank CIB and VTB Capital have been sanctioned out of business in the UK, while the future of privately-owned Renaissance Capital in the Square Mile is very much up in the air.
bne IntelliNews had previously revealed that Prosperity had set up an office in France to serve as its European marketing
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arm. The firm needed an office within the European Union to continue to “passport” its UCITS fund after the Brexit transition period ended.
Prosperity’s Quest fund was the best performer globally for the decade ending December 31, 2009, with a return of 3,300%, according to data from Morningstar.
The firm, which was set up by Westman and several partners, has a focus on purely Western institutional clients with long- term investment horizons. Clients in the past have included the largest US pension funds, European institutions such as the $1.2 trillion Norwegian Oil Fund, along with high-net worth individuals and some of the wealthiest family trusts in the world.
Mattias Westman, co-founder of Prosperity Capital, the Russia-focused hedge fund.