Page 17 - bne IntelliNews monthly magazine September 2024

bne September 2024 Companies & Markets I 17
where companies rush out an IPO with as little as four months of preparation, the report says. Instead of completing the preparation before the IPO, they hope the public scrutiny they receive after floating will push the management to put all those changes in place after the IPO to boost their share price.
One of the problems highlighted by the Institute of Independent directors, that has been instrumental in pioneering better corporate governance standards in Russia’s capital markets, has been the knee-jerk hiring independent directors from a pool of “serial directors” that server on multiple boards, simply for show, rather than bring in professionals that genuinely add to a company’s corporate governance. They may also select independent directors from among friends merely to comply with formalities.
As a result, an increasing number of immature issuers are being listed on the exchange without a coherent business structure or established processes for strategic planning, the report found. Supervision, risk management, long-term
The Russian spy who hacked the US financial markets
motivation, and succession plans are all missing. This trend poses reputational risks for the companies and undermines confidence in the IPO process, the study concludes.
Maria Makusheva, founder of the agency that conducted the study, told Vedomosti that this approach is typical for companies currently preparing for an IPO. She noted that issuers who went public in the past year and a half prepared according to international standards, targeting foreign investors, but that has ended now.
According to the Moscow Exchange and the industry community, the market is at a critical juncture, reports Vedomosti. It can either develop self-regulation and more responsible behaviour among companies or face stricter requirements from the CBR, which may enforce more stringent corporate governance standards, which is under discussion now.
Despite the problems the IPO pipeline remains full and there has yet to be a significant scandal.
Cybercriminal Vladislav Klyushin with his wife Zhannetta, who was one of the 26 prisoners exchanged by the US and Russia in the biggest prisoner swap since the Cold War. / bne IntelliNews
Yermakov, an experienced hacker who was already under two indictments in the US for cybercrime. In a testament to just how good Klyushin’s connections were, he was awarded the Russian Medal of Honour in June 2020 by President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin himself.
Yermakov is a spy. He is a former Russian military intelligence officer but was also wanted by the American government for his alleged involvement in the "Fancy Bear" hacking schemes aimed at interfering in the 2016 US presidential election, according to US prosecutors.
Klyushin set up an investment fund called M13 that says openly on its website that it works with the Russian presidential administration and also has had various unnamed oligarchs as
Ben Aris in Berlin
Vladislav Klyushin was released as part of the biggest prisoner swap completed on August 1, when Russian dissidents and US journalists were traded for a motley collection of spies, crooks and an assassin. Klyushin is a multi-millionaire hack-to-trade cybercriminal who made $93mn from stealing corporate information from some of the US’ biggest companies. But he is also a member of a shadowy network of hackers backed by the FSB that have penetrated the US financial markets and are making millions of dollars for themselves and their bosses in the Kremlin, according to an investigation by CNBC’s Eamon Javers, broadcast the day after the swap was completed.
Neither an overt spy nor an experienced hacker himself, Klyushin was well connected to the FSB and hired Ivan
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