Competition as Survival Doctrine

“In Russia, I was able to get out in time. This time, I was too deeply entrenched. As an investor, I was being chased by banks every day. ‘What do you want to do next?’ they would ask. ‘Want to deal in real estate? We’d love to help you. Can we lend you some money?’ The banks were hugely overbor-rowed themselves and yet chasing new opportunities to lend. We should have spotted the dangers of the situation a mile off.”

“The deals came fast and furiously, but as I was looking at assets in central Europe, a lot of new faces started to appear among potential buyers. Instead of other lone capitalist raiders like me and one or two native banks, some of private equity’s biggest names, including the likes of KKR and Blackstone, were beginning to crop up. Auctions were getting crowded. Instead of four or five people bidding for an asset, there were now often as many as 14 or 15. It was becoming too competitive. Assets were going for the wrong prices and it was time to sell, rather than buy. So I began offloading businesses, selling the telecoms companies and the Bulgarian bank in 2007 for fantastic prices. We made a profit of €400 million alone on the sale of the Bulgarian telecoms assets to the equity arm of AIG, a US insurance group. And I started to look for a way out of the Icelandic assets.”

“If society is not competitive, it is destined to disappear.”

“They do not speak of equality; they know it is not of this world. They expect a lot from the best without demotivating them by taking the fruits of their efforts, as the country needs them too much in this time of intense competition!”