NPF "erel" and "prosperity" left the market. Interview of Gleb Grunin, General Director of Portfolio Investment Management Company, to the Pension Money magazine Gleb Lvovich Grunin biography

The beneficiaries of two non-state pension funds (NPFs) "Erel" and "Prosperity", whose licenses were revoked by the Central Bank on Friday, are trying to save the remaining business. Realizing that the regulator will not let them into the guarantee system, they are trying to sell three more NPFs that are part of the same informal group. According to Kommersant's information, the most likely buyer is investment group"Russian funds".

On Friday, the Central Bank canceled the licenses of NPF "Erel" and "Prosperity". Overall volume pension savings in them, according to the Central Bank as of June 1, - 3.7 billion rubles. The Central Bank pointed to repeated violations of the requirements for the dissemination, disclosure and provision of information, as well as decisions that violate the rights of insured persons. What is behind this wording, the Central Bank did not explain. On Friday, the press service of the Central Bank did not respond to a request.

Information about the owners of these NPFs is not publicly disclosed. According to a Kommersant source close to the funds, the main claim of the regulator was made against the ultimate beneficiaries of the fund. Earlier, the Vedomosti newspaper reported that one of them is the former president of Rosneft-controlled of the All-Russian Bank Development of Regions (RRRR) Dmitry Titov (arrested this summer on suspicion of abuse). Another beneficiary with the functionality of operational activities is also a former employee of the RRDB Gleb Grunin. He also heads Investment Standard Management Company, which managed the assets of Erel and Blagodenstvo.

As of July 1, Investment Standard Management Company managed the assets of nine more NPFs, three of which also belong to the Titov-Grunin group: Participation, Mosenergo and Kapitan. "When supervising NPFs, the Central Bank pays attention to three things - an adequate assessment of assets, reasonable profitability and the identity of the beneficiaries," says a participant in the pension market. In addition, he notes, there were claims to assets. In particular, in the portfolio of funds managed by the "Investment Standard" there were mortgage participation certificates (MIS) of the Ashinsky Metallurgical Plant. According to Kommersant's interlocutor, the regulator doubted the fairness of the valuation of these assets and offered to replace them. This is confirmed by a source close to the funds. “There was an attempt to do this, but it didn’t work out, because the investments were in long-term projects. It was not possible to withdraw funds or sell the ISU,” he explained. question." "Participation" of the Central Bank also refused to join the system, because it had questions about a quarter of the assets, says the interlocutor of Kommersant.

According to a Kommersant source close to Investment Standard Management Company, the owners of the three remaining NPFs understand that they now have only one way out - to sell the funds. True, not entirely. "Kapitan" and "Mosenergo" underwent a reorganization, during which work with savings (mandatory pension insurance) was allocated to separate funds. "They are now trying to sell them, because with the current shareholder they may not get into the guarantee system," says Kommersant's source close to the Criminal Code, adding that Mr. Grunin wants to keep the funds with pension reserves. According to him, the main hope now is for a deal with the Russian Funds investment group. The chairman of the board of directors of Russian Funds, Sergei Vasiliev, told Kommersant that he did not comment on the negotiations.

According to Kommersant's interlocutors, such a deal would be logical. According to one of them, RFC-Capital (part of the Russian Funds group) already manages (according to the company's website) the pension reserves of NPF Uchastie. However, according to another interlocutor of Kommersant, this NPF was actually sold quite recently for a symbolic sum to Vladimir Nelidov, who became part of the joint ownership of Uchastie. Conclusion of transactions is hampered by disagreements on price, market participants are sure. "As far as I know, the selling side is not satisfied with the price. Due to the upcoming freeze of pension savings in 2016, no more than 20% of their savings are offered for the funds included in the guarantee system. For those that did not enter the system, they offer no more than 10%,” says a source close to Grunin’s funds. Mr. Grunin declined to comment.

The former president of the Rosneft-controlled All-Russian Regional Development Bank (RRDB), Dmitry Titov, was detained by law enforcement agencies - this happened about three weeks ago, two of his acquaintances told Vedomosti. The former top manager of Rosneft also knows about this.

“The case has not yet been given publicity, apparently, they hope to somehow agree,” one of Vedomosti’s interlocutors believes. The banker's acquaintances do not know for sure what the charge is, but they believe that the detention is related to the old criminal case on abuses in the RRDB, which was initiated by Rosneft.

It was not possible to find a decision to arrest the banker in the database of Moscow courts, although, according to the law, detention is possible for up to 48 hours, and further detention is possible only by a court decision.

Titov has worked at Rosneft Bank since the late 1990s. and left the RRDB at the end of 2009. And in the spring of 2012, at the request of the then chairman of the RRDB board, Grigory Kurtser, a criminal case was initiated under the article “causing property damage by deceit or breach of trust.” Rosneft was the initiator of the investigation, Vedomosti sources in law enforcement and Rosneft said. According to Interfax, Titov, without the approval of the credit committee, single-handedly decided to issue a loan for 900 million rubles. Raevskaya Poultry Farm, and in general, his actions led to the emergence of problem debts of RRDB for 2 billion rubles.

Then Titov was not arrested. Now, his acquaintances say, Titov is in jail - and this is not house arrest. He has not been answering phone calls from Vedomosti since mid-June.

Titov's detention could have influenced the investments of the structures under his control - in particular, their decision to sell a stake in the Vozrozhdenie bank, two of his acquaintances financiers say: “Under such conditions, he may be interested in selling Vozrozhdenie shares.

Titov is on the board of directors of Vozrozhdenie Bank as an independent director. But in fact, he has a significant minority stake in Vozrozhdenie, his acquaintances said: Titov and his partners control a group of small pension funds that own Vozrozhdenie shares through the investment standard management company. Three acquaintances of Titov and participants in the pension market told Vedomosti about this.

Among Vozrozhdenie's shareholders, according to the bank, there are nine pension funds and their trustee Investment Standard, together they have more than 5%. These are small funds.

“A few years ago, Titov and his partners - former top managers Rosneft groups began to collect a group of pension funds, ”say several acquaintances of the businessman.

Among Titov's partners, Gleb Grunin, the general director of the Investment Standard company, is called; he also comes from Rosneft structures; led the company Portfolio investment” (previously owned by RRDB). Yesterday Grunin did not answer calls, his friend said that he was on vacation.

In the group of NPFs controlled by Titov, there are at least five funds: Erel, Uchastie, NPF Mosenergo, Captain, Blagodenstvie, as well as the investment standard management company, sources told Vedomosti . Until recently, Titov headed the board of directors of the Erel and Participation funds, but in late June - early July, both funds announced that he was excluded from the list of affiliates. Some of the funds attributed to Titov have overlapping board members.

General Director of NPF "Uchastie" (as well as a member of the board of directors of "Erel" and Executive Director NPF Mosenergo Sergey Zytsar declined to comment.

Last week it became known that the structures of Promsvyazbank are buying shares in Vozrozhdenie. They sold their shares American bank JPMorgan Chase (owned 9.88% through JPM International Consumer Holdings) and Tamur Holdings (4.3%), controlled by Vladimir Kogan, acquaintances of the two co-owners of the bank told Vedomosti. Pension investors (nine funds and the investment standard management company) also received an offer to sell the packages, a person close to the shareholders of Promsvyazbank indicated. A financier cooperating with Investment Standard Management Company knows that the funds have agreed and the deal is closed.

May 7, 2009 "National Rating Agency”confirmed the individual reliability rating of LLC Management Company Portfolio Investments at the level of “A +” (high reliability, first level) with a positive outlook, and Expert RA specialists on May 12, 2009, based on the analysis of the work of Portfolio Investments, assigned the company a new, higher status - "A" (high level of reliability and quality of services). What are the reasons for these positive changes, says Gleb Lvovich GRUNIN, General Director of Portfolio Investments Management Company.

- Gleb Lvovich, how did your company manage to maintain a stable position in the market?

– One of the main reasons for success is the trust of our partners and a reliable client “foundation”, which was carefully laid in the previous period. Many of our clients have praised the results we have achieved despite the financial crisis. Back in the first half of 2008, a decision was made to reduce the share of risky assets and take a more balanced approach to risks in the bond market. The revision of the bond portfolio towards issues with maturities from six months to a year also contributed to the fact that the company showed a strong result. At the end of the year, Portfolio Investments ensured the safety of pension funds for non-state pension funds and fully fulfilled all obligations under the minimum guaranteed return. On individual trust accounts, we managed to show profit due to the successful use of derivatives market instruments.

I also note that the business of our company is diversified in various areas. We offer our clients a wide range of services, from market-based mutual funds and classic trust management to structured products with capital protection and closed venture investment funds.
While portfolios of exchange-traded instruments are highly dependent on stock market conditions, large “closed” projects are not affected by this and provide companies stable income even under conditions financial crisis. Thus, a balanced approach to investment, fulfillment of obligations to partners and a development strategy as a universal financial institution allowed us not only to maintain, but also to strengthen our position in the market.

The recent trend for the industry of collective investments has been a reduction in business activity: some management companies are terminating mutual funds, others are curtailing interaction with NPFs, and still others are getting rid of the regional network. What changes have you made?

Undoubtedly, the events that have taken place forced us to once again return to the issue of optimizing costs and improving business efficiency. At the same time, there have been no revolutionary changes in our development model. In previous years, we didn’t “chase after fashion”: we didn’t stamp dozens of industry funds, we didn’t inflate the staff of investment consultants and we didn’t stick it up with metro advertisements. And today "Portfolio investments" rely not on quantity, but on the quality of management and client work. We believe that a few standard products are sufficient for private investors: an equity index fund, a bond fund, a mixed investments and a second-tier equity fund. Especially since they are one of our the best funds On the market.
If speak about trust management, we offer a number of basic strategies. But, in fact, for each client we form an individual portfolio depending on his preferences: investment terms, target profitability, attitude to risk. At the same time, even within the framework of one agreement, we can implement several investment ideas at once, for example, currency hedging, the purchase of Eurobonds, and others.
Realizing that in the conditions of an unstable market, the only category of investors who are required by law to place their funds through management companies are non-state pension funds, we have increased our attention to working with this category of qualified investors. Moreover, in the current conditions, not all managers are able to guarantee the fulfillment of their obligations for the safety and profitability of funds.

First of all, this was the result of successful asset management in 2008. It also affected the absence of defaulted bonds in the portfolios of our clients, and the fulfillment of all our obligations. Our key customers have decided to expand cooperation with management company and gave us additional funds to manage. Moreover, a number of agreements between Portfolio Investments and new investors are currently being prepared. During 2009 we plan to significantly increase the amount of assets under management.

- As far as I understand, your company managed to avoid a significant outflow of customers?

- Exactly. The key clients of Portfolio Investments, who have been working with us for 2-3 years, not only did not refuse to cooperate with us - on the contrary, they increased their assets under management. Of course, we could not help but experience the outflow of retail customers, but ours was much lower than that of companies working with us in the same segment.

– You said that following the results of 2008, your company actually retained all the funds transferred to the management of the NPF, moreover, you fulfilled your obligations to pay the minimum guaranteed return (MGR). Some of our readers, mindful of the significant decline in the stock market, may question this claim...

– There can be no doubt that we retained the NPF funds transferred to us for management and fulfilled our obligations under the MHD. This happened because in the middle of 2008 the specialists of our company changed their positions in the stock market, taking into account the forecast of negative trends in the market. Understanding the need to meet the expectations of clients in terms of guaranteed returns, following the results of 2007, we reviewed the share portfolio in terms of risk components and improved the quality of the debt portfolio. It was a balanced decision that worked to keep the company stable. The main fall of the stock market took place in the second half of 2008, but by that time we had formed a new portfolio of assets. We have reduced risk positions and seriously revised our bond portfolio towards reliable issuers and short terms redemption of papers. The calculation was made taking into account the need to ensure a minimum guaranteed return. The stock market fell by 70%, but we managed to fully protect ourselves and our clients from the consequences of this fall - "Portfolio investments" were no longer present in the "collapsed" sectors of the market.
In addition, the results of our Agora Savings Fund, the results of which are open and available both in terms of profitability and the composition of portfolios, can confirm my words and dispel the doubts of readers. Unit trust Agora Savings Fund reflects a balanced, conservative strategy our company. According to the results of 2008, it ranked first in terms of profitability among open mutual funds mixed investments with a yield of -1.19%, taking into account the commissions of the management company and a specialized depository. And according to the results of April 2009, the fund took first place in terms of profitability for 1 year and 2 years among more than three hundred open mutual funds, earning 16.09% and 30.71%, respectively.
Mutual funds managed by "Portfolio Investments" traditionally occupy the top lines in various ratings, both in terms of management efficiency and in terms of return and risk ratio (according to the Sharpe ratio).

– Your company managed to save clients' funds from corporate defaults. However, not everyone is so lucky. What is your position on this issue?

– The fact is that many management companies, due to the lack of securities with high level yield, invested in bonds, the yield of which was higher than the market, but at the same time carried serious credit risks. Such a strategy was risky even in a rising market, and the financial crisis confirmed the dangers of such investments. A series of corporate defaults on obligations of issuers of the second and third tiers eventually led to a deep decline in the value of client portfolios. On the contrary, we have always strived to ensure reliability, to insure competently in order to preserve and increase the assets entrusted to us. Therefore, our work in the bond market and investment principles are based on a strict assessment of credit risks and ensuring target levels of return on client portfolios. If we see that a portfolio with an acceptable level of risk meets the target return, then we simply do not take on additional risk in pursuit of an increase in return. In other words, an extra 2-3% of portfolio income will not force us to make a rash decision, the consequences of which may affect the stability of the work of Portfolio Investments Management Company. And for managers who have faced defaults, I would advise you to establish a risk management system and resolve conflicts of interest between asset management and placement of bonds on the market. It is equally important to monitor the duration in the debt market and the quality of issuers.

– You are a member of the RRDB banking group. How did the bank get through the crisis? What is his current position?

– « All-Russian Bank Development of Regions, which includes Management Company Portfolio Investments and which, in turn, is a subsidiary of Rosneft Oil Company, passed the crisis without losses. On the contrary, according to the results of 2008, including the most difficult 4th quarter, the bank showed a solid profit. Today, in the categories of reliability and efficiency, the bank occupies a leading position among credit organizations countries, which is confirmed by the ratings of foreign and Russian agencies. This position of RRDB is also associated with a balanced approach to assessing the risks of borrowing companies and bond issuers.

– Representatives of your company regularly take part in events dedicated to pension issues, including those held in the regions. What is the reason for your increased attention to the problems of the pension industry?

– Today, our company considers cooperation with social investors one of the most promising areas of client work. For the foreseeable future, stock market they will be among the few long-term investors. Therefore, our task is to expand the presence of Portfolio Investments Management Company in this market segment. Taking into account the efficiency of our activity in 2008, we can fully count on it. Our main principle of work is to preserve and increase the funds entrusted to us on the basis of a balanced approach to the ratio of risk and profitability. I would like to add that last year we introduced a methodology for monitoring current level target returns and stress testing of client portfolios. Therefore, summing up the results of our conversation, I would like to remind you once again that it was the limitation of risks during the financial crisis that not only helped our company maintain stability, but also largely determined the positive assessment by rating agencies of the reliability and quality of services of Portfolio Investment Management Company.

Interviewed by Oksana SHEVCHENKO