Oleg Deripaska's Expansion

Russian businessmen continue their foreign expansion. As reported in an earlier post Russian oligarchs have been increasingly looking abroad for a variety of reasons; from pursuing investments of similar business companies to increase the capacities of their key businesses in Russia to a simple buyout of exotic investments. Kommersant reports that Oleg Deripaska, the owner of Basel (Bazoviy Element) has amassed a 30% stake worth EUR 1.2 billion in Strabag, an Austrian construction player with areas of business in key international markets. Strabag's Russian businesses include the construction of the new "Moskva" hotel, the North tower of "Moskva-Citi", as well as being one of the front-runners in the competition to construct Gazprom's St. Petersburg headquarters. Basel achieves two key goals through this strategy: one - grabbing a big stake in the Russian construction market, and two - getting the ability to expand in the international construction markets.