Russia Foreign Investments

BP Amoco, which has invested more than $1 billion in Russia, said that it would review its operations in the country after an asset it partly owns was sold against its will. Russia's Tyumen Oil Co. bought bankrupt oil company Chernogorneft for about $176 million at a bankruptcy auction despite protests from its owners. The sale was seen as a test case for determining the future of foreign investment in Russia.

BP Amoco will get management control of Russia's Sidanko oil company under an agreement that salvages the British-American oil company's half-billion-dollar investment in Russia. The deal restores BP Amoco's authority over a prized Siberian oil field that was bought this fall by Tyumen Oil, a major Russian oil company, at an auction BP Amoco claimed was illegal. Chernogorneft, a bankrupt Russian oil producer, was a unit of Sidanko, in which BP Amoco holds a 10% stake. Chernogorneft produced 6.

A top official in Russia's new government said Thursday that the country will reverse its decision to freeze foreign debt payments and is ready to negotiate a new payment plan with international lenders. "Russia is ready for a dialogue, and in this connection the government would not like foreign partners to take tough measures against us," said Deputy Prime Minister Alexander N. Shokhin. "We call on banks to refrain from seizing Russian banks' assets abroad."

BP Amoco, which has invested more than $1 billion in Russia, said that it would review its operations in the country after an asset it partly owns was sold against its will. Russia's Tyumen Oil Co. bought bankrupt oil company Chernogorneft for about $176 million at a bankruptcy auction despite protests from its owners. The sale was seen as a test case for determining the future of foreign investment in Russia.

PepsiCo to Invest $550 Million in Russia: The Pruchase, N.Y.-based company and its bottlers will make the investment in the next five years to increase soft-drink production in Russia and beat back a resurgent Coca-Cola Co. The maker of Pepsi and Mountain Dew sodas and Frito-Lay snacks said the biggest consumer products investment in Russia would include 11 new bottling plants, 30 production lines, 50 warehouses, 450 trucks and thousands of refrigerated display cases. PepsiCo Inc.

Foreign investment in Russia fell by almost one-third in the first three months of this year, reflecting uncertainty surrounding the presidential election, the Interfax news agency reported Sunday. Foreign investment in the first quarter of 1996 totaled $928.6 million, compared with $1.79 billion in the fourth quarter of 1995, according to Economics Ministry figures. The ministry said foreign investment rose 3.8% compared with the first quarter of 1995.

They were statistics only a battle-weary prime minister could love: gross national product down only 4%, industrial production slumping just 3%, inflation holding steady at slightly more than 3% a month. "At first glance, it may appear strange that this is being qualified almost as a success," Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin acknowledged.

Coca-Cola to Sell Juices Worldwide: The beverage giant formed a joint venture with Danone, a large French food and beverage distributor, to make and sell Minute Maid juices around the world as part of an effort to expand its reach. Coca-Cola also confirmed plans to invest $100 million in both Russia and Poland in 1997. The Atlanta-based firm has already invested $1.5 billion in Central Eastern Europe, including $250 million in Hungary, reported Vilaggazdasag, a Hungarian newspaper.

Russia Plans to Lure $2 Billion Through Securities: The nation's central bank said it plans to attract up to $2 billion by opening up the government securities market to foreign investors. Acting Central Bank Chairman Tatyana Paramonova said many barriers remained to foreign investment in such instruments as Russian treasury bills and federal loan bonds, which Moscow-based Western financial analysts say offer healthy yield prospects.

When a little-known investment fund financed by U.S. taxpayers bought a stake in the historic Lomonosov Porcelain Factory last year, it seemed a constructive way to help the recovery of Russia's beleaguered economy. Instead, it has proved to be the Americans' undoing. Today, the factory that once made tea sets for the czars is a battleground where Western investors and Soviet-era managers fight over the shape of Russia's economic future. In a precedent-setting decision last month, a St.

IKEA said it will open its first Russian store in Moscow in March, and it approved a site for a second Moscow store after the government agreed to reduce customs duties. Months of negotiations over the duties stalled IKEA's operations in Russia until it persuaded the government in August to cut duties. The privately held home furnishings retailer plans to open the $40-million store in northern Moscow on March 22, five months later than planned.

Under White House pressure, First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton's two brothers pulled out of a $118-million proposed business venture in the former Soviet republic of Georgia on Thursday night, only hours after saying they would carry it through. National Security Advisor Samuel R. "Sandy" Berger had urged Anthony D.

For years, it's been common knowledge that Russia's sickly economy was bleeding billions of dollars overseas. What hasn't been clear is who was doing it--and how. The enormity of the sums involved raises suspicions of wrongdoing; estimates of capital flight from Russia over the past seven years range from $50 billion to $150 billion. But it still hasn't been determined whether the money flows have been legal, quasi-legal, or outright illegal.

A top official in Russia's new government said Thursday that the country will reverse its decision to freeze foreign debt payments and is ready to negotiate a new payment plan with international lenders. "Russia is ready for a dialogue, and in this connection the government would not like foreign partners to take tough measures against us," said Deputy Prime Minister Alexander N. Shokhin. "We call on banks to refrain from seizing Russian banks' assets abroad."

Investors in Russia's troubled economy met with Prime Minister Sergei V. Kiriyenko on Thursday, hoping for reassurance that the government is actually going ahead with the financial reforms it promised the International Monetary Fund before being granted a huge loan this month. Despite the $22.6-billion IMF package for this year and next, the stricken Russian equity market has slid 5.8% in the last two weeks because investors still aren't confident that the government means business.

What's an Irishman like you doing in a place like this? "That's what I keep asking myself," Frank Peyton said. "I still haven't come up with the answer." Peyton, 42, sold his bar in County Cork this year, said goodby--temporarily--to his wife and five children and came to St. Petersburg to lose his fortune. Actually, he doesn't have a fortune, and what he did have he doesn't plan to lose.

The frenzied flight of capital from Russia is over. Investors have already poured more than $2 billion into Moscow's levitating stock market. And Russia is now ready, willing and stable enough to absorb more foreign investment, Russian officials said Friday. Foreign investment in Russian securities increased by 40% each month in July and August and should reach $1 billion a month by the year's end, Deputy Prime Minister Anatoly B.

Vice President Al Gore came to this city on the Volga River on Wednesday to promote American investment in Russia's provinces and encourage its leaders to remove barriers to further economic development. The vice president, concluding four days of meetings with Russian Prime Minister Viktor S. Chernomyrdin, praised the progress Samara has made in luring foreign investors to rebuild its economy.

Even the Russians couldn't bring a bear to Wall Street. In the first day of trading on the New York Stock Exchange for a Russian company, Vimpel-Communications on Friday rose nearly 50% above its offering price. "Only a few years ago, it was difficult to imagine we would achieve this kind of breakthrough," said Dmitri Zimin, chief executive of VimpelCom, as Russia's biggest cellular telephone service provider is often called. "We are very much proud that it was our company."