Lehman Brothers plans to open an office in Moscow next year for the first time since the investment bank left the city in the wake of the 1998 Russian financial crisis, a senior executive told the Daily Telegraph.
"In 2007, we'll open up an office in Moscow," Jeremy Isaacs, chief executive of Lehman Brothers Europe & Asia, said in an interview published on November 20. Isaacs said Lehman was ready to return to the Russian capital after almost a decade away.
"We are now of the view that both in the economic cycle, where the country's at, and where we are as a firm, that both things are now appropriate for us to be considering how we can create value locally," he said. Isaacs noted, however, that the US investment bank had been working with Russian companies for some time, especially in the energy sector, according to the Daily Telegraph.
Looking back at the impact of the Russian financial crisis, which came on the back of the Asian financial crisis in 1997, the Lehman executive said: "During the Russian crisis, the Asian crisis, this firm absolutely had its back up against the wall. "People were claiming we were bankrupt, and there was a real crisis of confidence." Despite the difficulties, Lehman had a record year in 1998 and Isaacs said the bank emerged stronger as a result, the Daily Telegraph reported.
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