Fast-growing Russian cos should be able to raise capital on Russian financial markets - Putin

MOSCOW. July 18 (Interfax) - Mechanisms allowing fast-growing Russian companies to raise capital for their development on Russian financial markets need to be created within a short time, Russian President Vladimir Putin said.

"Such companies of ours actively used Western financial institutions with which there are known difficulties today. They aren't available to us. It's necessary to form mechanisms in the Russian financial system within a short timeframe such that fast-growing companies can raise private domestic capital for their development," Putin said at a meeting of the Council for Strategic Development and National Projects.

"I'm very much counting on in-depth proposals from both the Finance Ministry and the Bank of Russia, whose area of responsibility includes the work of financial markets," he said.

According to Putin, discussion was particularly about companies such as Ozon and Yandex .

"Many fast-growing Russian companies, such as Ozon and Yandex, for example, financed their development by attracting resources from Western markets. We'll say directly that the Russian financial system wasn't ready to guarantee resources to those companies that did not have assets or large profits, but at the same time had great prospects for development. For example, Ozon, to the best of our knowledge, has had losses for almost 20 years already, but only in the last year, sales volumes on this platform approached 0.5 trillion rubles and could undoubtedly exceed a trillion rubles already next year," he said.

The president noted later when discussing the proposals of the Finance Ministry and the Bank of Russia that companies with state involvement can also be involved in increasing the financing of hi-tech companies. "We need to work with our companies that don't know where to put the billions of dollars they've accumulated. A wonderful direction for the use of these resources. We need to meet with them, work, explain, create the relevant alliances. I don't see anything difficult. That set of instruments that you talked about just need to be used. So they [fast-growing hi-tech companies] place some bonds, instruments on the market, you and I understand that without the support of the government, none of this is going anywhere," Putin said.

Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov proposed doing this through directives for companies with state involvement. "As concerns companies, to also prepare directives for companies with state involvement if you'll give us such instructions, so that they also contribute," Siluanov said.

"Well, of course," Putin said.