Asset Appreciation and Predatory Raiding in Russia

This book presents a theoretical and empirical investigation of predatory raiding in Russia. Predatory raiding in Russia is the process of depriving lawful owners of their businesses and property with the help of criminal methods, including corruption, fraud, and violence, wrapped in the clothes of legality. The book argues that significant changes in value of corporations, property, and land in Russia incentivize predatory raiders. The appreciation of economic assets influences predatory raiders’ decision-making regarding the selection of potential targets for hostile takeovers. Unlike Western corporate raiders, who target weak companies in financial distress, Russian predatory raiders target primarily the most profitable, lucrative or economically promising companies, as well as private and public property, and land. Russian predatory raiders give clear preference to non-economic instruments for staging hostile takeovers. These comprise legal battles, corruption, fraud, intimidation and violence. Russian predatory raiders are distinctive for their frequent use of force, threat of force, or violence, as applied to businesses and property owners. This research relies on extensive video footage of violent hostile takeovers to draw inferences about the phenomenon of predatory raiding in Russia. In defining the perspective directions for the corporate predatory raiding movement and the anti-raiding campaign, the process of re-valuation of assets may be more important than the mass privatization of the 1990s.