Russian businessmen have developed a reputation as the most conservative in the world. They are reluctant to invest in new areas or projects with no guaranteed income. Russian rich people do not like to part with money, so they think through every step before investing.
Why Russian rich people are reluctant to invest
According to the study, more than 50% of the investment assets of domestic businessmen are invested in bonds and financial instruments, which are guaranteed to generate income. For comparison, rich people from other countries have this type of investment at 37% of the total portfolio.
In 2019 there was a major study of investors from different parts of the world: Europe, Africa, Australia, Asia, Russia, Middle East and others. The analysis involved businessmen who have at least $30 million of free assets. Various sources were used to collect the data, including financial institutions, analytical agencies, interviews with 600 family offices and consultants.
Studies have found that Russian rich people and CIS businessmen invest on average 27% of their capital in bonds – which accounts for the largest share in their portfolios. 26% belong to financial instruments of the market, 20% is the real estate segment. Such a high percentage of money and bonds is typical only for people from this region. In other countries bonds belong to approximately 9-24%.
Russians are not actively interested in the real estate market and gold, except for jewelry, in which they invest 1% of assets.
Investments in shares account for only 16% of the assets, excluding the ownership of large parts in different companies. Latin Americans have even less confidence in this type of investment, with a 12% share. North Americans, on the other hand, are interested in investing shares. They have a 40% interest. In the portfolio of Australians, the percentage of shares is about 35%.
Experts explain this difference in approach by the mentality. Russian rich people in their majority are owners or top managers of large corporations. Rantier activities in the country have not yet reached a great popularity, so the main asset of such businessmen is their own company. And it is obvious that they can not afford to lose capital, and use conservative approaches to minimize the likely risks.
Russian experts emphasize that over the past year, money market instruments have increased their share in the investment portfolios of wealthy people. Now they make 10-30% of the total number of assets. This trend of stock fluctuation at stock exchanges was promoted. Deposit dollar rates have increased, and now they are close to the bonds in terms of yield.
