Case | HBS Case Collection | 2011

Hermitage's Russian Quandary (A)

by Eric Werker, Ray Fisman and Lauren Weber

Abstract

In June 2007, the offices of Russian hedge fund Hermitage Capital were raided by Moscow police; in the months that followed, Hermitage founder Bill Browder found himself banned from Russia and fending off efforts to expropriate the fund's Russian assets. This case describes the challenges faced by Hermitage in responding to these threats, and more broadly discusses the perils of doing business in a business environment with weak legal and political institutions. This case was co-authored with Columbia Business School.

Keywords: Crime and Corruption; Private Equity; Investment; Law Enforcement; Laws and Statutes; Crisis Management; Risk Management; Business and Government Relations; Financial Services Industry; Moscow;

Format: Print

20 pages

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Citation:

Werker, Eric, Ray Fisman, and Lauren Weber. "Hermitage's Russian Quandary (A)." Harvard Business School Case 711-054, April 2011.

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The case narrates the development of Pittsburgh from the 1940s to 2012. It analyzes the collapse of the steel industry in the early 1980s, the city's subsequent decline, and the city's later re-emergence as a hub for higher education, the tech sector, and the healthcare industry. Attention is given to the public-private partnerships that emerged in Pittsburgh, as well as the economic development and taxation initiatives pursued by different mayors.

We conducted an analysis that explores the merits of a low-carbon development strategy for Liberia. This chapter describes both our cost-benefit analysis initiative and a plausible policy process for Liberia. We proposed a simple approach that models the costs and benefits of land placed under different uses. Policy scenarios then determine the amount of land under each land use and the implications for costs, benefits, and carbon emissions. A "low-carbon development strategy" for Liberia would include a number of cost beneficial policies, the most obvious being a transition to more efficient agriculture. Other beneficial policies include accelerating the establishment of Protected Areas, ensuring that tree crop plantations are located on degraded land rather than forest areas, and introducing energy-efficient stoves for charcoal and fuel wood.

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