Russia does not look appealing to investors right now but an emerging market specialist is setting up operations in the country, aiming for the long term and, hopefully, better things to come.

GEMCORP Capital, a firm headed by a former Sberbank CIB senior banker who has also held a senior role at Goldman Sachs, is entering the Russian market.

The London-headquartered firm, which focuses on emerging markets, has created GEMCORP Russia, recruiting Albert Sagiryan as its chief executive, it said in a statement yesterday. 

“We believe that Russia presents a very compelling investment and business growth opportunity. Given our long-term commitment to emerging markets, we believe that local presence is essential in building lasting relationships and in-depth understanding of local investment opportunities and trends,” Atanas Bostandjiev, GEMCORP’s CEO, said in the statement.

The decision to push into the Russian market comes at a time when that country, a "BRIC", has fallen on tough times amid sanctions against it because of its annexation of Crimea and support for separatists in eastern Ukraine, as well as falling energy prices. As Bostandjiev's comments suggest, however, the firm is taking a long-term view of its prospects.

When asked about its business, a spokesperson said that GEMCORP serves both institutional and private bank/family office clients worldwide.

"The firm takes sanctions very seriously but despite this it [Russia] continues to offer profitable investment opportunities in emerging markets and is always focused on expanding its client base," the spokesperson said.

Sagiryan headed Sberbank’s structured products sales and derivatives business for the past three years. He was previously a managing director and co-head of the financing group for Russia and CIS at Goldman Sachs; he has also held a senior banking role at JP Morgan with responsibility for debt capital markets origination in Russia and CIS.