OREANDA-NEWS. June 4, 2007. “Any first-time developer can find investors for his project- the main thing is that he himself is absolutely sure that it will be realized," said Dmitry Lutsenko, member of the Board of Directors of MIRAX GROUP Corporation, as he shared the secrets of success at the "Early-stage financing for development” organized by Building Conference.
“Our experience shows that the main thing is to communicate with investors, i.e. personal meetings face-to-face,” said Mr. Lutsenko. “This will enable the investor to get a feel for the business, better understand the people on whom the strategy and tactics of its development depend. Personal contact enables one to bypass the formal approach to a company attracting investment.”

Proof of this is our latest road-show, which resulted in an oversubscription to the corporation’s CLNs to the tune of $83m. Top managers at MIRAX GROUP, including Sergei Polonsky and myself, have personally met with representatives of financial organizations in London, Zurich, Hong Kong and Singapore.”

Besides having confidence in one's own abilities, there is a whole series of other factors important to investors. They are the company's history, system of management, and accounting and consolidation reporting standards. “At one time we spent a lot of effort on selecting the financial reporting standard most suitable for us and two years ago settled for US GAAP," Mr. Lutsenko revealed. "This is the only standard that allows revenue to be taken into account as various stages of construction are implemented. In addition, thanks to US GAAP the company is becoming completely transparent to investors, which raises their level of faith in it.”

Speaking about the history of mutual collaboration between MIRAX GROUP and financial institutions, Dmitry Lutsenko also noted work conducted with banks, the issue of bonds, the creation of closed unit trust real estate investment funds, and the corporation’s plans concerning the private placing and issue of eurobonds. In the opinion of Mr. Lutsenko, "every instrument used to attract investment has its pluses and minuses. For example, the closed unit trust real estate investment funds did not justify our expectations. We created them for people who do not have sufficient funds to purchase a flat, but want to invest in real estate. However, there turned out to be far more millionaires in our country than we anticipated. People were not particularly interested in the unit trusts.”