The Age of the Unthinkable

Browder’s investment model at Hermitage wasn’t just to buy and sell Russian stocks. It was to buy shares in the most corrupt, worst-run Russian companies and then press them to change. A company whose shares traded at $ 1 because it was overseen and looted by goons could be worth $ 10 a share if it was managed even slightly better. Buy, agitate, sell: this was Browder’s strategy. And, given the people he was dealing with, between “agitate” and “sell” he made sure he had plenty of security if need be.