"A Russian monster called Rosneft arrives in London tomorrow - and its arrival is not to be applauded. Conditional dealings in the oil giant will get under way on the London Stock Exchange - despite the fact that Rosneft's main assets were seized from a rival by Vladimir Putin's government and it may not therefore legally own its assets, that it faces years of litigation in many countries and that the Sarbanes-Oxley corporate governance rules in the US mean it would not have been allowed anywhere near Wall Street.
But, it is now clear, the City of London and the FSA, through its listing authority, has lower standards. The FTSE 100 may once have been reserved for blue-chip companies worthy of inclusion in our pension funds, but with Rosneft among the biggest UK-listed companies, that is obviously no longer the case.
It is a vast business: it is raising some £6bn and will have a market capitalisation of more than £40bn - making it substantially bigger than Tesco, Sainsbury and Wm Morrison added together.
The corporate governance teams working for UK fund managers have made their distaste clear. They like to engage with the companies they invest in - and the big tracker funds will have no option but to buy in - but there is little chance of that here. Will they follow the combined code? About as likely as Russia banning vodka. Instead Rosneft's biggest customers have been coerced into buying shares, and investment banks won over by wads of cash shared out for advisory work."
Is this really the way in which UK Finance plc should be going about its business? Do any politicians express concern? Is money the only thing that matters?
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