Etalon Bets Russian Homebuyers to Persevere Amid Crisis

Etalon Group Ltd., the Russian developer whose shares have slid 33 percent this year, is betting appetite for housing will hold up amid the Ukraine crisis and the worst economic slowdown since 2009.

“People who want to improve their living conditions don’t react to the crisis quickly,” Anton Evdokimov, chief executive officer of Guernsey, Channel Islands-based Etalon Group, said in an interview at the Bloomberg News office in Moscow yesterday. “We see a big delay in how the economic slowdown, the ruble’s devaluation and the central bank’s rising rates affect what people are willing to pay for housing.”