Sochi says raised record $1.2 billion in domestic Olympic investment

Sochi’s Olympic organizing committee claims to have raised $1.2 billion in domestic sponsorship contracts, setting a new record by outstripping the estimated $1 billion raised by China in Beijing in 2008.

Sponsorship deals announced last week at a forum in the Black Sea resort include investments by bus companies GAZ Group and the Russian arm of Sweden’s Scania Group; and recruitment agencies Adecco Group, Exect Business Training and Kelly Services.

Those deals took Russia past China in the amount raised by exchanging the companies’ services and money for the right to be an official Sochi 2014 sponsor and to display Sochi 2014 imagery on their products, a committee statement issued Wednesday said.

General partners of the Games, Russia’s first Winter Olympics, include national carrier Aeroflot, communications giants Megafon and Rostelecom, the No. 1 state oil producer Rosneft, Russian Railways, Sberbank, Volkswagen Group Rus and apparel manufacturer BOSCO Sport.

 “Sochi is slowly but surely becoming a central attraction in Russia and we are very pleased to have the unique opportunity to present our new projects and services to the thousands of guests attending the Games,” said Tigran Pogosyan, Deputy Director-General on Strategic Projects at MegaFon.

In the run-up to 2008, Beijing attracted at least 20 companies as top-tier sponsors that forked over at least $20 million each on the way to an estimated $1 billion in domestic investment.

London 2012 organizers claimed earlier this month to have reached a target of $1.1 billion from 44 British companies.

On the face of it, Sochi appears to have excelled because Beijing and London are Summer Games, which typically attract far greater levels of investment.

Some commentators have speculated, however, that Sochi’s success in garnering sponsorship is merely back-door government financing; many of the top tier sponsors are government-run or controlled.

Organizers have rejected those claims.