By Ivan Anderzhanov
Stephen Jennings, the ‘Kiwi Oligarch’ who co-founded and ran Renaissance Capital, is retaking the chief executive job as the emerging markets investment bank expands further into far-flung frontiers.
Alexander Pertsovsky, who replaced Jennings as chief executive three years ago, has been switched to the position of president and first deputy chief executive, while the current president Ruben Aganbegyan, has been made a second deputy chief executive.
Moscow investment sources have been speculating for some time that Jennings had not been entirely satisfied with his senior management since he was forced in late 2008 to seek a $500m investment from billionaire Russian businessman Mikhail Prokhorov in return for a 50% stake. “The might be some more musical chairs at Rencap before long,” said one source.
Renaissance also hired four senior managers, including Nick Andrews from JPMorgan Chase & Co. as global head of equities. Andrews had run JPMorgan’s Asia-Pacific and emerging markets equities team from Hong Kong since 2005. Ashar Qureshi, a partner at Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP, was appointed as executive vice chairman of Renaissance Group.
Mark Harris joins as global head of compliance. Harris was previously managing director and head of compliance for Lehman Brothers in Europe and the Middle East.
Michael Schulz has been appointed global head of risk. Schulz most recently ran the risk function at the Hong Kong hedge fund CQS, and previously spent seven years at Lehman Brothers in Hong Kong, New York and Tokyo.
These hires come on the heels of Rencap’s recent announcement of an alliance for cross-border mergers and acquisitions advisory work with India’s Kotak Investment Banking and the formation of a strategic partnership with UK corporate finance specialist Strand Hanson to focus on London’s AIM market.
Stephen Jennings said in a statement: “Future growth in investment banking will come from the emerging markets, and in particular from the integration of the major emerging markets and gradual disintermediation of the West. The scale of the opportunity for a bank with deep local roots across key emerging markets and world class management and infrastructure is enormous.
