Category Archives: News

EBRD boosts renewable energy sector portfolio in Ukraine

The EBRD continues promoting and supporting renewable energy projects in Ukraine aimed at reducing the environmental impact of traditional power generation. Renewable energy is yet to establish itself as a major contributor to Ukraine’s energy security but it is starting to play a greater role in its sustainable energy supply. The latest renewable energy project… Continue Reading

Financing Sustainable Energy Investment for Bulgarian Business

Raiffeisenbank (Bulgaria) EAD and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) have signed a second line of credit under the Bulgarian Programme for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (BEERECL). This will allow Raiffeisenbank (Bulgaria) to expand financing for sustainable energy investment by private companies in Bulgaria. The EBRD loan of €7.5 million will be… Continue Reading

Wermuth Asset Management significantly outperforms Russian market

Wermuth Asset Management, a Russia-focused German family office, has announced that its quant funds have significantly outperformed a peer group of 50 in the Russian market over the past five years, and have continued to do so in 2013. Wermuth Leveraged Quant Eastern Europe Strategy Fund (WEELS+) has been the best-performing fund with returns of… Continue Reading

Microsoft, Sony to consider funding Russian high-tech startups

By Andrei Skvarsky. Microsoft and Sony are among companies which will examine bids from Russian startup companies looking for investment as part of an innovative technology promotion project by Geneva-based nonprofit organisation Tech Tour. There are also major Russian high-tech promoters on the list of potential investors approved by the organisers of the Third Russian… Continue Reading

Moscow refuses to refund Russians for money lost in Cyprus

The Russian government will not compensate Russian savers who have lost money in the Cyprus banking crisis but is likely to consider helping companies where the Russian state is a shareholder, the BBC cited Russian First Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov as saying. A good chunk of the foreign money kept in Cypriot banks is… Continue Reading

RenCap says Bank of Georgia shows “robust” earnings

Moscow’s Renaissance Capital has released “cautiously optimistic” forecasts about Bank of Georgia, which has been through some rough times after last October’s parliamentary elections brought about a change of government and consequent political turmoil in the Caucasus country. {{{*}}} Bank of Georgia, “as a subset of Georgia itself, has been subject to volatility like no… Continue Reading

Investors won’t regret putting money into Polish IT – govt

By Andrei Skvarsky. Poland’s government has launched a promotion programme for the country’s booming information and communication technology sector and invites investors into the industry. {{{*}}} The European Union-funded IT/ICT Business Promotion Programme, launched by Poland’s Economy Ministry, aims to create new Polish brands and will be publicised through planned roadshows in Poland, Germany, Norway,… Continue Reading

RenCap: Russian economy almost at a standstill, recession looming

Moscow’s Renaissance Capital investment bank argues, citing preliminary statistics from the Russian Economics Ministry, that Russia’s economy has practically stopped growing and is in danger of recession. {{{*}}} Declining prices for commodities such as aluminium, tin, crude oil and copper and output contraction in key industries such as mining, pulp and paper, and electrical equipment,… Continue Reading

Moscow Exchange launching T+2 deferred settlement scheme

By Andrei Skvarsky. The Moscow Exchange is launching on March 25 a T+2 settlement system, an arrangement where payment for securities that have been bought must be made no later than two business days after the transaction. {{{*}}} The exchange plans to simultaneously continue using its current T+0 immediate payment scheme until the end of… Continue Reading

Saudi Arabia’s Sedco launches Luxembourg platform for Islam-compliant investments

 By Andrei Skvarsky. Sedco Capital, a Saudi Arabian asset manager, has launched a one-stop shop platform in Luxembourg for institutional investments compliant with Shariah {{{*}}}, the Islamic moral code and religious law. The Sedco Capital Global Funds platform offers access to seven investment funds with total assets under management exceeding $1bn. The funds accessible through… Continue Reading

EBRD loan to restore and modernise steel production in Croatia

The EBRD is supporting the efforts to restart production at the steel factory in Sisak in central Croatia. The location has a long history of steel operations and has been a major employer. The Sisak Ironworks have been acquired by the Italian company Danieli and their steel company ABS, currently embarking on a restructuring and… Continue Reading

Abris closes latest CEE fund on €450m

Abris has exceeded expectations to reach hard-cap for its Abris Capital Fund II {{{*}}} – despite no exits since the GP was founded in 2007. Abris Capital Partners has reached its hard-cap of €450m for a final close on its second fund targeting the CEE mid-market. A total of 21 investors came into the fund,… Continue Reading

RenCap appoints researchers for consumer-related sectors

By Andrei Skvarsky. Renaissance Capital has added the coverage of Russian consumer-related sectors {{{*}}} to the duties of its analysts David Ferguson and Nick Robinson, who until now have been covering media, information technology and real estate sectors in Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA). Ferguson, who has been with RenCap for six years, has… Continue Reading

Sberbank launching residential real estate investment fund

Sberbank, Russia’s biggest lender, is {{{*}}} launching a closed-end residential real estate mutual fund for non-qualified investors. The Sberbank Residential Real Estate fund, which would finance the construction of relatively inexpensive apartments in Moscow and its suburbs, is being set up by Sberbank Asset Management, a division that was part of Troika Dialog before the… Continue Reading

Re-launch of EmergingMarkets.me

{{{?}}}We are now ready to announce the re-launch of EmergingMarkets.me, an online financial news and analysis service for emerging markets professionals. We will continue to focus on investment banking, asset management, fund management, mergers and acquisitions, equity markets, debt markets, private equity, custody, trading, and technology. With the latest news, opinions and analysis, our readers… Continue Reading

Home Credit receives bids totalling $300m for Russian bonds

Home Credit, one of Europe’s leading retail lenders, has pulled off a highly successful securities project in Russia, {{{*}}} with a total of 9.4bn rubles ($300m) offered for bonds issued by its Russian subsidiary – more than three times their total par value. Sberbank CIB, the investment banking arm of Russia’s biggest lender Sberbank, Raiffeisenbank… Continue Reading

RDIF, VEB, France’s CDC sign private equity promotion deal

By Andrei Skvarsky. Russia’s Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) and VEB development bank and France’s Caisse des Depots et Consignations (CDC), {{{*}}} all of which are state institutions, have signed an agreement to boost private equity investment in the two countries. The deal – a memorandum of understanding – was signed in Moscow on February 28… Continue Reading

Clearstream link to Russian CSD goes live with custody fees halved

By Andrei Skvarsky. Clearstream, the clearing and settlement arm of German stock exchange Deutsche Boerse, has confirmed that its direct link to Russia’s new central securities depository {{{*}}} , the National Settlement Depository (NSD), is going live on February 28, and that it is cutting its custody fees for Russian OFZ sovereign bonds by up to… Continue Reading

Hungary’s Primus Capital launches iCatapult-designed acceleration programme

Hungarian venture capital investment company Primus Capital – unrelated to the Cleveland-based firm of the same name – is putting up a 400m-forint ($1.77m) fund to launch a newly-designed business acceleration programme in seeking access to the U.S. market for Hungarian technology companies. {{{?}}} The programme, designed by New York-based technology firm iCatapult, involves a… Continue Reading

EBRD intervenes to salvage Lithuania’s Ukio bank

By Andrei Skvarsky. The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development is lending 20m euros in co-funding an urgent effort to rescue Lithuania’s troubled Ukio bank, whose woes are seen as a threat to the Baltic country’s entire financial sector. {{{*}}} Under an agreement between Ukio’s administrator, the lender, headquartered in Lithuania’s second-largest city of Kaunas,… Continue Reading

EU financial intel body takes up Magnitsky affair

By Andrei Skvarsky. The European Commission has launched an investigation into the laundering of money stolen from Russian tax authorities in an alleged monumental scam uncovered {{{?}}} by Sergei Magnitsky, a Russian lawyer for British investment fund Hermitage Capital who died in a Moscow jail in 2009. The commission asked for such a probe at a… Continue Reading

EBRD to have permanent office in Jordan

By Andrei Skvarsky. The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development is to have a permanent office in Amman under a recent agreement with the Jordanian government. {{{*}}} The EBRD said in a statement that it had appointed Heike Harmgart, one of its senior economists, as head of the office. The EBRD, which began investing in… Continue Reading