COMMENT: Ashmore positive on Brazil after strong performance in 2009

February 16, 2010

Brazil is expected to be a major investment destination for global investors over the next decade according to Ashmore Investment Management, the leading specialist emerging markets asset manager. A largely closed economy with strong domestic demand, Brazil has weathered the credit crunch, is a net creditor country lending money to the IMF and should see [...]

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Morrell to leave post as JP Morgan emerging fund manager

February 16, 2010

By Marcus Williams
Chris Morrell, the manager of JP Morgan’s emerging alpha plus fund is to step down, is to part company with the US banking group.
Morrell, who joined from Merrill Lynch in 2006, will be replaced as manager of the fund by Ashraf el Ansary, who has served on JP Morgan’s emerging markets team since [...]

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Yanukovych officially declared President-Elect

February 15, 2010

By Iryna Piontkivska, Economist at Troika Dialog Ukraine
The Central Election Committee officially announced the results of the presidential elections on February 14, confirming that Viktor Yanukovych is the new president-elect.
According to the official results, Yanukovych secured about 48.95% of the votes, while current Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko lagged with about 45.47%.
A day before the announcement, [...]

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Petropavlovsk taps former Blackrock fund manager as non-exec

February 15, 2010

By Marcus Williams
Former star gold fund manager Graham Birch has joined the board of miner Petropavlovsk as a non-executive director.
Birc, 49, recently retired as head of fund management group Blackrock’s natural resources team, where he was responsible for around $40bn of assets.
He managed Blackrock’s world mining trust and gold & general unit trust and was [...]

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New York State CRF Allocates to its Emerging Manager Program

February 14, 2010

By James Ladue from Emerging Manager Focus

The New York State Common Retirement Fund (CRF) made 10 investments on behalf of the pension totaling more than $446 million in value and closed four transactions in its private equity portfolio totaling $160 million throughout December 2009, according to Hedge Fund.net’s Marc Raybin.  For its private equity portfolio, [...]

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Stephen Jennings takes back the tiller at Renaissance Capital

February 12, 2010

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 [...]

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EBRD to sell Swedbank Russia Stake

February 11, 2010

By Marcus Williams
European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) has agreed to sell its 15% stake in Swedbank Russia back its parent and major stakeholder Swedbank.
The deal will give Swedbank full ownership of its Russian subsidiary and comes after a five-year investment which saw the EBRD become a minority shareholder in March 2005 in what [...]

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Alfa Capital boosts fund management team with new hire

February 11, 2010

By Ivan Anderzhanov
Russian fund manager Alfa Capital has recruited Kirill Kozyrkin from Binbank Asset Management as a portfolio manager for its investment team.
Kozyrkin will be responsible for portfolio management as well as the analysis and selection of shares and their credit risks, the firm said in a statement.
Kozyrkin joins Alfa from  Binbank Asset Management where [...]

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Savings giant Sberbank creates investment banking unit

February 10, 2010

By Ivan Anderzhanov in Moscow
State-controlled savings giant Sberbank is hiring 30 bankers for its new investment banking unit, according to a report in Vedomosti.

The division known as Sberbank Capital is currently focussing on restructuring “problematic’”assets and private equity but the group has plans to develop a fully-fledged investment business providing M&A advisory and syndicated loans [...]

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Yanukovich appears to win second round of presidential elections in Ukraine; potentially positive for Gazprom, Tatneft, Lukoil, Evraz and CTC Media

February 9, 2010

By Vladimir Osakovsky, Head of Strategy and Research at UniCredit Securities

Ukraine’s former prime minister, Viktor Yanukovich, continues to lead in the second round of presidential elections in Ukraine, receiving close to 48.6% of the vote, with 86.2% of the votes counted. Current Prime Minister Yulia Timoshenko managed to narrow the first round gap of [...]

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Goldman Sachs loses out as Russia announces winners of ‘Golden Ticket’

February 8, 2010

By  Ivan Anderzhanov
Bulge bracket bank Goldman Sachs was the big loser after last Friday’s annoucement of the banks to manage Russias upcoming sovereign eurobond issue.
Barclays Capital, Citigroup, Credit Suisse and domestic bank VTB Capital are arranging the deal, according to a statement from the Finance Ministry.
US bank Goldman Sachs had been involved in pre-marketing for [...]

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COMMENT: Kazakhstani non-performing loans continue to decline

February 8, 2010

By Rustam Botashev, Equity Analyst at UniCredit Securities
Kazakhstan’s Financial Supervisory Agency (FSA) published preliminary banking statistics for 2009.
Our view: The banking sector’s losses for the year totalled KZT 2,837bn ($19.1bn), or KZT 127bn ($0.9bn) excluding the two defaulted banks (BTA Bank and Alliance Bank).
Retail loans declined by 4.8% yoy and corporate loans rose by 7.3% [...]

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