By Andrei Skvarsky. The president of state-controlled VTB Group, Russia’s second-largest bank, has accused the West of a “patronising”, arrogant and standoffish attitude to Russia, which he argues is not the way to behave in these times of globalisation. {{{?}}} “It sometimes seems that politicians of countries that ought to have much in common are… Continue Reading
Tajikistan central bank debuts in Moscow Exchange forex market
By Andrei Skvarsky. Tajikistan’s central bank has begun to trade in Moscow Exchange’s forex market, clinching its first deal on January 20. {{{?}}} The National Bank is not Tajikistan’s first bank to gain access to Moscow Exchange’s forex trade. Early last month the Eskhata commercial lender was let into the market. The National Bank of… Continue Reading
Russia may switch clocks back for winter
By Andrei Skvarsky. A draft law has been introduced to Russia’s parliament to restore the practice of moving the clocks one hour forward in the spring and one hour back in the autumn, Russian media said on Monday. {{{?}}} The proposed law is bound to be hailed by stock exchange traders in the West who… Continue Reading
Royal Bank of Scotland subsidiary says BRIC obsolete term
By Andrei Skvarsky. Coutts, a lender owned by Royal Bank of Scotland, argues that the 13-year-old BRIC term is obsolete. {{{?}}} The economies of Brazil, Russia, India and China are much too different in size and performance to justify seeing the four nations as a distinctive group. Moreover, there is a bunch of other emerging… Continue Reading
Free Personal Coaching for EmergingMarkets.me members!
{{{?}}} Dear Readers, We’ve started a partnership with an exciting London start-up. Go.Show.Do know that being great at your job, doesn’t mean it’s always easy to sell yourself to employers. It’s a skill and no one is teaching it! They want their clients to be in control and confident, so they get the great jobs… Continue Reading
Russia’s Renaissance hires ex-BofA banker to run Africa sales
By Andrei Skvarsky. Renaissance Capital, one of Russia’s leading privately owned investment banks, has confirmed it has hired Robert Lamprecht, a former senior manager at Bank of America, as head of African sales. {{{?}}} Lamprecht will be based in Johannesburg, where one of RenCap’s three African offices are located. He will report to Florian Hellmich,… Continue Reading
VTB makes clean break with Fitch over "lack of professionalism”
By Andrei Skvarsky. VTB Group, Russia’s second-largest bank, announced on Tuesday that it was severing all its relations with Fitch Ratings because of the rating agency’s “continued lack of professionalism”. {{{?}}} The move followed Fitch’s lowering VTB’s issuer-default rating one level on January 10, which the bank argued was groundless, claiming the agency had had… Continue Reading
An intelligent , English CV Template
{{{?}}} For professionals working in a new culture, it’s crucial that employers can easily grasp the value of your past experience to them and their company. Unfortunately, there is a lot of terrible advice on the internet and some terrible ‘standard’ formats. The Europass CV template is the most common and probably the worst and… Continue Reading
In 2014 – the big career challenge is to sell our skills
{{{?}}} In 2013, the number of companies involved in corporate recruitment expanded again, for better or for worse. In 2014 there will be type of chaos in the market, which will effect how real people achieve career-defining steps and changes. Executive recruiters; in-house recruiters; HR directors; outsourcers; procurement teams; Linked-in junkies, employer brand managers; company… Continue Reading
Russia tries to revive interest in struggling stock market
By Melissa Part. 2013 seemed to end on a grim note for Russia’s economy with consumer confidence hitting a new low. {{{?}}} The country’s economy has had a bumpy start to 2014 too. The recent release of high-profile political prisoners does not seem to have rallied investor interest in Russia’s stock market. Russia recently released… Continue Reading
Moscow Exchange reports 24% trade volume increase for 2013
By Andrei Skvarsky. Moscow Exchange has said its trading volumes grew 24% last year, reaching 46.6 trillion rubles ($1.4 trillion). {{{?}}} All of the exchange’s units – its trading floors for stocks, Russian depositary receipts (RDRs), corporate and government bonds and derivatives, and its forex and money markets – recorded volume increases, the bourse, which… Continue Reading
Sberbank CIB’s 2013 trade finance, documentary deals worth $43.5bn
By Andrei Skvarsky. Sberbank CIB, the investment arm of Russia’s biggest lender Sberbank, has announced it carried through “record” numbers of trade finance and documentary operations in 2013, putting the total volume of the deals at $43.5bn. {{{?}}} The investment firm said in a statement its documentary operations topped the $33bn mark last year, with… Continue Reading
Sberbank: consumer confidence in Russia plummets
By Andrei Skvarsky. A survey by Sberbank, Russia’s biggest lender, suggests that consumer confidence in Russia has plummeted towards the year-end after being stable from March to September. {{{?}}} The proportion of price-sensitive customers has grown, savings have dwindled, unemployment has edged up, and companies are making fewer hires, according to December’s issue of Sberbank… Continue Reading
Deutsche Boerse poll: Russian companies' confidence at “record low”
By Andrei Skvarsky. A Deutsche Boerse survey suggests that business confidence among major Russian companies hit “a record low” this month as did production and orders, marking “a miserable end to what has been a terrible year for the Russian economy”. {{{?}}} Global business data provider MNI Indicators, a Deutsche Boerse subsidiary, said its MNI… Continue Reading
FxPro: US dollar, euro, sterling to get stronger, yen to weaken
By Andrei Skvarsky. FxPro, a global forex broker, predicts that the world forex market will be characterised by greater volatility and shorter trends in 2014, with the US dollar, euro and sterling getting somewhat stronger and the yen further weakening. {{{?}}} The dollar will show “conditional” strength, “which means that we are not heading for… Continue Reading
Morgan Stanley: weak investment main cause of Russian slowdown
By Andrei Skvarsky. Morgan Stanley believes poor investment is the main cause of Russia’s decelerating economic growth. {{{?}}} Weak investment has been more powerful as a growth decelerator than robust global oil prices have been as an accelerator, the bulge bracket bank’s chief economist for Russia, Jacob Nell, argued at a briefing in Moscow last… Continue Reading
US Revere Capital Advisors sets up merchant banking group, makes hires
By Andrei Skvarsky. Revere Capital Advisors, a New York- and London-based financial services boutique, has set up a merchant banking group, Revere Merchant Capital (RMC), and made three senior hires for the new firm. {{{?}}} “RMC will lead and co-invest in equity and debt financings in connection with change of control, acquisition and expansion capital… Continue Reading
Moscow forum discusses high-tech investment
By Andrei Skvarsky. RVC, a Russian state-owned high-tech investment company, has helped organise an international forum last week that looked at ways of giving an impetus to Russia’s technology industries. {{{?}}} The role of corporate venture funds, high-tech investment vehicles set up by large corporations, was among issues raised at Moscow’s First Corporate Venture Summit,… Continue Reading
Sberbank hires ex-RBS banker as head of FX
By Andrei Skvarsky. Sberbank has hired Frederic Blondel, a former Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) and ABN AMRO banker, as head of foreign exchange and flow derivatives corporate sales at Sberbank CIB, the investment arm of Russia’s biggest lender. {{{?}}} Blondel, who will be based in Moscow and has more than 20 years’ experience in… Continue Reading
VTB Capital raises $95.2m by selling stake in IT firm on NYSE
By Andrei Skvarsky. Russia’s VTB Capital has raised $95.2m by selling its stake in Russian software development and IT outsourcing company Luxoft in a secondary public offering (SPO) on the New York Stock Exchange in which the Moscow-based bank was one of the bookrunners. {{{?}}} The offering was more than three times oversubscribed and attracted… Continue Reading
Deutsche Bank selling Russian subsidiary to Aton
By Andrei Skvarsky. Deutsche Bank has agreed to sell its Russian subsidiary Deutsche UFG Capital Management (DUCM) to Russian investment group Aton in what would purportedly make the latter one of Russia’s biggest asset managers. {{{?}}} The deal, which needs approval from Russia’s Federal Antimonopoly Service, would make Aton the 100% owner of DUCM, an… Continue Reading
EXCLUSIVE: Tinkoff shares plummet 40%
By Andrei Skvarsky. Tinkoff Credit Systems stock plummeted 40% to $9 per share on Friday on news that Russia’s government is planning a law to restrict distant distribution of credit cards by banks. {{{?}}} It would then only be possible to obtain a card from a bank office. “This is only one of many initiatives… Continue Reading
Moscow Exchange to change collateral requirement for derivatives market
By Andrei Skvarsky. Moscow Exchange plans a reform in its derivatives market in which the entire collateral would have to be in U.S. dollars instead of today’s requirement of 50% in dollars and 50% in Russian rubles. {{{?}}} “The change will simplify operations for foreign market participants and lower funding costs for Russian market participants,”… Continue Reading
RenCap hires banker from Merrill for Turkey sales
Russia’s Renaissance Capital has hired Ozlem Turgay from Merrill Lynch as an equity salesperson for its Istanbul office. {{{?}}} Turgay will report to Benjamin Samuels, global head of equities at RenCap, and to Burak Akbulut, head of execution for Turkey, the Moscow-based investment bank said in a statement. Turgay has held Istanbul- and New York-based… Continue Reading
Moscow Exchange chosen as IPO floor by major footwear retailer
By Andrei Skvarsky. Moscow Exchange is soon going to host one more IPO, with major Russian footwear retailer Obuv Rossii planning to put one quarter of its stock on sale and expecting to raise between 1.5bn and 2bn rubles ($46m-$62m) thereby. {{{?}}} The planned sale would be run by a consortium led by Russian broker… Continue Reading
VACANCY – Senior Russia/CIS Private Banker – Singapore
My client is a top tier Asian bank and they are looking to add senior relationship managers to their Russia/CIS desk in Singapore. The candidate must have AUM of 250m+ USD. Target clients will be UHNWI from Russia, Ukraine and most importantly Kazakhstan. Location: Singapore Recruiting Company: Oxbow Executive Search Ltd Contact Person: Leon Zwiefka-Sibley… Continue Reading
NASDAQ, Moscow Exchange sign deal to help Russian start-ups
By Andrei Skvarsky. NASDAQ and Moscow Exchange have clinched a deal to join forces in helping Russian high-tech start-ups to get listed on the two bourses. {{{?}}} The two exchanges are to co-organise conferences, workshops and presentations for innovative companies and international investors under the agreement, the Moscow bourse said in a statement. The deal… Continue Reading
Russia’s Nomos bank carries out successful SPO on Moscow Exchange
By Andrei Skvarsky. The Nomos banking group, one of Russia’s largest private lenders, carried through a successful secondary public offering of shares on Moscow Exchange last week, raising 19.08bn rubles ($600m) by selling all the securities it offered. {{{?}}} Gazprombank and Otkritie Capital co-organised the SPO. Demand exceeded supply, with Nomos giving priority to major… Continue Reading
EXCLUSIVE: Russia’s BCS hires ex-ING analyst to oversee consumer sector research
By Andrei Skvarsky. Russian brokerage BCS has hired Anna Kochkina, a former senior equity researcher at ING Bank, as senior equity analyst for the consumer sector, Luis Saenz, head of equity and derivatives sales trading at BCS, told EmergingMarkets.me. {{{?}}} Kochkina, who received high accolades in the Extel survey for consumer sectors in Europe, the… Continue Reading