RenCap announces two hires for Africa team, one hire for London unit

By Andrei Skvarsky. Investment bank Renaissance Capital has announced three hires – two for technology-related research positions in its Africa operation and one for a London-based role of overseeing the firm’s relations with key institutional and retail clients. Yusuf Ibrahim has been hired as an analyst for venture investment in private-sector technology companies in Africa, including… Continue Reading

Julius Baer announces staff moves for Swiss market, makes hires for Moscow investment unit

By Andrei Skvarsky. Swiss bank Julius Baer has announced staff moves in its central management in Switzerland and made hires for its Moscow-based investment consultancy for Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). Gilles Stuck, today’s head of structured finance, will be in charge of the Zurich-headquartered bank’s entire Switzerland business with effect from… Continue Reading

Moscow’s Renaissance Insurance Group planning IPO

By Andrei Skvarsky. Moscow-based Renaissance Insurance Group expects to raise up to 21bn roubles (about $289m) through a planned initial public offering (IPO) of ordinary shares being co-organised by Credit Suisse, J.P. Morgan, VTB Capital, BCS Global Markets, Renaissance Capital, Sberbank and the Tinkoff bank. Moscow Exchange would be the site of the planned floating,… Continue Reading

UAE’s Mubadala, two other firms invest $33m in Open Mineral metals trader

By Andrei Skvarsky. United Arab Emirates state investment company Mubadala and two other firms have put $33m into Switzerland-headquartered base metals trading company Open Mineral to help it further sophisticate the digitisation of its business. Dusseldorf-headquartered venture capital firm Statkraft Ventures and Beijing- and Hong Kong-based private equity fund Lingfeng Capital were the investors that joined Mubadala in… Continue Reading

Kremlin brushes off Kudrin’s call for sweeping privatisation

By Andrei Skvarsky. The Kremlin has poured cold water over a forceful proposal by ex-finance minister Alexei Kudrin, today head of Russia’s state audit agency, for a scale of privatisation that would end the current state domination of Russia’s economy. In an article in a business magazine, Kudrin cites an estimate by Moscow’s state-controlled Institute… Continue Reading

EVENTS: Commercial Lines Innovation Europe, virtual event on Oct 11-13 to discuss role of technology in commercial insurance

Allianz, AXA, Generali and two dozen other insurance companies have confirmed they will take part in Commercial Lines Innovation Europe, a planned virtual conference on October 11-13 to focus on the role of technology and innovation in commercial insurance. More than 1,000 insurers are expected to attend the forum, whose extensive agenda will be divided… Continue Reading

$150m raised in energy transition-focused IPO co-run by Sova Capital, EarlyBirdCapital

By Andrei Skvarsky. London-based brokerage Sova Capital and U.S. boutique investment bank EarlyBirdCapital have acted as joint book runners for a successful initial public offering (IPO) aimed at funding an energy transition project for emerging and frontier markets. Oxus Acquisition Corp., a Kazakh special purpose acquisition company (SPAC), raised $150m through its IPO on the… Continue Reading

World Bank appoints David Knight lead economist for Russia

The World Bank has appointed David Knight, earlier a senior economist for the international bank and an adviser in the British and Sierra Leonean governments, as the lead economist for Russia with effect from September 1, 2021. Before his current appointment, Knight, who will be based in Moscow, was the World Bank’s senior economist for… Continue Reading

Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley less attractive to job seekers than would seem logical – MoneyTransfers.com study

By Andrei Skvarsky. Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, KPMG, PwC and EY arouse a lot less interest among job seekers worldwide than one would have expected what with their prestige and lavish salaries, a study by the MoneyTransfers.com company suggests. Online reviews of Amazon by current and former employees of the e-commerce giant are looked up… Continue Reading

Russian financier upbeat about Kazakhstan’s ‘undervalued’ Halyk Bank, about Kazakh economy

By Andrei Skvarsky. Kazakhstan’s biggest lender, Halyk Bank, is “fundamentally undervalued”, a distinguished Russian financier has said, citing upbeat statistics released by the Kazakh institution. For the first quarter of 2021, Halyk reported a year-on-year net profit that was 5 per cent up on the first three months of 2020 and higher than consensus forecasts.… Continue Reading

Uzbekistan’s Grand Leather Shoes pulls off buyout overseen by Bluestone bank

By Andrei Skvarsky. Uzbek shoe manufacturer Grand Leather Shoes has bought out a dysfunctional electrical heating equipment producer as part of Uzbekistan’s current sweeping privatisation programme, with Central Asia-focused Bluestone Investment Bank leading the shoe company through the $1.9m acquisition. Grand Leather Shoes, whose name in Uzbek is Grand Charm Poyafzallari, acquired a stake of 61.9… Continue Reading

Moscow’s European Medical Center planning IPO to be managed by Citigroup Global Markets Ltd, J.P. Morgan, VTB Capital

By Andrei Skvarsky. The European Medical Center, a private clinic in Moscow, has announced that it plans an initial public offering (IPO) with Citigroup Global Markets Ltd, J.P. Morgan and VTB Capital acting as joint global coordinators and joint bookrunners. The European Medical Center (EMC) is the brand used for the clinic by its owner,… Continue Reading

Ether arouses more interest in U.S. than anywhere else – Invezz

By Andrei Skvarsky. The Ether cryptocurrency arouses much more interest in the United States than anywhere else in the world, a study by investment intelligence company Invezz suggests. There are 11 European countries in Invezz’s ranking of the world’s 20 nations showing the greatest interest in ether and sifted from 155 countries covered by the… Continue Reading

EXCLUSIVE: Polish VC firm Inovo launches 2nd fund, worth 54m euros

By Andrei Skvarsky. Inovo Venture Partners, a Polish venture capital (VC) firm focused on technology startups in Central and Eastern Europe, has closed a second fund, one worth 54m euros, after its first fund generated a 320 per cent return on investments in 15 companies, leading two of them to successful initial public offerings (IPOs).… Continue Reading

ActivTrades brokerage reports record profit, turnover for 2020

Online brokerage ActivTrades has reported a profit and turnover for 2020 that it says are the highest annual volumes since the company was set up 20 years ago. The London-based brokerage, which provides services in more than 140 countries in 14 languages, offering more than 1,000 contract-for-differences (CFD) or spread-betting instruments, registered a pretax profit of… Continue Reading

GUEST POST: How to invest in the booming SPAC space

By Sylvia Jablonski, chief investment officer of Defiance ETFs, a New York-based exchange-traded funds (ETFs) sponsor and investment advisory.* Special Purpose Acquisition Companies (SPACs) are formed to take other companies public, and in 2021 they overtook the traditional initial public offering (IPO) route as the numerically more popular way for growing businesses to become publicly… Continue Reading

EM communications firm & investment consultancy hires Anna Vasilenko as CEO, appoints Tom Blackwell chairman

Anna Vasilenko, an ex-head of primary markets at the Moscow Exchange, has been hired as chief executive officer of emerging markets communications firm and investment consultancy EM to replace Tom Blackwell, who is moving to the newly created role as chairman of the EM management board. Before joining the Moscow Exchange, Vasilenko had worked at… Continue Reading