By Ivan Anderzhanov

Has Russian-based investment bank’s campaign to buy brokerages in five of six African countries stalled?

The bank today announced it had has completed its acquisition of BJM Securities, the brokerage business of South Africa’s Barnard Jacobs Mellet (BJM) Group.  The deal was first announced on May 3.

Back in late March, Rencap chief executive Stephen Jennings told the Financial Times the bank was in talks to buy brokerages in five or six African countries. The newspaper said Rencap expected the deals to be completed in the “the next few months.”

Perhaps Rencap’s acquisition push in Africa has run out of steam or maybe they gave brokerage owners’ too much of a heads-up by setting out their shopping list so publicly. One could never accuse Jennings & Co. of lacking hubris but it sometimes leaves them open to some gentle lampooning.

Rencap entered Africa in 2007, and today maintains offices in Nigeria, Kenya, Zambia and Ghana. The firm entered South Africa in February 2010 and appointed Clifford Sacks to lead its South African and pan-African equities businesses. Last year, the investment bank was one of the most active dealmakers on the continent, executing 22 transactions in 13 countries.

By Marcus Williams

Renaissance Capital, the fast growing emerging markets investment bank, is eyeing deals to buys brokerages in “five or six” African countries.

Speaking to the Financial Times, its bullish founder Stephen Jennings said the group expected to close deals within the next few months.

Rencap is expanding at breakneck speed 18 months after the Stephen was forced to sell half of the bank to billionaire oligarch Mikhail Prokhorov and fire 40% of its personnel.

“It’s deja -vous all over again piling into Africa,” said one former Rencap executive. “He just loves a craps game.”   The Moscow-based bank last week annouced two ties up with banks in Mongolia.

By Jason Corcoran

Pharos Financial Advisors today launched a $350m private equity fund focused on acquiring and operating land in Eastern Europe, Eurasia and Africa.

Pharos, a Russian-based investment firm which expanded to Dubai last year, is expecting to raise more than half of the fund from investors in the Middle East.

The Pharos Miro Agricultural fund, with a minimum subscription of $6m, is being offered to family offices, private equity groups and other investors across the region.

The new fund is in partnership with Miro Asset Management, a Dubai-based agriculture and timber operator which will act as asset manager overseeing land acquisitions and farm development.

Pharos hopes the fund will achieve returns of about 25% over five years.

Peter Halloran, the founder of Pharos, said in a statement: “We have identified a high quality pipeline of arable farm projects that meet our targeted returns of 25% annualised, including significant operating yield.  Given global concerns over food security and the impacts of climate change, arable farms represent a timely investment in today’s world.”

By Ivan Anderzhanov in Moscow

Investment bank Renaissance Capital has notched up its 14th deal in Africa this year after advising the Central African Mining and Exploration Co. (CAMEC) following its acquisition by ENRC, an LSE-listed Kazakh mining group.

The $955m deal in the mining sector is the largest public transaction on which Renaissance has advised on in Africa this year.

CAMEC is listed on AIM and holds copper assets in Congo and other mining assets in Mali, Mozambique and Zimbabwe. ENRC now owns or has received valid acceptances in respect of 2,637,411,577 CAMEC shares, representing approximately 91.65% of the entire issued share capital of CAMEC.

Andrew Cornthwaite, head of investment banking at Rencap, said: “This transaction between a CIS-based strategic buyer and an African mining asset epitomises Renaissance Capital’s strength as a leading investment banking group across the emerging EMEA region. It demonstrates our unique ability to add value in cross-border, highly complex M&A situations where our industry expertise and footprint in both the CIS and Africa are of strategic importance.”

This is the fourteenth deal completed by Renaissance Capital so far this year in Africa. Recent transactions include the A$85m  ($79m) follow-on offering for Sundance Resources out of Cameroon, a $105.5m follow-on offering for African Minerals out of Sierra Leone, and a string of other deals in Nigeria, Kenya, Zambia, Ghana and Zimbabwe.

Other African deals have included a bond issue for Nigeria’s Niger State, ECM deals for Zambia Sugar and CAL Bank in Ghana, acquisition of a bank in Tanzania, and the sales of an agricultural asset in Zambia and a manufacturing facility in Nigeria.

By Jason Corcoran in Moscow

Russia’s Renaissance Capital has been appointed as lead manager and bookrunner for a 20bn rouble bond ($612m) by conglomerate Sistema which caps a string of deals worth over $2bn during the past month.

The Sistema rouble bond is the biggest of the year and beats the recent 15 billion ruble ($485m) issue by Russia’s biggest lender Gazprom.

The five-year bond, which will be issued via a Dutch auction on Tuesday, will be used to refinance foreign debt owed by Sistema.

The other deals won by Renaissance mark a new entry into new markets in Poland, Zambia, Sierra Leone, as well as the convertible bonds sector.
Renaissance was a co-lead manager on a follow-on $200m public offering by Polish vodka producer CEDC on July 20. The deal was four times over-subscribed and pricing was close to the market.

On July 29, Rencap priced a combined $300m equity and convertible bond issue for Zhaikmunai, a Kazakh oil and gas company. It was the first convertible bond structured and priced by Renaissance and the first convertible offering structured and led by a Russian bank.

Renaissance acted as sole bookrunner on a follow-on offering for AIM-listed African Minerals that raised $105.5m. The placing raised growth capital to finance the company’s drilling campaign at an iron ore project in Sierra Leone.

The transaction is the only second equity offering to have priced at a premium in EMEA this year.

Ongoing deals include a $49m rights issue by Zambia Sugar which would become the bank’s third African capital markets transaction this year.

The deals represent a vindication of the appointment of Yury Gruzglin who was hired from Deutsche Bank last October to run the debt product group. He replaced Brian Lazell who retired from banking.

Renaissance, which was forced to pare back its staff by 50% following the banking crisis, has recently started hiring again and has raised salaries to pre-crisis levels.

By Ivan Anderzhanov in Moscow

Renaissance Capital had promoted Victoria Chervatyuk to run its events team in Moscow following the departure of it head marketing and strategic development Richard Wallace to do a MBA in London.

Wallace, who left Moscow recently, is part of a large exodus by expats from Renaissance over the past year since the banking crisis struck. He has enrolled to do a MBA in London.

Rencap said the events team has a busy schedule ahead since cancelling this summer’s annual investor forum in Moscow. A spokesman for the bank said forthcoming events include a Zimbabwe investor roadshow, a conference in New York and a roadshow in Lagos.

Share trading in Zimbabwe has leaped to $1.3 million a day, surpassing Kenya, as the east African nation’s economy recovers from a decade-long recession and political isolation.