By Andrei Skvarsky. Russia’s biggest lender Sberbank and Abu Dhabi state investment fund Mubadala have signed an agreement to collaborate in multiple fields, including investment, Islamic finance, venture capital and risk hedging. Artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, natural science, telemedicine and education are among areas where the Russian bank and United Arab Emirates company are going to join… Continue Reading
Tag Archives: Russia
Sberbank setting up Mideast subsidiary
By Andrei Skvarsky. Russia’s biggest lender Sberbank is planning an addition to its global network by establishing an investment subsidiary for the Middle East, to practise both conventional and Islamic investment banking, and expects to open it by the end of 2020. Regulators in Russia and the United Arab Emirates have given the go-ahead to… Continue Reading
Sberbank hires S7 airline ex-deputy CEO to oversee IT in subsidiaries, affiliates
By Andrei Skvarsky. Russia’s biggest lender Sberbank has hired Pavel Voronin, a former information technology chief of the country’s second-largest airline S7, as chief information officer (CIO) for the bank’s subsidiaries and affiliates. Voronin will report to Sberbank chief technology officer David Rafalovsky and interact with the CIO of the Sberbank ecosystem, Oksana Smirnova-Krell, the… Continue Reading
Sberbank to invest nearly $27m in Fort Ross Ventures’ new fund
By Andrei Skvarsky. Sberbank, Russia’s biggest lender, has pledged to invest nearly $27m in a fund that venture capital firm Fort Ross Ventures is going to launch to provide early stage financing for up to 200 startups in Russia and other ex-Soviet countries. Fort Ross Seed Fund, to have a maximum capital of 8bn roubles… Continue Reading
Sberbank to set up company to develop driverless cars
By Andrei Skvarsky. Sberbank, Russia’s biggest lender, is planning to convert one of its divisions into a subsidiary with the name Sber Automotive Technologies (SberAutoTech) to develop self-driving cars and digital automotive services. SberAutoTech’s first few driverless vehicles are planned to roll off the production line late in 2020 or early in 2021, Sberbank said… Continue Reading
Sberbank names Kirill Tsarev as deputy head of retail, elevates him to SVP
Sberbank, Russia’s largest bank, has announced it has appointed its vice-president Kirill Tsarev as deputy head of its retail business with the title of senior vice-president. Tsarev joined Sberbank in 2011. Since then he has worked at Sberbank Leasing, a subsidiary for the leasing of motor vehicles and other equipment, first being deputy CEO and… Continue Reading
Renaissance Capital re-hires Alexey Bulgakov as head of fixed income research
Investment bank Renaissance Capital has re-hired one of its former analysts, Alexey Bulgakov, as head of fixed income research. Bulgakov, who had worked in RenCap’s fixed income research department before and had left the bank in 2008, will be based in Moscow and oversee fixed income coverage for Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent States… Continue Reading
RenCap: Rouble’s recent weakening predictable
Investment bank Renaissance Capital argues that the weakening of the rouble over the past few weeks has been predictable and is mainly the result of post-lockdown increases in consumption and in demand for imports and foreign currency in Russia. On July 31, the rouble hit its lowest mark in three months, dropping to a little… Continue Reading
Sberbank hires Tatyana Dobrokhvalova as head of advertising and media
Sberbank, Russia’s biggest lender, has announced it has hired Tatyana Dobrokhvalova, formerly a senior executive in a media company in the Gazprom group and a top figure in the Sochi 2014 Olympics organising committee, as head of advertising and media. Dobrokhvalova joined Sberbank from Gazprom-Media, a firm where she had been deputy CEO. Gazprom-Media is… Continue Reading
Renaissance Capital hires Maria Radchenko as chief fixed income analyst
Investment bank Renaissance Capital has hired Maria Radchenko from Moscow-headquartered investment company BCS Global Markets as head of fixed income analysis. Radchenko has joined RenCap’s distribution team for Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) and is based in Moscow, according to a RenCap statement. She reports to Grigory Sedov, global head of private… Continue Reading
Matrix Capital: Russia’s financial system has made quick post-Covid recovery but rest of economy still in trouble
By Andrei Skvarsky. Russian asset manager Matrix Capital says Russia’s financial markets have made a remarkably quick recovery from blows inflicted by the Covid-19 pandemic but that the rest of the country’s economy remains in a “very alarming” state. “By and large, financial markets are making an unprecedentedly quick post-crisis recovery, especially if one draws… Continue Reading
Unicorn PE firm to find strategic investor for Russian drug company
By Andrei Skvarsky. Moscow-based private equity firm Unicorn has announced it has been hired by a Russian pharmaceutical company to find a strategic investor for it. Unicorn’s client in the project is Mosfarm, a company headquartered in the Moscow region and one of Russia’s largest manufacturers of infusion solutions. Unicorn, whose business is focused on Russian… Continue Reading
BCS GM hires oil and gas analyst Ronald Smith from Citi
By Andrei Skvarsky. BCS Global Markets (BCS GM), the investment banking arm of Russia’s BCS Financial Group, has hired Ronald Smith from Citibank as senior oil and gas analyst. Smith will be based in Moscow, BCS GM said in a statement. He will report to the investment bank’s head of research, Kirill Chuyko. At Citibank,… Continue Reading
EXCLUSIVE: BCS Global Markets banker: retail investment likely to boost Russia’s stock market
A senior figure at investment bank BCS Global Markets argues that Russian retail investment is likely to produce an upsurge in Russia’s stock market because of the total volume of retail deposits in Russian banks, recent interest rate cuts, low taxation, and competent advice from banks and companies. Russia’s stock market is already experiencing an… Continue Reading
Unicorn private equity firm chosen as strategy adviser by major Russian poultry producer
By Andrei Skvarsky. Russian private equity firm Unicorn has announced it has been chosen by Prioskolie, one of Russia’s largest poultry meat producers, as its exclusive adviser on strategy, the attraction of investments and business expansion. Prioskolie, which has its headquarters, production facilities and sales services in the southern Russian region of Belgorod, made a… Continue Reading
RenCap expects less dramatic Russian GDP decrease than generally foreseen
By Andrei Skvarsky. Investment bank Renaissance Capital has reaffirmed its forecast that Russia’s gross domestic product for 2020 will be 2.5 per cent down on 2019, which defies the consensus forecast of a decrease of more than 4 per cent. In reiterating RenCap’s prediction, senior economist Sofya Donets made the reservation that the overall situation… Continue Reading
Russia’s Sberbank confirms Anna Loevskaya as head of Digital Corporate Bank
By Andrei Skvarsky. Anna Loevskaya has been confirmed as director of the Digital Corporate Bank division of Russia’s biggest lender Sberbank after being caretaker head of the unit since the end of 2019. Loevskaya replaces Yevgeny Kolbin, who was discharged as Digital Corporate Bank director late last year due to being appointed CEO of SberCloud,… Continue Reading
Sberbank hires Sofia Ivanova from Kalashnikov gunmaker as press service chief
Sberbank has hired Sofia Ivanova from Kalashnikov Group, maker of the famous assault rifle, as head of the largest Russian lender’s press service. Ivanova was head of marketing and public relations at Kalashnikov. During her three years’ work at the weapons firm, “the world-known and legendary product had its image changed radically” and a media… Continue Reading
EXCLUSIVE: Russia’s Matrix Capital thinks oil may hit $42 mark by end of summer
By Andrei Skvarsky. Russian boutique asset manager Matrix Capital expects that oil prices, which have been edging up over the past few weeks, will continue to rise slowly and might reach between $40 and $42 per barrel by the end of summer. “I think we might see this price closer to the end of summer,”… Continue Reading
Sberbank PR chief Anna Kozlovskaya quitting
By Andrei Skvarsky. Sberbank has announced that Anna Kozlovskaya, its head of public relations, is leaving Russia’s biggest lender seven months after joining it. Kozlovskaya, who came to Sberbank in October 2019 from Mastercard, has overseen the bank’s press service and the communications and media relations of its ecosystem, which consists of more than 40… Continue Reading
Renaissance Capital makes five hires for distribution team
By Andrei Skvarsky. Renaissance Capital, an investment bank with operations in emerging and frontier markets across the globe, has made five hires for its distribution team to fill roles such as oversight of structured products and the high-net-worth individual (HNWI) clientele. RenCap quoted one of its senior managers as saying that, despite the Covid-19 pandemic,… Continue Reading
Tranio: Most property purchases abroad by Russians, CIS nationals are commercial investments
By Andrei Skvarsky. The returns of a 2018/2019 survey by Moscow-headquartered real estate broker Tranio suggest that commercial investment was the purpose of the majority of those years’ property purchases abroad by nationals of Russia and Russian speakers living elsewhere in the Commonwealth of Independent States. About 70 per cent of real estate purchases by… Continue Reading
Sberbank hires ex-CEO of key Russian insurer to run insurance subsidiary
By Andrei Skvarsky. Sberbank said it has hired Mikhail Volkov from Russian insurance company Ingosstrakh as CEO of its subsidiary Sberbank Insurance to replace Dmitry Popov, who is going over to Ingosstrakh. Volkov had been CEO of Ingosstrakh, which is one of Russia’s largest insurers, since April 2014 and since November 2019 combined this role… Continue Reading
Sberbank hires Viktor Shkipin, ex-manager at Alfa-Bank, VTB to run marketing, communications
By Andrei Skvarsky. Sberbank, Russia’s largest bank, has hired Viktor Shkipin, a former head of marketing at Russian lenders Alfa-Bank and VTB, as senior vice-president and head of marketing and communications. Shkipin’s duties will include oversight of Sberbank group companies specialising in advertising and media projects in addition to managing marketing and communications at the… Continue Reading
US fund Princeville Capital provides Russian e-retailer with $50m convertible loan
By Andrei Skvarsky. US investment fund Princeville Capital has provided Russian online retailer Ozon with a $50m loan convertible into equity. The money came as part of a round of financing in which Ozon also received convertible loans totalling $100m from its main stakeholders Sistema and Baring Vostok, according to an Ozon statement. Sistema, which… Continue Reading
Russia’s Sberbank parting company with marketing chief Marina Zhigalova-Ozkan
By Andrei Skvarsky. Marina Zhigalova-Ozkan, senior vice-president of Russia’s biggest lender Sberbank and head of its marketing and communications department, is leaving the bank nine months after joining it. “In these difficult times I’ve made up my mind to focus on developing my own business,” a Sberbank statement quoted Zhigalova-Ozkan as saying. Zhigalova-Ozkan has overseen… Continue Reading
Russian conglomerate Sistema boosts share in Ozon retailer to 43%
By Andrei Skvarsky. Russian conglomerate Sistema has enlarged its direct stake in Russian online retailer Ozon to 31.3 per cent from 21.9 per cent by converting earlier loans, with its total interest in Ozon swelling to 43 per cent as a result. The loans were made in 2019. In 2019, Sistema and the Baring Vostok… Continue Reading
EVENT POSTPONEMENTS DUE TO COVID-19
Due to the Covid-19 outbreak, the following conferences with whose organisers EmergingMarkets.me has media partnership agreements have been postponed: The Digital Banking Summit organised by ICSA has been rescheduled for August 17-18 and will take place in Accra, Ghana. It was originally planned to be held on April 6-7 in Lagos. Blockchain Life, initially scheduled… Continue Reading
Russia close to financial crisis – Russian credit agency
By Andrei Skvarsky. Russia has come close to a financial crisis, Gazeta.ru and other Russian media cited Russian credit rating agency ACRA as warning. The recent collapse of OPEC-Russia talks with global oil prices plunging, the rouble dropping and the Russian stock market plummeting, and the havoc played with the world economy by the coronavirus… Continue Reading