By Andrei Skvarsky. Russian broker Troika Dialog has hired Todd Berman from Bank of America Merrill Lynch as co-head of investment banking. Berman, who takes up his new role early next month, will share the job of running Troika’s investment banking business with Igor Sagiryan, who joined the Moscow-headquartered brokerage two years ago, the firm said in… Continue Reading
Category Archives: Deals
Troika’s Vardanian quits as head of Skolkovo management school
By Andrei Skvarsky. Russian brokerage Troika Dialog’s founder and chief executive, Ruben Vardanian, has stepped down as president of the Kremlin-overseen Skolkovo Moscow School of Management. Vardanian, who will remain involved with the school, heading its Committee on International Cooperation and Strategic Partnerships, has been replaced by Andrey Rappoport, one of the institution’s founding partners.… Continue Reading
Putin-linked lender to buy out Bank St Petersburg
By Andrei Skvarsky. Bank St Petersburg, one of Russia’s biggest regional lenders, is planning to sell out to the Rossiya bank as state-controlled entities mop up privately held banks. Rossiya is controlled by Yury Kovalchuk, a man widely reputed as Putin’s “personal banker”. The two banks, both of which are based in St Petersburg, are… Continue Reading
Sberbank buys 5% stake in Baturina’s Inteco
By Andrei Skvarsky. Sberbank is buying a 5% stake in construction company Inteco from Yelena Baturina, the wife of former Moscow mayor Yury Luzhkov. Binbank co-owner Mikhail Shishkhanov is buying the rest of the construction firm, which is wholly owned by Baturina and has its market value put at $1.2bn. Inteco’s sale to Shishkhanov and… Continue Reading
Nordic fund CapMan gets chunk of Siberian Web provider
By Andrei Skvarsky. CapMan, a Nordic private equity firm, has acquired 20% interest in Russian Internet service provider Siberian Networks and plans to boost the stake to 25% within months. Siberian Networks projects a turnover of about 15m euros ($21.1m) for 2011. One of the leading Web service providers in Siberia with more than 100,000… Continue Reading
Barclays gets near to Russian exit lounge
By Ivan Anderzhanov. British bank Barclays is close to selling its Russian retail and commercial banking business to Kazcommertzbank, Kazakhstan’s biggest lender. Barclays could agree to the sale of Expobank as soon as next week, according a report by the UK broadcaster Sky News. The UK high-street lender will continue to do business in the… Continue Reading
Russian champanksa maker to go pop with IPO
By Marcus Williams. Russian sparkling wine producer Abrau-Durso is planning an initial public offering at the end of 2011 or the start of 2012. “The shares are likely to be placed on the Moscow Interbank Currency Exchange (MICEX), but we are not considering foreign trading floors yet,” a spokespersn told Ria Novosti yesterday. The company,… Continue Reading
Raiffeisen snaps up Swedbank's Russian retail business
By Andrei Skvarsky. Raiffeisenbank has bought a Russian retail business from Swedbank, a Swedish lender with a global network which is shutting its entire retail operation in Russia. Joining the swelling ranks of foreign banks shutting their Russian retail operations, Swedbank offloaded its retail division in Kaliningrad to Raiffeisenbank and plans to sell off its remaining… Continue Reading
Evrofinance Capital asks state to halt Micex-RTS merger
By Andrei Skvarsky. Evrofinance Capital, a Micex minority shareholder, has asked for an official order to reverse the merger of Russia’s biggest stock exchange with the RTS bourse. The merger will be damaging to Micex, its shareholders, the Russian financial markets and the country as a whole if based on the current scenario,… Continue Reading
EXCLUSIVE: Metropol hires Howard and Brenton for London expansion
By Andrei Skvarsky. Russian broker Metropol has hired former Nomura executive Mark Howard as head of its London-based equity sales team and ex-Renaissance Capital and UralSib banker Tim Brenton as a member of the team. Howard, who has more than 15 years of emerging markets experience, was selling Chinese equities for North Square Blue Oak,… Continue Reading
VTB-led group buys ad firm from Murdoch’s scandal-ridden News Corp
By Andrei Skvarsky. A VTB Capital-led group of investors has bought advertising company News Outdoor Russia from Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. VTB’s partners in the deal were NOOH Investments Cooperatief and Marathon Outdoor Cooperatief. The former represented the interests of US entrepreneur Peter Gerwe, who has been building media companies in Russia and… Continue Reading
UralSib’s insurance arm to have state interest privatised
By Andrei Skvarsky. UralSib Insurance Group, part of Russian bank UralSib, is going to have minority state interest in it privatised through a public auction. The 1.53m shares would be sold en bloc, with the asking price for the stake set at 51.3m rubles ($1.8m), under an order by the Federal Agency for the Management… Continue Reading
Soloviev and Moos buy stakes in VTB
By Andrei Skvarsky. The VTB group, Russia’s second biggest lender, has sold stakes of 0.003% to its deputy president Herbert Moos and VTB Capital chief executive Yuri Soloviev. The two stakes are the biggest chunks of VTB to be owned by top managers of the group. VTB president Andrei Kostin holds 0.0018% interest in the… Continue Reading
VTB announces “strategic investment” in Deripaska firm
By Andrei Skvarsky. Russia’s VTB Capital has bought a 4.35% stake in energy-related firm En+ Group from oligarch Oleg Deripaska’s Basic Element, an acquisition described by VTB as a “strategic investment”. VTB said in a statement it had paid $500m for the stake. “We believe that En+ has an immense growth potential that is primarily… Continue Reading
Swedish investment firm closing its Russia real estate fund
By Andrei Skvarsky Stockholm-based investment company East Capital Explorer has decided to close its real estate fund for Russia as the unit has received no investments since it opened in July 2008. When the global financial crisis broke out, the company, whose area of operations is Eastern Europe, decided to keep its Russian Property Fund… Continue Reading
Barclays considers selling Russian banks to Renaissance
By Ivan Anderzahnov UK bank Barclays may offload its Russian regional retail banking network to a unit of Renaissance Group. Barclays is in talks about selling 12 regional branches to Renaissance Credit, the consumer finance arm of the investment banking group Renaissance, according to Russian daily Kommersant. The British giant acquired Russian lender Expobank in… Continue Reading
Gazprom selects Gazprombank and Rencap for $10bn bond sale
By Ivan Anderzhanov Russian gas giant Gazprom has mandated Gazprombank and Renaissance Capital to arrange a 300 billion roubles ($10.24bn)in bonds. Rouble bonds have become popular on the local fixed-income market following the rapid rise of the ruble and as commodity prices have rallied. . Gazprom plans to raise the sum in 13 issues over… Continue Reading
Rencap eyes brokerages acquisitions in Africa
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… Continue Reading
Rencap steppes into Mongolia with two tie-ups
By Ivan Anderzhanov in Moscow Emerging markets investment bank Renaissance Capital has agreed on alliances with two investment firms in the Central Asian frontier of Mongolia. The bank has signed deals with International Capital Corporation (MICC) and Monet following its recent joint venture agreements in Serbia, India and openings in South Africa and Belarus. In… Continue Reading
Raiffeisen pushes ahead with RZB in spite of fears for shareholders
By Ivan Anderzhanov Management at Raiffeisen International‘s are pushing ahead with a merger with its unlisted Austrian parent RZB despite concern that minority shareholders may lose out in the deal. The bank said they were intensively pursuing a merger, which would be put to shareholders at annual general meetings in July. Analysts have said shareholders,… Continue Reading
Societe Generale merges Rosbank with BSGV in Russia
By Marcus Williams Societe Generale, France’s second largest bank, and its partner Interros today announced they are combining their banking operations in Russia. Rosbank and BSGV, will be merged into a single unit but still retain two separate brands. The new entity will have the specialised mortgage and consumer lending companies Rusfinance and Delta Credit… Continue Reading
Otkritie boosts Investment Banking team
By Marcus Williams Fast-growing Russian brokerage Otkritie has lured Temo Jorbenadze from VTB Capital as head of Investment Banking’s Financing Services Group. Otkritie, which has doubled in size in the last year, also hired Dmitry Perman as a director from the Moscow-based boutique advisory firm Advance Capital. Jorbenadze was a director for investment banking at… Continue Reading
Can Hong Kong dislodge London as the main destination for Russian IPOs ?
By Marcus Williams in London Russian aluminum maker UC Rusal today reportedly raised $2.24 billion from its Hong Kong and Paris initial public offerings, after the company priced the shares around the middle of the range indicated in marketing literature. Bankers said the listing could led to a trickle of further Russian listings in Hong… Continue Reading
Shari Redstone and UFG founder Charlie Ryan to buy Russia theatre chain
By Ivan Anderzhanov in Moscow Shari Redstone is partnering with Russian banking veteran Charlie Ryan to acquire Russian theatre operator Rising Star Media from National Amusements, the company controlled by her billionaire father Sumner Redstone. Shari Redstone, co-founder of Rising Star and president of National Amusements, will be chairman of the new entity, while fellow… Continue Reading
Russian Sovereign Bond 'beauty parade' kicks off
By Ivan Anderzhanov in Moscow The Russian government has unveiled a beauty parade of investment banks who will compete to take part in Russia’s first international bond issue in over a decade. Russian investment bank VTB Capital is understood to have secured a role as one of the lead managers, alongside three bulge-bracket banks such… Continue Reading
EBRD boosts Russian banking sector with Promsvyaz deal
By Ivan Anderzhanov in Moscow The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) has confirmed it will buy a 11.7 % stake in Russia’s privately-owned PromSvyazBank for 4.6 billion roubles ($159.4m). Reports had been circulating since mid-October the the EBRD would take a minority stake in PromSvyaz. Brothers Alexey and Dmitry Ananiev own almost 85%… Continue Reading
Belgium's KBC to sell Russia's Absolut bank
By Ivan Anderzhanov in Moscow Belgian financial group KBC Group is looking to sell Absolut Bank only two years after acquiring its key Russian asset for $1bn. Analysts suggested that the most likely buyer would be another foreign group keen to gain access to the Russian banking sector. KBC needs to slash the size of… Continue Reading
JP Morgan and Alfa lose out as Eurasia Drilling pulls GDR placement
By Ivan Anderzhanov in Moscow Russian oil industry services firm Eurasia Drilling yesterday annouced it had cancelled plans to place Global Depositary Receipts (GDRs) after bids failed to match its expectations. Investment bankers at JP Morgan and Alfa Bank will lose out having been mandated as joint bookrunners. JP Morgan was also the sole global… Continue Reading
Lukoil mandates Barcap, RBS and ING for $1.5bn Eurobond
By Jason Corcoran in Moscow Russian oil giant Lukoil has returned to the debt capital markets for the first time in 18 months yesterday with a bumper $1.5bn Eurobond deal arranged by Barcap, Royal Bank of Scotland and ING. Lukoil priced two tranches of debt, maturing in five and 10 years. The five-year tranche, worth… Continue Reading