Sberbank CIB, the investment arm {{{*}}} of Russia’s biggest lender Sberbank, has pledged to provide a 10-year credit line of 1.9bn rubles ($62m) to Russian developer RAMO-M for two projects in Krasnodar in southern Russia. The loan deal was announced at this week’s MIPIM international real estate show in Cannes, France, where Sberbank CIB has sent… Continue Reading
Category Archives: Deals
Former Russian unit of Barclays hires investment banking chief
Moscow’s Expobank, the former Russian retail unit of British bank Barclays, has hired Nikita Riauzov, {{{*}}} an ex-top manager at Russian lender MDM, as head of corporate and investment banking. Riauzov spent nine and a half years at MDM, one of Russia’s largest private banks, first as head of corporate and investment business and then,… Continue Reading
Abraaj considering selling stake in Turkish health insurer Acibadem – Invest IQ
Abraaj Capital, the largest private equity firm in the Middle East, is considering the sale of its 50% stake in Turkish health insurer {{{*}}} Acibadem Sigorta, according to investment intelligence website Invest IQ. Last year Abraaj sold its stake in Acibadem Saglik, Turkey’s largest hospital chain, to Integrated Healthcare Holdings, a division of Malaysian government… Continue Reading
Elbrus Capital buys OSG Records Management from Aurora Russia
Elbrus Capital, Russian equity firm recently bought OSG Records Management from Aurora Russia. {{{*}}} The target company was acquired through a secondary buyout that puts its value at between USD25 and 50 mln. It is intended that the transaction will close in early March 2013, with Aurora Russia exiting the company nearly seven years after… Continue Reading
Dragon Capital invests in pharmaceutical company Sperco Ukraine
Europe Virgin Fund L.P. (‘EVF’), a private equity fund sponsored by Dragon Capital, has completed formation of a 50/50 joint venture {{{*}}} with Ucrafarma S.A., a Spanish pharmaceutical company. The partners have united their forces in Lux PHARMA Participations SA, a Luxembourg-based holding company, with Ucrafarma transferring various pharmaceutical assets including its 95% stake in… Continue Reading
Home Credit receives bids totalling $300m for Russian bonds
Home Credit, one of Europe’s leading retail lenders, has pulled off a highly successful securities project in Russia, {{{*}}} with a total of 9.4bn rubles ($300m) offered for bonds issued by its Russian subsidiary – more than three times their total par value. Sberbank CIB, the investment banking arm of Russia’s biggest lender Sberbank, Raiffeisenbank… Continue Reading
RDIF, VEB, France’s CDC sign private equity promotion deal
By Andrei Skvarsky. Russia’s Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) and VEB development bank and France’s Caisse des Depots et Consignations (CDC), {{{*}}} all of which are state institutions, have signed an agreement to boost private equity investment in the two countries. The deal – a memorandum of understanding – was signed in Moscow on February 28… Continue Reading
Clearstream link to Russian CSD goes live with custody fees halved
By Andrei Skvarsky. Clearstream, the clearing and settlement arm of German stock exchange Deutsche Boerse, has confirmed that its direct link to Russia’s new central securities depository {{{*}}} , the National Settlement Depository (NSD), is going live on February 28, and that it is cutting its custody fees for Russian OFZ sovereign bonds by up to… Continue Reading
EBRD intervenes to salvage Lithuania’s Ukio bank
By Andrei Skvarsky. The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development is lending 20m euros in co-funding an urgent effort to rescue Lithuania’s troubled Ukio bank, whose woes are seen as a threat to the Baltic country’s entire financial sector. {{{*}}} Under an agreement between Ukio’s administrator, the lender, headquartered in Lithuania’s second-largest city of Kaunas,… Continue Reading
Prostor Capital and Moscow Seed Fund invest in Car-Fin.ru project
Prostor Capital, the Russian VC fund, and Moscow Venture Investment Fund have invested {{{*}}} $400K in Car-Fin.ru project which is a service that allows you to compare different offers when choosing a car, to get credit and leasing online. Car-Fin team took part in the selection under the GTI Labs acceleration program, that is already supported by… Continue Reading
AVentures Capital invests in Ukrainian developer of technology for Google Glasses
AVentures Capital has acquired a 25% equity stake in Augmented Pixels, one of the world’s leading augmented reality technology developers. The deal closed on February 15, 2013. AVentures Capital and Augmented Pixels didn’t disclose the financial details of the Series A deal to the public. However, AVentures fund typically invests from $300,000 to $3 million… Continue Reading
Wermuth’s pro-environment fund pulls off second deal in short while
By Andrei Skvarsky. Wermuth Asset Management, a German firm with most of its business interests in Russia, has reported a second transaction by its sustainable energy-focused Green Gateway Fund, with the previous deal announced just three days ago. {{{*}}} Green Gateway Fund, whose legal name is Europe-Tatarstan Cleantech Fund, led a group of investors that put… Continue Reading
EBRD to have permanent office in Jordan
By Andrei Skvarsky. The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development is to have a permanent office in Amman under a recent agreement with the Jordanian government. {{{*}}} The EBRD said in a statement that it had appointed Heike Harmgart, one of its senior economists, as head of the office. The EBRD, which began investing in… Continue Reading
Russia’s Aton hires ex-UBS banker to run new brokerage arm
Russia’s Aton investment group has hired Alexei Sizov, a former UBS, JP Morgan and Renaissance Capital banker, as head of institutional business at its new brokerage Aton Capital. {{{*}}} Sizov will oversee the equity, fixed income, treasury, direct market access and research units and the brokerage’s office in London, the Moscow-based group said in a… Continue Reading
EBRD, Ukraine come up with anti-corruption plan
By Andrei Skvarsky. The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and the Ukrainian government have agreed a short-term plan to set up a public-private working group and the office of business ombudsman in Ukraine to address the country’s vast-scale corruption. {{{*}}} Later on, the EBRD and Ukraine will be developing a comprehensive initiative to fight… Continue Reading
Wermuth reports deal, two senior appointments
By Andrei Skvarsky. The Green Gateway Fund, a 110m-euro investment fund run by Germany’s Wermuth Asset Management, has acquired a minority stake in The Mobility House (TMH), a Germany-based provider of charging equipment for electric vehicles. {{{*}}} Wermuth’s statement that reported the deal did not disclose the size of the stake. Wermuth, a firm with… Continue Reading
Moscow Exchange IPO kicks off with $500m worth of stock floated
The Moscow Exchange is launching its initial public offering today, putting 15bn rubles’ (497.5m dollars’) worth of stock on sale on its own platform and having set the per-share price at 55 rubles ($1.83). {{{*}}} A statement from the exchange values the bourse at 126.9bn rubles ($4.2bn). VTB Capital, as stabilising manager of the IPO,… Continue Reading
RenCap hosting one-to-one pan-Africa investor conference
Moscow’s Renaissance Capital, seeing Africa as “a golden opportuunity for investors”, is hosting a three-day annual one-to-one pan-Africa investor conference in Lagos which opened on February 11. {{{*}}} “Against the current backdrop of global market instability, Africa remains a source of tremendous growth and opportunity”, RenCap said in a statement. The current fourth Pan-Africa Investor… Continue Reading
VTB Capital sells bond worth $169.5m in Turkey
VTB Capital has sold a two-year bond in Turkey to a total of 300m Turkish lira ($169.5m). {{{*}}} Garanti Bank, one of Turkey’s biggest private lenders, organised the placement of the bond on the Istanbul Stock Exchange. The bond, sold to qualified investors, had a semi-annual coupon of 3.89%, the investment arm of Russia’s VTB… Continue Reading
Ukraine’s stock market down 35% in 2012 – East Capital
Ukraine’s stock market was the world’s second worst performer after that of Cyprus last year, slumping by 35%, but can get a boost from a potential new loan from the International Monetary Fund, according to Stockholm-based asset manager East Capital. {{{*}}} Ukraine’s economy, where the main stock market players are mining, energy, engineering and financial… Continue Reading
Moscow Exchange gives CIS banks free access to currency market
By Andrei Skvarsky. The Moscow Exchange has given unrestricted access to its currency market to banks domiciled in Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan. {{{*}}} Banks in the four countries, which, together with Russia, are building a so-called Eurasian Economic Community, no longer need a Russian currency trade licence for access to the Moscow bourse’s currency… Continue Reading
IFC supports fuel distribution infrastructure in Ukraine
IFC, a member of the World Bank Group, is helping provide an $85 million financing package to build a network of gas filling stations in eastern Ukraine, bolstering the infrastructure for petrochemicals distribution and expanding access to high-quality fuel services across the country. IFC will provide $30 million in debt financing to support the network,… Continue Reading
Europe Virgin Fund invests in pharmaceutical company Sperco Ukraine
Europe Virgin Fund L.P. (‘EVF’), a private equity fund sponsored by Dragon Capital, has completed formation of a 50/50 joint venture {{{*}}} with Ucrafarma S.A., a Spanish pharmaceutical company. The partners have united their forces in Lux PHARMA Participations SA, a Luxembourg-based holding company, with Ucrafarma transferring various pharmaceutical assets including its 95% stake in… Continue Reading
Moscow Exchange announces indicative IPO price range, dividend levels
{{{?}}} The Moscow Exchange has announced an indicative per-share price range of between 55 and 63 rubles ($1.8 and $2) for its planned initial public offering. Credit Suisse, J.P. Morgan, Sberbank CIB and VTB Capital are joint global coordinators and joint bookrunners for the IPO, to be carried out on the bourse’s own platform. Deutsche… Continue Reading
Otkritie hires man from Moscow Exchange top brass as DMA chief
{{{?}}} Moscow’s Otkritie brokerage has hired Sergey Sinkevich from the Moscow Exchange as head of direct market access (DMA). Before his new job at the brokerage’s Otkritie Capital division, Sinkevich headed the primary market department at the Moscow Exchange. Previously he spent nearly a decade at the Russian office of GE Money, a banking arm… Continue Reading
EBRD loans to HEINEKEN brewery in Belarus
{{{?:0}}} European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) is providing EUR 5 million in funding for the Belarus operations of the HEINEKEN group – one of the Europe’s largest beer producer. The loan will be used mainly to support the company’s efforts to promote the production of high-quality barley by local farmers and make a… Continue Reading
Runa Capital leads $4.7M series A round for Israeli mobile solutions company Cellrox
{{{?:0}}} Cellrox, an Israeli start-up in the mobile services domain, has bagged a USD 4.7 mln round of funding during its Series A round. Led by Runa Capital, the company’s existing investors are also participating in the round. They include Columbia Technology Ventures and Previz Venture Partners, among others. The funding will be used to… Continue Reading
Micex-RTS to sell part of its stock via IPO
{{{?:0}}} Moscow’s Micex-RTS stock exchange is planning to put some of its own stock on sale through an initial public offering on its Micex trading platform, with Credit Suisse, J.P. Morgan, Sberbank CIB and VTB Capital acting as joint global coordinators. The four banks will also be bookrunners for the IPO, a role in which they… Continue Reading
Swiss PE firm to invest €100 mln in Russian e-commerce
{{{?:0}}} Pluribus Optimum, a Swiss PE firm, has earmarked EUR 100 mln for investments in Russia and CIS countries over the next three years. The funds will target e-commerce platforms to improve certain operational aspects such as order processing, document handling, billing and payment acceptance. They will also be targeting the third-party logistics market, popularly… Continue Reading