By Andrei Skvarsky. Alfa-Bank chief executive Johann Jonach is going to quit Russia’s largest non-state lender in a month’s time. Jonach, who formerly worked at Raiffeisen Bank International AG, has opted against renewing his contract with Alfa, which expires in October, Vienna-based monthly Trend said, citing the top manager himself. Alfa declined… Continue Reading
Category Archives: News
S&P warns Russia about 'ambiguous' presidential coronation
By Marcus Williams. Global ratings agency Standard and Poor‘s yesterday warned that “an ambiguous succession process” leading up to next year’s elections was adding risks to a centrally managed economy. S&P affirmed Russia’s BBB long-term foreign currency sovereign rating and A-3 short-term rating with a stable outlook. However, the agency damned Russia’s current election process,… Continue Reading
HSBC hires ex-Intesa manager as head of commercial clients arm
By Andrei Skvarsky. HSBC has hired Sergei Chetverikov, a former senior manager at Italy’s Banca Intesa, as head of the commercial clients division of the British bank’s Russian operation. Chetverikov will oversee a 35-member team based in Moscow and St Petersburg, HSBC said in a statement. Continue Reading
Russia direct investment sank 20% in first quarter
By Marcus Williams. Russia suffered a 20% slump in direct investment to $12.825bn compared to the fourth quarter of last year. Direct investment includes foreign participation in Russian companies, reinvested profit and other capital. From 2010, the regulator has included investment not only in non-banking firms, but also in the banking sector. In the first… Continue Reading
Pressure grows on Deutsche Bank and BNP Paribas to pull out of Belarus
By Ivan Anderzhanov. Pressure is mounting on European lenders Deutsche Bank and BNP Paribas to quit fundraising for pariah state Belarus after Royal Bank of Scotland announced that it will not do any more deals for Minsk. RBS, along with Deutsche and BNP, helped Belarus issue $1.8bn in sovereign eurobonds after opposition presidential candidates were… Continue Reading
Troika Dialog snags JP Morgan banker
By Andrei Skvarsky. Russian brokerage Troika Dialog has hired Anton Malkov from J.P. Morgan for a senior investment banking role. Malkov spent more than two years as a Moscow-based vice president of Deutsche Bank before joining J.P. Morgan’s Moscow operation. Malkov’s duties at Troika include deal structuring and consultancy, the firm said in a statement.… Continue Reading
Otkritie hires consumer analyst from Nomura
By Andrei Skvarsky. Russian broker Otkritie has confirmed it has hired Mikhail Terentiev from Nomura International as senior consumer analyst. Terentiev had a similar role at Nomura, which he joined in 2008 after a two-year spell as an equity research analyst at Troika Dialog. 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
Renaissance names Yvonne Ike as CEO of West Africa
By Andrei Skvarsky Renaissance Capital, the emerging markets investment bank, has named Yvonne Ike as chief executive for West Africa, based in Lagos. Ike replaces Rotimi Oyekanmi, who has been appointed chairman emeritus for Renaissance Group, West Africa. In this role, Oyekanmi, who joined Renaissance in 2007, will be responsible for the build-out of Renaissance’s… Continue Reading
Traders wary of Micex's suspension for ''technical reasons''
By Andrei Skvarsky. Russia’s leading Micex stock exchange was suspended yesterday in a move reminiscent of trading halts that occurred frequently following the 2008 financial crash. The bourse attributed the one-hour plus suspension to ”technical reasons.” It later reopened before closing down 3.7 percent as global equities tumbled. However, many market makers in Moscow and… 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
EBRD attracts SRI lender to Russian market for first time
By Marcus Williams. An EBRD loan for Russia’s Transcapitalbank marks the first time an institution with a specific mandate to act as a socially responsible lender is participating as a co-financier to raise funds for a Russian borrower. To date, the EBRD’s partners in such transactions have traditionally been commercial banks, according to a statement from the… Continue Reading
State Street appoints Raynes for senior EMEA role
State Street Global Advisors, the US fund giant, has recruited Susan Raynes as head of its UK, and EMEA institutional business. Raynes, who was previously head of SSgA’s San Francisco office, replaces Kanesh Lakhani, who worked at the firm for 13 years. Raynes will report to EMEA head Greg Ehret and will be responsible for identifying institutional business… Continue Reading
EXCLUSIVE: Wermuth fund manager Winsell Davies quits for Metropol role
John Winsell Davies By Ivan Anderzhnov. John Winsell Davies has quit Wermuth Asset Management and has started offering his ”consulting services” to Metropol. Winsell Davies will work closely with Hawk Sunshine, who switched from a senior investment banking role at Metropol last year to managing director of fund management. Winsell Davies, a Russia veteran with… Continue Reading
GOLDMAN COMMENT: Looking through the fog
By Jim O’Neil, Chairman of Goldman Sachs Asset Management. In the past week, we have experienced remarkable turmoil in financial markets, which have brought back memories for many people of the darkest days of late 2008. Are direct parallels to 2008 valid ? Many other questions also come to mind. Are current market valuation levels… Continue Reading
Sberbank, VTB and Alfa bring bonuses back to pre-crisis levels
By Andrei Skvarsky. Major Russian lenders Sberbank, VTB and Alfa Bank have resumed the payment of bonuses with remuneration for top managers now returning to pre-crisis levels, according to Vedomosti. The undisputed leader in the generosity stakes is Alfa Bank, which is controlled by oligarch Mikhail Fridman. Nine members of its board collected one billion rubles in salary, bonuses… Continue Reading
Renaissance boosts wealth management arm with two hires
By Andrei Skvarsky. Renaissance Advisors, an investment unit of Renaissance Group, has boosted its Moscow team by hiring Vagan Amichba and Kirill Schmidt. Amichba has been hired as managing director and a senior financial advisor focusing on the group’s ultra-high-net-worth individuals and cross-selling into all businesses. Before joining Renaissance, he ran his own M&A consulting… Continue Reading
COMMENT: Cruel, cruel summer: Screening Emerging Europe
By Daniel Salter, Chief Strategist at UniCredit Securities. If this is a “normal” mid-cycle market correction, markets could soon start to find a bottom, with the S&P 18% off since its cycle high (in line with the median of fourteen 10%+ downturns for the S&P since 1975). However, if recent events (including the heated debate… Continue Reading
MDM Bank seeks Arab, Asian sovereign wealth investors
By Ivan Anderhanov. MDM Bank, Russia’s second largest private lender, is holding talks with some Asian and Arabic sovereign investment funds, including Abu Dhabi Investment Authority and Investment Corporation of Dubai. MDM, whose shareholders include businessman Sergey Popov with a 56.3 percent stake and Igor Kim with 11 percent, may offer up to a blocking… Continue Reading
Martin Schwedler named as head of Raiffeisen Invest in Moscow
By Andrei Skvarsky. Austrian bank Raiffeisen has promoted Martin Schwedler to chief executive officer of its investment banking unit in Russia. The joint venture, owned equally by Raiffeisen Investment and ZAO “Raiffeisenbank” in Moscow, offers Russian corporate customers access to equity capital markets and M&A services. Shvedler said he plans to expand the activities of Raiffeisen’s local investment banking… 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
Kazakhstani banking: Accelerated lending coupled with jump in NPLs
By Rustam Botashev, Deputy Head of Research at UniCredit Securities. Kazakhstan’s bank supervisory committee has published 6M11 banking statistics, showing accelerating loan growth on the backdrop of deteriorating asset quality. We reiterate our Buy recommendations for Halyk Bank (12M TP of USD 14.3) and Kazkommertsbank (USD 9.6). Lending in Kazakhstan accelerated in June, with 1.3%… Continue Reading
BCS poaches top e-traders from RenCap
By Andrei Skvarsky. Russian broker BCS has hired three senior electronic traders from Renaissance Capital, including head of e-trading Stanislav Surikov. The other RenCap defectors are Rizwan Kayani, who was chief operating officer at Renaissance’s e-trading group, and Michael Smith, who was in charge of the group’s international sales. BCS, a Moscow-based… 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: Interview with Yevgeny Kogan of Moscow Partners
By Andrei Skvarsky. Yevgeny Kogan, president of the Moscow Partners investment boutique and a former senior partner at Russian wealth management firm Third Rome, talks to EmergingMarkets.me about his company’s history, current business and plans. Yevgeny, what is your role in the company, which you and Igor Moryakov have founded as partners? It may be… Continue Reading
WEAFER COMMENT: A Bellerophonic Message
By Chris Weafer, Chief Strategist at ING in Moscow. There continues to be only one key event in global markets and that is the US debt deal. As this note goes out, there is optimism that a deal will be reached either this evening or tomorrow. That should allow for a modest relief rally in… Continue Reading
Equity fund flows: Investors remain optimistic and sidelined
By Chris Weafer, Chief Strategist at ING in Moscow. The total volume of money invested into emerging market (EM) funds last week was relatively low, even for midsummer, as investors prudently remained on the sidelines while waiting for a resolution of the US debt talks. But, although low, the net flow remained positive as a… Continue Reading
UralSib hires Pioneer Investments banker as head of marketing
By Andrei Skvarsky. Russian bank UralSib has hired Karen Kesoyan from global investment management firm Pioneer Investments as head of marketing and business development at its asset management division. Kesoyan spent 12 years at Troika Dialog, first as head of public relations and then as advertising director, before joining Pioneer Investments, where he… 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