By Andrei Skvarsky. Russian broker Otkritie is going to change its logo, overhaul its websites and carry though a major advertising campaign as part of a newly launched rebranding project. In the course of this re-imaging effort, Otkritie, which has jumped nine positions up on Thomson Reuters Extel’s best Russian brokers lists since last year,… Continue Reading
Category Archives: News
Renaissance taps Credit Suisse's Salaheddin in fifth hiring this month
Renaissance Capital has hired Saydam Salaheddin from Credit Suisse where he headed real estate and consumer investment banking for Russia, CEE and Turkey for 13 years. He joins RenCap on August 1 to to cover real estate, consumer and agriculture investment banking across the CIS and Central and Eastern Europe. Renaissance has been expanding this… Continue Reading
UralSib hires former Barclays analyst
By Andrei Skvarsky. Russian bank UralSib has hired Anton Tabakh, a former researcher at Barclays and Troika Dialog, as senior fixed income analyst. Tabakh spent several months as a freelance analyst after a brief stint with Barclays. He was senior fixed income analyst both at Barclays and at Troika, covering Russia, Ukraine and Kazakhstan in… Continue Reading
VTB hires ex-UBS banker as head oil and gas analyst
By Andrei Skvarsky. Russia’s VTB Capital has hired Dmitry Lukashov, a former analyst at Swiss bank UBS, as its chief oil and gas analyst. Lukashov, who brings a team with him to VTB, worked as an analyst for Aton and Alfa-Bank before joining UBS. Continue Reading
Hillary Clinton bans Russian officials involved in Magnitsky case
By Ivan Anderzhanov. US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has imposed visa sanctions on Russian government officials associated with the death in police custody of Hermitage Capital’s lawyer Sergei Magnitsky. America is the first country to officially impose sanctions on the Russian officials involved in the Magnitsky case, according to an emailed statement from Hermitage. “The facts… 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
Russia’s AMT Bank struck off
By Andrei Skvarsky. Moscow’s AMT Bank, until 2009 co-owned by major Kazakh lender BTA, has had its licence annulled by Russia’s Central Bank with effect from today. AMT has been failing to comply with “federal laws regulating banking activities” and presenting false accounts, the Central Bank said in a statement. UniCredit analyst Rustam Botashev said… Continue Reading
Ukraine arrests head of financial regulator
By Andrei Skvarsky. The head of Ukraine’s financial markets regulator, Vasyl Volha, has been arrested on the suspicion of “a corruption-related crime”, the Ukrainian Prosecutor General’s Office has announced. The office did not elaborate but media reports say the chief of the State Regulatory Commission for Financial Services Markets is accused of accepting… 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
EXCLUSIVE: HSBC hires Zhukov from Nomura as head of research
By Andrei Skvarsky. HSBC has hired Vladimir Zhukov from Nomura as head of research in ramping up its investment banking arm in Moscow after deciding to sell its retail operations in Russia. Zhukov confirmed to EmergingMarkets.me that he had started work as head of Russian equity research and metals and mining analyst at the British bank,… Continue Reading
Troika Dialog launches Internet-focused fund
Bt Andrei Skvarsky. Russian brokerage Troika Dialog has launched a fund to capitalise on booming investor appetite for Russian Internet and high-tech companies. The Troika Dialog Global Internet open-ended retail fund, which aims to achieve mid-term capital appreciation, will invest in Russian, foreign and global firms, Troika said in a statement. Yandex, operator of Russia’s… Continue Reading
Renaissance hires Cherny from Interros, Goldman's Barinstein
By Andrei Skvarsky. Russian brokerage Renaissance Capital has hired two senior bankers to cover operations in Russia, the CIS and Central and Eastern Europe. Anton Cherny has joined as the London-based head of business development. He worked for Renaissance as head of capital markets from 2005 to 2008, having previously held a senior corporate finance… Continue Reading
Third Rome's Kogan joins Moscow Partners broker
By Andrei Skvarsky. Former Third Rome senior partner Yevgeny Kogan has become managing director and a partner at Moscow Partners, an investment firm that plans a major advance into financial markets after years of relatively low activity. Kogan left Third Rome on June 30 over strategic differences with the top management of the Moscow-based wealth… Continue Reading
EXCLUSIVE: Otkritie hires ex-Central Bank economist
By Andrei Skvarsky. Russian brokerage Otkritie has hired Polina Badasen, a former economist at the Russian Central Bank, as an economist for Russia and the CIS. Badasen’s duties at the Central Bank included recommendations for exchange rate and interest rate policies and liquidity forecasts for the banking sector. In her Otkritie job, Badasen backs up… Continue Reading
GUEST COMMENT: Khodorkovsky Trial Exposes Reform Progress
By James Beadle from Market-Melange.com Since 2003 former Yukos executives Mikhail Khodorkovsky and Platon Lebedev have been incarcerated in Russia on charges of tax evasion. At present, as their eight year stint enters its final stages, the two are on trial once more, charged with stealing millions of tonnes of oil (reputedly the same oil… Continue Reading
EXCLUSIVE: Rencap hires Deutsche Bank's Abbott to co-run equity sales
By Andrei Skvarsky. Renaissance Capital has hired Will Abbott as co-head of equity domestic sales in the latest in a string of big name hires. Abbott, who previously headed Deutsche Bank’s sales and trading business in Russia, shares the job of running the Moscow-based investment firm’s equity domestic sales with Ruslan Babaev, Rencap spokesman Quinn… 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
Nick Jordan makes a comeback as head of UBS
By Ivan Anderzhanov Nick Jordan, the former head of Lehman Brothers in Moscow, has made a surprising comeback as the head of Russia and CIS for Swiss bank UBS. Jordan, who was allegedly brought to Lehman from Deutsche Bank for $10m over years, had been in limbo for the past year after losing out in… Continue Reading
Rencap’s Aganbegyan quits Rencap to join Micex
By Ivan Anderzhanov Ruben Aganbegyan, the former president of Renaissance Capital, is leaving the investment bank to takeover as president at Micex, the largest Russian stock exchange. Aganbegyan, who was demoted in February this year following a shake-up by Rencap founder Stephen Jennings, will take up his new role on June 21. He replaces Konstantin… 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
EXCLUSIVE: Sberbank hires Romaev as head of new debt unit
By Andrei Skvarsky Russia’s largest lender Sberbank has hired Dmitry Romaev as head of its new debt capital markets unit for Central and Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Africa (CEEMEA) from Otkritie. Romaev, who was previously chief financial officer at Otkritie, said the unit had already hired three other bankers to work on large… Continue Reading
Half of Russian bankers not paid bonuses, report
By Ivan Anderzhanov More than half of Russian bankers were not paid a bonus for last year, according to a survey of 160 foreign and domestic financial institutions by recruiter Antal Russia. Just 47 percent of bankers got 2009 payouts which were doled out in the spring of this year. Many financiers were paid nothing… Continue Reading
Exclusive: Deutsche Bank back in the hiring game in Russia ?
By Andrei Skvarsky Deutsche Bank has recently hired Igor Sorokin from Troika Dialog, appointing him as vice president in charge of structuring. The German bank seems to be back in the market for new hires following yesterday’s announcement of two analyst hires, George Buzhenitsa and Natalia Smirnova, from UniCredit Securities. Other rivals have so far… Continue Reading
Fund Flows: Sentiment is Finely (Dangerously) Balanced
By Chris Weafer, Chief Strategist at UralSib Capital Waiting for clarity. Fund investors appear to have taken a sanguine view of global market volatility over the past week. They have remained largely on the sidelines while waiting for a clearer picture to emerge. According to the data supplied by EPFR Global, in the week ended… Continue Reading
Troika Dialog: the best investment bank in Russia ?
By Ivan Anderzhanov Troika Dialog has been awarded the gong of best investment bank in Russia in the recent Global Finance awards. In a statement, Troika said it currently leads Russian debt capital market league tables in terms of volume, number of issues and market share. Last we checked, VTB Capital may have had some… Continue Reading
Exclusive: VTB hires Jaeckel as deputy head of quant research
By Andrei Skvarsky Russia’s VTB Capital bank has recently hired Peter Jaeckel as deputy head of quantitative research at its London office. Jaeckel combines the job with the position as managing director of OTC Analytics, a British-based financial derivatives analysis company he has founded after a four-year stint as a senior analyst with ABN AMRO.… Continue Reading
BofA Merrill Lynch boost EMEA research with three hires
By Marcus Williams BofA Merrill Lynch has beefed up its EMEA research platform with three hires as part of a new EMEA economics and fixed income strategy group. Arko Sen joins the group with seven years of experience in emerging EMEA fixed income strategy, most recently at Barclays Capital, along with Jean-Michel Saliba who has… Continue Reading