By Andrei Skvarsky. Rules on electronic commerce put into force in Kazakhstan on February 2 prescribe setting all prices in Kazakh tenge and ban pricing in foreign currency as part of the “de-dollarisation of the economy”. Continue Reading
Sberbank CIB appoints chiefs for regional teams
By Andrei Skvarsky. Investment bank Sberbank CIB has appointed chief executives for investment and corporate business teams at three of the 14 regional divisions of its parent company Sberbank, Russia’s biggest lender. Continue Reading
Asia Frontier Capital (AFC) – January 2016 Newsletter
“Consistency is far more important than rare moments of greatness.” – Scott Ginsberg. AFC Asia Frontier Fund (AAFF) USD A-shares lost -3.5% in January 2016. The fund this month outperformed the MSCI Frontier Markets Asia Index (-6.3%), the MSCI Frontier Markets Index (-6.8%), and the MSCI World Index (-6.1%). The performance of the AFC Asia Frontier… Continue Reading
RenCap appoints new global head of equities
By Andrei Skvarsky. Renaissance Capital has appointed Ruslan Babaev, its chief business officer, as global head of equities to replace Ben Samuels, who is parting company with the Russian investment bank. Continue Reading
Moscow Exchange reports booming securities, FX trade despite Russia’s woes
By Andrei Skvarsky. Moscow Exchange has said the turnover of financial instruments, money and precious metals on its trading floors has grown massively year on year, with sales of foreign exchange increasing by two and half times and those of derivatives nearly doubling. Continue Reading
Lamudi property trader raises 29m euros for Asia, Latin America business
By Andrei Skvarsky. Lamudi, an online real estate trader focusing on emerging and frontier markets, has raised 29m euros ($31.4m) in investment to grow its operations in Latin America and Asia. Continue Reading
CFO Fetisov gets another 3-year stint on Moscow Exchange exec board
Moscow Exchange has announced that its chief financial officer, Evgeny Fetisov, has been re-elected for a second three-year stint on its executive board. Continue Reading
Business sentiment in Russia falls ‘sharply’ – Deutsche Boerse intel arm
By Andrei Skvarsky. Deutsche Boerse’s intelligence arm, citing monthly surveys, says Russia’s business community sank back into pessimism in January after a rise in optimism in December. Continue Reading
RenCap thinks Russian economy will shrink 0.6% in 2016
Russian investment bank Renaissance Capital says in a revised forecast that Russia’s economy is likely to shrink by 0.6% in 2016. Continue Reading
RenCap analyst: Iran electricity sector booming but shut to private money
An analyst at Russian investment bank Renaissance Capital says Iran generates enough electricity to cope with a hypothetical pace of economic growth that would double its GDP, but that it may be a while before private investors are let into the country’s state-controlled electricity sector. Continue Reading
GUEST ARTICLE: Is it time for the robot (advisors) to take over?
By Kim Iskyan,* founder of Truewealth Publishing, an independent Asia-focused financial website, and editor of Truewealth Asian Investment Daily, a daily e-letter. Investing can be intimidating, especially when you don’t have much experience. Some people rely on private bankers or stock brokers – who don’t always have their customers’ best interests in mind. Some people… Continue Reading
RenCap: Iran GDP may grow 4.5% by end of 2017 but stock market needs sorting out
Russian investment bank Renaissance Capital estimates that the GDP of post-sanctions Iran may grow 4.5% by the end of 2017 if the oil price stays at around $30 per barrel. Continue Reading
Consumer sentiment in Russia edges down in December – MNI Indicators
By Andrei Skvarsky. Consumer sentiment in Russia edged down again in December after going up slightly in November but was only negligibly below its start-of-2015 level, according to polls by Deutsche Boerse-owned intelligence company MNI Indicators. Continue Reading
Asia Frontier Capital Newsletter – December 2015
AFC Asia Frontier Fund (AAFF) USD A-shares gained +3.0% in December 2015. This month the fund outperformed the MSCI Frontier Markets Asia Index (+1.5%), the MSCI Frontier Markets Index (-0.3%), and the MSCI World Index (-1.9%). AFC Asia Frontier Fund A-shares ended the year with a performance of +0.8% versus the MSCI Frontier Asia Index… Continue Reading
Property portal Bayut.com raises $20m in 3rd round of venture funding
By Andrei Skvarsky. Dubai-based online real estate dealer Bayut.com has raised $20m in the third of three rounds of venture investment. Continue Reading
Russia’s Aton hires former Merrill Lynch, Gazprombank, Alfa Bank analysts
By Andrei Skvarsky. Aton, Russia’s oldest independent investment bank, has made three top hires for its equity research team, recruiting men who previously worked as analysts at Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Gazprombank and Alfa Bank. Continue Reading
Carrefour, Kaufland enmeshed in Poland bribery scandal – newspaper
By Andrei Skvarsky. France’s Carrefour and Germany’s Kaufland are among retailers that have found themselves entangled in a corruption scandal in Poland as executives were accused of accepting massive bribes from beverage producers for putting some of their drinks on supermarket shelves, according to a Polish daily. Continue Reading
Kroll risk consultancy promotes execs based in UK, Asia, Russia to managing director
Kroll, a consultancy specialising in risk mitigation, compliance and security, has promoted five executives based in various parts of the globe to the position of managing director. Continue Reading
Lamudi suggests Middle East, Asia, South America locations for property investors to look at
By Andrei Skvarsky. A statement by online real estate trader Lamudi tries to draw property investors’ attention to five areas in the Middle East, Asia and South America that it says are little-known “hotspots for buying apartments”. Continue Reading
Deutsche Boerse poll suggests Russian companies more upbeat but economy still a minefield
By Andrei Skvarsky. A survey by Deutsche Boerse-owned intelligence company MNI Indicators detected an overall rise in optimism among Russian companies in December after a major drop into pessimism found by a previous survey. Continue Reading
Sberbank: ‘New economic model’ developed in Russia, growth likely to resume in 2016
By Andrei Skvarsky. Sberbank, Russia’s biggest lender, this week came up with an unusually upbeat economic forecast, arguing that the Russian economy has adjusted to the low oil price and is likely to resume growth in 2016. Continue Reading
Lawyer: Iran a feast of business opportunities but think of red flags before partaking
By Andrei Skvarsky. A London-based Iran-focused solicitor argues that Iran needs to make quite a bit of effort to make foreign investors feel safe about tapping into its vast business opportunities after the anticipated lifting of some of the international sanctions against the country. Continue Reading
Sberbank lending $340m for Arctic oil transport project
By Andrei Skvarsky. Sberbank, Russia’s largest bank, has agreed to lend $340m to Russia’s biggest shipping company for an Arctic oil shipment project. Continue Reading
Russia’s VTB Capital debuts in German M&A market
By Andrei Skvarsky. VTB Capital, the investment arm of Russia’s second-biggest bank VTB, has enlarged its international record of advice on mergers and acquisitions with the first M&A deal it helped to carry through in Germany. Continue Reading
Promsvyazbank helm to go over from Konstandian to co-owner Dmitry Ananiev
By Andrei Skvarsky. Dmitry Ananiev, one of the principal owners of Promsvyazbank, is going to replace Artem Konstandian as chief executive of what is a major Russian private bank, and may take his new job in three weeks’ time. Continue Reading
EXCLUSIVE: Banker and ex-financial markets regulator Oleg Vyugin says Russian economy unlikely to start recovering in 2016
Oleg Vyugin is chairman of Russia’s MDM Bank and an adviser to Morgan Stanley. Formerly he held various senior positions in Russian financial authorities such as deputy finance minister, first deputy chairman of the central bank, and head of the now-abolished Federal Financial Markets Service. He discusses the state of the Russian economy and effects… Continue Reading
Asia Frontier Capital Newsletter – November 2015
“Knowledge is Power” – Francis Bacon AFC Asia Frontier Fund (AAFF) USD A-shares declined -3.4% in November 2015. This month the fund outperformed the MSCI Frontier Markets Asia Index (-7.2%) and the MSCI Frontier Markets Index (-4.6%) but underperformed the MSCI World Index (-0.7%). The year to date performance of the AFC Asia Frontier Fund… Continue Reading
Moscow Exchange reports major y-o-y trading volume increases
By Andrei Skvarsky. Trading volumes on Moscow Exchange grew significantly in terms of rubles between November 2014 and November 2015, with the bourse’s money market posting the lowest increase of nearly one fifth and its precious metals trade more than quadrupling, the exchange has said. Continue Reading
Kroll: Companies worldwide report increasing fraud
A survey commissioned by global risk solution provider Kroll suggests that corporate fraud has continued to increase in scale across the world in 2015 and has affected three quarters of companies worldwide this year. Continue Reading