By Andrei Skvarsky. Lamudi, a two-year-old real estate dot-com company doing business in more than 30 emerging- and frontier-market countries, announced on August 10 that it has launched an operation in the United Arab Emirates. Continue Reading
Moscow Exchange reports net profit rise of 72.8%
By Andrei Skvarsky. Moscow Exchange said that its earnings boomed in the second quarter of 2015, and that this included a year-on-year net profit increase of 72.8%. Continue Reading
News release from Canrim Development
Canrim Development Pte Ltd. is a resource development company established by a team with a successful Mongolian business track record, operating in the Mongolian resources sector since 1997. Designed as a vehicle to re-enter the Mongolian resource industry in early 2014, Canrim is positioning for resurgence in minerals exploration activity in the country. In mineral… Continue Reading
Sberbank, Tinkoff among 1st-round winners of Global Finance digital banking contest
By Andrei Skvarsky. Russia’s biggest lender Sberbank and online retail bank Tinkoff were among the first-round winners in the 2015 World’s Best Digital Banks competition held annually by Global Finance, the famous New York-based monthly. Continue Reading
Standard Chartered’s Pakistan subsidiary gets over first hurdle in Islamic banks contest
By Andrei Skvarsky. The Pakistani subsidiary of Britain’s Standard Chartered was among the winners of the first round of Global Finance’s debut contest for Islamic banks as part of the famous financial periodical’s annual competition for the title of the world’s best digital bank. Continue Reading
Russia’s RenCap hires James Friel from Rothschild to run global investment banking
By Andrei Skvarsky. Renaissance Capital, a key Russian privately-owned investment bank, has hired James Friel from global financial consultancy Rothschild as global head of investment banking with effect from September. Continue Reading
RenCap expects Russian inflation to slow, Kazakh money to plunge
Renaissance Capital, a Russian top-tier privately-owned investment bank, has forecast that inflation will decline in Russia but will rise in Georgia and Kazakhstan in the near term, and that the Kazakh currency will plunge by nearly one third by the end of September. Continue Reading
Baring Vostok lead investor in $40m funding for Russian car broker
By Andrei Skvarsky. Russia’s Baring Vostok private equity firm was the biggest investor in a recent new round of funding for CarPrice in which $40m was raised for the Russian online used-car broker. Continue Reading
New Russian fund to invest $2m in B2B solutions in 2015
By Andrei Skvarsky. Two Russian entrepreneurs have launched a venture fund that plans to invest $2m before the end of 2015 in up to five projects to develop solutions for business-to-business (B2B) transactions, according to international information company East-West Digital News (EWDN). Continue Reading
Russian central bank cuts key rate to 11%, says economy may cool off
Russia’s central bank on July 31 cut its key interest rate to 11% from 11.5%, arguing that economic cooling is a greater risk than inflation. Continue Reading
Lamudi property portal: Emerging markets should be top of investors' agenda
By Andrei Skvarsky. Emerging market countries are growing much faster than developed ones, they have been quicker to adopt new high technology than their developed counterparts, and their populations include increasingly affluent and rapidly growing middle classes, real estate portal Lamudi says. Continue Reading
Bayut.com: UAE real estate market’s performance better than expected
By Andrei Skvarsky. The United Arab Emirates’ real estate sector did quite well in the first half of 2015 and, in fact, “exceeded all expectations”, the Bayut.com property portal says. Continue Reading
MNI Indicators: Business sentiment in Russia edges down
By Andrei Skvarsky. A survey by Deutsche Boerse-owned research company MNI Indicators suggests that overall sentiment among Russian businesses was slightly lower in July than in June and their near-term economic outlook had declined significantly but that, just as previous surveys indicated, optimists outnumbered pessimists. Continue Reading
Sberbank reports management reshuffle for digital services
By Andrei Skvarsky. Sberbank, Russia’s biggest lender, has discharged Viktor Orlovsky of his duties as senior vice president overseeing the bank’s digital business and appointed him as head of SBT Venture Fund I, a vehicle for investment in startups developing technologies for the financial sector. Continue Reading
Bank of Cyprus selling subsidiary Uniastrum to cut exposure to Russia
Bank of Cyprus said on July 17 that it had signed an agreement to sell off its Russian subsidiary Uniastrum Bank as part of a plan to reduce the biggest Cypriot lender’s exposure to Russia. Continue Reading
RenCap hires Lugo from Sberbank as US head of FICC sales
By Andrei Skvarsky. Renaissance Capital has hired Victor Lugo from Sberbank, Russia’s biggest lender, to oversee fixed income, currencies and commodities (FICC) sales at RenCap Securities, the US subsidiary of the Moscow-based frontier and emerging markets-focused investment bank. Continue Reading
Mark Mobius quitting as head of Templeton EM Investment Trust
Famous investor Mark Mobius is stepping down as head manager of the Templeton Emerging Markets Investment Trust but will remain at the helm of the Templeton Emerging Markets Investment Group, which manages the trust, according to media reports. Continue Reading
Deutsche Boerse research firm: Russian economy likely to be past its worst
By Andrei Skvarsky. Deutsche Boerse-owned intelligence and research firm MNI Indicators argues, citing a survey made last month, that overall sentiment among large Russian companies corroborates its assertion this spring that the Russian economy is past its lowest point. Continue Reading
Lamudi: Dhaka emerging markets’ top place to buy home
By Andrei Skvarsky. Global property portal Lamudi argues that Dhaka should be top of the list for anyone wishing to buy their first-ever home in an emerging market country. Continue Reading
GUEST ARTICLE: A Visual Guide to Colombia’s Surging Economy
By Michael Johnston, senior analyst for All Emerging Markets (www.allemergingmarkets.com). Emerging from a dark history, Colombia has become the economic gem of South America. In the minds of many Americans, Colombia is a lawless country with an economy built around a violent drug trade. In reality, however, Colombia has become a model for economic transformation and is perhaps South… Continue Reading
Lamudi: Demand for real estate grows in rapidly urbanising Africa, Asia
Africa and Asia are urbanising faster than any other part of the world, and this entails increasing demand for affordable but high-quality residential and commercial real estate in urban areas in the two continents, global real estate portal Lamudi says, citing the United Nations. Continue Reading
Russia’s RenCap makes top appointments in Nigeria office
By Andrei Skvarsky. Russian investment bank Renaissance Capital has hired Temi Popoola from CSL Stockbrokers, a subsidiary of Nigeria’s First City Monument Bank (FCMB), as head of Nigerian equities. Continue Reading
Wikistrat: Debt woes unlikely to push Greece into Russia's arms
By Andrei Skvarsky. It is a natural thought that Greece’s financial woes might force Athens to step up its attempts to obtain help from Russia. Continue Reading
Asia Frontier Capital Newsletter – Country Snapshot: Vietnam
Since the introduction of market reforms that opened up the country to foreign investment in the late 1980s, Vietnam has become one of the fastest-growing economies in the world, averaging annual GDP growth rates of 7-8% throughout the nineties. Agribusiness production has nearly doubled over the past two decades, transforming Vietnam into one of the… Continue Reading
RenCap appoints Elena Kolchina as fixed income strategist
By Andrei Skvarsky. Russia’s Renaissance Capital has given the role of a fixed income strategist and credit analyst to Elena Kolchina, re-hiring her after an 18-month stint at Signet Capital Management, a London-headquartered fixed income company. Continue Reading
Duet Group To Launch Emerging European UCITS Fund With Two Former Armajaro Execs
Alternative asset manager Duet Group is launching a new emerging European UCITS fund this month and has recruited two former Armajaro Asset Management executives to run it. Michel Danechi and Kalim Aziz are joining Duet as fund manager and research analyst, respectively, on the Duet Emerging European European Fund. The new vehicle is expected later… Continue Reading
Verde: Foreign Investors Overly Optimistic on Brazil's Economy
In a monthly letter to clients, Brazil’s largest hedge fund, Verde Asset Management, said that foreign investors’ were overly optimistic about its home nation’s economy. Saying that foreign investors’ had “exagerated optimism,” the firm said that the sentiment was “disconnected from medium-term reality.” The fund said cautioned investors about the nation’s financial outlook, and said… Continue Reading
AXA IM Mergers Asian, EM Debt Teams into Single Global Emerging Debt Unit
AXA Investment Managers (AXA IM) has restructured its emerging market debt team as Damien Buchet’s August departure from the firm nears. AXA IM will merge its emerging market and Asian teams into one group to better address the importance of the global emerging market debt asset class to investors in the future. The newly merged… Continue Reading
Asian Hedge Fund Assets Hit Record, Top $177 Billion
Assets under management at Asian hedge funds reached a record $177 billion in May, according to new data from Eurekahedge. The tally exceeds the $176 billion managed by funds with an Asia mandate in December 2007, immediately prior the global financial crisis, noted Eurekahedge’s Alexander Mearns in an interview with Bloomberg. The news comes as… Continue Reading