By Andrei Skvarsky. The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and NASDAQ OMX were co-organisers of an international conference last week that pondered ways of building more vibrant capital markets in Armenia. {{{?}}} The event, held in Tsakhkadzor, Armenia, brought together more than 100 delegates who represented commercial and central banks, potential issuers of… Continue Reading
EAST CAPITAL COMMENT: Was January’s emerging markets scare justified?
By Peter Elam Hakansson, Chairman and Head of Public Equity investment team, East Capital.* The first month of the year turned out to be a very difficult one for emerging markets, with a fear of tapering by the US Federal reserve and a slowdown of the Chinese economy leading to a sharp sell-off of emerging… Continue Reading
Sberbank hires banker from UBS to run HNWI group
By Andrei Skvarsky. Sberbank, Russia’s biggest lender, has hired Alla Aleynikova from Swiss bank UBS to head the group servicing high-net-worth individuals. {{{?}}} Aleynikova is based in Moscow in her new job with Sberbank Private Banking, having relocated from New York, where she worked at UBS’s international division. Previously she spent 11 years at Citigroup… Continue Reading
Russia’s RenCap hosts 5th pan-Africa investor conference
By Andrei Skvarsky. Russia’s Renaissance Capital has opened its fifth annual pan-Africa investor conference in Lagos. {{{?}}} This year’s conference brings together about 400 guests, including 200 investors representing global and frontier funds. The delegates also include senior managers from some of Africa’s largest companies and senior government figures, among them Nigerian Finance Minister Ngozi… Continue Reading
TURKEY: When it rains, it pours – EAST CAPITAL COMMENT
By Emre Akcakmak, Portfolio Manager, East Capital.* It was not so long ago that Turkey was the darling of international investors. Political stability, a young population, a fast-growing economy, declining inflation and a series of rating upgrades encouraged investors to buy Turkish equities and pushed Borsa Istanbul to all-time highs by May 2013 – with… Continue Reading
Coutts: luxuries up 77% in value since 2005, outdoing shares
By Andrei Skvarsky. Royal Bank of Scotland-owned lender Coutts argues that a vintage car, posh apartment or sumptuous watch that you would have bought in 2005 might bring you twice as much as you paid for it, or even more, if you sold it today. {{{?}}} Classic cars have rocketed 257%, classic watches 176% and… Continue Reading
Turkey’s Akbank says got through tough year with flying colours
By Andrei Skvarsky. Akbank, one of the biggest Turkish lenders, has reported robust performance for 2013 with its total assets growing 20% despite capital outflows from emerging markets and abysmally low interest rates in many countries, including Turkey. {{{?}}} The total assets of the Istanbul-based firm, which The Banker, Euromoney, World Finance, and Global Banking… Continue Reading
Lombard Odier hails China opting for “better quality” growth
By Andrei Skvarsky. Switzerland’s Lombard Odier, one of Europe’s largest private banking firms, says declining Chinese growth is one of its major concerns from the investment point of view but hails what it sees as China’s determination to move to“better quality” growth, namely from investment-led to consumption-based growth. {{{?}}} Among other things, the Geneva-based bank… Continue Reading
Ex-Citi banker gets senior job at Sberbank’s CEE unit
By Andrei Skvarsky. Sberbank, Russia’s biggest lender, has hired Tamas Haiman from Citibank as head of global markets at Sberbank Europe AG, its Central and Eastern European operation. {{{?}}} Haiman, who joins Sberbank on February 3, will be based in Vienna and report to Igor Strehl at Sberbank Europe and Alexey Zaytsev at the global… Continue Reading
Sberbank chiefs talk to analysts
By Andrei Skvarsky. Top executives of Sberbank have spoken to more than 25 researchers from various investment banks at an annual meeting between the management of Russia’s largest lender and banking analysts. {{{?}}} Deputy chief executive Alexander Morozov briefed the audience on key projections for Sberbank’s performance this year. “The main priority of Sberbank is… Continue Reading
Sberbank raises adviser to vice-presidential seat
By Andrei Skvarsky. Sberbank, Russia’s biggest lender, has promoted one of its senior advisers, Teimur Shternlib, to the position of vice-president. {{{?}}} Shternlib has been an adviser to chief operating officer Lev Khasis at Sberbank, which he joined last year after roles as chief investment officer at Russia’s Х5 Retail Group and IT director at… Continue Reading
GUEST COMMENT: CIS/Ukraine macro-politics: investor scenarios
{{{?}}} By Chris Weafer, Founding Partner, Macro-Advisory, Moscow. Chris Weafer’s career includes top research positions with Sberbank, Troika Dialog, UralSib, Alfa Bank and NatWest. Mr Weafer, who has worked in Russia for more than fifteen years, is the author of a wide variety of articles about Russia, Central Asia and the trend in macro oil. He… Continue Reading
RenCap hires Merrill banker for senior Europe sales job
By Andrei Skvarsky. Russian brokerage Renaissance Capital has hired Amr Aboushaban from Bank of America Merrill Lynch as vice-president in its equities sales team. {{{?}}} Aboushaban’s main responsibility will be client coverage in London and across Europe, but his duties will include helping to build out coverage in the Middle East and North Africa, RenCap… Continue Reading
Abraaj chief concurs with thesis that BRIC obsolete term
By Andrei Skvarsky. Facts that the chief executive of Dubai-based investment firm Abraaj cites in a recent article corroborate the thesis of British bank Coutts that BRIC is an obsolete concept. {{{?}}} Both Abraaj CEO Arif Naqfi and Coutts analysts argue that the economic performance of Brazil, Russia, India and China has ceased to make… Continue Reading
Sberbank hires Swiss bankers as commodities unit traders
By Andrei Skvarsky. Sberbank CIB, the investment unit of Russia’s biggest lender Sberbank, has hired two Swiss bankers as senior traders for the commodities unit of its global markets department. {{{?}}} Sergio Soler, who comes from Swiss bank Julius Bär, has been appointed as senior precious metals trader, and Franck-Eric Fischer joins from Geneva-based consultancy… Continue Reading
EXCLUSIVE: MNI Indicators chief economist Philip Uglow comments on Russia’s economy in interview with EmergingMarkets.me
How would you explain Russia’s current slowdown? Can it be that the global crisis has finally got to Russia – it seems that what happens in Western economies takes a while to reach Russia? {{{?}}} The global economic crisis has clearly had a negative impact on Russia – there’s no getting away from that. Russia… Continue Reading
MNI Indicators: Russian companies’ confidence jumps up
By Andrei Skvarsky. Deutsche Boerse’s data-providing subsidiary MNI Indicators says business confidence among some of Russia’s largest companies bounced back sharply in January from a “record low” in December but warns that the upturn may be temporary. {{{?}}} The MNI Russia Business Indicator rocketed to 57.9 in January from 45.5 in December, to register its… Continue Reading
UBS hires ex-Morgan Stanley bankers as Russia chiefs
By Andrei Skvarsky. UBS has hired two senior former Morgan Stanley bankers to run its Russian operation. {{{?}}} Rair Simonyan is joining the Swiss bank as chairman and Elena Titova as chief executive of its Russian subsidiary, UBS said in a statement. Both are coming over from Russian Regional Development Bank, which is owned by… Continue Reading
Eurex chief to join Swiss bank Lombard Odier as managing partner
By Andrei Skvarsky. Eurex, a derivatives exchange owned by Deutsche Boerse, is going to part company with its chairman Hugo Banziger, who has been appointed as a managing partner of Lombard Odier, one of Europe’s largest private banking firms. {{{?}}} The Swiss economist’s appointment as the ninth managing partner of the oldest private bank in… Continue Reading
VTB chief: West’s Russian policies run against globalisation trends
By Andrei Skvarsky. The president of state-controlled VTB Group, Russia’s second-largest bank, has accused the West of a “patronising”, arrogant and standoffish attitude to Russia, which he argues is not the way to behave in these times of globalisation. {{{?}}} “It sometimes seems that politicians of countries that ought to have much in common are… Continue Reading
Tajikistan central bank debuts in Moscow Exchange forex market
By Andrei Skvarsky. Tajikistan’s central bank has begun to trade in Moscow Exchange’s forex market, clinching its first deal on January 20. {{{?}}} The National Bank is not Tajikistan’s first bank to gain access to Moscow Exchange’s forex trade. Early last month the Eskhata commercial lender was let into the market. The National Bank of… Continue Reading
Russia may switch clocks back for winter
By Andrei Skvarsky. A draft law has been introduced to Russia’s parliament to restore the practice of moving the clocks one hour forward in the spring and one hour back in the autumn, Russian media said on Monday. {{{?}}} The proposed law is bound to be hailed by stock exchange traders in the West who… Continue Reading
Royal Bank of Scotland subsidiary says BRIC obsolete term
By Andrei Skvarsky. Coutts, a lender owned by Royal Bank of Scotland, argues that the 13-year-old BRIC term is obsolete. {{{?}}} The economies of Brazil, Russia, India and China are much too different in size and performance to justify seeing the four nations as a distinctive group. Moreover, there is a bunch of other emerging… Continue Reading
Free Personal Coaching for EmergingMarkets.me members!
{{{?}}} Dear Readers, We’ve started a partnership with an exciting London start-up. Go.Show.Do know that being great at your job, doesn’t mean it’s always easy to sell yourself to employers. It’s a skill and no one is teaching it! They want their clients to be in control and confident, so they get the great jobs… Continue Reading
Russia’s Renaissance hires ex-BofA banker to run Africa sales
By Andrei Skvarsky. Renaissance Capital, one of Russia’s leading privately owned investment banks, has confirmed it has hired Robert Lamprecht, a former senior manager at Bank of America, as head of African sales. {{{?}}} Lamprecht will be based in Johannesburg, where one of RenCap’s three African offices are located. He will report to Florian Hellmich,… Continue Reading
VTB makes clean break with Fitch over "lack of professionalism”
By Andrei Skvarsky. VTB Group, Russia’s second-largest bank, announced on Tuesday that it was severing all its relations with Fitch Ratings because of the rating agency’s “continued lack of professionalism”. {{{?}}} The move followed Fitch’s lowering VTB’s issuer-default rating one level on January 10, which the bank argued was groundless, claiming the agency had had… Continue Reading
An intelligent , English CV Template
{{{?}}} For professionals working in a new culture, it’s crucial that employers can easily grasp the value of your past experience to them and their company. Unfortunately, there is a lot of terrible advice on the internet and some terrible ‘standard’ formats. The Europass CV template is the most common and probably the worst and… Continue Reading
In 2014 – the big career challenge is to sell our skills
{{{?}}} In 2013, the number of companies involved in corporate recruitment expanded again, for better or for worse. In 2014 there will be type of chaos in the market, which will effect how real people achieve career-defining steps and changes. Executive recruiters; in-house recruiters; HR directors; outsourcers; procurement teams; Linked-in junkies, employer brand managers; company… Continue Reading
Russia tries to revive interest in struggling stock market
By Melissa Part. 2013 seemed to end on a grim note for Russia’s economy with consumer confidence hitting a new low. {{{?}}} The country’s economy has had a bumpy start to 2014 too. The recent release of high-profile political prisoners does not seem to have rallied investor interest in Russia’s stock market. Russia recently released… Continue Reading