European Glory. So yet another year of European dreams comes {{{*}}} to an end for United, and this time in such harsh circumstances. Last Tuesday in Manchester had it all. As I wrote at the time of the draw for the last 16 in the Champions League, for me, it brought back memories as a… Continue Reading
EXCLUSIVE: BCS insists Moscow Exchange shares are good investment
By Andrei Skvarsky. Russia’s CreditBrokerService (BCS) has become {{{*}}} the first broker to launch the research coverage of the stock of the Moscow Exchange, issuing a “buy” recommendation but pointing out that equity trading volumes in Russia for the fourth quarter of 2012 showed a year-on-year drop of 70%. BCS analyst Olga Naydenova suggests a… Continue Reading
EXCLUSIVE: BrokerCreditService hires ex-UBS banker as senior utilities analyst
By Andrei Skvarsky. Russian brokerage BrokerCreditService (BCS) has hired Igor Goncharov, a former researcher {{{*}}} with Swiss bank UBS and Dutch lender ING, as senior utilities analyst. Goncharov took up his Moscow-based position at BCS on March 11, Luis Saenz, head of equity and derivatives sales and trading at the firm’s London office, told EmergingMarkets.me.… Continue Reading
Gazprombank names ex-Swiss banker as head of asset management
Gazprombank has appointed Aylin Suntay, a former Swiss banker who joined the Russian lender in September 2012, {{{*}}} as head of asset management. Suntay headed the small cap equities business at Geneva-based Pictet Asset Management for over a decade before leaving the firm a year ago. In her new position, she replaces Anatoly Miliukov, who… Continue Reading
Former Russian unit of Barclays hires investment banking chief
Moscow’s Expobank, the former Russian retail unit of British bank Barclays, has hired Nikita Riauzov, {{{*}}} an ex-top manager at Russian lender MDM, as head of corporate and investment banking. Riauzov spent nine and a half years at MDM, one of Russia’s largest private banks, first as head of corporate and investment business and then,… Continue Reading
Abraaj considering selling stake in Turkish health insurer Acibadem – Invest IQ
Abraaj Capital, the largest private equity firm in the Middle East, is considering the sale of its 50% stake in Turkish health insurer {{{*}}} Acibadem Sigorta, according to investment intelligence website Invest IQ. Last year Abraaj sold its stake in Acibadem Saglik, Turkey’s largest hospital chain, to Integrated Healthcare Holdings, a division of Malaysian government… Continue Reading
RenCap hires IT chief from BrokerCreditService
Renaissance Capital, a Russian investment bank focusing on emerging markets, has hired {{{*}}} Vladimir Gibenko from Russian brokerage BrokerCreditService (BCS) as head of information technology. Gibenko took up his new job on March 1, RenCap said in a statement. He returned to Renaissance, where he held IT-related positions before taking charge of the IT service at BCS. Gibenko worked at Alfa-Bank… Continue Reading
Elbrus Capital buys OSG Records Management from Aurora Russia
Elbrus Capital, Russian equity firm recently bought OSG Records Management from Aurora Russia. {{{*}}} The target company was acquired through a secondary buyout that puts its value at between USD25 and 50 mln. It is intended that the transaction will close in early March 2013, with Aurora Russia exiting the company nearly seven years after… Continue Reading
East Capital upbeat about Russia’s domestically-, consumer-focused sectors
East Capital, an emerging markets-focused asset manager headquartered in Stockholm, argues {{{*}}} that domestically-oriented and consumer-related sectors offer the best investment opportunities in Russia. According to East Capital’s chief investment officer, Peter Elam Håkansson, today’s Russia is a country with a “strong economy”, one of the world’s strongest balance sheets, domestically-focused sectors experiencing double-digit growth, and a… Continue Reading
Otkritie puts deputy CEO Romaev in charge of Nomos
Russia’s Otkritie financial group has given an extra role to Dmitry Romaev, its deputy chief executive and chief {{{*}}} financial officer, by appointing him as chief executive officer of Nomos, a Moscow bank bought out by Otkritie in autumn 2012. As head of Nomos, Romaev succeeds Dmitry Sokolov, who was the lender’s chief executive since… Continue Reading
Dragon Capital invests in pharmaceutical company Sperco Ukraine
Europe Virgin Fund L.P. (‘EVF’), a private equity fund sponsored by Dragon Capital, has completed formation of a 50/50 joint venture {{{*}}} with Ucrafarma S.A., a Spanish pharmaceutical company. The partners have united their forces in Lux PHARMA Participations SA, a Luxembourg-based holding company, with Ucrafarma transferring various pharmaceutical assets including its 95% stake in… Continue Reading
Re-launch of EmergingMarkets.me
{{{?}}}We are now ready to announce the re-launch of EmergingMarkets.me, an online financial news and analysis service for emerging markets professionals. We will continue to focus on investment banking, asset management, fund management, mergers and acquisitions, equity markets, debt markets, private equity, custody, trading, and technology. With the latest news, opinions and analysis, our readers… Continue Reading
EXCLUSIVE: Goldman Sachs hires ex-Deutsche banker to run MENA unit
Goldman Sachs has hired Saleh Romeih, who left Deutsche Bank in September, as head of {{{*}}} securities division distribution for the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), according to a financial market source. Romeih, who spent 18 years at Deutsche, was the German bank’s head for Central and Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Africa,… Continue Reading
Home Credit receives bids totalling $300m for Russian bonds
Home Credit, one of Europe’s leading retail lenders, has pulled off a highly successful securities project in Russia, {{{*}}} with a total of 9.4bn rubles ($300m) offered for bonds issued by its Russian subsidiary – more than three times their total par value. Sberbank CIB, the investment banking arm of Russia’s biggest lender Sberbank, Raiffeisenbank… Continue Reading
Multi Product Structured Solutions – Investment Bank – London
{{{?}}} Multi Asset Salesperson required for a CEEMEA group within a London based team at a tier one bank. Must have experience of selling Fixed Income, FX & Rates as well as Structured Equity products to an Crentral or Eastern Europe client base comprising Financial Institutions (Public Side). Recruiting Company: Global ID Solutions Contact Person:… Continue Reading
RDIF, VEB, France’s CDC sign private equity promotion deal
By Andrei Skvarsky. Russia’s Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) and VEB development bank and France’s Caisse des Depots et Consignations (CDC), {{{*}}} all of which are state institutions, have signed an agreement to boost private equity investment in the two countries. The deal – a memorandum of understanding – was signed in Moscow on February 28… Continue Reading
Clearstream link to Russian CSD goes live with custody fees halved
By Andrei Skvarsky. Clearstream, the clearing and settlement arm of German stock exchange Deutsche Boerse, has confirmed that its direct link to Russia’s new central securities depository {{{*}}} , the National Settlement Depository (NSD), is going live on February 28, and that it is cutting its custody fees for Russian OFZ sovereign bonds by up to… Continue Reading
Hungary’s Primus Capital launches iCatapult-designed acceleration programme
Hungarian venture capital investment company Primus Capital – unrelated to the Cleveland-based firm of the same name – is putting up a 400m-forint ($1.77m) fund to launch a newly-designed business acceleration programme in seeking access to the U.S. market for Hungarian technology companies. {{{?}}} The programme, designed by New York-based technology firm iCatapult, involves a… Continue Reading
EBRD intervenes to salvage Lithuania’s Ukio bank
By Andrei Skvarsky. The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development is lending 20m euros in co-funding an urgent effort to rescue Lithuania’s troubled Ukio bank, whose woes are seen as a threat to the Baltic country’s entire financial sector. {{{*}}} Under an agreement between Ukio’s administrator, the lender, headquartered in Lithuania’s second-largest city of Kaunas,… Continue Reading
Prostor Capital and Moscow Seed Fund invest in Car-Fin.ru project
Prostor Capital, the Russian VC fund, and Moscow Venture Investment Fund have invested {{{*}}} $400K in Car-Fin.ru project which is a service that allows you to compare different offers when choosing a car, to get credit and leasing online. Car-Fin team took part in the selection under the GTI Labs acceleration program, that is already supported by… Continue Reading
EU financial intel body takes up Magnitsky affair
By Andrei Skvarsky. The European Commission has launched an investigation into the laundering of money stolen from Russian tax authorities in an alleged monumental scam uncovered {{{?}}} by Sergei Magnitsky, a Russian lawyer for British investment fund Hermitage Capital who died in a Moscow jail in 2009. The commission asked for such a probe at a… Continue Reading
FTI Consulting: global business “surprisingly” upbeat about world banking
By Andrei Skvarsky. FTI Consulting, a global business advisory firm, has said it has carried out a poll that suggests the world business community is “surprisingly” optimistic about the global banking industry. {{{*}}} Of more than 1,000 business leaders in major global economies who were questioned in the survey, 89% believed their home country’s banking… Continue Reading
AVentures Capital invests in Ukrainian developer of technology for Google Glasses
AVentures Capital has acquired a 25% equity stake in Augmented Pixels, one of the world’s leading augmented reality technology developers. The deal closed on February 15, 2013. AVentures Capital and Augmented Pixels didn’t disclose the financial details of the Series A deal to the public. However, AVentures fund typically invests from $300,000 to $3 million… Continue Reading
Wermuth’s pro-environment fund pulls off second deal in short while
By Andrei Skvarsky. Wermuth Asset Management, a German firm with most of its business interests in Russia, has reported a second transaction by its sustainable energy-focused Green Gateway Fund, with the previous deal announced just three days ago. {{{*}}} Green Gateway Fund, whose legal name is Europe-Tatarstan Cleantech Fund, led a group of investors that put… Continue Reading
EXCLUSIVE: RenCap promotes analyst Vladimir Sklyar to head of Russia research
Renaissance Capital has promoted Vladimir Sklyar, one of its senior equity analysts, to head of research for Russia, the country the Moscow-based investment bank sees as its core market. {{{*}}} Sklyar joined RenCap in 2007, and last year was promoted to head of utilities research, the position he will combine with his new role, according… Continue Reading
EBRD to have permanent office in Jordan
By Andrei Skvarsky. The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development is to have a permanent office in Amman under a recent agreement with the Jordanian government. {{{*}}} The EBRD said in a statement that it had appointed Heike Harmgart, one of its senior economists, as head of the office. The EBRD, which began investing in… Continue Reading
Russia’s Aton hires ex-UBS banker to run new brokerage arm
Russia’s Aton investment group has hired Alexei Sizov, a former UBS, JP Morgan and Renaissance Capital banker, as head of institutional business at its new brokerage Aton Capital. {{{*}}} Sizov will oversee the equity, fixed income, treasury, direct market access and research units and the brokerage’s office in London, the Moscow-based group said in a… Continue Reading
EBRD, Ukraine come up with anti-corruption plan
By Andrei Skvarsky. The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and the Ukrainian government have agreed a short-term plan to set up a public-private working group and the office of business ombudsman in Ukraine to address the country’s vast-scale corruption. {{{*}}} Later on, the EBRD and Ukraine will be developing a comprehensive initiative to fight… Continue Reading
Wermuth reports deal, two senior appointments
By Andrei Skvarsky. The Green Gateway Fund, a 110m-euro investment fund run by Germany’s Wermuth Asset Management, has acquired a minority stake in The Mobility House (TMH), a Germany-based provider of charging equipment for electric vehicles. {{{*}}} Wermuth’s statement that reported the deal did not disclose the size of the stake. Wermuth, a firm with… Continue Reading