By Andrei Skvarsky. Russia’s leading Micex stock exchange was suspended yesterday in a move reminiscent of trading halts that occurred frequently following the 2008 financial crash. The bourse attributed the one-hour plus suspension to ”technical reasons.” It later reopened before closing down 3.7 percent as global equities tumbled. However, many market makers in Moscow and… Continue Reading
Russian champanksa maker to go pop with IPO
By Marcus Williams. Russian sparkling wine producer Abrau-Durso is planning an initial public offering at the end of 2011 or the start of 2012. “The shares are likely to be placed on the Moscow Interbank Currency Exchange (MICEX), but we are not considering foreign trading floors yet,” a spokespersn told Ria Novosti yesterday. The company,… Continue Reading
EBRD attracts SRI lender to Russian market for first time
By Marcus Williams. An EBRD loan for Russia’s Transcapitalbank marks the first time an institution with a specific mandate to act as a socially responsible lender is participating as a co-financier to raise funds for a Russian borrower. To date, the EBRD’s partners in such transactions have traditionally been commercial banks, according to a statement from the… Continue Reading
State Street appoints Raynes for senior EMEA role
State Street Global Advisors, the US fund giant, has recruited Susan Raynes as head of its UK, and EMEA institutional business. Raynes, who was previously head of SSgA’s San Francisco office, replaces Kanesh Lakhani, who worked at the firm for 13 years. Raynes will report to EMEA head Greg Ehret and will be responsible for identifying institutional business… Continue Reading
EXCLUSIVE: Wermuth fund manager Winsell Davies quits for Metropol role
John Winsell Davies By Ivan Anderzhnov. John Winsell Davies has quit Wermuth Asset Management and has started offering his ”consulting services” to Metropol. Winsell Davies will work closely with Hawk Sunshine, who switched from a senior investment banking role at Metropol last year to managing director of fund management. Winsell Davies, a Russia veteran with… Continue Reading
GOLDMAN COMMENT: Looking through the fog
By Jim O’Neil, Chairman of Goldman Sachs Asset Management. In the past week, we have experienced remarkable turmoil in financial markets, which have brought back memories for many people of the darkest days of late 2008. Are direct parallels to 2008 valid ? Many other questions also come to mind. Are current market valuation levels… Continue Reading
Sberbank, VTB and Alfa bring bonuses back to pre-crisis levels
By Andrei Skvarsky. Major Russian lenders Sberbank, VTB and Alfa Bank have resumed the payment of bonuses with remuneration for top managers now returning to pre-crisis levels, according to Vedomosti. The undisputed leader in the generosity stakes is Alfa Bank, which is controlled by oligarch Mikhail Fridman. Nine members of its board collected one billion rubles in salary, bonuses… Continue Reading
Renaissance boosts wealth management arm with two hires
By Andrei Skvarsky. Renaissance Advisors, an investment unit of Renaissance Group, has boosted its Moscow team by hiring Vagan Amichba and Kirill Schmidt. Amichba has been hired as managing director and a senior financial advisor focusing on the group’s ultra-high-net-worth individuals and cross-selling into all businesses. Before joining Renaissance, he ran his own M&A consulting… Continue Reading
COMMENT: Cruel, cruel summer: Screening Emerging Europe
By Daniel Salter, Chief Strategist at UniCredit Securities. If this is a “normal” mid-cycle market correction, markets could soon start to find a bottom, with the S&P 18% off since its cycle high (in line with the median of fourteen 10%+ downturns for the S&P since 1975). However, if recent events (including the heated debate… Continue Reading
MDM Bank seeks Arab, Asian sovereign wealth investors
By Ivan Anderhanov. MDM Bank, Russia’s second largest private lender, is holding talks with some Asian and Arabic sovereign investment funds, including Abu Dhabi Investment Authority and Investment Corporation of Dubai. MDM, whose shareholders include businessman Sergey Popov with a 56.3 percent stake and Igor Kim with 11 percent, may offer up to a blocking… Continue Reading
Martin Schwedler named as head of Raiffeisen Invest in Moscow
By Andrei Skvarsky. Austrian bank Raiffeisen has promoted Martin Schwedler to chief executive officer of its investment banking unit in Russia. The joint venture, owned equally by Raiffeisen Investment and ZAO “Raiffeisenbank” in Moscow, offers Russian corporate customers access to equity capital markets and M&A services. Shvedler said he plans to expand the activities of Raiffeisen’s local investment banking… Continue Reading
Raiffeisen snaps up Swedbank's Russian retail business
By Andrei Skvarsky. Raiffeisenbank has bought a Russian retail business from Swedbank, a Swedish lender with a global network which is shutting its entire retail operation in Russia. Joining the swelling ranks of foreign banks shutting their Russian retail operations, Swedbank offloaded its retail division in Kaliningrad to Raiffeisenbank and plans to sell off its remaining… Continue Reading
Kazakhstani banking: Accelerated lending coupled with jump in NPLs
By Rustam Botashev, Deputy Head of Research at UniCredit Securities. Kazakhstan’s bank supervisory committee has published 6M11 banking statistics, showing accelerating loan growth on the backdrop of deteriorating asset quality. We reiterate our Buy recommendations for Halyk Bank (12M TP of USD 14.3) and Kazkommertsbank (USD 9.6). Lending in Kazakhstan accelerated in June, with 1.3%… Continue Reading
BCS poaches top e-traders from RenCap
By Andrei Skvarsky. Russian broker BCS has hired three senior electronic traders from Renaissance Capital, including head of e-trading Stanislav Surikov. The other RenCap defectors are Rizwan Kayani, who was chief operating officer at Renaissance’s e-trading group, and Michael Smith, who was in charge of the group’s international sales. BCS, a Moscow-based… Continue Reading
Evrofinance Capital asks state to halt Micex-RTS merger
By Andrei Skvarsky. Evrofinance Capital, a Micex minority shareholder, has asked for an official order to reverse the merger of Russia’s biggest stock exchange with the RTS bourse. The merger will be damaging to Micex, its shareholders, the Russian financial markets and the country as a whole if based on the current scenario,… Continue Reading
EXCLUSIVE: Interview with Yevgeny Kogan of Moscow Partners
By Andrei Skvarsky. Yevgeny Kogan, president of the Moscow Partners investment boutique and a former senior partner at Russian wealth management firm Third Rome, talks to EmergingMarkets.me about his company’s history, current business and plans. Yevgeny, what is your role in the company, which you and Igor Moryakov have founded as partners? It may be… Continue Reading
WEAFER COMMENT: A Bellerophonic Message
By Chris Weafer, Chief Strategist at ING in Moscow. There continues to be only one key event in global markets and that is the US debt deal. As this note goes out, there is optimism that a deal will be reached either this evening or tomorrow. That should allow for a modest relief rally in… Continue Reading
Equity fund flows: Investors remain optimistic and sidelined
By Chris Weafer, Chief Strategist at ING in Moscow. The total volume of money invested into emerging market (EM) funds last week was relatively low, even for midsummer, as investors prudently remained on the sidelines while waiting for a resolution of the US debt talks. But, although low, the net flow remained positive as a… Continue Reading
UralSib hires Pioneer Investments banker as head of marketing
By Andrei Skvarsky. Russian bank UralSib has hired Karen Kesoyan from global investment management firm Pioneer Investments as head of marketing and business development at its asset management division. Kesoyan spent 12 years at Troika Dialog, first as head of public relations and then as advertising director, before joining Pioneer Investments, where he… Continue Reading
EXCLUSIVE: Metropol hires Howard and Brenton for London expansion
By Andrei Skvarsky. Russian broker Metropol has hired former Nomura executive Mark Howard as head of its London-based equity sales team and ex-Renaissance Capital and UralSib banker Tim Brenton as a member of the team. Howard, who has more than 15 years of emerging markets experience, was selling Chinese equities for North Square Blue Oak,… Continue Reading
Otkritie changing face
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
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