By Marcus Williams BofA Merrill Lynch has beefed up its EMEA research platform with three hires as part of a new EMEA economics and fixed income strategy group. Arko Sen joins the group with seven years of experience in emerging EMEA fixed income strategy, most recently at Barclays Capital, along with Jean-Michel Saliba who has… Continue Reading
EXCLUSIVE: Tatiana Orlova quits as ING’s senior economist for Russia
By Andrei Skvarsky Tatiana Orlova has quit Dutch bank ING as its Moscow-based senior analyst for Russia and the CIS. A spokeswoman for ING Wholesale Banking Russia confirmed Orlova’s departure to EmergingMarkets.me but said the bank would not disclose whether she had left for a new job. Before joining ING in autumn 2007, Orlova spent… Continue Reading
COMMENT: Government mulls protectionist moves to protect industries from ruble strength
By Vladimir Osakovsky, Head of Macroeconomic Analysis and Research at Unicredit Securities Russian First Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov said that the Russian government might raise import tariffs and subsidize industries to keep Russian industry competitive, Bloomberg reports. He said that the ruble is likely to appreciate over the next several years and the government… Continue Reading
Fleming hires Troika Dialog duo in expansion
By Andrei Skvarsky London-based asset management company Fleming Family & Partners (FF&P) has hired two former managers for Troika Dialog and one from Trust Bank in an expansion of its Russian business. Alexander Yakubov, previously chief equity market analyst at Russian investment bank Trust, was appointed a managing director and strategist at the Moscow-based subsidiary,… Continue Reading
VTB to advertise on the BBC
By Ivan Anderzhanov In a further sign of a thawing in Anglo-Russo relations, VTB Capital is to sponsor a major series looking at Russian business to be shown on the venerable British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC). The series, which will begin transmitting this month, will focus on business across Russia, examining people, companies and products. VTB… Continue Reading
COMMENT: What happens with Russian market in May & June 2010 ?
By Mark Rubinstein, Deputy Head of Research at IFC Metropol Traditionally, May and June are not the strongest months for the Russian market. In the past four years, only once, in 2008, the market was able to demonstrate growth over this period. But I think that this year will be an “exception” again, and the… Continue Reading
BoFA Merill Lynch hires Nomura's Meissner as EMEA head
Bank of America Merrill Lynch has lured investment banking rainmaker Christian Meissner from Nomura. Meissner will report to Michael Rubinoff and Purna Saggurti, co-heads of global investment banking, and drive the growth of the investment banking franchise across EMEA, according to a statement today. He will sit on the global corporate & investment banking operating… Continue Reading
RBC offers emerging markets fund “beyond the BRIC”
By Ivan Anderzhanov RBC Asset Management is making its emerging markets fund available to Canadian investors seeking returns “beyond” the emerging BRIC rainbow of economies. Doug Coulter, president of RBC Asset Management, claimed the fund provides investors with a “low-fee emerging market investment” of companies broadly diversified “beyond the typical offerings of Brazil, Russia, India… Continue Reading
Fleming Family & Partners name new asset management head for Russia
By Ivan Anderzhanov The Russian investment unit of the UK’s Fleming Family & Partners has named Rustam Issev as its general director to replace Andrei Uspensky. Iseev, who was previously the firm’s managing director, takes over from Uspensky who quit to join Leader Asset Management, according to Prime-Tass, the news agency. Leader is the pension… Continue Reading
EXCLUSIVE: Two senior bankers leave JP Morgan to join state-backed advisory boutique
By Ivan Anderzhanov Two senior bankers quit Wall Street bank JP Morgan in Moscow last week and are believed to be joining an invesment boutique focused on advising the state in the acquisition of domestic and foreign energy assets. EmergingMarkets.me understands that Stanislav Song, one of the most reputable M&A bankers in Russia, and Hamid… Continue Reading
Investors ready to jump on the Russia sovereign Eurobond wagon
By Andrei Skvarsky Russian finance officials are meeting investors in London and Singapore today to market Russia’s first sovereign Eurobond issue since 1998, with analysts saying there is a high appetite for the issue as the risk of a Russian default on loans is at an all-time low. Natalia Orlova, chief economist at Russia’s Alfa… Continue Reading
Troika hires fund management head from Renaissance
By Ivan Anderzhanov Troika Dialog has hired Anton Rakhmanov to run its asset management business less than three months after its founder Pavel Teplukhin quit the Moscow group. Rakhmanov, who will oversee the Troika Dialog Asset Management., joins in May. He has 15 years experience and has been hired from rival Renaissance Investment Management, where… Continue Reading
EXCLUSIVE: Switzerland best place for managing Russian wealth – Third Rome
By Andrei Skvarsky Third Rome, a Moscow asset manager set up by personnel from Renaissance Group, believe Switzerland remains the best place to manage Russian wealth. Managing money for high-net-worth Russians from Switzerland is more convenient than from either Russia or any offshore location, Third Rome chief executive Andrei Movchan told EmergingMarkets.me. He denied that… Continue Reading
Inflows into Russian funds/ETFs continue for the eighth straight week
Vladimir Kuznetsov, Equity Analyst from Unicredit Securities Inflows into Russia-dedicated funds and ETFs continued for the eighth straight week in the week to 7 April and reached USD 1.48bn YTD, EPFR data shows. The recent week’s inflow totaled USD 116mn and was completely provided by equity funds, as ETFs showed a slight outflow of USD… Continue Reading
Gazprom selects Gazprombank and Rencap for $10bn bond sale
By Ivan Anderzhanov Russian gas giant Gazprom has mandated Gazprombank and Renaissance Capital to arrange a 300 billion roubles ($10.24bn)in bonds. Rouble bonds have become popular on the local fixed-income market following the rapid rise of the ruble and as commodity prices have rallied. . Gazprom plans to raise the sum in 13 issues over… Continue Reading
Ex-Renaissance and Alfa managers to set up $1bn fund
By Andrei Skvarsky Former managers at Renaissance Group and Alfa Group plan to set up a new $1bn private equity fund to invest in Russian companies. The new fund to be run by Elbrus Capital will incorporate funds acquired from Renaissance Partners, the Renaissance Group subsidiary, according to a report in RBC Daily. Elbrus plans… Continue Reading
VTB Capital names Alexey Zabotkin as investment strategy head
Russian investment bank VTB Capital has named Alexey Zabotkin as its new head of investment strategy. He joins the bank from VTB Asset Management, where he had been chief investment officer and deputy chief executive since September 2009. In 2008-09, he was chief investment officer with United Capital Partners, a Moscow-based investment boutique. For the… Continue Reading
Rencap eyes brokerages acquisitions in Africa
By Marcus Williams Renaissance Capital, the fast growing emerging markets investment bank, is eyeing deals to buys brokerages in “five or six” African countries. Speaking to the Financial Times, its bullish founder Stephen Jennings said the group expected to close deals within the next few months. Rencap is expanding at breakneck speed 18 months after… Continue Reading
Russia's Interior Ministry seeks the arrest of Hermitage Capital partner Ivan Cherkesov
By Ivan Anderzhanov Russia’s interior is seeking the arrest of Hermitage Capital partner Ivan Cherkesov just four months after the death of the firm’s lawyer Sergei Magnitsky in custody. The London-based hedge fund firm claimed the same police officer, whose investigation led to the scandalous death of Magnitsky, is responsible for the case. “Major Silchenko… Continue Reading
Inflows into Russian funds/ETFs continue for the sixth straight week
By Vladimir Kuznetsov, Equity Analyst At UniCredit Securities Thanks to the sixth straight week of net inflows into Russian funds and ETFs in the week to 25 March 2010, the total volume of net attracted cash YTD reached almost $1.3bn (vs. $2.0bn for all of 2009), EPFR Global data shows. On the other hand, weekly… Continue Reading
Rencap steppes into Mongolia with two tie-ups
By Ivan Anderzhanov in Moscow Emerging markets investment bank Renaissance Capital has agreed on alliances with two investment firms in the Central Asian frontier of Mongolia. The bank has signed deals with International Capital Corporation (MICC) and Monet following its recent joint venture agreements in Serbia, India and openings in South Africa and Belarus. In… Continue Reading
Raiffeisen pushes ahead with RZB in spite of fears for shareholders
By Ivan Anderzhanov Management at Raiffeisen International‘s are pushing ahead with a merger with its unlisted Austrian parent RZB despite concern that minority shareholders may lose out in the deal. The bank said they were intensively pursuing a merger, which would be put to shareholders at annual general meetings in July. Analysts have said shareholders,… Continue Reading
Alfa Group to replenish banking staff after cuts last year
By Andrei Skvarsky Russia’s Alfa Group plans to start hiring new staff this year for its corporate loan division and various retail services after cutting it its banking division in 2008 and 2009. Alfa reduced its banking personnel by 15 percent in the wake of the financial crisis, with the most cuts falling on the… Continue Reading
Moscow recruiter Antal hires former Rencap recruitment head
By Andrei Skvarsky Russian recruitment firm Antal has hired Karl Franzmann, a former director of recruitment at Renaissance Capital, the Moscow-based emerging markets bank. Franzmann, whose tenure at Renaissance Capital coincided with the bank’s initial rapid expansion into sub-Saharan Africa and other developing markets, has over ten years of experience in executive recruitment and executive… Continue Reading
Societe Generale merges Rosbank with BSGV in Russia
By Marcus Williams Societe Generale, France’s second largest bank, and its partner Interros today announced they are combining their banking operations in Russia. Rosbank and BSGV, will be merged into a single unit but still retain two separate brands. The new entity will have the specialised mortgage and consumer lending companies Rusfinance and Delta Credit… Continue Reading
COMMENT: Kazakhstani non-performing loans continue to decline
By Rustam Botashev, Equity Analyst at UniCredit Securities Kazakhstan’s Financial Supervisory Agency (FSA) published preliminary banking statistics for 2009. Our view: The banking sector’s losses for the year totalled KZT 2,837bn ($19.1bn), or KZT 127bn ($0.9bn) excluding the two defaulted banks (BTA Bank and Alliance Bank). Retail loans declined by 4.8% yoy and corporate loans… Continue Reading
Otkritie boosts Investment Banking team
By Marcus Williams Fast-growing Russian brokerage Otkritie has lured Temo Jorbenadze from VTB Capital as head of Investment Banking’s Financing Services Group. Otkritie, which has doubled in size in the last year, also hired Dmitry Perman as a director from the Moscow-based boutique advisory firm Advance Capital. Jorbenadze was a director for investment banking at… Continue Reading
Former Merrill Lynch investment head Arofikin returns as hiring picks up
By Ivan Anderzhanov Andrei Arofikin, the former managing director of Merrill Lynch’s investment banking team in Moscow, has returned to the US investment bank as hiring shows signs of picking up. Arofikin quit the bank in March 2008 to join the state savings bank Sberbank where he replaced Andrey Trusov who chaired the group’s international… Continue Reading
£21bn USS pension fund hires emerging markets team
By Marcus Williams in London The £21bn USS pension scheme in the UK has hired an emerging markets team charged with leading a push into the asset class. The fund, which is the second largest private sector pension fund in the UK, has hired Carmel Peters, Danila Gallarato and Chris Shale to boost its emerging… Continue Reading