By Andrei Skvarsky. Former Third Rome senior partner Yevgeny Kogan has become managing director and a partner at Moscow Partners, an investment firm that plans a major advance into financial markets after years of relatively low activity. Kogan left Third Rome on June 30 over strategic differences with the top management of the Moscow-based wealth… Continue Reading
EXCLUSIVE: Otkritie hires ex-Central Bank economist
By Andrei Skvarsky. Russian brokerage Otkritie has hired Polina Badasen, a former economist at the Russian Central Bank, as an economist for Russia and the CIS. Badasen’s duties at the Central Bank included recommendations for exchange rate and interest rate policies and liquidity forecasts for the banking sector. In her Otkritie job, Badasen backs up… Continue Reading
Putin and Connie the labrador to be Russia’s next tandem, say EM.me readers
By Andrei Skvarsky. The majority of respondents in a recent EmergingMarkets.me online poll expected Prime Minister Vladimir Putin to be Russia’s next president and a vast proportion thought he would have just a figurehead prime minister if he moved back into the Kremlin. The view that “Putin and Connie the labrador” (the premier’s pet dog)… Continue Reading
GUEST COMMENT: Khodorkovsky Trial Exposes Reform Progress
By James Beadle from Market-Melange.com Since 2003 former Yukos executives Mikhail Khodorkovsky and Platon Lebedev have been incarcerated in Russia on charges of tax evasion. At present, as their eight year stint enters its final stages, the two are on trial once more, charged with stealing millions of tonnes of oil (reputedly the same oil… Continue Reading
EXCLUSIVE: Rencap hires Deutsche Bank's Abbott to co-run equity sales
By Andrei Skvarsky. Renaissance Capital has hired Will Abbott as co-head of equity domestic sales in the latest in a string of big name hires. Abbott, who previously headed Deutsche Bank’s sales and trading business in Russia, shares the job of running the Moscow-based investment firm’s equity domestic sales with Ruslan Babaev, Rencap spokesman Quinn… Continue Reading
Swedish investment firm closing its Russia real estate fund
By Andrei Skvarsky Stockholm-based investment company East Capital Explorer has decided to close its real estate fund for Russia as the unit has received no investments since it opened in July 2008. When the global financial crisis broke out, the company, whose area of operations is Eastern Europe, decided to keep its Russian Property Fund… Continue Reading
Nick Jordan makes a comeback as head of UBS
By Ivan Anderzhanov Nick Jordan, the former head of Lehman Brothers in Moscow, has made a surprising comeback as the head of Russia and CIS for Swiss bank UBS. Jordan, who was allegedly brought to Lehman from Deutsche Bank for $10m over years, had been in limbo for the past year after losing out in… Continue Reading
Rencap’s Aganbegyan quits Rencap to join Micex
By Ivan Anderzhanov Ruben Aganbegyan, the former president of Renaissance Capital, is leaving the investment bank to takeover as president at Micex, the largest Russian stock exchange. Aganbegyan, who was demoted in February this year following a shake-up by Rencap founder Stephen Jennings, will take up his new role on June 21. He replaces Konstantin… Continue Reading
Barclays considers selling Russian banks to Renaissance
By Ivan Anderzahnov UK bank Barclays may offload its Russian regional retail banking network to a unit of Renaissance Group. Barclays is in talks about selling 12 regional branches to Renaissance Credit, the consumer finance arm of the investment banking group Renaissance, according to Russian daily Kommersant. The British giant acquired Russian lender Expobank in… Continue Reading
EXCLUSIVE: Sberbank hires Romaev as head of new debt unit
By Andrei Skvarsky Russia’s largest lender Sberbank has hired Dmitry Romaev as head of its new debt capital markets unit for Central and Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Africa (CEEMEA) from Otkritie. Romaev, who was previously chief financial officer at Otkritie, said the unit had already hired three other bankers to work on large… Continue Reading
Half of Russian bankers not paid bonuses, report
By Ivan Anderzhanov More than half of Russian bankers were not paid a bonus for last year, according to a survey of 160 foreign and domestic financial institutions by recruiter Antal Russia. Just 47 percent of bankers got 2009 payouts which were doled out in the spring of this year. Many financiers were paid nothing… Continue Reading
Exclusive: Deutsche Bank back in the hiring game in Russia ?
By Andrei Skvarsky Deutsche Bank has recently hired Igor Sorokin from Troika Dialog, appointing him as vice president in charge of structuring. The German bank seems to be back in the market for new hires following yesterday’s announcement of two analyst hires, George Buzhenitsa and Natalia Smirnova, from UniCredit Securities. Other rivals have so far… Continue Reading
Fund Flows: Sentiment is Finely (Dangerously) Balanced
By Chris Weafer, Chief Strategist at UralSib Capital Waiting for clarity. Fund investors appear to have taken a sanguine view of global market volatility over the past week. They have remained largely on the sidelines while waiting for a clearer picture to emerge. According to the data supplied by EPFR Global, in the week ended… Continue Reading
Troika Dialog: the best investment bank in Russia ?
By Ivan Anderzhanov Troika Dialog has been awarded the gong of best investment bank in Russia in the recent Global Finance awards. In a statement, Troika said it currently leads Russian debt capital market league tables in terms of volume, number of issues and market share. Last we checked, VTB Capital may have had some… Continue Reading
Exclusive: VTB hires Jaeckel as deputy head of quant research
By Andrei Skvarsky Russia’s VTB Capital bank has recently hired Peter Jaeckel as deputy head of quantitative research at its London office. Jaeckel combines the job with the position as managing director of OTC Analytics, a British-based financial derivatives analysis company he has founded after a four-year stint as a senior analyst with ABN AMRO.… Continue Reading
BofA Merrill Lynch boost EMEA research with three hires
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