By Julia Bushueva, strategist at Unicredit Securities Last week’s decision by the Brazilian government to reintroduce a 2% tax on foreign investment in local stocks and bonds in order to prevent bubbles and cool down the market is likely to boost trading in Brazilian ADRs, we believe, but may divert cash to the Russian stock… Continue Reading
VEB to flip $7.8bn back onto the Russian stock market ?
By Jason Corcoran in Moscow State development agency VEB is in talks with the Finance Ministry over flipping its estimated $7.8bn porfolio of stakes in Russian blue-chips back onto the stock market. Vedomosti today quoted a source close to VEB as saying that it would be rational for the agency to gradually sell shares in… Continue Reading
EBRD teams up with Kayzna to launch $300m private equity fund
By Jason Corcoran Kazyna Capital Management, the private equity arm of Kazakhstan’s sovereign wealth fund, is combining with the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) to set up a $300m vehicle to invest in distressed companies. The fund will focus on financing of companies experiencing problems with repaying their debt. Its main task will… Continue Reading
Exclusive: Prosperity Capital to launch new Quest fund vehicle
By Jason Corcoran in Moscow Prosperity Capital Management, the largest Russian portfolio manager, is setting up a new recovery vehicle in a bid to capture the spectacular 41% annualised returns achieved by the original Quest fund launched in 1999. The Prosperity Capital Quest II special situations fund will target restructurings and consolidation opportunities in Russia’s… Continue Reading
COMMENT: Tymoshenko announces resolution roadmap for Ukraine's two large banks
By Yevhen Hrebeniuk, Senior Analyst at Troika Dialog Ukraine Ukraine’s Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko has outlined the resolution approaches that are set to be approved by the cabinet and applied to the two remaining large banks that have yet to be recapitalized: Nadra Bank and Ukrprombank. The government will transfer Ukrprombank’s deposits and valuable assets… Continue Reading
Exclusive: Ghavami to head Troika’s global markets team in senior shake-up
By Ivan Anderzhanov in Moscow Russian investment bank Troika Dialog has appointed Peter Ghavami as head of global markets in a shake-up of its senior team following the completion of the integration of Standard Bank’s operation in Moscow. Insiders at Troika indicated Ghavami had been given the key role after the completion of the merger… Continue Reading
Standard Bank raises $1bn from Chinese banks for Asian expansion
By Ivan Anderzhanov in Moscow Standard Bank, the emerging markets banking group, has raised $1bn loan facility with four major Chinese banks in Macau today. The four banks are Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (Macau) Limited; Bank of China; China Development Bank and China CITIC Bank. The club deal was self arranged by Standard… Continue Reading
Aganbegyan switches CEO for President post at RenCap / Credit Suisse hires senior investment banker from Merrill
By Ivan Anderzhanov in Moscow. Renaissance Capital’s rainmaker Ruben Aganbegyan has relinquished his role as chief executive of the investment bank after being appointed yesterday as its president. A RenCap spokesman said Aganbegyan appointment was a promotion and would not dilute his position as its key client and government relationship banker. Aganbegyan, who joined the… Continue Reading
COMMENT: Government expects the start of economic recovery in 2H09
Vladimir Osakovsky, Head of Strategy and Research at Unicredit Securities at Moscow. Russian Minister of Economic Development Elvira Nabiullina said that the Russian economy is ready to recover and expects real GDP to grow by 3.9%-4.5% hoh in 2H09, Vedomosti reports. Nabiullina’s comments come after similar optimistic statements from First Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov… Continue Reading
Barclays scoop up VTB CFO to lead its Russia business
Jason Corcoran in Moscow British bank Barclays has hired Nikolai Tsekhomsky as chief executive from Russian state bank VTB to head up its global retail and commercial banking business in Russia. Tsekhomsky, who has only just stepped down today from VTB after four years as its chief financial officer, will takeover from Sergey Radchenkov, who… Continue Reading
BTA wins injunction to freeze assets of former top managers
By Ivan Anderzhanov in Moscow The English High Court has granted troubled Kazakh bank BTA a worldwide freezing injunction against the assets of former chairman Mukhtar Ablyazov and other former top managers. The bank said in a press statement that it has started legal proceedings in the High Court against Ablyazov, Roman Solodchenko, the former… Continue Reading
Hires & Fires: Equity departures heap pressure on UniCredit in Moscow
By Jason Corcoran in Moscow UniCredit Securities in Moscow, which has lost staff to resurrected investment bank Aton in recent months, has suffered another blow following the departures of its head of equities Steven Dashevsky and equity analyst Anna Kochkina. A source close to UniCredit said Dashevsky was not joining a group of colleagues who… Continue Reading
Rencap's $612m Sistema bond mandate takes its recent dealfow over $2bn
By Jason Corcoran in Moscow Russia’s Renaissance Capital has been appointed as lead manager and bookrunner for a 20bn rouble bond ($612m) by conglomerate Sistema which caps a string of deals worth over $2bn during the past month. The Sistema rouble bond is the biggest of the year and beats the recent 15 billion ruble… Continue Reading
Analysts fret over Raiffeisen and its level of non-performing loans in Russia
By Ivan Anderzhanov in Moscow The analyst community fretted as they poured over the news yesterday that Raiffeisen non-performing loans in Russia have jumped from to 7.2% by the end of June from 2% at the end of 2009. The interim report shows that the Austrian bank earned almost nothing in Russia during the second… Continue Reading
Hires & Fires: New star trader at Merrill Lynch in Moscow?/ Cordon promoted at UBS
Merrill Lynch had declined to comment on a report that star trader Paval Naumenko has been hired by the US bank in Moscow. The report in yesterday’s Vedomosti said Naumenko, who had worked at Renaissance Capital until last year, had been hired and would report to Bernie Sucher, head of global markets for Russia. However,… Continue Reading
Alfa Bank merges investment bank with its corporate bank
By Jason Corcoran in Moscow Russia’s Alfa Bank is merging its investment bank with its corporate bank into one division. The new unit will be aimed at increasing Alfa’s ability to sell products ranging from loans to advice on takeovers to its 40,000 plus corporate clients. The move mirrors a decision taken by Citigroup in… Continue Reading
Credit Suisse and Merrill Lynch advise Sistema on $1.27bn Comstar deal
Investment banks Credit Suisse and Merill Lynch have have advised the conglomerate Sistema on the $1.2bn sale of a 50.9% stake in fixed-line telecoms provider Comstar UTS to mobile operator MTS. The deal between the two Sistema subsidiaries is scheduled to close at the end of October, while no decision has been made regarding the… Continue Reading
COMMENT: Russian issuers face up to onerous new limits on foreign IPOs
New Russian foreign listing rules could hike the cost of equity capital for Russia companies at a time when many of them are over-leveraged and starved for equity financing, according to the Corporate Department of Latham & Watkins in Moscow. In June 2009, the Russian Federal Service for the Financial Markets (FSFM) published proposed amendments… Continue Reading
VEB cleared to invest in non-sovereign bonds by November
By Ivan Anderzhanov in Moscow Russia’s state development bank Vnesheconombank (VEB) will be allowed to purchase non-government bonds by November, according to new rules expected to be approved by the government shortly. The new rules will enable VEB to increase its portfolio allocation of non-sovereign bonds to 40%. The credit rating of the bonds, other… Continue Reading
COMMENT: Watch Kazakhstan for Russian banks’ path out of crisis
By Rustam Botashev, Equity Analyst at Unicredit Securities Total non-performing loans (NPLs) in Kazakhstan reached 30.8% as of 1 July, but a more manageable 14.4% excluding BTA and Alliance, and we expect a gradual economic recovery to keep banks from being washed away in an NPL flood. The aggregate 30.8% figure is skewed by the… Continue Reading
COMMENT: Russia’s equity market – rising like a phoenix
Angelika Millendorfer, Head of Emerging Markets Equities at Raiffeisen Capital Management. Russia’s equity market was one of the biggest losers last year. But since the beginning of 2009, it has been one of the top performers even though a strong correction swept the market in June and July. So far prices are up by around… Continue Reading
Hires & Fires: Troika Dialog hire sales and trading duo in London
Russian brokerage Troika has hired two sale and trading executives in London to replace a team that quit for rival bank VTB Capital in June. Troika has tapped Jim Bevan and Marcus Martin from Japanese bank Nomura in London. The pair are believed to be on gardening leave until they start at the end of… Continue Reading
Raiffeisen boosts capital by €1.3bn as second wave of bad debt looms
Raiffeisen International, the Austrian group with an extensive Russian and Eastern Europe network, has bolstered its core capital by raising €1.25bn, as banks in the region get ready for the next wave of bad debt due to hit next month. The group announced today itwill issue €600m in participation rights and €650m in hybrid Tier… Continue Reading
COMMENT: Russia may tap Wellbeing fund to finance budget deficit in 2010
By Vladimir Osakovsky, Head of Strategy and Research for UniCredit Securities. Russia might start to use its second sovereign wealth fund – Wellbeing Fund ($89.9bn as of 1 July 2009) to finance the federal budget deficit in 2010. To finance a roughly 3,000bn roubles ($98bn) federal budget deficit in 2009, the Finance Ministry is actively… Continue Reading
JP Morgan knocks Troika Dialog off its Russian M&A perch
Western investment bank JP Morgan has knocked Moscow brokerage Troika Dialog off the top M&A adviser perch in Russia during the first half of 2009, according to data provider Mergermarket. JP Morgan has so far advised on three deals with a total value of $6.2bn, while Troika lags in joint 12th position having only advised… Continue Reading
Hires & Fires: Unicredit hires senior sales exec Uebel/ Credit Agricole appoints Matthias Warnig/ RTS adds board member
Italian bank UniCredit has recently hired the experienced Patrick Uebel from Deutsche Bank as a senior international equity sales executive covering clients in Europe, the US and the UK. German-national Uebel had spent less than a year at Deutsche Bank in Moscow in its equity division. He had previously worked at DWS, the German bank’s… Continue Reading
Revealed: Russian computer whizz in Goldman Sachs trading storm started his career as a trainspotter
Sergey Aleynikov, the Russian-born computer developer charged with stealing precious Goldman Sachs‘ trading codes, started his career at the Ministry for Transportation in Moscow as a trainspotter. Aleynikov, a naturalised US citizen who emigrated from Russia in 1991, allegedly unlawfully copied, duplicated, downloaded and transferred computer codes from Goldman Sachs and uploaded the codes to… Continue Reading
Hires & Fires: Goldman banker surfaces at McKinsey/ Oligarch hires Merrill banker/ Nayak boost Deutsche's structuring team
Igor Livant, a former executive director at Goldman Sachs in Moscow, has surfaced as an associate principal at consultants McKinsey & Company. Livant, who left the American investment bank in February, had been at Goldman’s for three an a half years. He has extensive experience in equity and M&A deals in Russia and the CIS.… Continue Reading
BLOG: VTB Capital targets Gulf's sovereign wealth billions
Jason Cororan in Moscow VTB Capital, the investment banking arm of state-controlled VTB bank, has hired ten staff for its new Dubai operation in a bid to lure sovereign Gulf money to Russia. The bank is attempting to set itself up as a conduit for Middle East sovereign wealth money which might be interested in… Continue Reading