By Andrei Skvarsky. A survey by Deutsche Boerse-owned research company MNI Indicators suggests that overall sentiment among Russian businesses was slightly lower in July than in June and their near-term economic outlook had declined significantly but that, just as previous surveys indicated, optimists outnumbered pessimists. Continue Reading
Tag Archives: Russia
Sberbank reports management reshuffle for digital services
By Andrei Skvarsky. Sberbank, Russia’s biggest lender, has discharged Viktor Orlovsky of his duties as senior vice president overseeing the bank’s digital business and appointed him as head of SBT Venture Fund I, a vehicle for investment in startups developing technologies for the financial sector. Continue Reading
Bank of Cyprus selling subsidiary Uniastrum to cut exposure to Russia
Bank of Cyprus said on July 17 that it had signed an agreement to sell off its Russian subsidiary Uniastrum Bank as part of a plan to reduce the biggest Cypriot lender’s exposure to Russia. Continue Reading
RenCap hires Lugo from Sberbank as US head of FICC sales
By Andrei Skvarsky. Renaissance Capital has hired Victor Lugo from Sberbank, Russia’s biggest lender, to oversee fixed income, currencies and commodities (FICC) sales at RenCap Securities, the US subsidiary of the Moscow-based frontier and emerging markets-focused investment bank. Continue Reading
Deutsche Boerse research firm: Russian economy likely to be past its worst
By Andrei Skvarsky. Deutsche Boerse-owned intelligence and research firm MNI Indicators argues, citing a survey made last month, that overall sentiment among large Russian companies corroborates its assertion this spring that the Russian economy is past its lowest point. Continue Reading
Russia’s RenCap makes top appointments in Nigeria office
By Andrei Skvarsky. Russian investment bank Renaissance Capital has hired Temi Popoola from CSL Stockbrokers, a subsidiary of Nigeria’s First City Monument Bank (FCMB), as head of Nigerian equities. Continue Reading
Wikistrat: Debt woes unlikely to push Greece into Russia's arms
By Andrei Skvarsky. It is a natural thought that Greece’s financial woes might force Athens to step up its attempts to obtain help from Russia. Continue Reading
RenCap appoints Elena Kolchina as fixed income strategist
By Andrei Skvarsky. Russia’s Renaissance Capital has given the role of a fixed income strategist and credit analyst to Elena Kolchina, re-hiring her after an 18-month stint at Signet Capital Management, a London-headquartered fixed income company. Continue Reading
Russian hedge funds surge on oil, rouble gains
Emerging markets hedge funds have benefited from the strong recovery of the Russian Rouble, higher oil prices, lowering of interest rates by the Chinese Central Bank, and a surge in trading volume on the Shanghai-Hong Kong Stock Connect program. As a result of these, hedge funds investing in Russia and China posted strong gains in… Continue Reading
MNI Indicators survey: Business situation in Russia looking up
By Andrei Skvarsky. Deutsche Boerse-owned research company MNI Indicators argues, citing a survey of Russian companies, that the business environment in Russia improved considerably in May and that the current Russian economic crisis is past its worst. Continue Reading
Kudrin: Reforms of govt system main remedy for Russia’s economic woes
By Andrei Skvarsky. Former Russian finance minister Alexei Kudrin has argued that Russia badly needs to reform its government system to be able to heal its increasingly ailing economy. Continue Reading
Lombard Odier: Oil, other commodities to stay cheap for quite a while
By Andrei Skvarsky. Swiss bank Lombard Odier’s chief economist argues that low prices for oil and other commodities are here to stay. Continue Reading
MNI Indicators: Consumer sentiment in Russia at record low
By Andrei Skvarsky. MNI Indicators, an intelligence unit of Deutsche Boerse, says consumer sentiment in Russia hit its lowest point last month since the firm launched its monthly surveys of it in March 2013. Continue Reading
Sberbank: Russians slightly more upbeat about economy but thriftier
By Andrei Skvarsky. Surveys by Sberbank, Russia’s biggest lender, suggest that the average Russian was slightly more optimistic about the country’s overall economic situation but thriftier in the first quarter of 2015 than in the last three months of 2014. Continue Reading
IronFX: Greece’s payment to IMF, domestic spending threaten new recession
Cyprus-based foreign exchange trader IronFX warns that Greece’s promised debt payment to the International Monetary Fund on April 9 and domestic social spending planned for this month may send the country’s economy back into recession. Continue Reading
MNI: Business sentiment in Russia up in March but recession may be there already
By Andrei Skvarsky. Regular surveys by Deutsche Boerse-owned research company MNI Indicators suggest that business sentiment in Russia bounced back in March after a protracted decline but that overall the Russian economy remains on a downward course, with the firm’s chief economist arguing it “may already be in recession”. Continue Reading
Runa Capital invests €3 million in Finnish open source database solution provider MariaDB Corp.
Last week Runa Capital, a venture firm operating globally from its offices in Moscow and San Francisco, announced a €3 million investment in MariaDB Corporation, a global software vendor specializing in high availability, high performance and highly scalable open source database solutions. Headquartered in Espoo, Finland, MariaDB (also known as SkySQL) aims to become “the… Continue Reading
Hermitage CEO Browder Ordered to Comply With NY Subpoena in Russian Money-Laundering Case
A federal judge in Manhattan has ruled that William Browder, co-founder of U.K.-based hedge fund Hermitage Capital Management, will have to comply with a subpoena related to information he provided to federal prosecutors in a money laundering case. U.S. District Court judge Thomas Griesa said Browder will have to travel to New York to sit… Continue Reading
Deutsche Boerse’s MNI Indicators: Russian companies face credit crunch
By Andrei Skvarsky. According to Deutsche Boerse-owned intelligence firm MNI Indicators, Russia’s economic downturn and foreign policy problems are pushing Russian companies closer and closer to a credit crunch. Continue Reading
EBRD and KICB finance improvements for Ak Bermet resort on Lake Issyk-Kul
Lake Issyk-Kul is one of the most famous sights in the Kyrgyz Republic and Central Asia. With appropriate investment, the area has the potential for further promotion as an attractive holiday resort. The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and KICB, its local partner bank, are supporting further development of this tourist attraction by… Continue Reading
Uniform rules on syndicated lending drafted in Russia
By Andrei Skvarsky. A large group of banks and companies including Sberbank, Deutsche Bank, PricewaterhouseCoopers and Baker & McKenzie have drafted uniform rules on syndicated lending based on Russian law in a bid to do away with legal discrepancies in the current Russian syndicated lending practice. Continue Reading
International private equity firms Siguler Guff and CapMan invest in Russian educational test preparation company
Siguler Guff and CapMan, two international private equity firms, announced last week an investment in Maximum Education, a major Russian provider of educational test preparation services, in exchange for “a significant minority stake.” Siguler Guff declined to disclose any further details of the transaction, but Maximum Education CEO Michael Magkov told East-West Digital News it… Continue Reading
Russian venture fund Life.Sreda seeks to sell assets amid first signs of severe industry contraction
Russian fintech fund Life.Sreda is seeking buyers for the greater part of its portfolio companies, both Russian and foreign, Russian business daily Vedomosti has learned from unnamed industry insiders. The fund intends to concentrate on the development of its most promising project, mobile acquiring startup LifePay. In an exchange with the newspaper, Life.Sreda representative Anna… Continue Reading
Sanctioned Sberbank reports booming trade finance, documentary business for 2014
By Andrei Skvarsky. Sberbank, Russia’s biggest lender, has reported trade finance and documentary business transactions for last year by its parent Moscow-headquartered company. Continue Reading
EXCLUSIVE: S&P’s junk grade for Russia no bombshell – Swiss banker
By Andrei Skvarsky. A Moscow-based senior manager at Swiss bank Lombard Odier has argued that ratings agency S&P’s lowering of the sovereign credit rating Continue Reading
Deutsche Boerse group: Consumer sentiment in Russia lowest for nearly 2 years
By Andrei Skvarsky. Monthly polls of ordinary Russians by MNI Indicators, an intelligence unit of the Deutsche Boerse group, suggest that consumer confidence in Russia has been fizzling out steadily for months and in January hit the lowest mark since the surveys were launched in March 2013. Continue Reading
Runa Capital-led effort raises $3m for Seattle’s LendingRobot
Runa Capital, a Moscow-headquartered global venture firm, has led a funding round in which $3m was raised for Seattle-based startup LendingRobot, an automated investment service for online lending, East-West Digital News Magazine (EWDN) has said. Continue Reading
7th Russia & CIS Summit on ANTI-CORRUPTION – March 24-25, 2015 – Ararat Park Hyatt Moscow
7th Russia & CIS Summit on ANTI-CORRUPTION March 24-25, 2015 Ararat Park Hyatt Moscow, Moscow WEBSITE BROCHURE SPEAKERS WORKSHOPS REGISTER This highly-rated 7th Russia and CIS Summit on Anti-Corruption offers unparalleled benchmarking and networking opportunities, progressive insights from a faculty of… Continue Reading
Sberbank: ‘New economic model’ developed in Russia, growth likely to resume in 2016
By Andrei Skvarsky. Sberbank, Russia’s biggest lender, this week came up with an unusually upbeat economic forecast, arguing that the Russian economy has adjusted to the low oil price and is likely to resume growth in 2016. Continue Reading