Moscow Exchange has announced it will increase the price tick for USD/RUB, EUR/RUB and GBP/RUB foreign exchange spot instruments to RUB 0.001 from today’s RUB 0.0005 with effect from February 2. Continue Reading
Tag Archives: Russia
RenCap hires ex-HSBC researcher as frontier markets analyst
By Andrei Skvarsky. Russian investment bank Renaissance Capital has hired Seki Mutukwa, a former senior researcher at HSBC, as a frontier markets analyst. Continue Reading
Moscow Exchange reports booming securities, FX trade despite economic downturn
By Andrei Skvarsky. Moscow Exchange has reported vast increases in securities and foreign exchange (FX) trade for 2014 despite Russia’s steady movement towards recession that year. Continue Reading
Deutsche Boerse group poll suggests production in Russia at “lowest level on record”
By Andrei Skvarsky. A monthly survey by Deutsche Boerse group’s intelligence firm MNI Indicators suggests that Russian companies were a wee bit more optimistic in December than the month before but that production was at “the lowest level on record”, which appeared “to be finally spilling over to the jobs market”. Continue Reading
EXCLUSIVE: Central bank too slow to react to ruble’s slide – Deutsche Boerse group analyst
Philip Uglow, chief economist at Deutsche Boerse-owned research company MNI Indicators, has said that last week’s key rate hike to 17% from 10.5% by the Russian central bank showed “how slow” the regulator had been to react to the slide of the ruble. Continue Reading
Russia's RenCap promotes Ilgin Erdogan to chief exec of Turkey office
By Andrei Skvarsky. Renaissance Capital has promoted its head of Turkey research, Ilgin Erdogan, to chief executive of the Russian investment bank’s Turkish office. Continue Reading
Dramatic rate hike to take Russian economy closer to “collapse” – economists
By Andrei Skvarsky. The Russian central bank’s raise of the key rate to 17% from 10.5% on December 16 comes as early and stark proof of a forecast last week by Philip Uglow, chief economist at Deutsche Boerse research firm MNI Indicators, who said the regulator would further tighten its monetary policy but argued this… Continue Reading
MNI Indicators: Things going "from bad to worse" for Russian consumers
By Andrei Skvarsky. In reporting the findings of a recent monthly poll, Deutsche Boerse’s research unit MNI Indicators makes what appears to be its bleakest assessment of the status of the average Russian consumer in about a year and half. Continue Reading
Investors diversifying emerging markets strategies over slower growth – Economist
Slower growth in emerging markets is making investors abandon strategies that treat emerging markets as a single bloc, according to a research report from The Economist Group, publisher of The Economist weekly. Continue Reading
Russian govt releases its first recession forecast for 2015
By Andrei Skvarsky. Russia’s Economic Development Ministry for the first time released a recession forecast for 2015 on December 2, arguing that gross domestic product was likely to shrink by 0.8%. Continue Reading
Deutsche Boerse group analysts: sliding ruble keeps bedevilling Russian business
By Andrei Skvarsky. The latest of monthly surveys by Deutsche Boerse-owned intelligence firm MNI suggests that the overall sentiment in Russia’s business community has remained stable and predominantly negative since October but continued to be slowly eroded by the weakening ruble and Western sanctions. Continue Reading
Russian fund Target Ventures leads 20-million-euro round in international cruise booking portal Dreamlines
Source – East-West Digital News The Hamburg-based startup Dreamlines announced yesterday it secured 20 million euros in C Round financing from an international pool of investors led by Target Ventures. Continue Reading
OTKRITIE FC BANK RAISED RUB 21.4 BN OF EQUITY AS PART OF AN SPO
Otkritie FC Bank raised RUB 21.4 bn of equity as part of a follow-on public offering on the Moscow Stock Exchange. Continue Reading
East Capital’s chief economist explains ruble’s slide
The chief economist of East Capital, a Stockholm-based emerging and frontier market asset manager, argues there are five main reasons for the sharp depreciation of the Russian ruble over the last several months. Continue Reading
Moscow Exchange to outsource IT trading hardware to DataSpace-owned facility
By Andrei Skvarsky. Moscow Exchange is going to move its principal IT hardware – trading, clearing and depository equipment and client colocation units – to a colocation data centre in Moscow owned by the DataSpace company. Continue Reading
B2B software integrator Mirantis raises $100 million in record Series B round
Mirantis, a California-based systems integrator with teams in several countries including Russia and Ukraine, has closed a $100 million series B round with the participation of Insight Venture Partners and August Capital. They were joined by existing investors Intel Capital, WestSummit Capital, Ericsson, and Sapphire Ventures (formerly SAP Ventures). Continue Reading
Social alarm clock Wakie secured $1 million from Leta Capital and Titanium Investments
Leta Capital, the venture arm of Russian IT security solution provider Leta Group, and Titanium Investments, an international venture fund with Russian connections, have invested $1 million in Wakie, the developer of a social alarm clock. Continue Reading
Deutsche Boerse think tank: Russians’ five-year macroeconomic outlook less than radiant
By Andrei Skvarsky. A poll by a Deutsche Boerse-owned think tank suggests the average Russian was more pessimistic in October than in September about what overall business conditions would be like in Russia five years from now. Continue Reading
EXCLUSIVE: Deutsche Boerse group economist optimistic about free-floating ruble’s long-term effects but says move unlikely to cure current Russian ailments
By Andrei Skvarsky. A senior economist in the Deutsche Boerse group argues that the Russian central bank’s decision to abandon the ruble’s trading corridor as from next year, letting the currency float freely, is a positive move long-term but unlikely to help the ailing Russian economy a great deal short-term. Continue Reading
Ukraine forbids its banks to open ruble accounts
By Andrei Skvarsky. Ukraine’s central bank has prohibited commercial banks from opening Russian ruble accounts and issuing loans in rubles. Continue Reading
Sberbank report compares Russia and Turkey
By Andrei Skvarsky. Sberbank, Russia’s biggest lender, has released a research report comparing Russia and Turkey as similar markets and arguing that Turkey is doing somewhat better than Russia today but that the situation may reverse before long.cheaper penetration stories like X5 Retail Group in Russia, they say. Continue Reading
Deutsche Boerse analysts: Business sentiment in Russia sliding as ruble loses value
By Andrei Skvarsky. According to Deutsche Boerse-owned intelligence firm MNI, business sentiment among Russian companies has been predominantly negative since September and edged further down in October as the ruble has kept depreciating. Continue Reading
Russia’s Promsvyazbank launches premium retail scheme
By Andrei Skvarsky. Promsvyazbank, one of Russia’s biggest private lenders, has launched a programme for relatively wealthy retail clients that includes access to easy-term loans, a set of freebies and personalised servicing. Continue Reading
Sberbank appoints senior exec as head of unit for clients in engineering sector
By Andrei Skvarsky. Sberbank, Russia’s biggest lender, has appointed one of its senior managers, Vyacheslav Tsybulnikov, as head of its division for clients in the engineering industry. Continue Reading
Moscow Exchange forum in London draws “record audience”
By Andrei Skvarsky. Moscow Exchange has said its annual forum in London on October 22 brought together a “record audience” of more than 300 market participants and “shed light on opportunities in Russia’s capital markets, upgrades to market infrastructure and product development at the Exchange, and the future of regulatory reform”. Continue Reading
SKOLKOVO RESIDENT SIGNS DEAL WORTH $41 MILLION WITH CHINESE FIRM
Optogard Nanotech, a resident at Skolkovo, has signed a deal with Chinese pipe manufacturing firmShandong Industry. Optogard will supply the Chinese company with laser-plasma facilities, which will form the basis of their pipe production. The contract is worth $41 million in total. Continue Reading
VTB CAPITAL I2BF INNOVATION PARTNERS INVEST $6 MILLION IN SELECTA BIOSCIENCE
VTB Capital I2BF Innovation Partners have recently injected $6 million into biotech company Selecta Biosciences, which is working on the development of a new class of target, antigen-specific immunotherapy. Continue Reading
Moscow Seed Fund looking for new investors
Moscow Seed Fund, the venture arm of the Moscow city authorities, has announced its latest competition to recruit investors for joint seed and pre-seed stage investment in their projects. The fund is looking for individual investors and companies, both Russian and foreign. Continue Reading
Almaz Capital leads $4 million funding round in US e-commerce solution provider
Content Analytics, an analytics platform that recommends e-commerce catalog optimization strategies, announced it secured a $4 million Series A funding led by Almaz Capital. Geoffrey Baehr, a general partner at Almaz Capital, has joined the startup’s board of directors. Continue Reading