By Andrei Skvarsky. Russia’s Sberbank has made cash withdrawals from its ATMs in Croatia and from those of its subsidiary Denizbank in Turkey commission-free for holders of Sberbank debit cards. There will be zero commission for holders of Visa Classic, MasterCard Standard, Visa Gold, MasterCard Gold, Visa Platinum and MasterCard Platinum cards if they use ATMs… Continue Reading
Tag Archives: Russia
Moscow Exchange to host forum in London
Moscow Exchange is to host a forum in London on July 3 to discuss the potential of Russian financial markets, the bourse’s products and information technology plans, and make a presentation of Russia’s National Settlement Depositary. {{{?}}} Moscow Exchange’s chief executive Alexander Afanasiev, deputy chief executive Andrey Shemetov and head of IT Sergei Poliakoff are… Continue Reading
Sberbank takes over control of Citi’s Turkish retail business
By Andrei Skvarsky. Denizbank, the Turkish subsidiary of Russia’s biggest lender Sberbank, has completed the acquisition of Citibank’s consumer banking business in Turkey. Under an agreement effective from July 1 and first announced in April, Denizbank, which is one of Turkey’s largest banks, is taking over a clientele of more than 600,000, assets of 1.2bn… Continue Reading
Sberbank pulls off cooperation deal with Gulf’s top-notch NBAD
By Andrei Skvarsky. Russia’s biggest lender Sberbank and a top bank in the Gulf, National Bank of Abu Dhabi (NBAD), have reached an agreement to cooperate in trade financing, loan syndication, client support and investment banking. “Access to new financial markets is an integral part of our international strategy,” a Sberbank statement quoted the Russian… Continue Reading
Macquarie in full control of infrastructure fund as RenCap, Renaissance Group pull out
By Andrei Skvarsky. Macquarie, a global financial services provider, has become the sole manager of a major infrastructure investment fund, an entity it used to co-manage with Renaissance Capital and Renaissance Group. RenCap and Renaissance Group ceded their co-managerial roles to Macquarie under an agreement which, via the takeover of RenCap’s stake, doubled the Australia-based firm’s… Continue Reading
Sberbank CIB employs ex-govt official to run infrastructure finance
By Andrei Skvarsky. Sberbank, Russia’s biggest lender, has hired Konstantin Pesotsky from the Moscow city government as head of infrastructure finance at its investment arm, Sberbank CIB. Pesotsky was deputy head of the city government’s property department in his previous position. He held a series of jobs in the investment industry, including roles at Goldman… Continue Reading
Russia's Renaissance Capital opens annual investor conference
Renaissance Capital on June 24 opened its two-day 17th Annual Investor Conference in Moscow, an event expected to bring together more than 700 guests, including major global investors, senior managers from some of Russia’s largest companies and key political figures. Exclusive one-to-one meetings, of which more than 1,500 are expected to take place, will make… Continue Reading
Russia’s Unicorn Capital buys key maker of glass facades
By Andrei Skvarsky. Moscow-based buyout fund Unicorn Capital Partners with target capitalisation of $500m has announced its first acquisition, the purchase of controlling interest in Constanta Group, one of Russia’s largest designers and manufacturers of translucent façade systems and other glass products. Unicorn, whose main objective is to buy out undervalued small and medium enterprises… Continue Reading
EXCLUSIVE: Russia’s BCS gets UK regulatory go-ahead for business, plans hires
By Andrei Skvarsky. The London-based arm of Russian broker BCS has received British regulatory authorisation for brokerage business and plans a series of key hires for the next four to six weeks. The authorisation from the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) to deal with and advise on investments and hold client assets marks the official launch… Continue Reading
Moscow Exchange-Deutsche Börse deal allows selling Deutsche Bank shares in Russia
By Andrei Skvarsky. Moscow Exchange and Deutsche Börse have signed an agreement allowing Deutsche Bank, Siemens, BMW, Volkswagen and Daimler shares to be traded at the Moscow bourse as from September this year. The two exchanges picked some of Germany’s most liquid shares for their deal, Moscow Exchange chief executive Alexander Afanasiev said after he… Continue Reading
Sberbank lending $2.2bn to Potanin’s Interros conglomerate
By Andrei Skvarsky. Sberbank CIB, the investment arm of Russia’s biggest lender Sberbank, has pledged to open several five-year credit lines to a total of $2.2bn for oligarch Vladimir Potanin’s Interros multi-industrial investment conglomerate. The money will be used to refinance part of Interros’s current loan portfolio and fund some of the projects of the… Continue Reading
BrokerCreditService gets to top spot in Moscow bourse derivatives trade
By Andrei Skvarsky. Russia’s BrokerCreditService (BCS) has taken the number one spot by derivatives trading volumes at Moscow Exchange for May, pushing rival Moscow broker Otkritie down to second place. BCS, which set up an office in London from scratch less than a year ago, posted a turnover of 1.82trln rubles ($57bn) in the bourse’s… Continue Reading
BankersAccuity launches database on Russian politically exposed persons
By Andrei Skvarsky. BankersAccuity, a company setting global standards for payment efficiency and offering compliance solutions, is launching the first politically exposed person (PEP) database for the Russian market in a bid to prevent fraud, money laundering and bribery. {{{?}}} The database contains data on individuals who are part of the executive, legislative or judicial… Continue Reading
Sberbank hires bankers from J.P. Morgan, RBS for commodity trading, equity financing
By Andrei Skvarsky. Sberbank, Russia’s biggest lender, has announced two senior hires for the fixed income, currencies and commodities (FICC) division of its investment arm, Sberbank CIB. Francois Mantion has joined from J.P. Morgan as head of commodity trading and Raymond Bird came over from Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) to take charge of strategic… Continue Reading
VTB Capital’s appoints an Independent Non-Executive Director to the Supervisory Board of Nova Ljubljanska Banka
Miha Košak, Central & Eastern European (CEE) Coverage Banker at Global Banking Department at VTB Capital, has been appointed as an Independent Non-Executive Director to the Supervisory Board of Nova Ljubljanska Banka (NLB), Slovenia’s leading bank. The four year appointment was confirmed at NLB’s annual general meeting of shareholders. NLB Group is the largest Slovenian… Continue Reading
RVC co-creates Russian war industry’s first civilian high tech-focused fund
By Andrei Skvarsky. Russia’s state-owned RVC fund of funds for high-tech promotion and defence firm Ramenskoye Instrument Design Bureau (RPKB) have set up what is the Russian military industry’s first-ever venture fund to invest in civilian high-tech projects. The Defence Industry Civilian Technologies fund will have 1bn rubles ($31m) under management and will be managed… Continue Reading
Mail.Ru Group Invests $1.5 Million in Visual Search Company, Cortica Ltd.
Mail.Ru Group invested in Israeli-based Cortica Ltd. Cortica is the pioneer of a new approach to computer-driven understanding of images and videos through its unique and proprietary Image2Text™ technology. Mail.Ru Group is investing $1.5 million in Cortica in order to support and access its Image2Text™ technology. This investment is a part of the larger round… Continue Reading
Hermitage’s Browder off wanted list as Interpol refuses to play ball with Russia
Hermitage Capital chief executive Bill Browder has come off the international wanted list as Interpol refused to help Russia with the “predominantly political” prosecution of the ex-colleague of whistleblower Sergei Magnitsky. “The CCF studied a complaint brought before it by Mr Browder and concluded that the case was of a predominantly political nature and recommended that… Continue Reading
Russia’s major RVC high-tech fund co-launches new contest for IT startups
By Andrei Skvarsky. RVC, a major Russian state-owned 30bn-ruble ($100m) fund of funds for high-tech promotion, is co-launching an “accelerator competition” for information technology startups. Between 60 and 70 firms will be involved in what will be Russia’s first contest of its kind and part of the annual Business Information Technologies (BIT) competition, which has… Continue Reading
RenCap says middle income trap the source of Russia’s woes
By Andrei Skvarsky. Russia’s Renaissance Capital argues that the likeliest explanation of Russia’s current economic slowdown is a middle income trap, a situation where a fast-growing economy gets stuck after reaching a certain level of per capita income. “Fast-growing economies, including Russia, eventually slow down as the easy catch-up productivity gains relative to developed economies… Continue Reading
Unicorn Capital PE fund raises $100m since 2012
By Andrei Skvarsky. Unicorn Capital Partners, an emerging markets-focused private equity fund set up last year, has carried out the first phase of its capitalisation plan by raising $100m. Unicorn, which is based in Vienna and has a target size of $500m, seeks to invest in small and medium enterprises and middle-market companies in sectors… Continue Reading
Sberbank lends $250m to leading producer of titanium
By Andrei Skvarsky. Sberbank, Russia’s largest bank, has lent $250m to Russian company VSMPO-AVISMA, a leading producer of titanium with Airbus, Rolls-Royce, General Electric and Boeing among its customers. The deal was arranged by Sberbank CIB, the bank’s investment arm. “The structure of the deal enabled the borrower to optimise its debt burden and allowed… Continue Reading
Biofuel to heat Russia’s unelectrified railroads
Russian Railways, the national rail operator, has been increasingly using biofuel to heat railroad cars at unelectrified sections of Russian railroads, Bellona.ru reports. Trains are reportedly equipped with about 300 boilers that use biofuel pellets, and about 6,000 tons of biofuel is consumed each year. Specifically, biofuel pellets are used at railroad sections in the Moscow,… Continue Reading
VTB Capital announces new appointments in Asia
VTB Capital announced new senior appointments to its Hong Kong office, as part of its expansion strategy in the Asia-Pacific region. Xin Lin has been appointed as VTB Capital’s Head of Multiproduct Sales for China, where she will be responsible for Sales & Origination and Fixed Income across Chinese corporate, investor and financial institutional clients.… Continue Reading
Sberbank cuts corporate loan rates to get more clients
By Andrei Skvarsky. Sberbank, Russia’s biggest lender, has cut interest rates for corporate loans by between 04% and 1.4% per year as from Wednesday. “We believe that this will have a very positive effect on the market,” a statement released by Sberbank on Thursday quoted the bank’s deputy chief executive Andrei Donskikh as saying. “We… Continue Reading
Ruble stops sliding, edges up after Central Bank intervention
By Andrei Skvarsky. The Russian Central Bank last month carried through its first currency intervention since November 2012 in propping up the weakening ruble. {{{*}}} April’s sales of $663m and 45.05m euros had been the regulator’s biggest foreign currency sales since July last year, Russian business daily Vedomosti said. The intervention apparently helped somewhat –… Continue Reading
Sberbank: state of Russian economy “not too alarming”
By Andrei Skvarsky. Russia’s biggest lender Sberbank argues that, although the country’s economy appears to be grinding to a halt, the picture is “not too alarming” and growth of 3% or more is still possible this year. The Economics Ministry late last month revised its GDP growth forecast for 2013 to 2.4% from 3.6%. This… Continue Reading
EAST CAPITAL COMMENT: Why Russia is not performing
By Peter Elam Håkansson, Chairman and Head of Public Equity investment team The Russian market has certainly not been generous to investors during the first four months of 2013. We did however see a strong rebound in the last week of April but the Moscow stock exchange is still at a minus so far this year. This… Continue Reading
Otkritie Capital appoints Head of IT and Head of Project Office
Russian investment bank Otkritie Capital recently appointed Yuri Yartsev as Head of IT and Grigory Kozin as Head of Projects Office at the bank. In his position, Yuri will be responsible for the general management of the department throughout Russia, the UK, the US and all of the regions covered by the company’s footprint. Yury worked for Otkritie from… Continue Reading