By Andrei Skvarsky. Sberbank, the name of Russia’s largest bank, is the sixth most valuable banking brand in Europe, according to Brand Finance, a global business valuation and strategy consultancy. Continue Reading
Tag Archives: Russia
Russia’s Sberbank hires ex-ING banker to oversee digital overhaul of client service
By Andrei Skvarsky. Sberbank has hired former ING banker Bart Schlatmann to oversee a planned digital overhaul that would put the biggest Russian lender’s client service on an omni-channel basis. Continue Reading
Russia’s no. 1 children’s retailer hopes to raise up to $434.5m via IPO
By Andrei Skvarsky. Detsky Mir, Russia’s number-one children’s goods retailer, hopes to raise up to 26bn roubles ($434.5m) through a planned initial public offering (IPO) of shares to be managed by several banks including Credit Suisse, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley. Continue Reading
Russia’s RenCap makes hire for Sub-Saharan Africa consumer research team
By Andrei Skvarsky. Russia’s Renaissance Capital (RenCap) has made a hire for its research team for Sub-Saharan Africa, handing responsibility for industrials and consumer sector coverage to Adedayo Ayeni, previously an analyst at an African subsidiary of Portugal’s third-largest listed bank. Continue Reading
Credit Suisse, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, UBS, Sberbank to run IPO for Russia’s Detsky Mir kids retailer
By Andrei Skvarsky. Credit Suisse, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, UBS and Sberbank will oversee an initial public offering of ordinary shares announced on January 16 by Detsky Mir, Russia’s iconic, largest and booming goods retailer for children. Continue Reading
Mongolia asks VTB for $200m loan
By Andrei Skvarsky. Mongolia’s government has asked VTB, Russia’s second-largest bank, for a loan of $200m for buying Russian oil products, Russian media have said. Continue Reading
Russia effectively turns down Mongolian request for $1.66m loan
By Andrei Skvarsky. The Russian government has effectively turned down a request from its Mongolian counterpart for a loan of 100bn roubles ($1.62bn), according to a Russian cabinet report whose wording suggests the refusal was not definitive. Continue Reading
Head of Dixy food chain: Russia’s economic woes mean opportunities for business
By Andrei Skvarsky. Portuguese businessman Pedro Manuel Pereira da Silva, chief executive of Russian food retailer Dixy, argues that the current economic situation in Russia, though described by many as a crisis, means opportunities for business. Continue Reading
Svetlana Fedotova hired from Luxembourg bank to run Sberbank CIB’s vehicles unit
By Andrei Skvarsky. Sberbank has hired Svetlana Fedotova from East-West United Bank (EWUB) in Luxembourg as head of the transport and vehicle manufacturing division of Sberbank CIB, the investment arm of Russia’s biggest lender. Continue Reading
Sergey Babayan joins Sberbank CIB as head of corporate client relations
By Andrei Skvarsky. Sberbank, Russia’s biggest lender, has hired Sergey Babayan, a former senior manager at Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Deutsche Bank, ABN AMRO and other banks, as head of client relations at Sberbank CIB, the Russian firm’s investment arm. Continue Reading
Sberbank CIB hires Olga Altunina from Rosenergoatom as HR chief
By Andrei Skvarsky. Olga Altunina has joined Sberbank CIB, the investment arm of Sberbank, Russia’s biggest lender, as head of human resources. Continue Reading
Moscow Exchange makes two appointments to top executive body
By Andrei Skvarsky. Moscow Exchange’s supervisory board has promoted two of the bourse’s senior officers – Anna Kuznetsova, head of equity and bond trade, and Igor Marich, head of foreign exchange (FX) and money trade, – to two-year positions on the exchange’s executive board, its top executive body. Continue Reading
Goldman Sachs, Sberbank bankers join Moscow Exchange’s strategy crew
By Andrei Skvarsky. Two senior bankers – one from Goldman Sachs and one from Russia’s largest lender, Sberbank, – have been appointed to Moscow Exchange’s strategic planning body, the Exchange Council. Continue Reading
Moscow Exchange to buy back two subsidiaries in consolidation scheme
By Andrei Skvarsky. Moscow Exchange will buy back two subsidiaries in a planned consolidation process to be completed by the end of 2016. Continue Reading
Sberbank CIB hires Shemetov from Moscow Exchange to oversee global markets
By Andrei Skvarsky. Sberbank has hired Andrey Shemetov, previously deputy chief executive of Moscow Exchange, as head of global markets at the biggest Russian lender’s investment arm, Sberbank CIB. Continue Reading
O1 Properties thinking of putting $30m into Moscow apartment project
By Andrei Skvarsky. O1 Properties, a Russian investment company owning and managing premium-class office space, is considering investing about $30m into the planned construction of about 200 apartments on the premises of a cultural and business complex in central Moscow. Continue Reading
About 90 per cent of investments into Moscow economy private money – deputy mayor
By Andrei Skvarsky. Nearly 90 per cent of recent investments into Moscow’s economy has been private money, a deputy mayor announced last week. Continue Reading
Sberbank’s European subsidiary to be led by veteran Austrian banker
By Andrei Skvarsky. Sberbank has hired Gerhard Randa, an ex-head of Bank Austria, as chief executive of Sberbank Europe AG, a Vienna-headquartered subsidiary of Russia’s biggest lender operating in Austria, Germany and eight Eastern European countries. Continue Reading
Russia consumer sentiment barometer of MNI Indicators down to ‘record low’
By Andrei Skvarsky. Surveys by a research subsidiary of Deutsche Boerse suggest that consumer sentiment in Russia dropped to a “record low” in May after edging up steadily for a few months. Continue Reading
Russia’s BCS to officially launch business in N. America
By Andrei Skvarsky. BCS Global Markets, a key Russian securities broker, will officially launch business in North America within a couple of weeks after a current transaction in which it is buying out Alforma Capital Markets, a US subsidiary of Russia’s Alfa-Bank, is due to be completed. Continue Reading
Consumer sentiment in Russia rises steadily but slowly – Deutsche Boerse subsidiary
By Andrei Skvarsky. Consumer sentiment surveys in Russia by a Deutsche Boerse subsidiary show a steady albeit very slow rise in optimism between February and April. Continue Reading
Russian companies increasingly upbeat for 3rd month running – Deutsche Boerse intel arm
By Andrei Skvarsky. Surveys by an intelligence subsidiary of Deutsche Boerse suggest that Russia’s business community has been increasingly optimistic in February, March and April. Continue Reading
China’s LeEco streaming movies provider to invest about $100bn in Russia – EWDN, Kommersant
LeEco, China’s Netflix-like provider of streaming movies, plans to establish a presence in Russia this summer and to initially invest a minimum of $100m into the Russian market, according to the East-West Digital News (EWDN) website and Russin business daily Kommersant. Continue Reading
Over 20 countries represented at Moscow Exchange event
By Andrei Skvarsky. Investment professionals from more than 20 countries were among the more than 1,900 participants in an annual conference in Moscow on April 12 that was hosted by Moscow Exchange and had key Russian ministers and the Russian central bank governor among its speakers. Continue Reading
FXPrimus analyst: Oil price likely to sink back, oil market to stay volatile overall
A senior analyst at the FXPrimus global financial and commodities brokerage believes that the oil price, having risen by about 60 per cent since February, is likely to drop again but that in any case it will remain volatile in the foreseeable future. Continue Reading
MNI Indicators poll suggests business sentiment in Russia has gone up markedly
By Andrei Skvarsky. Monthly surveys by Deutsche Boerse-owned research company MNI Indicators suggest that Russian companies were by and large doing better in March than in February and that overall business sentiment in Russia went up with optimists and pessimists making up roughly equal proportions of the country’s business community. Continue Reading
Lombard Odier banker: Financial situation in Russia ‘under control’
By Andrei Skvarsky. Lombard Odier, a Swiss private bank with a presence in Russia, does not see the latter’s economic troubles as a major crisis and believes that the country might be at the start of a path towards recovery. Continue Reading
Sberbank hires banker from Summa Group to run HNWI unit
By Andrei Skvarsky. Sberbank, Russia’s biggest lender, has hired Evgenia Tyurikova from Russian private investment company Summa Group to run the unit providing services for high-net-worth individuals (HNWIs). Continue Reading
Ernst & Young says Moscow Exchange IOSCO-compliant
By Andrei Skvarsky. Moscow Exchange’s benchmarks for its currency, equity, bond and money market segments have been declared by Ernst & Young to be compliant with the principles of the International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO), an association of securities regulators. Continue Reading