Sberbank of Russia and Troika Dialog announce the closure of the deal to merge the two companies. This landmark event signals the creation of the largest universal banking institution in Russia.

The integration of Troika Dialog will enable Sberbank to reach a new level of client service through high-quality financial consultation and a broad choice of investment strategies, underpinned by a full range of modern financial instruments – from the Bank’s traditional credit products to complex investment banking and global markets products. An undisputed regional market leader will emerge as a result of the merger of these two complementary businesses.

As part of the process of integrating Troika Dialog into the Sberbank structure, a new division is being created: the Corporate Investment Bank (CIB) which will provide services to the largest Russian and foreign corporations and financial institutes. CIB will become part of the business unit entitled “Corporate Business” managed by Andrey Donskih, Deputy Chairman of the Management Board of Sberbank of Russia. Alexander Bazarov, Member of the Management Board, Vice President of Sberbank of Russia and Director of the Corporate Clients Department, and Ruben Vardanian, CEO of Troika Dialog have been appointed Co-heads of CIB.

The second area of business being created as a result of integration is Wealth Management. Wealth Management will include the business areas which focus on selling investment products to private clients, including Asset Management and Private Banking. Ruben Vardanian, Troika Dialog CEO, will head Wealth Management; Bella Zlatkis, Deputy Chairman of the Management Board of Sberbank of Russia, will oversee this business unit. The unit’s development plans include the creation of the largest private bank in Russia, leveraging western experience of developing product lines and client service technology.

According to preliminary data for 2011, the divisions of Sberbank and Troika Dialog together generated 22 billion roubles of income from operations made on the financial markets, out of which 8 billion roubles came from securities sales and trading operations, and 6 billion – from conversion operations and precious metal operations. In 2011 investment banking services generated preliminary income of 3.4 billion roubles. The Bank plans to significantly increase income generated by these segments after the teams are unified, which will happen in the immediate future.

Charles E. Ryan. Chairman, UFG Asset Management

 By Andrei Skvarsky.

UFG founder Charlie Ryan has sealed his reputation as the most successful foreign banker in Russia ever by clinching a deal which nets him a fourth payout from Deutsche Bank. The American banker, who oversaw Deutsche Bank’s Russian operation from 2005 to 2010, is selling Deutsche the remaining 60% stake in UFG’s Capital Management unit that the German lender does not own.

A Harvard graduate, Ryan first came to Russia in the early 1990s as a banker for the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) when he landed in St Petersburg to help advise the local authorities on how best to privatise local municipal assets. One of his key initial contacts in the mayor's office was one V. V. Putin, who was deputy mayor at the time to Anatoly Sobchak.

Spotting a gap in the market, Ryan and a partner Boris Fedorov decided to strike out by setting one of  the country's first ever investment banks.

``Charlie has had the intelligence to understand the Russian political and economic context before positioning, and to pick his partners well,'' commented Eric Kraus, an independent fund manager in Moscow.

 By Andrei Skvarsky.

State-owned bank VTB would benefit seriously during its planned partial privatisation from a share pricing measure proposed by Deputy Prime Minister Igor Sechin, Renaissance Capital analysts argue.

Sechin last week proposed an amendment to the 2011-2013 privatisation programme to ensure that the starting price of a state company in any privatisation deal should not be lower than the firm’s price during its initial public offering of shares. Prime Minister Vladimir Putin asked the government to take the idea into account.

VTB, Russia’s second biggest lender, is trading its shares at half their IPO price of 136 rubles ($4.37 at today’s exchange rate).

“If indeed such a rule [the measure proposed by Sechin] is implemented, it would significantly reduce medium-term stock overhang risk for VTB,” the RenCap analysts say in a comment.

VTB is to have a 25% stake privatised under the programme, and has a 10% stake set to be sold in 2012.

The current market price of Russia's biggest lender, state-owned Sberbank, which is also on the privatisation list, is just 10% below its IPO price of 89 rubles per share ($2.86).

By Ivan Anderzhanov.

Germany's Deutsche Bank will take over the remaining 60% in the Russia's UFG Capital Management it doesn't own in an effort to boost its presence in the country's nascent asset management sphere.

The financial details of the transaction weren't disclosed.  Deutsche UFG Capital Management has 370 million euro of assets under management.

Detusche bought the initial 40 percent stake in 2008 just months after ditching its own DWS retail platform in Russia after failing to gain any traction on its own.

UFG Asset Management manages nearly $1.7 billion across several asset classes. Deutsche is only buying the capital management unit and the deal excludes UFG Private Equity and the offshore hedge fund businesss.

Florian Fenner, chairman of Deutsche UFG Capital Management, will continue in his role. Insiders said they doubted Deutsche would axe any staff in the near term.

Deutsche previously acquired UFG Investment Bank in a two-pronged move, which gave it a leading beachhead in the Russian market until VTB Capital arrived and plundered many of its key personnel in 2008.

By Andrei Skvarsky.

The Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) has about 20 projects worth a total of about $5bn under consideration, according to comments from Vnesheconombank, manager of the country’s sovereign wealth fund.

Potential deals that are being mulled by RDIF, which was established in June to draw foreign money into Russia’s underdeveloped private equity sector, include a project to sell Sukhoi Superjet 100 regional airliners to Indonesia.

In mid-October, RDIF and its Chinese counterpart, China Investment Corp, set up a joint fund, each pledging to invest $1bn in it with plans to raise between $1bn and $2bn more from other Chinese investors. For online resources for managing funds, see Accounting Degree.

By Andrei Skvarsky.

Barclays Bank's Russian unit will focus on investment banking after offloading its retail and commercial banking operations in Russia under a deal it has just signed with investors including banker Igor Kim. The deal follows a February 15 announcement by the British institution that it would close its retail and commercial banking business in Russia.

Barclays is one of several foreign banks that have been shutting or curtailing their Russian operations and have included HSBC and BNP Paribas.

By Andrei Skvarsky.

Micex and RTS, Russia’s two key stock exchanges, have won a prize from a Russian business magazine for their current merger, a $1bn deal to be closed on December 19.

The Kompaniya weekly declared the two exchanges winners of the company of the year prize in the deal of the year category, according to statements from the two bourses.

By Andrei Skvarsky.

UniCredit’s lending arm in Russia will be selling, exchanging and redeeming shares in 18 mutual funds managed by French-Russian venture TKB BNP Paribas Investment Partners under a new distribution agreement.

The deal between the Italian lender and TKB BNP Paribas, which is co-owned by France’s BNP Paribas and Russian railways monopoly RZD, takes effect this month, according to a statement by TKB BNP Paribas.

By Andrei Skvarsky.

Sberbank has announced it is buying a Russian unit of Europe’s largest insurance company, Allianz.

Sberbank’s 100% takeover of Allianz Life is to be finished before the year end, according to a statement from Russia’s biggest lender.

It has not been disclosed how much Sberbank is paying for Allianz Life, which is not among Russia’s top 100 retail insurance companies.

Allianz’s chief unit in Russia is ROSNO, one of the country’s main insurers.

Sberbank is in acquisition mode this year after buying Troika Dialog and Austria's VBI and with plans afoot to take over a Turkish brokerage.

By Marcus Williams. The exchanges of the emerging markets bloc of Brazil, Russia, India and China are forming an alliance to help deepen their liquidity and offer investors pooled exposure to their markets. This initiative was announced at the 51st AGM of the World Federation of Exchanges (WFE) in Johannesburg yesterday. The initiative brings together BOVESPA from Brazil, MICEX from Russia (currently merging with RTS Stock

China's sovereign wealth fund agreed yesterday  to invest $1bn in a Kremlin-backed investment vehicle during a visit by Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.

China Investment Corporation's deal marks the first commitment by an investor to the Russian Direct Investment Fund, a private equity vehicle set up in June as a way to diversify the country away from its sickly dependency on oil.

The fund has been talking to every major buyout on the planet but not a single private equity fund has yet agreed to co-invest with the state vehicle.

Russia's state-run bank VEB will be a strategic partner of the fund and provide financing.