European CLO Summit 2021, London, November 8. An in-person educational conference on collateralised loan obligation issues for investors, issuers, underwriters, rating agencies, lawyers and accountants. It will take place at the London Marriott Hotel Grosvenor Square. Extensive sanitary precautions are promised by the organisers, New York-headquartered Opal Group. Commodities Trading 2021, November 9-10. An online… Continue Reading
Rouble best-faring of EM currencies but Russian economy may hit the rocks ‘any moment’ – Matrix Capital
By Andrei Skvarsky. The Russian rouble has been the best-performing of emerging market currencies in 2021 and is likely to get stronger in the near term but Russia’s economy as a whole is an unpredictable state and may run into trouble “any moment”, according to Moscow’s asset management boutique Matrix Capital. Inflation is likely to… Continue Reading
World ESG-focused investments likely to get above $53 tln mark by 2025 – Matrix Capital
By Andrei Skvarsky. Global investments compliant with environmental, social and governance (ESG) principles may exceed $53 trillion by 2025, making up about one-third of the world’s total assets under management, said the head of Moscow-based asset management boutique Matrix Capital. ESG-compliant debt markets may show an even more impressive growth with the total value of… Continue Reading
RenCap announces two hires for Africa team, one hire for London unit
By Andrei Skvarsky. Investment bank Renaissance Capital has announced three hires – two for technology-related research positions in its Africa operation and one for a London-based role of overseeing the firm’s relations with key institutional and retail clients. Yusuf Ibrahim has been hired as an analyst for venture investment in private-sector technology companies in Africa, including… Continue Reading
Julius Baer announces staff moves for Swiss market, makes hires for Moscow investment unit
By Andrei Skvarsky. Swiss bank Julius Baer has announced staff moves in its central management in Switzerland and made hires for its Moscow-based investment consultancy for Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). Gilles Stuck, today’s head of structured finance, will be in charge of the Zurich-headquartered bank’s entire Switzerland business with effect from… Continue Reading
Moscow’s Renaissance Insurance Group planning IPO
By Andrei Skvarsky. Moscow-based Renaissance Insurance Group expects to raise up to 21bn roubles (about $289m) through a planned initial public offering (IPO) of ordinary shares being co-organised by Credit Suisse, J.P. Morgan, VTB Capital, BCS Global Markets, Renaissance Capital, Sberbank and the Tinkoff bank. Moscow Exchange would be the site of the planned floating,… Continue Reading
UAE’s Mubadala, two other firms invest $33m in Open Mineral metals trader
By Andrei Skvarsky. United Arab Emirates state investment company Mubadala and two other firms have put $33m into Switzerland-headquartered base metals trading company Open Mineral to help it further sophisticate the digitisation of its business. Dusseldorf-headquartered venture capital firm Statkraft Ventures and Beijing- and Hong Kong-based private equity fund Lingfeng Capital were the investors that joined Mubadala in… Continue Reading
Kremlin brushes off Kudrin’s call for sweeping privatisation
By Andrei Skvarsky. The Kremlin has poured cold water over a forceful proposal by ex-finance minister Alexei Kudrin, today head of Russia’s state audit agency, for a scale of privatisation that would end the current state domination of Russia’s economy. In an article in a business magazine, Kudrin cites an estimate by Moscow’s state-controlled Institute… Continue Reading
EVENTS: Commercial Lines Innovation Europe, virtual event on Oct 11-13 to discuss role of technology in commercial insurance
Allianz, AXA, Generali and two dozen other insurance companies have confirmed they will take part in Commercial Lines Innovation Europe, a planned virtual conference on October 11-13 to focus on the role of technology and innovation in commercial insurance. More than 1,000 insurers are expected to attend the forum, whose extensive agenda will be divided… Continue Reading
$150m raised in energy transition-focused IPO co-run by Sova Capital, EarlyBirdCapital
By Andrei Skvarsky. London-based brokerage Sova Capital and U.S. boutique investment bank EarlyBirdCapital have acted as joint book runners for a successful initial public offering (IPO) aimed at funding an energy transition project for emerging and frontier markets. Oxus Acquisition Corp., a Kazakh special purpose acquisition company (SPAC), raised $150m through its IPO on the… Continue Reading
World Bank appoints David Knight lead economist for Russia
The World Bank has appointed David Knight, earlier a senior economist for the international bank and an adviser in the British and Sierra Leonean governments, as the lead economist for Russia with effect from September 1, 2021. Before his current appointment, Knight, who will be based in Moscow, was the World Bank’s senior economist for… Continue Reading
Luxembourg one of world’s main 2020 FDI recipients – MoneyTransfers.com
By Andrei Skvarsky. Though foreign direct investment was generally in decline worldwide in 2020 because of Covid-19, some countries still received more of it than they had in 2019, and they included tiny Luxembourg, which attracted an equivalent of one-third of FDI attracted by China. Luxembourg received $62bn as FDI last year. This was 319… Continue Reading
RenCap hires Boris Sinitsyn as global metals and mining analyst
Emerging and frontier markets investment bank Renaissance Capital has hired Boris Sinitsyn from VTB Capital as analyst for metals and mining to cover the firm’s M&M business in all its markets. Sinitsyn will be based in Moscow and report to Daniel Salter, global head of equity strategy and head of research for Eurasia, RenCap said… Continue Reading
EVENTS: Austin, Texas, to host three conferences in September organised by Opal Group
The Opal Group event organiser has three financial conferences in the United States scheduled for late next month, all of which would be in-person rather than virtual events and take place in Austin, Texas, with Opal promising maximum sanitary precautions. Emerging Managers Summit, September 27-28. The summit is expected to bring together new managers of… Continue Reading
Uzbek govt to relinquish control of JV with Coca-Cola in privatisation deal
The Uzbek government has pledged to sell its controlling stake in Coca-Cola Bottlers Uzbekistan, Ltd, a joint venture with Coca-Cola, as part of a current sweeping privatisation programme in the Central Asian country. Turkey’s Coca-Cola İçecek (CCI) A.Ş., one of the key bottlers in Coca-Cola’s global system, is to pay $252.28m for the 57.12 per… Continue Reading
Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley less attractive to job seekers than would seem logical – MoneyTransfers.com study
By Andrei Skvarsky. Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, KPMG, PwC and EY arouse a lot less interest among job seekers worldwide than one would have expected what with their prestige and lavish salaries, a study by the MoneyTransfers.com company suggests. Online reviews of Amazon by current and former employees of the e-commerce giant are looked up… Continue Reading
Russian industry back to pre-Covid output levels – Matrix Capital chief
By Andrei Skvarsky. Russia’s industry returned to its pre-pandemic output levels in the second quarter of 2021 and the country’s economy as a whole is likely to do so by the end of the year, according to the head of Russian investment boutique Matrix Capital. Russian industry’s resumption of pre-Covid production levels is shown by… Continue Reading
Russian financier upbeat about Kazakhstan’s ‘undervalued’ Halyk Bank, about Kazakh economy
By Andrei Skvarsky. Kazakhstan’s biggest lender, Halyk Bank, is “fundamentally undervalued”, a distinguished Russian financier has said, citing upbeat statistics released by the Kazakh institution. For the first quarter of 2021, Halyk reported a year-on-year net profit that was 5 per cent up on the first three months of 2020 and higher than consensus forecasts.… Continue Reading
Rouble volatility in Q2 mainly caused by OPEC+ output deal delay – Matrix
By Andrei Skvarsky. The Russian rouble’s unusual volatility in the second quarter of 2021 was chiefly caused by uncertainties over the then inability of the OPEC cartel and other key oil producing nations to agree output volumes because of a dispute that was only settled by July 18, according to Russian investment firm Matrix Capital.… Continue Reading
United Medical Group sets tentative date, indicative price for Moscow IPO
By Andrei Skvarsky. United Medical Group CY PLC, owner of a clinic chain in the city and region of Moscow known as the European Medical Center (EMC), has set a tentative start date for a planned initial public offering (IPO) – July 15 – and an indicative price range for the sale. The IPO would… Continue Reading
Uzbekistan’s Grand Leather Shoes pulls off buyout overseen by Bluestone bank
By Andrei Skvarsky. Uzbek shoe manufacturer Grand Leather Shoes has bought out a dysfunctional electrical heating equipment producer as part of Uzbekistan’s current sweeping privatisation programme, with Central Asia-focused Bluestone Investment Bank leading the shoe company through the $1.9m acquisition. Grand Leather Shoes, whose name in Uzbek is Grand Charm Poyafzallari, acquired a stake of 61.9… Continue Reading
Moscow’s European Medical Center planning IPO to be managed by Citigroup Global Markets Ltd, J.P. Morgan, VTB Capital
By Andrei Skvarsky. The European Medical Center, a private clinic in Moscow, has announced that it plans an initial public offering (IPO) with Citigroup Global Markets Ltd, J.P. Morgan and VTB Capital acting as joint global coordinators and joint bookrunners. The European Medical Center (EMC) is the brand used for the clinic by its owner,… Continue Reading
Belgium has Europe’s best job opportunities for LGBT+ people – Reboot
By Andrei Skvarsky. Belgium is the European country with the best employment and career opportunities for LGBT+ people while the labour markets of Cyprus and Lithuania have some of Europe’s scantiest offers to make to members of sexual and gender minorities, a study by digital PR company Reboot suggests. Luxembourg is the second- and Denmark… Continue Reading
Ether arouses more interest in U.S. than anywhere else – Invezz
By Andrei Skvarsky. The Ether cryptocurrency arouses much more interest in the United States than anywhere else in the world, a study by investment intelligence company Invezz suggests. There are 11 European countries in Invezz’s ranking of the world’s 20 nations showing the greatest interest in ether and sifted from 155 countries covered by the… Continue Reading
Cotrugli Business School starts issuing blockchain-stored diplomas to graduates
By Andrei Skvarsky. Zagreb- and Belgrade-based Cotrugli Business School has begun to issue blockchain-stored digital diplomas to its graduates. The diplomas are both in print form with a QR code and in digital form. The digital versions are stored on a HashNET platform, Cotrugli said in a statement. HashNET is a blockchain technology with a… Continue Reading
Sberbank: assets held abroad not easy to get in Russian bankruptcy cases
By Andrei Skvarsky. Receivers and creditors in Russia often come up against legal and other hurdles in trying to seize assets that insolvent debtors have abroad, according to a senior manager at Russia’s biggest lender Sberbank. About 5 per cent of Russia’s businesspeople own money or property abroad, mainly in the United States, France and… Continue Reading
Geological unit of Russia’s Rosneft can monitor drilling of over 250 wells a day in real time
By Andrei Skvarsky. The real-time online geological monitoring unit of Russian state oil company Rosneft was involved in drilling more than 3,000 wells in 2020, according to the firm, which said this made the division the world leader among facilities of this kind. With a team of about 80, the Moscow-based Geological Drilling Support Centre,… Continue Reading
EXCLUSIVE: Polish VC firm Inovo launches 2nd fund, worth 54m euros
By Andrei Skvarsky. Inovo Venture Partners, a Polish venture capital (VC) firm focused on technology startups in Central and Eastern Europe, has closed a second fund, one worth 54m euros, after its first fund generated a 320 per cent return on investments in 15 companies, leading two of them to successful initial public offerings (IPOs).… Continue Reading
ActivTrades brokerage reports record profit, turnover for 2020
Online brokerage ActivTrades has reported a profit and turnover for 2020 that it says are the highest annual volumes since the company was set up 20 years ago. The London-based brokerage, which provides services in more than 140 countries in 14 languages, offering more than 1,000 contract-for-differences (CFD) or spread-betting instruments, registered a pretax profit of… Continue Reading