Makram Abboud has been appointed as CEO Middle East & Africa and Co-Head of the International Multi-Product Origination and Distribution group for VTB Capital plc. In both these roles, Makram will be responsible for the development and implementation of VTB Capital’s International Client Franchise strategy internationally and in MENA, where VTB Capital’s goal is to be one of the leading investment banks in the market. Makram has almost 20 years experience working in senior roles in investment banking, covering both the Middle East and Emerging Markets. Prior to joining the VTB Capital team, Makram Abboud was Head of Emerging Markets at Nomura Holdings Inc.’s emerging markets team across sales and origination. Before that, Makram both developed and led the emerging market and Middle East capital market sales franchise first at UBS and then at Merrill Lynch, where he delivered exceptional growth to their respective franchises. Makram Abboud graduated from the McGill University School of Management, Montreal. He is also a Certified Public Accountant accredited by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA), Virginia, USA.

By Andrei Skvarsky.

Russia’s Renaissance Group has parted company with Ashar Qureshi, head of its fund management business, and Yury Gruzglin, global head of fixed income, currencies and commodities.

Qureshi combined his role as chief executive of Renaissance Asset Management with the position of vice chairman of Renaissance Group.

Qureshi joined the group in February 2010 and Gruzglin in 2008.

Renaissance’s Moscow spokesman, Preston Mendenhall, confirmed the departures to EmergingMarkets.me.

By Andrei Skvarsky.

Renaissance Group is slicing 10% percent its global personnel across its main business lines of investment banking, asset management and private equity.

The group, which includes RenCap, continues to make "key hires in what is a favorable employment market", according to Moscow-based spokesman Preston Mendenhall. He said Renaissance Credit, its consumer finance arm, was unaffected by the cuts.

RenCap has been aggressively hiring this year in Russia and across its newer geographies in Africa and Asia.

VTB Bank started its own staff reduction programme in August although insisted redundancies were all in ''back office'' roles.

By Andrei Skvarsky.

Jordan has asked to join the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development with a view to receiving EBRD funding, the European institution said in a statement.

Jordan has now joined Egypt, Morocco and Tunisia in seeking EBRD membership.

The four nations are the target of support under the “Deauville Partnership”, launched at the G8 summit in May to help promote political changes that have been under way in some Arab countries since this spring.

By Andrei Skvarsky.

Russian broker Renaissance Capital has hired Mert Yildiz from Kuwait China Investment Company as economist for Turkey, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Egypt.

Yildiz, who will be based in London, worked as an economist at the Istanbul operation of Dutch bank ING before joining Kuwait China Investment Company, RenCap said in a statement.

By Andrei Skvarsky.

Russian broker Renaissance Capital argues in a recent report that there is nothing wrong about investing in many of the undemocratic countries and that economic growth that investments help to fuel is conducive to democracy.

This, however, chiefly applies to non-energy-exporting countries, according to the report, which is written by a team led by RenCap’s global chief economist Charles Robertson and looks at economic and political developments in 150 countries over a period of 60 years.

The report says Russia is highly likely to become a strong democracy within the next few years, and that China will be a democratic nation by 2017.

Democracy is “immortal” in countries with minimum per-capita GDP levels of $10,000, the analysts say, tentatively putting Mexico, Brazil, Turkey and South Korea in that category.

“Once we have fed ourselves, housed ourselves and are thinking about buying a car, we begin to demand political rights,” says Robertson.

The post-Soviet history of Russia appears to prove the analysts’ point about exporters and non-exporters of energy: the country’s human rights and democratic record hit its lowest point at a time when living standards had risen significantly. The report, moreover, refers to Russia as a unique case.

By Andrei Skvarsky.

Russian brokerage Otkritie has boosted its international fixed income and strategy team with 11 hires.

The team will be led by Ron Solberg, a former Tokyo-Mitsubishi bank employee and an ex-adviser at Standard & Poor’s, Otkritie said in a statement.

The spectacular hiring spree comes about a fortnight after Thomson Reuters released its annual Extel survey of Russia’s best brokers, which puts Otkritie in eighth place, nine rungs up from the 2010 list.

Solberg will primarily focus on Eurodollar and local currency opportunities in the CIS, Central and Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Africa, and will report to global head of research Alexander Burgansky, who joined Otkritie several months ago after giving up a similar job with Renaissance Capital.

Solberg comes to Otkritie from global investment manager Armored Wolf, which he co-founded and where he was responsible for all emerging market investment activity.

Previously he worked at global investment management firm PIMCO, Tokyo-Mitsubishi and Chase Securities, advised Standard & Poor’s, and was a consultant to global policy think tank RAND Corporation.

His experience includes launching his own investment management firm with high-net-worth and hedge fund clients.

Evgeni Vorobiev has been named as his deputy.

By Andrei Skvarsky.

BRIC and its younger rival CIVETS, as groupings of nations, are losing relevance for investment strategists, who are increasingly taking a country- or sector-based approach, according to a US consultancy.

Whilst Brazil, Russia, India and China have similar growth patterns, as do the CIVETS countries – Colombia, Indonesia, Vietnam, Egypt and South Africa, - they have different investment opportunities, Kevin McPartland, principal of emerging markets research and advisory firm TABB, argues in a report.

McPartland also says it is time for the BRICs “to move over as the CIVETS are the next wave of emerging financial markets with prospects on a par with what the BRIC nations began to experience a decade ago”. The CIVETS nations saw inflows of $10bn in 2010 and nearly each of them posted double-digit equity returns last year. 

By Andrei Skvarsky.

Renaissance Capital has announced two senior hires and two key promotions for its global team.

Daniel Barcelo, a former senior energy analyst at Bank of America and Lehman Brothers, has been hired as global head of oil and gas research, the Russian brokerage said in a statement. He effectively replaces Alexander Burgansky, who quit RenCap for another Russian broker, Otkritie, several months ago. Renaissance performed poorly in last week's annual Extel survey of Russian brokerages.

Vladimir Rusinov and

Chris Weafer, Chief Strategist at UralSib Securities

By Chris Weafer, Chief Strategist at UralSib Securities.

Equities and the ruble should open with greater support this morning as commodity prices rally and Asia's equity markets move higher. Although still very nervous, investors view recent weakness as an over-reaction. The oil producers along with stocks in the metals and mining sectors should lead the expected bounce at the opening. In particular, the better copper and nickel prices should help Norilsk Nickel and a further gain in the price of silver will help Polymetal to move higher. Whether the morning strength is sustained or not will depend on the reaction to the 2nd reading of US 1st Qtr GDP growth, due out later. The 1st reading showed growth of +1.8% and the expectation is that the 2nd reading will see this rise to 2.2%. The weekly jobless report will also be published and investor sentiment is always sensitive to this indicator. As always, how the US market trades will affect how Moscow’s bourses close.

The ruble should have a better day today because of the lag effect of yesterday’s better oil price and an improved risk appetite in global markets. The ruble should see better gains against the dollar than the euro as the dollar is weakening against the euro again this morning.

The current rate is $1.4166, having closed at $1.4087 yesterday. The price of one-month Brent is at $115.0 p/bbl (WTI at $101.62 p/bbl). The price rose $2.4 p/bbl yesterday and is up over 0.5% again this morning as a reaction to yesterday’s US Dept of Energy report and the weaker dollar. Copper is also adding to yesterday’s 2.2% gains, adding 0.8% in Shanghai as traders look at reports suggesting a looming shortage. Gold is at $1,530.6 per ounce and silver is up 2.5% to add to yesterday’s 4.9% gain.

It will be a busy results day in Russia with updates scheduled from LUKoil, X Five, MTS and Pharmacy 36.6.

As the football season ends summer cricket is back – first test against Sri Lanka today. Very civilized way to waste a few days.

Otherwise most of the headlines today will come from the G8 meeting in France. The main agenda items are expected to be the response to the events in Libya and Syria plus the issue of who will be the new head of the IMF. The US will more likely support Europe’s candidate as Washington will want to ensure it retain the key position in the World Bank. There will also undoubtedly be discussions about the containment of eurozone debt and equally toxic emissions from Japan's nuclear reactor. The vexing questions of competitive currency management, damaging global inflation and quantative easing will also be part of discussions.

From a Russian perspective, any major events in which either Medvedev or Putin are involved are assessed in the context of the March 2012 succession. It is clear that Prime Minister Putin has regained the momentum in recent months so Medvedev’s supporters will hope for a successful G8. The President may push for a more direct commitment to support Russia’s WTO entry bid in 2011, progress in the missile shield talks and a recognition of Russia’s position in the Mid-East conflict.

The price of oil jumped by $1.5 p/bbl after the US Energy Dept released the weekly oil inventory report. Although the stock of both crude oil and gasoline gained more than expected, traders did not pay too much attention because there was a lot of guess work in the latest data because of oil loading disruption due to the Mississippi flooding. Instead they focused on the gain in refinery utilization to 86.3%. That is interpreted as a good sign that end-user demand is picking up ahead of the all important start of the driving season from this weekend. As Moscow closed, Brent traded at $114.10 p/bbl and WTI was again above the $100 p/bbl level.

The ruble tends to react to external events with a time lag of almost one day so, yesterday, it did not benefit from the gain in oil or the better risk appetite in global currency markets. The MICEX currency session was very dull as the ruble closed 6 basis points lower against the dollar, at 28.468, and 1 basis point lower against the euro at 40.006. The weekly inflation report showed a gain of 0.1% to bring the year to date rise to 4.6%. Traders believe that the slower pace may mean that the next Central Bank interest rate increase may be delayed.

Sberbank’s deputy CEO said that the bank is ready to appoint advisors to assist with plans for its GDR listing and the sale of the state’s surplus equity. That is a positive indicator that the long-awaited listing may actually happen in the autumn of this year.

Moscow’s bourses drifted upwards through most of yesterday as investors kept one eye on global markets, ready to engage the reverse gear in the event of any unsettling news. But, into the close, the external news was mainly positive as the price of oil jumped by more than $1.50 p/bbl after a generally favourable oil inventory report in the US. That helped MICEX close 1.0% higher, at 1,614.9, and the RTS to add 0.5% at 1,808.1. Further weakness in the ruble held back the dollar-denominated RTS Index. The banks and oil producers pushed the indices higher while the counter-balance was provided by a very sluggish Gazprom performance.

In London, the IOB Index added 0.8% with the steels adding a small top-up to the previous day’s gains. Evraz led with a 2.0% rise. Gazprom traded almost flat while the oil producers added between 0.5% and 1.0%. The food retailers sector was the best performing, including a 5.4% gain for X Five ahead of today’s numbers. Mail.ru, which has been strong in recent days as NASDAQ tech shares gained, lost 4.0% in sympathy with profit taking in Yandex, with the latter finally ending the off 9.9%. Mechel reflected the underlying nervousness in the US market towards risk assets and closed off 2.7%.

By Andrei Skvarsky. Russia's VTB Capital has hired Atanas Bostandjiev from Goldman Sachs to run its investment banking team for Europe, Asia, the Middle East, North Africa and the Americas. Before joining VTB Capital, the investment banking unit of Russia’s second biggest lender VTB, Bostandjiev was a partner at Goldman and was responsible for the US banking giant’s client business in Central and Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Earlier on, he held senior London-based

By Andrei Skvarsky.

Russian broker Renaissance Capital has hired Igor Bilous from Swiss bank UBS as co-head for Ukraine and Central and Eastern Europe and has promoted Rob Reid to the role of head for Zimbabwe and Zambia.

Bilous, who takes up his duties on April 18 and will be based in Kyiv, will be in charge of investment banking and finance and will share general oversight over Renaissance’s operations in the region with Roman Nasirov, head of the firm’s equity and debt products group, according to a statement by RenCap.

While at UBS, Bilous was in charge of the bank’s Ukrainian business and worked on many landmark transactions.

These included Mittal Steel’s buyout of Ukraine’s largest steel company, Kryvorizhstal, in 2005, the sale of a 51% stake in UkrSibbank, one of Ukraine’s

Standard Bank Group, Africa’s biggest lender by assets, looks set to remain in Russia after the likely disposal of its stake in Moscow's Troika Dialog.

Chief executive Jacko Maree said yesterday Standard does not need a bank on the ground to advance its strategy.

Standard Bank, which owns 36.4% in Russia’s Troika Dialog, is expected to offload its stake for a tidy profit when Russia's Sberbank completes its acquisition of the business later this month.

“We do not need a bank (stake) to execute our strategy”  Maree said at the presentation of the bank annual results, referring to Russia.