By Andrei Skvarsky. UBS, Switzerland’s largest bank, has hired Anush Simonian from rival Swiss lender Credit Suisse as its investment banking chief in Russia. Simonian replaces Antanas Petrosius, who remains deputy head for Russia and who also comes from Credit Suisse, having joined UBS in June last year. He will focus on key clients, according… Continue Reading
Tag Archives: Europe
Raiffeisen, Sberbank co-run Eurasian Development Bank’s Eurobond sale
By Andrei Skvarsky. Raiffeisen Bank International AG and Sberbank CIB, a former unit of Troika Dialog, co-managed the recent successful sale of the Russian ruble-denominated Eurobonds by Eurasian Development Bank (EDB), an international institution set up by the governments of Russia and Kazakhstan. The five-year securities with maximum 8% yields made up what was the first-ever… Continue Reading
GOLDMAN SACHS COMMENT: Some Questions for the Asian Economic Century
By Jim O’Neill, Chairman, Goldman Sachs Asset Management. I returned from a quick trip through parts of Asia on Saturday, thinking that we have reached a critical stage in terms of economic policy and development in many parts of that region, especially in terms of whether this century will turn out to be “theirs” in… Continue Reading
Deutsche Bank replaces head of Russian unit
Deutsche Bank has appointed Pavel Teplukhin, a co-founder of Russian brokerage Troika Dialog, as chief executive of the Russian unit of Germany’s largest lender. Teplukhin takes up his new role on October 1, according to Reuters. He replaces Igor Lojevsky, whose contract has expired. Continue Reading
Russia’s UralSib Bank names Ilkka Salonen as CEO
By Andrei Skvarsky. Russia’s UralSib Bank has named Ilkka Salonen, formerly a deputy chairman of Sberbank and a senior figure at Renaissance Group, as its chief executive. In his new role, Salonen, who was hired from Helsinki-headquartered investment bank Septem Partners, will replace Ildar Muslimov, who has been dismissed by the bank’s supervisory board, according… Continue Reading
ING names head of commercial banking in Russia
By Andrei Skvarsky. The Netherlands’ ING Group has appointed its veteran Luc Truyens as head of commercial banking in Russia. Truyens, who takes up his duties on September 3, joined Banque Bruxelles Lambert (BBL) 29 years ago and has stayed at ING since the latter took over the Brussels-headquartered bank in 1998. “With the arrival… Continue Reading
WERMUTH COMMENT: Markets are far from convinced that the Brussels agreement will work for the euro
By Dieter Wermuth, Chief Economist, Wermuth Asset Management. Other than I had expected, the June 29 agreements about the euro area banking union had impressed markets for only a short while. I think, though, that we have been witness to an irreversible quantum leap towards a stable institutional set-up for the common currency. The dangerous… Continue Reading
GOLDMAN SACHS COMMENT: Markets and Moods
By Jim O’Neill, Chairman, Goldman Sachs Asset Management. Markets and Moods. So, here’s the situation. The mood is grim. A lot of economic data has turned grimmer, which makes many people so bearish about many things, markets included. Much of the “mood” centres on a sense of hopelessness about Europe, with the risk on/risk off… Continue Reading
SunGard comes up with software to fight market manipulation
By Andrei Skvarsky. SunGard, a multinational software and technology services company, has extended the capabilities of its principal risk avoidance and transparency suite to help regulators, trading venues and firms to detect and prevent market manipulation and insider trading. One of the new features of the Protegent set of programs is a library of rules… Continue Reading
RenCap says ruble’s decline no reason for anxiety
By Andrei Skvarsky. Renaissance Capital argues that this month’s 7.2% decline of the Russian ruble versus the dollar is not much to worry about. Various currencies have been going down against the dollar, and the ruble has been doing better than, for example, the Polish zloty, the Hungarian forint or the Czech koruna, which have… Continue Reading
GOLDMAN SACHS COMMENT: Apple, China and the Growth Markets
By Jim O’Neill, Chairman, Goldman Sachs Asset Management. This past week, I spent 3 days in the US, in New York and Chicago. The main purpose of my NY visit was to host our 2nd GSAM Growth Markets Summit, which was quite an event, with many interesting speakers, panels and a great list of clients.… Continue Reading
GOLDMAN COMMENT: Europe Needs Growth, not More Austerity
Jim O’Neill, Chairman, Goldman Sachs Asset Management Late Friday, the S&P finally followed through with their early December 2011 threat and downgraded a number of European countries’ credit rating, including Austria and France, who lost their AAA status. This threat had been hanging over the markets ever since the last EU Summit and, at least… Continue Reading
Charlie Ryan seals his reputation as Russia's most successful banker
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… Continue Reading
RenCap boosts presence in Turkey by taking over Istanbul broker
By Andrei Skvarsky. Renaissance Capital has clinched a deal to buy out Istanbul-based brokerage Mira Menkul Degerler in building up its presence in Turkey. Burak Akbulut, who has been in charge of RenCap’s business in Turkey, has been appointed as acting chief executive of the emergent Renaissance Capital Turkey, the Russian firm said… Continue Reading
Wermuth loses second senior manager since summer
By Andrei Skvarsky. Wermuth Asset Management, a German fund manager chiefly operating from Moscow, has parted company with its chief executive Maarten van den Belt, three months after another top figure in the relatively small company quit the firm. Van den Belt, whom Wermuth hired as its CEO in July 2010, has been replaced by Michael… Continue Reading
INTERVIEW: Raiffeisen staying the course in Russia
By Andrei Skvarsky. Raiffeisen has no plans to follow its European counterparts by retreating from or retrenching in Russia, the Austrian lender’s top spokesman, Michael Palzer, tells EmergingMarkets.me. AS: Russia’s Sberbank is said to be eyeing the Russian assets of crisis-hit European banks, hoping to buy them cheaply. Has it offered to buy your Russian subsidiary?… Continue Reading
Ernst & Young hires Deutsche Boerse’s Steinbach to run IPOs
By Andrei Skvarsky. Ernst & Young has hired Martin Steinbach, a former senior figure at Deutsche Boerse, to run its initial public offerings and listings centre for Europe, the Middle East, India and Africa. Steinbach spent nearly a decade as head of issuer and investor markets at Deutsche Boerse, the stock exchange based in Frankfurt-am-Main,… Continue Reading
UniCredit sets out fund distribution alliance with BNP Paribas
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,… Continue Reading
Societe Generale’s Rosbank hit by 146.6m-euro fraud
By Andrei Skvarsky. Societe Generale lost 146.6m euros through fraud at Rosbank, the French bank’s Russian subsidiary, in 2007. The fraud was committed at the subsidiary’s Swiss branch, Rosbank Switzerland, and has resulted in the latter’s liquidation, according to the Daily Telegraph and Financial News. The loss, described as “fraud” in Rosbank’s 2007 annual report,… Continue Reading
Khodorkovsky money found stashed in Swiss bank
By Andrei Skvarsky. Jailed Russian tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky has stashed between 15m and 20m euros on an account in Swiss bank Julius Baer that no one has heard of until now. German investigators who were hunting tax dodgers came across the account in searching the databases of Julius Baer’s European headquarters in Frankfurt… Continue Reading
EXCLUSIVE: Dutch bank ING goes on Russian hiring spree
By Andrei Skvarsky. Dutch bank ING has made a series of hires for its investment banking team in Russia over the past few months in bouncing back after being forced by the global financial crisis to scale down its presence in the country. Igor Goncharov, Tatiana Prokina and Anna Kochkina were taken on… Continue Reading
Sberbank targeting cheap buyouts in crisis-rocked Europe
By Andrei Skvarsky. Wounded European banks UniCredit Group, Raiffeisen, Societe Generale and KBC Group are the next most likely targets for acquisition-hungry Russian behemoth Sberbank. Sberbank, which has already gobbled up Austria’s VBI and is looking at Dexia’s Turkish unit, is keen for more action in Western European countries bombed out by the… Continue Reading
Russia to bail out debt-ridden European countries?
By Marcus Williams. Russia may rescue Europe from its debt crisis provided it sees a concrete rescue plan from the continent’s partners, President Dmitry Medvedev’s economic aide said yesterday. Former finance minister Alexei Kudrin and Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov discussed the issue of debt with Spanish Finance Minister Elena Salgado, according to the aide Arkady… Continue Reading
Sberbank may bid for European lender’s Turkish subsidiary
By Andrei Skvarsky. Russia’s Sberbank is considering bidding for DenizBank, a Turkish lender owned by troubled European bank Dexia. Dexia, a Brussels-headquartered bank anticipating what would be a second state bailout in the past few years, has its foreign assets up for sale. “It is clear that Turkey is very much in… Continue Reading
BNP Paribas may buy out Pioneer Investments unit from UniCredit
By Andrei Skvarsky. France’s BNP Paribas is considering a partial buyout of a Russian subsidiary of US-based investment manager Pioneer Investments from Italy’s UniCredit. TKB BNP Paribas Investment Partners, a firm controlled by the French lender and Russian railways monopoly RZD, would take over three funds with total assets of 998m rubles ($31.4m) from Pioneer… Continue Reading
East Capital Explorer names Mia Jurke as CEO
Swedish investment company East Capital Explorer has appointed Mia Jurke as its new chief executive. Jurke joins East Capital Explorer to replace Gert Tiivas who joins the Swedish firms private equity business in the Baltic countries. Peter Elam Håkansson, chairman of East Capital, said: “East Capital is the investment manager of East Capital Explorer. The… Continue Reading
Danish bank Saxo opens shop in Moscow as others retrench
By Marcus Williams. Danish investment Saxo Bank is opening a new representative office in Moscow just as existing players are cutting staff in the Russian capital. Saxo, an online trading and investment specialist, said the opening is a strategic move “to strengthen and expand its position as a leading provider of online trading and investment… Continue Reading
EBRD to invest in Russian housing estates
By Andrei Skvarsky. The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development has committed $20m in a project to build affordable housing in Russia. The EBRD said in a statement it would hold a significant minority stake in the project’s developer, Ecodolie, which is owned by Baring Vostok Private Equity Fund IV. The EBRD is… Continue Reading
Sberbank slashes branch network by 239
By Ivan Anderzhanov. Sberbank, Russia’s biggest lender, has cut its retail network by 239 in the first six months of this year even as major foreign lenders retreat from the sector. Data from the Central Bank indicates that rival Russian banks like VTB24, Gazprombank, Alfa-Bank and Rosbank have increased the size of their retail network,… Continue Reading