By Andrei Skvarsky. Revere Capital Advisors, a hedge fund management specialist, has launched a strategic marketing and business development consultancy for early-stage hedge funds. The consultancy, REM Marketing Solutions, is based in London and offers marketing, sales, product management and business management services. Its managers for Europe are Camilla Balmer and Yvonne Barker-Layton, according to… Continue Reading
Tag Archives: UK
Magnitsky case defendant’s life in danger, witness says
By Andrei Skvarsky. A Moscow court has been told there is a conspiracy to murder Dmitry Kratov, the only defendant in the Magnitsky case, said British investment fund Hermitage Capital. Olga Grigorieva, a former head of the medical service for Moscow’s prisons, told the Tverskoi Court that a former prison official had warned her in… Continue Reading
EXCLUSIVE: BrokerCreditService hires quant strategist from Gulf Intl Bank
By Andrei Skvarsky. Russian brokerage BrokerCreditService (BCS), which has been recruiting intensively over the past few months, has hired Shan Jiang from Gulf International Bank as a quant strategist. Jiang took up his duties at BCS’s London office on Tuesday, Luis Saenz, the London-based head of equity and derivatives sales and trading at the brokerage,… Continue Reading
European Parliament urges visa ban, asset freeze for Magnitsky’s alleged killers
By Andrei Skvarsky. The European Parliament on Tuesday passed a non-binding resolution calling for tough European Union-wide sanctions against Russian officials blamed for the allegedly unlawful arrest of Sergei Magnitsky, a lawyer for British investment fund Hermitage Capital, and his death in custody in 2009. The resolution recommends that the EU Council, effectively the Union’s top… Continue Reading
Russian PE support fund buys $50m chunk of medical firm
The Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF), a sovereign co-investment institution tasked with supporting private equity projects in Russia, has invested $50m in health care firm MD Medical Group (MDMG) during the latter’s recent initial public offering of shares in London. BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager and Russian private equity fund Siguler Guff’s Russia Partners… Continue Reading
RenCap carries out reshuffle to beef up equity products group
By Andrei Skvarsky. Renaissance Capital has carried through an internal reshuffle to improve cross-regional coordination in its equity products group by making senior appointments in New York, London, Russia and South Africa. Rupert Hope and Florian Hellmich were promoted to global co-heads of distribution in New York and London respectively. They will oversee operations in… Continue Reading
RenCap “most innovative bank” in CEE – The Banker
Renaissance Capital has been declared this year’s “most innovative bank” in Central and Eastern Europe by The Banker, a Financial Times group monthly and a leading source of global financial information. RenCap’s rivals on the award shortlist were VTB Capital and Troika Dialog, which has been renamed Sberbank CIB with the exception of its asset… Continue Reading
Deutsche Bank, JP Morgan organise London IPO for Russian health care firm
By Andrei Skvarsky. Deutsche Bank and JP Morgan have organised what will be the first IPO of a Russian healthcare firm on the London Stock Exchange. MD Medical Group Investments Plc, a leading provider of private health care for women and children, expects to raise between $295m and $343m via its IPO of global depositary… Continue Reading
Russian capital markets hooked up to Euroclear system
By Andrei Skvarsky. The Euroclear financial services company has plugged Russia’s capital markets into its pan-European settlement and clearing system, according to Business New Europe (BNE). The Brussels-based system is now open to OFZs, one of the most actively traded classes of Russian government bonds, and to other Russian government and municipal bonds, corporate bonds… Continue Reading
RenCap hires ex-Morgan Stanley banker to run ECM & DCM business
By Andrei Skvarsky. Russian investment bank Renaissance Capital has hired Isabella da Costa Mendes from Morgan Stanley as head of equity capital markets and debt capital markets execution. Da Costa Mendes is based in London, RenCap said. Before joining Morgan Stanley, Da Costa Mendes worked for 10 years at JP Morgan, where she held positions… Continue Reading
BrokerCreditService makes one more hire from Otkritie
By Andrei Skvarsky. Russia’s BrokerCreditService (BCS) has hired Olga Naydenova from Otkritie as senior financial research analyst in Moscow, recruiting one more in a series of bankers and analysts who have come over from the rival Russian broker over the past several months. Naydenova took up her BCS job today, Luis Saenz, the London-based head… Continue Reading
BlackRock buys stake in Micex-RTS with RDIF support
By Andrei Skvarsky. Funds run by BlackRock, the world’s biggest asset manager, have bought an undisclosed number of shares in Moscow’s Micex-RTS exchange with support from the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF), a sovereign co-investment fund whose task is to attract foreign private equity to Russia. The sale of the stake to funds managed by… Continue Reading
Micex-RTS likely to stay shut from Dec 29 to Jan 7
Micex-RTS top brass have recommended that Moscow’s stock exchange stay closed for 10 days from December 29 to January 7, a period practically coinciding with Russia’s national non-working season. However, as a general principle, the top management recommended keeping trade going at Micex-RTS on Russian public non-working days if they make up more than one… Continue Reading
Russia’s BCS makes four top hires for new London unit
By Andrei Skvarsky. Russian broker BCS has opened a unit in London and made four senior appointments for it. Joseph (Yossi) Dayan was hired as head of markets, Luis Saenz as head of equity and derivatives sales and trading, Mark Cleary as head of sales trading, and Tim Bevan as head of international direct market… Continue Reading
Troika Dialog hires ex-VTB banker to run intl fixed income sales
By Andrei Skvarsky. Troika Dialog has hired Dean Tyler from VTB Capital as head of international fixed income sales. The recruitment of Tyler, who took up his duties this month and is based in Troika’s London office, is part of the Moscow-based brokerage’s current integration with Sberbank that aims to give Russia’s biggest lender a… 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
RenCap beefs up global business with dozen appointments
By Andrei Skvarsky. Renaissance Capital has beefed up its operations across the globe this month with a series of senior hires and staff moves. The appointees have filled equity products, research, electronic trading and other positions at RenCap, the Moscow-headquartered investment bank said in a series of statements. They include five senior managers in the… 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
Houlihan Lokey is expanding its M&A team
Steven Tishman has joined Houlihan Lokey as Global Head of M&A. Previously Steven was co-head of U.S. M&A at Rothschild. Houlihan Lokey, one of the largest global private investment banks is currently taking steps to actively expand its services in Eastern Europe and the CIS. It currently covers these regions from European offices and have already completed several high-profile mandates in Russia, Kazakhstan and Eastern… Continue Reading
Canadians mull visa ban for Magnitsky officials
By Andrei Skvarsky. Canada is considering joining the United States in denying entry visas to Russian officials blamed for the death in jail of Hermitage Capital fund lawyer Sergei Magnitsky. “The ongoing impunity, and indeed, in this instance shocking impunity regarding Russian officials is as scandalous as it is shocking,” Irwin Cotler, a member of… Continue Reading
Barclays offloads Russian retail to focus on investment banking
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… Continue Reading
KRAUS COMMENT: The Twilight of the West
By Eric Kraus, author of the Truth and Beauty (and Russian Finance). The good news is that we have a ringside seat for the decline of the West… the bad news – we are inside the ring! The miserable thing about being a seer is that when you get it right – no one remembers… Continue Reading
KRAUS COMMENT: The Eternal Russia – The Eternal Return
By Eric Kraus, author of Truth and Beauty (and Russian Finance). The major story is, of course, the return of Vladimir Putin to the Russian presidency – an outcome which we always thought likely given that Medvedev seemed a deeply counterintuitive choice for the Russian presidency. Totally lacking in charisma and with no experience of… Continue Reading
Britain slaps travel ban on Russia's Magnitsky officials
By Marcus Williams. Britain has blacklisted at least 60 Russian officials implicated in the 2009 prison death of Hermitage Capital’s lawyer Sergei Magnitksy. The move mirrors a measure taken by the US in July that prompted the Russian Foreign Ministry to retaliate with a ban on US officials. The decision to impose visa sanctions on the Russian officials in Magnitsky case… Continue Reading
RenCap records 25% drop in London operation’s revenues for 2010
By Andrei Skvarsky. Russian brokerage Renaissance Capital’s London-based operation recorded a 25% drop in its revenues for last year due to a change of strategy. The London firm’s revenues plunged by $17m to $52m in 2010 due to its changed strategy of earning its income from commissions on a brokerage basis, rather than by profiting… Continue Reading
The Brits are fast fading in Russia as PM Cameron arrives
By Andrei Skvarsky. British banks HSBC and Barclays, along with oil major BP, are fading from Russia just as UK Prime Minister David Cameron arrives in Moscow on Monday to try to reverse a nadir in British-Russian relations. HSBC, Europe’s largest bank, has shut its modest Russian retail network after committing $200m for building it… Continue Reading
HSBC launches emerging markets ETF on the LSE
By Andrei Skvarsky. HSBC, Europe’s largest bank, has launched an emerging markets fund onto the London Stock Exchange. The Irish-domiciled HSBC MSCI Emerging Markets Exchange Trade Fund will replicate the performance of the Morgan Stanley Capital International (MSCI) emerging markets index, which tracks the performance of major companies in countries such as Brazil, Russia, China… Continue Reading
Magnitsky mother to be questioned by her son’s alleged killers
By Andrei Skvarsky. Sergei Magnitsky’s mother has been summoned for an interrogation as part of the tax evasion case reopened against the Hermitage Capital lawyer in July, 20 months after his death in a Moscow jail. Natalia Magnitskaya will be questioned as a witness by police officers whom Hermitage accuses of torturing the anti-corruption lawyer… Continue Reading
Bank of Georgia seeking premium London listing
By Andrei Skvarsky. Bank of Georgia is seeking a premium London Stock Exchange listing, which would open the former Soviet republic’s number one lender to a much broader range of investors. The firm plans to reincorporate as a UK holding company, to be called Newco. It will then come up with a proposal in the… Continue Reading