Barclays Capital fills top Russian role

Wall Street Journal Europe

By Jason Corcoran

September 18, 2009

Barclays Capital has filled one of the most hotly-contested positions in Russian banking, hiring the deputy chairman of Renaissance Capital as its chief executive in the country, where it is leading a fresh assault on the investment banking market.

Bob Foresman, who has only recently stepped down as one of RenCap’s most senior bankers, will lead Barclays Capital, the investment subsidiary of Barclays, in Russia.

RenCap declined to comment but a source close to the group confirmed that Foresman had left to join Barclays after completing a deal whereby the state development bank Venesheconombank agreed to become a cornerstone investor in a Macquarie Renaissance joint infrastructure vehicle.

A London spokesman for Barclays Capital could not immediately be reached for comment. Foresman could not be reached for comment.

Headhunting sources said they expected a spate of mandates from Barclays for more bankers in light of Foresman’s appointment to one of the most coveted investment banking jobs in Russia.

Foresman emerged from a tough shortlist, which has featured at different stages many of Russia’s top bankers. One headhunter familiar with the situation said Foresman could command an annual salary of between $2m (€1.4m) and $3m.

Foresman joined RenCap in September 2006 from Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein, where he was chairman of the management committee for Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent States. Prior to joining Dresdner in 2001, he was head of investment banking for Russia and the Ukraine at ING Barings and had worked at the International Finance Corporation in various roles.

At Dresdner, he played an important role on most of Russia’s large energy sector transactions in recent years, including advising state controlled Rosneft on its $10.4bn initial public offering in 2006, and state energy giant Gazprom on its acquisition of a 72.7% stake of in oil producer Sibneft for $13.1 billion in 2005.

Hans-Jörg Rudloff, chairman of Barclays Capital, told Financial News in April that the bank was a launching a fresh campaign in Russia and would be building on its traditional stronghold in debt capital markets into equities and mergers and acquisitions.

BarCap has steadily been growing its Moscow operation over the past year having hired extensively for back and middle office functions.

Alexander Zakharchenko was recruited about a year ago as head of M&A advisory from ABN Amro RBS in Moscow, while earlier this month Stefano Marsaglia joined Barclays Capital in Russia as chairman of its worldwide financial institutions group and Nikolai Tsekhomsky became chief of its retail and commercial banking business in Russia.

Marsaglia joined from Rothschild and Tsekhomsky from state-owned bank VTB.