Financial News
Jason Corcoran in Moscow
02 April 2007
Jason Corcoran in Moscow
Russian investment bank Renaissance Capital is expanding aggressively outside of its domestic market by hiring for new operations across Africa, Central Asia and Switzerland.
Renaissance is setting up an African continent-wide investment bank with an emphasis on the sub-Saharan. It has hired 50 people and is also the leading shareholder in Ecobank, a regional African bank with a presence in 16 countries.
Ecobank shareholders recently approved the bank's decision to raise $300 million from the capital market to finance its Pan-African expansion programme.
Part of Renaissance's operations will be being run from London with the main African centres being the Nigerian capital Lagos and Nairobi in Kenya. Chief executive Stephen Jennings said the bank will be involved in stock and bond trading, mergers and acquisitions, and capital markets.
He said: "After 50 years of disaster, it has become the world's second fast-growing region. I believe this growth will be stable. If I am right, this region will begin to see the formation of huge capital markets and their integration into the global markets. Structurally, this process is going to be identical to one that has happened in Russia during the last 15 years."
Renaissance has its own African clients and is believed to be working
on two IPOs.
Mark Jennings has been recruited as managing director of merchant banking in Johannesburg, South Africa from private equity firm Kingdom Zephyr.
Eight analysts have been hired to cover sub-Sahara with four in London, two in Lagos, one each in Nairobi and Harare. Matthew Pearson joins as head of research from Investec while Gordon Smith arrives as strategist joining from Citigroup
Renaissance is expanding in Central Asian. A new office offering investment banking and asset management will be opened this month [April] in Almaty, Kazakhstan Adel Kambar, director of debt Markets in Russia and Eastern Europe at Merrill Lynch, will be its chief executive.
Gregory Gurtovoy, head of Renaissance Ukraine, said the bank had built a full-scale replica of Renaissance in Kiev over the past two years.
He said: "We are the only full scale investment bank here. There are 50 people working on big M&A deals, trading and sales and a full research team." Gurtovoy claimed the Ukrainian market was the highest performer so far this year, up 800 points at 49%.
Head of research Roland Nash said Western institutional investors had caught the scent of the Caucus region. He said: "Last year we took over 40 investors from household-name funds to such relatively eclectic markets as Georgia, Azerbaijan and Kyrgyzstan. In April, we will be taking another 30 funds on a ten day trip across the region from Uzbekistan to Armenia."
Renaissance has also just opened a Swiss office in Geneva for international wealth management clients. Philippe Magistretti, head of private banking from Swiss bank Union Bancaire Privée, has been hired to head the business.
Deputy chief exeutive Neil Harvey said Renaissance was still "110% focused" on Russia. "We have a unique model suited to frontier-type capital which we would are applying elsewhere.”
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3 comments:
Hello Jason,
I just read your write-up " Renaissance spreads wings "
Their move into the Sub-Saharan market is a good business move.
Can you please supply me with any contacts you have in their Recruitment unit (Sub-Saharan)
I am interested in joining their team
I currently live and work in Nigeria
I believe my expertise will be valuable in their firm and working with them will enhance my experience
Thank you.
Bose.
It seems odd that anybody would want to put money in
San Diego business investors. The fees are much higher than in the mutual fund or even hedge fund business. A private equity firm will charge a minimum of 3-4% on funds managed plus 20% on profits. There are also acquisition fees,disposal fees etc. An investor can get a piece of a company by paying less than 1% in brokerage. Mutual funds charge just a little more. If private equity attracts money despite high fees, it is because the returns they generate net of fees are still high.
It's too late, since many of them, including local governmentt funds, are in there already.
I'm not sure that it's the right approach in any case. I say Orange County business investors
Are the best way to invest their money with high risk and high profit?
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