VTB opens overseas offices

Financial News

Jason Corcoran in Moscow
28 October 2008

Russian state bank VTB is defying the global downturn and dismal domestic markets by opening new sales and representative offices for its investment banking arm in New York and Dubai.

Yulia Chupina, the VTB board member responsible for the expansion of its investment banking subsidiary, said the bank would open offices shortly in the US and Dubai.

She said: "We are being cost conscious by freezing hiring and development in some areas while continuing to develop in other areas."

VTB has already established three investment banking hubs in Moscow, London, and Singapore. It has dominated this year's hiring war in Russia by recruiting bankers from Deutsche Bank and key figures from a number of banks in Moscow.

In response to the crisis, the bank said it was considering cutting costs by between 15% and 20%, and had postponed a move into its new offices in Federation Tower, the tallest skyscraper in the emerging business district of Moscow City.

Chupina confirmed that VTB was no longer interested in buying a stake in Renaissance Capital's troubled consumer lending arm Renaissance Credit.

The bank is believed to have abandoned the deal after Renaissance Capital founder Stephen Jennings declined to cede control.

—Write to Jason Corcoran at jasonwcorcoran@googlemail.com