Business New Europe
Jason Corcoran in Moscow
January 23, 2009
Merrill Lynch has ousted JP Morgan Chase to take the crown as leading adviser to Russian merger and acquisitions in 2008.
US bank JP Morgan narrowly beat its Wall Street rival in 2007 due to its involvement in announced deals worth $40.8bn, compared with Merrill's $39.2bn. However, last year Merrill nudged ahead through advising on 14 deals worth $24bn compared with JP Morgan's 12 transactions worth $19.6bn, according to statistics prepared for bne by data provider Thomson Reuters.
During the year, Merrill's most notable deals included advising steelmaker Severstal on its $775m acquisition of US steel products manufacturer Esmark, as well as Rusal, the world's largest aluminium producer, on its taking a 25% holding in domestic rival Norilsk Nickel.
Overall, fees generated from M&A were well down last year, with Merrill Lynch earning $40.7m, compared with $58m in 2007. JP Morgan's fee income from Russian deals more than halved to $37.6m, from $78m a year ago.
Merrill Lynch is one of the few investment banks operating in Russia that is yet to cut its staffing levels. The bank has 83 staff based in Moscow and has several vacancies it is seeking to fill when the market stabilises. "We have made a lot of money in M&A and fixed income in the past year, and the business is not yet a high cost one," says one senior source. "In fact, we got lucky that we were gradually building up the brokerage business when the banking crisis struck."
Responsibility for the business lies with Riccardo Orcel, head of investment banking for Central and Eastern Europe and the Middle East and Africa, but the business is fronted in Moscow by American Bernie Sucher, head of global markets in Russia. Sergei Aleksashenko, the chairman of Russian business, quit in April last year following a dispute over the running of the operation, but sources indicated his position would not be refilled.
Harsh times
Overall, investment banks operating in Russia have been hit by a 40% slump in M&A activity with little sign of recovery until the middle of 2009.
The volumes of M&A deals tumbled by almost 40% in the three months to November 2008, according to Russian data provider Merger.ru. Some 258 transactions were completed worth $13.7bn, down by 40% from $22.6bn for the same period a year earlier. Volumes were hurt when big deals were pulled, including planned acquisitions by electricity utility OGK-1, supermarket chain Lenta and steelmaker Novolipetsk.
Russian deal activity had been growing steadily for several years until the banking crisis hit Russia in September. In the second quarter of 2008, M&A volumes were up 80% to $57bn from $31.5bn in the same period a year earlier. But from January through November, the M&A market declined by 7% to $102bn, compared with $110bn in the corresponding period of last year.
The communications sector was the most popular for deals, generating 20% of all M&A deals between September and November worth $2.7bn. The financial sector was next with 18.5% of volumes worth $2.5bn.
Russian broker Renaissance Capital was again the leading bookrunner in equity issuance for 2008 with a market share of 18% from four IPOs worth $452m. Morgan Stanley came second with three mandates worth $320 in a market where dealflow had dried up by end of the second quarter. The largest deal was a $1bn rights offering by London-listed Russian retailer X5 on April 22. Citigroup and Goldman Sachs were joint bookrunners and the underwriter was Russian broker Alfa Capital.
In debt capital markets, US bank Citigroup triumphed over Deutsche Bank with a market share of 12.4% generated from six issues worth $2.75bn. The German bank registered a market share of 10.6% from five issues worth $2.36bn, while the Royal Bank of Scotland was not too far behind with a 10.4% share from 10 issues worth $2.3bn.
http://businessneweurope.eu/storyf1423/Merrill_Lynch_leads_Russian_MA_in_2008
Showing posts with label Merrill Lynch. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Merrill Lynch. Show all posts
Sunday, 25 January 2009
Tuesday, 12 August 2008
Former Goldman banker turns back on UniCredit for Merrill
Dow Jones - Financial News
Jason Corcoran in Moscow
12 Aug 2008
US bank Merrill Lynch has hired a former leading Goldman Sachs banker in Russia, who was supposed to be joining UniCredit's operation in Moscow, as co-head of investment banking in Russia.
The Italian bank UniCredit, which acquired Russian brokerage Aton 18 months ago, told Financial News in June that Amiran Kanchaveli, an executive director at Goldman Sachs, was joining as co-head of investment banking.
However, Kanchaveli, who previously worked at ABN AMRO alongside the prime minister of Georgia, Vladimir Gurgenidze, changed his mind.
A source familiar with the situation said Kanchaveli had opted to join Merrill Lynch instead and had recently taken up a senior position in investment banking.
The bank is also hiring additional staff in equity sales and trading, along with fixed income, according to a Merrill Lynch insider.
On a visit to Moscow earlier this year, Merrill Lynch chief executive John Thain said the bank was going to expand rather than lay off employees in Russia.
The bank has recently been one of the strongest players in Russia's burgeoning mergers & acquisition advisory market but is looking to build brokerage capabilities as well.
Russia remains one of the most competitive markets in investment banking for talent in spite of Russian equity issuance drying up and flagging domestic markets, in the wake of allegations of price fixing at mining group Mechel and the outbreak of hostilities with Georgia in the breakaway republic of Southern Ossetia.
Jason Corcoran in Moscow
12 Aug 2008
US bank Merrill Lynch has hired a former leading Goldman Sachs banker in Russia, who was supposed to be joining UniCredit's operation in Moscow, as co-head of investment banking in Russia.
The Italian bank UniCredit, which acquired Russian brokerage Aton 18 months ago, told Financial News in June that Amiran Kanchaveli, an executive director at Goldman Sachs, was joining as co-head of investment banking.
However, Kanchaveli, who previously worked at ABN AMRO alongside the prime minister of Georgia, Vladimir Gurgenidze, changed his mind.
A source familiar with the situation said Kanchaveli had opted to join Merrill Lynch instead and had recently taken up a senior position in investment banking.
The bank is also hiring additional staff in equity sales and trading, along with fixed income, according to a Merrill Lynch insider.
On a visit to Moscow earlier this year, Merrill Lynch chief executive John Thain said the bank was going to expand rather than lay off employees in Russia.
The bank has recently been one of the strongest players in Russia's burgeoning mergers & acquisition advisory market but is looking to build brokerage capabilities as well.
Russia remains one of the most competitive markets in investment banking for talent in spite of Russian equity issuance drying up and flagging domestic markets, in the wake of allegations of price fixing at mining group Mechel and the outbreak of hostilities with Georgia in the breakaway republic of Southern Ossetia.
Thursday, 3 July 2008
Merrill to open wealth units in Moscow, Istanbul
Wealth Bulletin
24 June 2008 - By Jason Corcoran
Merrill Lynch wealth management unit is expanding its business by opening new offices in Russia and Turkey and expanding teams in Greece and other regions of emerging Europe.
Jean-Marie Deluermoz, director of emerging European markets, EMEA Wealth Management, at Merrill Lynch, said the group had given him a substantial budget to expand the business over the next five years.
Speaking in Moscow at the launch of the Capgemini Merrill Lynch 2008 Wealth Report, he told Wealth Bulletin: "We have a big recruitment budget for the region. Emerging Europe - Russia, the former Soviet Union states, Turkey and Greece - are attracting strong growth rates for wealth management."
A Moscow office to serve Russian clients offshore is expected to open in the third quarter, as is a new office in Istanbul. Merrill is also recruiting new teams for Greece and other countries, which were not disclosed.
Deluermoz, who set up Credit Suisse's representative office in Moscow in 2003, will take charge of the Russian operation from London.
He said Russian high net worth clients were starting to look beyond cash deposits and real estate investment to more sophisticated products such as hedge funds.
Deluermoz said the bank had decided not to go down the route of offering onshore banking in Moscow like its rivals UBS and Credit Suisse.
"It takes one year to get authorisation from the market regulator and another two years for a retail banking license, which you need to offer wealth management services," he added.
24 June 2008 - By Jason Corcoran
Merrill Lynch wealth management unit is expanding its business by opening new offices in Russia and Turkey and expanding teams in Greece and other regions of emerging Europe.
Jean-Marie Deluermoz, director of emerging European markets, EMEA Wealth Management, at Merrill Lynch, said the group had given him a substantial budget to expand the business over the next five years.
Speaking in Moscow at the launch of the Capgemini Merrill Lynch 2008 Wealth Report, he told Wealth Bulletin: "We have a big recruitment budget for the region. Emerging Europe - Russia, the former Soviet Union states, Turkey and Greece - are attracting strong growth rates for wealth management."
A Moscow office to serve Russian clients offshore is expected to open in the third quarter, as is a new office in Istanbul. Merrill is also recruiting new teams for Greece and other countries, which were not disclosed.
Deluermoz, who set up Credit Suisse's representative office in Moscow in 2003, will take charge of the Russian operation from London.
He said Russian high net worth clients were starting to look beyond cash deposits and real estate investment to more sophisticated products such as hedge funds.
Deluermoz said the bank had decided not to go down the route of offering onshore banking in Moscow like its rivals UBS and Credit Suisse.
"It takes one year to get authorisation from the market regulator and another two years for a retail banking license, which you need to offer wealth management services," he added.
Sunday, 9 December 2007
Deutsche Bank retains lead in Russia's capital markets in 2007
Business New Europe
Jason Corcoran in Moscow
December 7, 2007
Deutsche Bank has retained its leading status in Russia's capital markets in 2007 despite being buffeted by the loss of key rainmakers and increased competition in Moscow from bulge-bracket banking rivals like Goldman Sachs and Lehman Brothers.
Deutsche, which has over 800 staff in Moscow, shed its UFG brand in October having completed the acquisition of the local brokerage late in 2006. The German bank's leading drummer-up of business in Russia, Nick Jordan, left for Lehman Brothers during the year and his investment banking co-head Ilya Sherbovich is winding down before he joins his own fledgling boutique United Capital Partners next year. Both Jordan and Sherbovich are bringing on board UFG staff to beef up their operations, but this has yet to affect Deutsche's standing in the capital markets tables.
According to data provider Thomson Financial, Deutsche is the leading equities bookrunner so far this year from its involvement in 10 issues worth over $5.3bn. Renaissance Capital is second from its share of 14 issues worth $4.3bn, while Citigroup completes the top trio with 4 issues worth $4bn. Deutsche, which has promoted internally to replace Jordan and Sherbovich, acted as joint global coordinator and bookrunner to VTB Bank in its $8bn IPO in May. It also organised offerings by the electricity suppliers OGK-2 and OGK-3 worth over $2bn and the recent flotation by real estate firm LSR worth $772m.
The head of Deutsche's Russian operations, Charlie Ryan, is nonplussed by Moscow's hiring war, which saw Ed Kaufman move from UBS to Alfa Bank for a guaranteed $15m over two years. "I have seen this movie before," he said earlier this year. "Moscow is not a get-rich scheme, because you need to have all the pieces of infrastructure in place like we do. A lot of our competitors are becoming increasingly desperate because they can't achieve scale. They are planning tennis without a net."
Returnees
This year saw the return to Moscow of Goldman, Lehman and Nomura, all of which fled in 1998 nursing losses from the financial crisis and the subsequent bond default. A boom in consumer spending, oil tilting towards $100 a barrel, a record number of IPOs and high economic growth are the main reasons drawing them back.
Goldman, the world's most profitable and respected investment bank, has made little inroads yet into the Russian market. The co-heads of its Russian operation both left for local firms during the year, with Gordon McCulloch heading for Renaissance and Magomed Galaev leaving to run an oligarch's investments. Goldman is fifth in Thomson's equity table, eighth in mergers and acquisitions, and 11th in debt capital markets; Lehman is nowhere.
Other Western banks already active in Russia, such as Merrill Lynch and JP Morgan, are desperately trying to build scale in an already saturated market. Merrill is fighting tooth and nail with JP Morgan for the top adviser crown on M&A involving Russian companies. Morgan Stanley is in third and Deutsche is fourth. Overall, Russian M&A activity has more than doubled this year to a record $127bn (€86.2bn), according to Thomson's figures.
JP Morgan, which was frustrated in its efforts to buy a local brokerage, snatched a team of 16 analysts, traders and institutional sales people from Russia's MDM Bank in July. Its Russian operation has maintained relationships with state-run entities and large corporations in Russia, acting as joint bookrunner last year on the $10.7bn flotation of Rosneft and was one of the two international placement agents for this year's $8.8bn listing by Sberbank.
Germany's Dresdner Kleinwort is trying to re-establish its leading position in equity capital market by hiring an additional 60 bankers. Dresdner has fallen out of the top 22 in Thomson's equity capital markets tables in the year to date after topping the poll in 2007 thanks to its joint-bookrunner mandates on the Rosneft and TMK IPOs. In M&A, Dresdner is 18th compared with its ninth position in 2006.
Dresdner has been rebuilding since the departure last year of Bob Foresman, head of the Moscow office, to Renaissance. Foresman subsequently hired six bankers from Dresdner. Matthias Warnig, former chairman of Dresdner's Russian business, also joined VTB's board ahead of its flotation although he remains involved on a part-time basis.
A surprise new entrant in the top five is St Petersburg's own KIT Finance, which worked on five deals worth over $19m. The up-and-coming bank has benefited from close links to a number of oligarchs and is plotting its own IPO for early next year.
In debt capital markets, the Western banks with big pockets retain a stranglehold at the top of the table. Dutch bank ABN AMRO, with 14 deals worth $3.7bn is just ahead of Citigroup while Deutsche Bank is third.
Jason Corcoran in Moscow
December 7, 2007
Deutsche Bank has retained its leading status in Russia's capital markets in 2007 despite being buffeted by the loss of key rainmakers and increased competition in Moscow from bulge-bracket banking rivals like Goldman Sachs and Lehman Brothers.
Deutsche, which has over 800 staff in Moscow, shed its UFG brand in October having completed the acquisition of the local brokerage late in 2006. The German bank's leading drummer-up of business in Russia, Nick Jordan, left for Lehman Brothers during the year and his investment banking co-head Ilya Sherbovich is winding down before he joins his own fledgling boutique United Capital Partners next year. Both Jordan and Sherbovich are bringing on board UFG staff to beef up their operations, but this has yet to affect Deutsche's standing in the capital markets tables.
According to data provider Thomson Financial, Deutsche is the leading equities bookrunner so far this year from its involvement in 10 issues worth over $5.3bn. Renaissance Capital is second from its share of 14 issues worth $4.3bn, while Citigroup completes the top trio with 4 issues worth $4bn. Deutsche, which has promoted internally to replace Jordan and Sherbovich, acted as joint global coordinator and bookrunner to VTB Bank in its $8bn IPO in May. It also organised offerings by the electricity suppliers OGK-2 and OGK-3 worth over $2bn and the recent flotation by real estate firm LSR worth $772m.
The head of Deutsche's Russian operations, Charlie Ryan, is nonplussed by Moscow's hiring war, which saw Ed Kaufman move from UBS to Alfa Bank for a guaranteed $15m over two years. "I have seen this movie before," he said earlier this year. "Moscow is not a get-rich scheme, because you need to have all the pieces of infrastructure in place like we do. A lot of our competitors are becoming increasingly desperate because they can't achieve scale. They are planning tennis without a net."
Returnees
This year saw the return to Moscow of Goldman, Lehman and Nomura, all of which fled in 1998 nursing losses from the financial crisis and the subsequent bond default. A boom in consumer spending, oil tilting towards $100 a barrel, a record number of IPOs and high economic growth are the main reasons drawing them back.
Goldman, the world's most profitable and respected investment bank, has made little inroads yet into the Russian market. The co-heads of its Russian operation both left for local firms during the year, with Gordon McCulloch heading for Renaissance and Magomed Galaev leaving to run an oligarch's investments. Goldman is fifth in Thomson's equity table, eighth in mergers and acquisitions, and 11th in debt capital markets; Lehman is nowhere.
Other Western banks already active in Russia, such as Merrill Lynch and JP Morgan, are desperately trying to build scale in an already saturated market. Merrill is fighting tooth and nail with JP Morgan for the top adviser crown on M&A involving Russian companies. Morgan Stanley is in third and Deutsche is fourth. Overall, Russian M&A activity has more than doubled this year to a record $127bn (€86.2bn), according to Thomson's figures.
JP Morgan, which was frustrated in its efforts to buy a local brokerage, snatched a team of 16 analysts, traders and institutional sales people from Russia's MDM Bank in July. Its Russian operation has maintained relationships with state-run entities and large corporations in Russia, acting as joint bookrunner last year on the $10.7bn flotation of Rosneft and was one of the two international placement agents for this year's $8.8bn listing by Sberbank.
Germany's Dresdner Kleinwort is trying to re-establish its leading position in equity capital market by hiring an additional 60 bankers. Dresdner has fallen out of the top 22 in Thomson's equity capital markets tables in the year to date after topping the poll in 2007 thanks to its joint-bookrunner mandates on the Rosneft and TMK IPOs. In M&A, Dresdner is 18th compared with its ninth position in 2006.
Dresdner has been rebuilding since the departure last year of Bob Foresman, head of the Moscow office, to Renaissance. Foresman subsequently hired six bankers from Dresdner. Matthias Warnig, former chairman of Dresdner's Russian business, also joined VTB's board ahead of its flotation although he remains involved on a part-time basis.
A surprise new entrant in the top five is St Petersburg's own KIT Finance, which worked on five deals worth over $19m. The up-and-coming bank has benefited from close links to a number of oligarchs and is plotting its own IPO for early next year.
In debt capital markets, the Western banks with big pockets retain a stranglehold at the top of the table. Dutch bank ABN AMRO, with 14 deals worth $3.7bn is just ahead of Citigroup while Deutsche Bank is third.
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