Renaissance Capital, the Russia/Africa investment banking specialist, has hired John Hyman as co-head of investment banking and financing at the firm, Euromoney has learnt. Hyman will join RenCap from hedge fund Cheyne Capital, where for the past year he had been head of equities.
Hyman and his co-head, Andrew Cornthwaite, will be responsible for further developing RenCap’s investment banking businesses in emerging and frontier markets, as well as in natural resources.
The hiring of a top professional like Hyman with a bulge bracket background indicates that Renaissance is looking to continue its growth strategy and build a more complex organisation.
Hyman has some 25 years’ experience in the markets, 17 of which were spent at Morgan Stanley. He held a number of senior roles at that firm and was co-head of global capital markets from mid-2008 to the end of 2009.
Hyman changed disciplines when he joined the leading European hedge fund, Cheyne Capital, run by Jonathan Lourie, also ex-Morgan Stanley. Hyman played an important role at Cheyne but is understood to have missed the challenges of investment banking.
Renaissance Capital began life under CEO Stephen Jennings in 1995 as a boutique Russian investment bank. But it has expanded aggressively over the past five years into other developing markets, notably in Africa and other parts of central and Eastern Europe. It has also opened offices in Hong Kong and Beijing.