Emerging Europe

In Russia, members of the business elite are just as likely to appear in the gossip columns as they are in the business sections of the nation’s newspapers.

Baring Asset Management says the fallout from the sub-prime worries in the US is creating buying opportunities in emerging Europe, which investors would do well to take advantage of.

Cash-strapped Belarus has finally made it onto the international ratings map – both Moody’s Investors Service and Standard & Poor’s have assigned it ratings ahead of a planned debut sovereign Eurobond, which should be launched in the fourth quarter. Moody’s rated the country at its Ba2 level for foreign currency borrowings, and S&P graded it B+.

The Turkish banking regulation and supervision agency (BDDK) has prevented Greece’s Alpha Bank from completing its acquisition of a 50% stake in Alternatifbank.

Austria’s Wiener Börse has added Ukraine to its stable of central and eastern European partners, signing a memorandum of understanding with the PFTS exchange, the largest of Ukraine’s six exchanges, with a market capitalization of €55 billion.

Serbia’s equity market has spent most of the year firmly in positive territory. But can the good times last? Guy Norton reports from Belgrade.

Companies from central and eastern European countries already in the European Union have adopted an increasingly aggressive strategy of making acquisitions in their faster-growing non-EU neighbours. The aim, it seems, is to gain a foothold before traditionally stronger western European and north American firms scoop up all the best deals. Dominic O’Neill reports.

"If Moscow is the centre of Russia, then the south is the pearl." That’s the mantra that Vasily Vysokov, chairman of Bank Center-Invest, likes to chant about the Krasnodar Krai federal district where his bank is the pre-eminent private sector player.

In the clearest sign yet that Turkmenistan is opening to foreign direct investment, the country has granted the first gas production licence to an overseas company. China’s national oil company, CNPC, has received approval to develop a field in the Amu Darya region in eastern Turkmenistan – the first new gas deposit to be developed since Soviet times. The project includes pipelines that will carry gas east across the region to China. CNPC eventually expects to produce 17 billion cubic metres of gas a year from the field.

As recent bridge collapses in the US and China illustrated, the difference between good and bad infrastructure is a matter of life and death. Nowhere is that more true than in Russia, where Soviet-era infrastructure is now creaking under the strain of coping with the increasing demands of the country’s booming market economy.

The banks look to be overstretching themselves in borrowing abroad to fund increasingly risky domestic lending.

UBS may want to forget much of this year following the closure of its hedge fund, the departure of senior personnel and a profits warning for the second half of the year. Some investors are even calling for the group to sell its underperforming investment bank. Could the saving grace be its emerging markets business? Sudip Roy asks Huw Jenkins, CEO of the investment bank.

Anyone seeking evidence of the growing range of investment opportunities for private equity practitioners in Russia need look no further than the news that Mint Capital has paid $8 million for a blocking minority stake in Mone, one of the country’s leading hairdressing and beauty salon chains.

Russia’s flourishing mortgage market is the next big opportunity for the country’s securitization market. Jethro Wookey reports from Moscow.

Is central Asia of the verge of an Islamic banking boom?

Kazakhstan’s economic boom has transformed the country into the undisputed economic leader in central Asia. But can it be a springboard for expansion in the rest of the region? Guy Norton reports from Almaty.

To build Las Vegas on the Baltic: that’s the underlying aim of the Amber Shore of Russia resort-recreation complex, which besides the requisite gambling facilities will include sports, spa and therapeutic centres, an aqua park, shopping malls and hotel complexes, and a range of upscale housing developments, alongside the inevitable golf course development.

In emerging markets fixed income, three investors have raised themselves to superstar status. Mohamed El-Erian, Simon Treacher and Jerome Booth have all earned enviable reputations. Raphael Kassin’s move from ABN Amro to Credit Suisse could place him in the same firmament. Julian Marshall reports.

BGC, an inter-dealer brokerage firm, has bought Marex Financial’s emerging markets equity derivatives business for an undisclosed sum.

Vladimir Evtushenkov, the chairman of Russian conglomerate Sistema, describes his company’s focus as consumer services but is tight-lipped about what that means. It apparently stretches to stakes in oil companies and a willingness to sell off what looked like a core element of a successful insurer. Laurence Neville reports.

Africa’s abundant mineral resources are attracting investment from Russian companies. What’s more, the Russians are proving more popular with Africans than westerners and the Chinese. Elliot Wilson reports.

It has been a long, slow process but after more than a decade private equity dreams in Kazakhstan are becoming a financial reality. Guy Norton reports from Almaty.

How now, Tau?

In the wake of the August 1998 financial crisis, Russia’s regions became a banking wasteland. But on the back of this decade’s strong economic growth the regions are seeing a financial services renaissance. Guy Norton reports.

Dear Sir,

Pension markets in central and eastern Europe will grow at 19% a year until 2015, a report published by investment management group Allianz shows. This will constitute a growth in total funds from €51 billion to €245 billion by 2015, fuelled by gradual governmental reform of pension systems that were once monopolized by the state. The proportion of pensioners to working people in the region, the report says, will grow from about 20% now to about 33% in 2035 and about 50% in 2050.

Emerging market debt has held up well in the face of a nascent credit crunch in developed markets.

Euromoney’s latest survey of the leading banks in structured credit shows a clear top tier of five investment banks. They say that providing fresh ideas to clients is what keeps them at the head of the pack.

Environmental, social and governance issues are increasingly prominent with regard to investment management in emerging markets. However, does taking a principled approach to portfolio construction offer the opportunity for greater returns, or leave investors with one hand tied behind their backs?

283,200,000,000 the volume of share buyback programmes globally so far this year. Share buybacks are up 19% compared with 2006 year-to-date and are at their highest on record, according to Dealogic. Retail has been the most active sector, with $56.7 billion via 14 deals, up from $3.4 billion via 12 deals in 2006 year-to-date. Finance follows with a volume of $45.9 billion via 27 deals and insurance with $25.9 billion via 16 deals.