Emerging Europe
LATEST ARTICLES
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UniCredit continues to expand its operations in central and eastern Europe, with the acquisitive Italian banking group turning its gaze towards Ukraine in July. Bank Austria Creditanstalt (BA-CA), which is responsible for UniCredit’s commercial banking activities in central and eastern Europe, has signed an agreement to buy 95% of Ukrsotsbank (USB), Ukraine’s fourth-largest bank by assets. The deal follows June’s $1.5 billion purchase of a controlling stake in Kazakhstan’s ATF Bank and the acquisition of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development’s 10% stake in Russia’s International Moscow Bank for $229 million.
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Goldman Sachs has appointed Chris Barter and David Schwimmer as joint CEOs of its Moscow office. Barter was previously co-head of the European financial institutions group in London at the bank. He will relocate to Moscow by the end of the summer. Schwimmer was head of investment banking for Russia and central and eastern Europe. He is already based in Moscow. Goldman received its first Russian securities brokerage licence last year and, according to observers, is hiring aggressively across all products
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Investor appetite for exposure to the Russian banking sector shows no sign of weakening, with a series of transactions concluded in recent weeks. Headline-grabbing deals included foreign purchases of stock in MDM Bank and Rosbank. Domestic consolidation also continues, with the sale of LipetskComBank to Bank Zenit the latest example.
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Albania has finally secured a credit rating in a move that the authorities in Tirana hope will help boost the Balkan republic’s investment profile with international investors. Moody’s Investors Service assigned a Ba1 country ceiling for foreign-currency bonds and a B1 issuer rating to the government. Moody’s also awarded a B2 foreign-currency bank deposit ceiling along with a local-currency country ceiling of A3 and a local-currency bank deposit ceiling of Baa1. All ratings carry a stable outlook.
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Azerbaijan is set to become the latest sovereign from emerging Europe to tap the international bond markets, with a probable $300 million, five-year transaction slated for launch in September or October, market conditions permitting. The Caucasian republic has mandated Citi and Deutsche Bank to lead manage its debut transaction, which has been in the offing for several years. Gunduz Mammadov, chairman of the State Committee for Securities, says that the proceeds from the planned issue have been earmarked for general funding purposes. Deutsche Bank beat off competition from 11 other banks to book its berth on the landmark transaction and Citi was a shoo-in for the deal, having been a ratings adviser since 2005. Azerbaijan has a Ba1 issuer rating from Moody’s Investors Service and a BB+ grading from Fitch Ratings. The outlook on both ratings is stable.
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Dresdner Kleinwort has become a victim of its own success in central and eastern Europe, says a source at the bank explaining why the firm has been hit by a series of departures in recent months.
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A new Euromoney poll asked leading institutions that invest in alternatives to nominate their dream hedge fund managers across a number of styles and asset classes. One thing is clear – even as the number of hedge funds continues to soar, reputation and track record count most. Helen Avery reports.
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The Swiss firm has successfully ridden the wave of burgeoning debt market activity in emerging economies.
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Deutsche takes the award by a narrow margin for persisting with innovation despite already having a strong market position.
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Bigger and better. That has been the simple message from central and eastern Europe over the past year, with almost the entire region boasting strong economic growth numbers, rising income levels and increased investor confidence at home and abroad. It’s a triple-whammy positive that forms the perfect basis for profitable banking, capital markets business and financial services. It’s no surprise then that there’s an undeniably bullish tone to virtually every market across the region, with bankers able to point to strong revenue growth from bread-and-butter as well as more sophisticated banking services. The game in central and eastern Europe is no longer one of servicing multinationals and their expatriate employees alongside bringing issuers to the international bond and equity markets. Success in the region is also based on the ability to meet the banking needs of the local populace and being able to build market share in local capital markets that are benefiting from a growing bid from both retail and institutional investor bases. With most of the reforms necessary to support sustainable economic development now largely in place across the region, central and eastern Europe continues to look to be one of the most attractive investment destinations for both strategic and portfolio investors, particularly those from western Europe looking to find the sort of high-growth, low-cost investment opportunities that are becoming scarce in the eurozone countries.
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Barcap is building a substantial commodity business to rival the big two, with particular expertise in energy, metals and emissions trading.
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HSBC edges ahead of Citi on the basis of its recognition by clients and impressive growth in all regions.
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An ability to execute market-leading deals in high-yield bond and leveraged loans in the US, Europe and Asia puts the bank ahead of its peers.
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BankTuranAlem’s expansion in the CIS region in the past 12 months has been impressive, through organic growth and acquisitions. In the first four months of 2007 alone, BTA’s assets grew 18.5% to $19.4 billion. The main driver of this asset growth was the loan portfolio, which grew 66.5%. In turn, income had nearly doubled in the first quarter of 2007 compared with the same period in 2006. At the end of 2006, BTA outlined plans to raise $3 billion through bond issuance and syndicated loans. So far, $1.5 billion has been raised, of which $500 million came from a syndicated loan. In the past 12 months there have been many acquisitions across the CIS region. In December 2006, BTA completed the acquisition of a majority stake in the Kazakh bank Temirbank and, at the turn of the year, it purchased a 34% stake in Turkey’s Sekerbank, which brought BTA to a total of 11 banking partners in the CIS countries and Turkey, and made it the largest banking group in the CIS.
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UBS Wealth Management is the one truly global private banking business, near the top of the league tables in practically every country.
