People Moves - Asia Pacific

RenCap doubles employee levels

Source: http:// efinancialnews.com/; June 23, 2008   - Russian investment bank Renaissance Capital has more than doubled its workforce over the past 18 months and is still hiring, while many of its rivals have been cutting jobs to save costs. Staff numbers at the bank, which specializes in emerging markets including Russia and sub-Saharan Africa, have grown from 500 at the start of last year to about 1,200 as of last week. The bank said: “We have identified huge opportunities to create value in a range of frontier markets around the world, and that has led us to recruit talented people to pursue those opportunities and meet our aggressive targets. We have grown rapidly in the past year or two, against a backdrop of downsizing by many of our competitors.” The bank is opening a distribution hub in Singapore and has hired Merrill Lynch’s former head of Asian equities, Martin Gillott, to run it. The operation will act as a distribution base for Renaissance Group products, focusing on institutional securities and international equity sales. Renaissance, which was founded 13 years ago, joins Russian rivals Troika Dialog and VTB Bank in setting up operations in Singapore and trying to develop links with its investment institutions there. The bank is also applying to Singapore’s regulator for a banking license and may extend the office’s remit depending on demand. Gillott, who joins Renaissance as managing director and head of distribution Asia, quit Merrill Lynch last year and returned to London. The bank recently launched an operation in Dubai for the rollout and development of investment banking and asset gathering activities in the Middle East. It also has distribution hubs in London and New York. Renaissance last week advertised to hire directors, vice-presidents, associates and senior analysts in investment banking, for positions based in Moscow and Kiev, in Almaty, Kazakhstan, and in Lagos, Nigeria. Renaissance declined to say how many staff it was looking to hire.

Sundaram BNP Paribas enters Gulf market

Source: http://businesstoday.digitaltoday.in/; June 23, 2008   - Sundaram BNP Paribas Asset Management, leading Indian equity fund manager, has entered the Gulf region, offering Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) customers access to its products in the Indian market. The GCC comprises Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Sundaram BNP Paribas Asset Management has five products under the Select Thematic Funds umbrella including three launched in 2008.

Barclays nears £470m boost from Japanese

Source: http:// business.timesonline.co.uk/; June 22, 2008   - Barclays is understood to be in the final stages of negotiating a capital tie up with one of Japan’s largest financial groups in a deal that could see a 100 billion yen (£470 million) injection of cash for the battered British lender. Sources close to the proposed deal suggest that the capital infusion to Barclays stretched balance sheet will come from Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation (SMBC). The capital injection is expected to take the form of a private placement of shares that would leave Japan’s third largest financial giant with a stake of two or three per cent in the British lender. Barclays is not understood to be negotiating any similar deals with other Japanese or foreign banks. Japan’s largest banks, which have emerged relatively unscathed from the US sub-prime mortgage collapse informed earlier in the year that they stood ready to become the “silent investment partners” of any large western banking names that came to them for help. Sources at the top three Japanese mega banks said at the time that they had readied a $10 billion cash pile to effect precisely the sort of capital injection believed to be under negotiation between SMBC and Barclays. In January, Mizuho Financial pumped around Y130bn (£650m) of capital into Merrill Lynch. The Japanese deal comes in the wake of speculation which began earlier in the week that Barclays would turn to some of Asia and the Middle East’s largest sovereign wealth funds in its quest to restore its capital ratio in the aftermath of the US sub-prime mortgage debacle. Barclays is reeling from around £2.5 billion in losses arising from the US mortgage crisis and resulting credit crunch. The capital tie-up deal between Barclays and SMBC is expected to see the two banks deepening their existing alliance in Asian operations. The deal may include strengthened ties between the asset management businesses of the two institutions. Japan’s capital markets are rapidly emerging as the favoured safe-haven for stricken US and European banking names. This year has already broken records for so-called Samurai Bond issuance – yen debt issuance by foreign firms – with names like RBS, Citigroup and UBS all understood to be planning large capital raisings on the Japanese debt market.