emeafinance News - July 2009

Calyon appoints new head of global loan syndication

Calyon has announced the appointment of Jean-Francois Balay as head of global loan syndication group.

New appointment at HSBC Private Bank, CEE

HSBC Private Bank has appointed Nikolai Gurbatov as an associate director in its London-based Central Eastern Europe team.

New head of capital markets in EMEA for GE Capital

James Fenner has been named as the new head of capital markets for GE Capital in EMEA. Based in London, he will be responsible for all strategic lease and loan syndication activities and will oversee securitisation and alternative funding strategies. 

Goldman Sachs hires EMEA co-heads

Sheila Patel and Andrew Wilson were named co-heads of Europe, the Middle East and Africa at Goldman Sachs Asset Management.

Saxo Bank appoints senior executive officer

Saxo Bank, an online trading and investment specialist, has appointed Jakob Thomsen as senior executive officer in its Dubai office.

New managing director for Lloyds TSB Middle East

Lloyds TSB Middle East, part of the Lloyds Banking Group, has appointed Richard Musty as the new head of its Middle East business.

New head for BNP Paribas Asset Management

BNP Paribas has appointed Philippe Marchessaux to head its asset management businesses. He succeeds Gilles Glicenstein as head of BNP Paribas Investment Partners and CEO of BNP Paribas Asset Management.

Zuma appoints new central bank chief

South Africa’s president Jacob Zuma has named former deputy governor Gill Marcus as the new governor of the country’s central bank. Marcus will take over from Tito Mboweni in November.

HSBC appoints new senior manager in Qatar

HSBC Bank Middle East Qatar has appointed a new senior manager for its Qatar office. Jody Sanderson was appointed as director, global banking in Qatar.

New CEO for Gulf Finance House

Gulf Finance House (GFH), a leading Middle Eastern Islamic investment bank, has appointed Ahmed Fahour as its new CEO based in Bahrain. Fahour is the former executive director and CEO for the Australian operations at National Australia Bank.

ADIH closes US$100mn fund

Abu Dhabi Investment House (ADIH), in partnership with Al Hilal Bank, announced the successful closing of its shariah-compliant US$100mn Al Wataniya Fund with the objective to finance a development within Abu Dhabi's commercial sector.

IFC invests in Sasfin to increase SME lending in SA

IFC, a member of the World Bank, will invest in Sasfin to enable the financial services group to increase lending to South Africa’s small and medium enterprises, which often struggle to obtain funds from large commercial banks.

Genesis Capital closes new private equity fund

Genesis Capital, a private equity firm focusing on mid-market investments in the Czech Republic and Slovakia, has completed the first closing of Genesis Private Equity Fund II (GPEF II) at the size of €40mn. The target size of the fund is €60mn.

GWM names new managing partner

Samir Sayeed will join the Global Wealth Management Group (GWM Group), an independent financial service partnership based in Switzerland, as a managing partner.

Rashique Rahman joins Morgan Stanley

Rashique Rahman has joined Morgan Stanley as a managing director and global head of emerging markets fixed income strategy.

Dmitri Sredin joins RenCap for Russia and CIS

Dmitri Sredin has joined Renaissance Capital as managing director and head of debt financing for Russia and the CIS.

Polish shipyards sold to Qatari fund

Two historic Polish shipyards sold in June went to Qatari fund Qinvest, Poland’s treasury minister, Aleksander Grad, told reporters on June 30 in Warsaw.

StanChart acquires leading African M&A firm

Standard Chartered announced its full acquisition of the remaining shareholding in First Africa Group, a leading pan-African M&A advisory firm.

BTA hires Lovells as legal advisor

BTA Bank has appointed Lovells to advise the bank on asset recovery. BTA was nationalised in February and at the end of June it announced that its losses under loans issued by former bank’s managers to its affiliates, including financing foreign projects, amounted to KZT1.413bn (US$9.4mn) in 2008.

IDB announces Islamic bond issue at Sukuk Summit

At the third annual London Sukuk Summit, Mohammad Tariq, treasurer of the Islamic Development Bank, announced that IDB selected lead managers to arrange its US$500mn sukuk.

SIIB to launch Islamic banking products

Syria International Islamic Bank has launched new Islamic banking products with a system by Path Solutions, aimed at the various customer segments. With this launch, SIIB will become the first bank in Syria to offer a range of shariah-compliant banking services.

Zorlu to receive €130mn loan for wind farm

Macedonia issues €175mn Eurobond

On July 1, the republic of Macedonia has issued a fixed-rate €175mn Eurobond with a 9.875% coupon which matures in 2013. The money is said to finance the country’s budget gap and prop up the currency.

Turkish banks go live with Logica’s messaging service

Logica, a leading IT and business services company, announced that 48 banks represented by The Banks’ Association of Turkey (TBB) have upgraded their financial messaging infrastructure using Logica’s high-end messaging system.

Two partners join Baker & McKenzie in Abu Dhabi

Baker & McKenzie announces that Tom Thraya and James Reed, both corporate partners, have relocated to the firm’s Abu Dhabi office from Chicago and London respectively.

Orascom looks to issue first EDR

Orascom Development, the Egyptian real estate company, is looking to issue the first-ever Egyptian depository receipt (EDR). The company is working with EFG Hermes and the Bank of New York Mellon to arrange the issue later this year.

HSBC appoints new head of commercial banking in ME

HSBC Bank Middle East has appointed Simon Johnson as regional head of commercial banking. In this role, Johnson will oversee all commercial banking business across the Middle East region.

Harry Martin joins Barclays Wealth in the Middle East

Barclays Wealth, a global wealth management institution, has apponited Harry Martin as director to its international private banking team in the Middle East.

New head of EMEA equity financing for Merrill Lynch

Mark Bailey has been appointed head of EMEA for Bank of America Merrill Lynch's global equity financing and services platform.

Gama Energy invests US$1bn to bring water to Jordan

Gama Energy, a joint venture between Gama Holding and General Electric Energy Financial Services, is investing US$1bn in a project that would help Jordan solve its water problems.

Qatar LNG to sell US$2.3bn bonds for expansion

A joint venture between Qatar Petroleum and Exxon Mobil plans to sell up to US$2.3bn in bonds to finance the expansion of LNG facilities, according to reports.

PepsiCo to invest US$1bn in Russia

PepsiCo, one of the world's largest food and beverage companies, has announced plans to invest US$1bn in Russia over three years, together with its partner The Pepsi Bottling Group (PBG). The investment will bring the cumulative investment in Russia by PepsiCo and PBG to over US$4bn.

Russian bank Zenit places R3bn bond

The R3bn series 6 bond placement by the Russian bank Zenit took place on July 7 and was held at MICEX stock exchange in the form of open subscription at the auction on setting the first coupon rate.

Europe cuts support for US$32bn project in Turkey

European financing for a hydroelectric plant in Turkey was suspended on July 7 after Turkey failed to offer environmental protections in the area around the Tigris River where antiques from the Middle Ages will be flooded by the dam.

Actis becomes largest shareholder of Egypt’s CIB

Actis, an emerging markets private equity investor, has executed an agreement to invest US$244mn to acquire shares in Commercial International Bank, a leading bank in Egypt.

Ashok Aram joins Abraaj Capital from Deutsche Bank

Dubai-based Abraaj Capital, the largest private equity company in the Middle East, North Africa and South Asia (MENASA), has appointed Ashok Aram as a managing director after a 15-year career at Deutsche Bank.

DLA Piper appoints new managing partner for Kuwait

DLA Piper has appointed Abdul Aziz Al-Yaqout to the role of office managing partner for Kuwait. Al-Yaqout, a Kuwaiti national, will relocate to Kuwait from DLA Piper’s Cologne office.

NBAD appoints operations divisional manager

The National Bank of Abu Dhabi (NBAD) has appointed Nigel Carrington as divisional manager of operations.

Poland sells US$2bn of dollar bonds

Poland is selling US$2bn of bonds in its first dollar bond in almost four years with Barclays Capital, Citigroup and HSBC as lead arrangers. On July 7, investors placed more orders than the government initially offered, prompting Poland to increase its sale by 25% from US$1.5bn.

Gunvor signs US$600mn one-year loan

Gunvor International, an independent oil trader headquartered in Amsterdam, which mainly exports oil from Russia, has signed a revolving one-year credit facility of US$600mn, successfully refinancing and extending last year’s debut of US$370mn.

Drugs and NPLs: a view from Moscow

Evgeny Gavrilenkov, chief economist at Troika Dialog, explains why the non-perfoming loan 'crisis' in Russia may not be such a crisis after all, and uses a new poll on drug addiction in Russia to support his intriguing argument.

Citi appoints new CEOs in EMEA

Citi has appointed Bill Mills and Alberto Verme as CEOs and new regional leaders in the EMEA region. Mills will continue to be responsible for Citi’s business in Western Europe and Africa and Verme for the business in Central and Eastern Europe and the Middle East.

QNB-Syria to start IPO in July

Qatar National Bank-Syria, a private Syrian-Qatari bank, has announced the launch of 34% of its total equity in an initial public offering (IPO) which will raise US$37.15mn.

BarCap hires Brown in EM syndicate

Barclays Capital, the investment banking division of Barclays Bank, has appointed Jonathan Brown, managing director, head of emerging markets syndicate and head of European credit syndicate.

RusHydro lists GDRs on LSE

RusHydro, the world’s largest publicly traded hydro generational company, has listed on the London Stock Exchange (LSE), making it the first GDR listing on the LSE since February. Bank of New York Mellon is the depository bank.

EBRD and Troika sign US$150mn loan agreement

Troika Dialog and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development signed a loan agreement totalling up to US$150mn over five years.

Canadian golf resort looks to issue sukuk

Bear Mountain, a luxury hotel and golfing resort in Victoria, Canada, is looking to the sukuk market to raise up to US$380mn to re-finance a loan it took out from HSBC. It would be the first publicly-rated sukuk issued in Canada.

Russian Lukoil signing US$1.2bn loan

Russian oil firm Lukoil is in the final stages of signing a US$1.2bn syndicated loan with a group of 12 banks, according to banking sources.