Published: June 9, 2011
Renaissance Capital bolsters its financing team as deals keep coming.
Some challenges are better to have than others. Trying to ensure that your team grows at the same speed as a burgeoning business is among the better ones, as John Porter, head of the financing group at Russian investment bank Renaissance Capital will testify.
“Our business continues to grow and recover rapidly coming out of the crisis,” Porter tells EMEA Finance. “And the part of our business growing the fastest is the international business.”
In fact, Porter notes that from Renaissance Capital’s Russian roots, the group has developed three geographic businesses – a Russian-focused division operating from Moscow; a London business focused on bringing clients to stock markets in the UK, Canada and Australia; and an African arm.
Now, deals from Central Europe have started to appear, including transactions in Turkey, Poland and Romania. “It seemed the right time to bring on some senior people in the team to reinforce that and hopefully continue to grow,” Porter says.
Say hi to the new guy
The latest step in that hiring sees the bank appoint Bogdan Ciobotaru as head of financing for Central and Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Africa. A Romanian national, Ciobotaru will work between the bank’s London and Moscow offices and report to Porter.
Ciobotaru joins after 10 years at Morgan Stanley, most recently as executive director for global capital markets. Porter, who spent 17 years at Morgan Stanley and met Ciobotaru there, says the new hire’s experiences fit nicely with Renaissance Capital’s changing geographic focus: “He’s exceptionally experienced in all our markets – he’s worked across Central European capital markets, an area where we have ambition. He’s also worked a lot in Africa.”
Looking ahead, Porter expects his growing teams to continue working in new sectors as deal flow increases.
“The majority of our deals have been commodity related – metals and mining, and oil and gas,” he says. “We expect investor demand and deal flow in both to remain strong. But we are seeing more diversification. We have some consumer offerings coming, for example.”
And the drive to do deals in new geographic markets means other appointments could soon follow Ciobotaru’s. “We’re active in a lot more markets than we’ve been,” Porter says. “We need to strengthen the team in a couple of places to continue along those lines.”