While stocks in the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) All-Share Index slid by 2.4% this week, and trading was halted in shares of the five banks that saw their CEOs unceremoniously sacked late last week, there may ultimately be attractive values forming among sound companies. For instance, Renaissance Capital, a Moscow-based investment bank, gave a ‘buy’ rating to Skye Bank last month and named it the ‘fastest growing tier-two Nigerian bank’. Of note, analysts remarked on the bank’s leading role in retail public sector collections for federal and state governments and tax authorities, as well as utilities, customs agencies, commercial subscriptions, regulatory institutions and examination bodies. Moreover, as noted earlier this year by RTC Capital, it is a “dominant player in Lagos state, Nigeria’s largest revenue collecting state. [And] with increased focus on diversifying revenue away from

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From the Financial Times article on Dmitry Medvedev's ordering of a probe into state-owned corporations.

The president has positioned himself as more liberal than his predecessor, often vowing to cut red tape and limit Russia's vast bureaucracy in favour of boosting private business. But so far little has been done.

"Medvedev needs to look like he is doing something about the protests," said Roland Nash, chief strategist at Renaissance Capital, the Moscow investment bank.

Curbing the "massive inefficiencies across government and the state corporations would be a good place to start," said Mr Nash.

But he added that the probes could turn out be little more than window dressing. "He has said a lot in the past with very little coming out of it. We would need to see some proof before we can have faith in any big change."

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Chinenye Anyanwu, managing director and CEO of Dependable Securities Limited, a Nigerian boutique brokerage focused on small and mid-caps, lauded the Nigerian stock market’s recent rally, which came roughly a month after Bloomberg anointed it the “world’s worst market”, after it had fallen 37% YTD, the steepest quarterly decline in more than a decade and the worst of 89 benchmark indexes tracked (significantly underperforming its emerging/frontier markets peers).  Sub-Saharan Africa’s second-biggest share index closed Thursday at 25,294.10, and despite a nearly 2% drop on Friday, is still up substantially from the year low figure of 19,814.92 recorded mid April.

“In the first place, we should not have had the kind of meltdown we had because there was nothing fundamentally wrong with the market. The fundamentals of the quoted companies are strong and so people merely reacted because of what was happening in the advanced countries,” Anyanwu argued.

Yet volumes

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In a bold move Standard Bank Group of South Africa agreed to buy 33 percent of Troika Dialog for USD 200m (1x book value). Troika is Russia's oldest investment bank. It is highly respected in Russia and will make it look more like its competitor Renaissance Capital who are diversifying into Africa (the other way around). The deal will increase Troika’s capital base to more than $850 million, making it a formidable competitor to Renaissance. The financing of the deal were adjusted to fit in with South Africa's foreign exchange rules.

Letter from Moscow Moscow’s mild-mannered Swedish investors are mad as hell and are not going to take it any more. Prosperity Capital and East Capital are two of the largest and longest-serving fund managers operating in Russia. The two firms have historically adopted a softly-softly approach to engaging with errant Russian corporates, but those tactics have recently proved as useful as lighting a match in a Siberian snowstorm. Prosperity, whose founders have been investing in Russia since 1992, is warning of another Yukos blow-up occurring because of a major dispute it has with Russia’s wealthiest oligarch Mikhail Prokhorov over the regional power-generating company TGK-4. Prosperity, along with other minority shareholders, took a hit when Prokhorov’s investment holding company Onexim reneged in September on a deal worth close to $1bn to buy back minorities. Prosperity has since been appointed as ...

span style=”font-weight:bold;”Wall Street Journal /spanbr /br /By Jason Corcoran of Financial News br /br /Vice has historically been a virtue in turbulent investment times, but the current recession might stretch the patience even of the Devil.br /br /In previous downturns, tobacco, gambling and alcohol could almost always be relied on to beat the index. Analysis released in November by Merrill Lynch shows that, during the six recessions since 1970, alcohol, tobacco and casino stocks have, on average, returned 11%, compared with a 1.5% loss for the SP 500.br /br /a onblur=”try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}” href=”http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_6qAwhh1rW8U/SZMlNqb_3LI/AAAAAAAAB5I/uOm-9G72FAs/s1600-h/OB-DC788_vice02_D_20090211120224.jpg”img style=”display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 262px; height: 174px;” src=”http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_6qAwhh1rW8U/SZMlNqb_3LI/AAAAAAAAB5I/uOm-9G72FAs/s400/OB-DC788_vice02_D_20090211120224.jpg” border=”0″ alt=”"id=”BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5301622103005453490″ //abr /However, this recession appears to be different with booze, cigarettes and gaming wobbling as never before.br /br /Socially responsible funds and ethical investments, on the other side of the spectrum, seem to be holding their own.br /br /Penny Shepherd, chief executive of …

span style="font-weight:bold;"Financial Newsbr //spanbr /February 2 2009br /br /Jason Corcoran in Moscowbr /br /Renaissance Capital has parted company with two executives, Richard Olphert and Rory Cullinan, in a second round of job cuts at the Russian emerging markets investment bank, according to people with knowledge of the situation.br /br /The Moscow-headquartered bank, run by New Zealander Stephen Jennings, has been cutting costs and retreating to its core Russian market following the sale of a 50% stake in the business last year to billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov.br /br /A Renaissance spokesman declined to comment on the departure of Olphert, chairman of Renaissance’s private equity arm and a leading shareholder. The bank confirmed Cullinan, hired as deputy chairman of Renaissance Partners from private equity firm Permira Partners in August 2007, had left before the start of this year and the private equity team had been pared back to eight from a staff of ...

Shrinkage in the tenge?
The Kazakhstani tenge, or KZT, the currency of Kazakhstan, is affectionately known by London traders as the ‘Borat’, according to Macro Man, a local punter. Wednesday, the Kazakh central bank decided to allow the tenge to drop by roughly one-fifth, in a devaluation it alleged was triggered by falling world oil prices (which are some 60% of Kazakhstan’s foreign exchange income) and the sharp depreciation of the Russian ruble which decreased the competitiveness of its Kazakh produced goods. Hitherto, the bank had used approximately $6bn of its foreign exchange reserves since October defending the tenge, including $2.7bn in January alone, according to the Financial Times. The situation can be contrasted with that of the ruble, which has fallen by one-third against the dollar since last …

Nigerian Bank PHB acquired Spring Bank following the fulfillment of all the conditions of its offer. The N21 billion bid was on the bac of its initial stake of 33 percent in Spring Bank which. br /br /The takeover and the injection of management into Spring Bank plc, should arrest the latters decline. Bank PHB has delivered a far better return to shareholders in the last three years. br /br /Renaissance Capital writes that Bank PHB’s acquisition of Spring Bank is not only a good deal for Bank PHB and Spring Bank’s shareholders but also for customers, regulators, and employees. The new bank will have an expanded distribution network and extended product offerings

Dow Jones Newswires and Financial News br /br /Jason Corcoran in Moscowbr /08 December 2008 br /br /br /Deutsche Bank is cutting 30% of staff from its global markets division in Moscow where it has been the biggest and most successful bulge bracket bank during Russia's capital markets boom.br /br /Up to 30% of its Moscow-based global markets staff are expected to lose their jobs, double the proportion of employees being cut across Deutsche Bank's global markets business as part of a worldwide redundancy programme.br /br /Bankers working in sales, trading and research in Moscow were made redundant last week with more layoffs expected this week, according to two sources inside the bank.br /br /One said: "We have been told 30% has been earmarked across the board." The second said: "Ten of the research guys have gone."br /br /A Deutsche Bank spokesman in Moscow said the job losses represented 2% ...