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16 January 2009
Global markets: Weekly overview
12 January 2009
The Russian market opened higher in January
26 December 2008
The Russian equity market advanced supported by strong buying from domestic investors
Troika Dialog plans new fund for buybacks, debt
Reuters
10 November 2008
Russia’s Troika Dialog investment house plans to set up a special "distressed" asset fund to invest in Russian debt markets and help finance corporate share buybacks, it said on Monday.
Chief Executive Ruben Vardanyan told reporters at a Russian investment roadshow in Dubai that the fund would be launched by the end of the year as the financial services firm looked to take advantage of opportunities in its home market stemming from the global financial crisis.
Deteriorating conditions also mean the company will look at cutting between seven to 15 percent of its workforce, Vardanyan said in response to a Reuters question.
"In the short term there will be more of a corporate financing role than public trading," he said, adding that he saw opportunities in bank mergers and acquisitions, private placements, distressed debt and buybacks.
Vardanyan declined to give the size of the fund or which sectors it could target, but said his firm aimed to help "companies with the new reality".
Troika, one of the oldest and largest homegrown investment banks in the former Soviet Union, denied in September that it would be taken over by a state savings bank after the stock market fell sharply.
Vardanyan said opportunities would arise for investment banks as consolidation, mergers and acquisitions would increase due to the worsening economic climate.
"In the long-term we believe the Russian market has huge opportunity for investment services ... and it’s an opportunity for local players to drive," he said.
The company would also be going ahead with bonus schemes, although they could be less than in the past and would be influenced by financial results, he said.
