New Zealand multi-millionaire Stephen Jennings has taken the reins again at the private Moscow bank he founded 15 years ago.Mr Jennings created Renaissance Group in 1995 and built the Renaissance Capital bank after originally going to Russia in 1992, age
New Zealand multi-millionaire Stephen Jennings has taken the reins again at the private Moscow bank he founded 15 years ago.
Mr Jennings created Renaissance Group in 1995 and built the Renaissance Capital bank after originally going to Russia in 1992, aged 32, to privatise the Bolshevik Biscuit Factory.
The former Treasury official's personal stake in the bank was at one stage estimated by Forbes magazine at $US5.2 billion, but the credit crunch reportedly saw his wealth drop to about $US800m. In 2008 he sold half his bank to Russian metals oligarch Mikhail Prokhorov $NZ725m.
Just a year earlier, Mr Jennings had rejected a $US4b offer for Renaissance Capital, shortly before a group of Western investment banks, including Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and UBS, valued the company at up to $US10b.
Mr Jennings, 50, who grew up in New Plymouth, has now returned as chief executive of the bank, after three years working in its parent company.
He has hired a noted investment banker, Plamen Monovski, as chief investment officer and rebranded the bank Renaissance Asset Managers.
It is now targeting $US10b assets under management within five years, a more than fivefold increase from a current sum in excess of $US1.5b, Reuters reported. Mr Jennings is splitting the bank's asset management arm from the wealth management division -- until now under the same umbrella.
Mr Jennings has also hired Nick Andrews, formerly with J.P. Morgan and Credit Suisse First Boston in Hong Kong, as global head of equities to establish a secondary market trading and distribution platform to go hand-in-hand with as bid to bring capital-hungry companies from Russia -- and potentially other former Soviet states like Kazakhstan -- to Asian investors.
The bank already has a well-established onshore presence in several markets in Central Asia, Eastern Europe and Africa including Nigeria, Kenya, Zimbabwe and CIS (Commonwealth of Independent States, which is comprised of former Soviet states).
"Renaissance Capital has set itself the strategic goal of becoming the premier full service investment bank in the emerging markets time zone from the Russian Far East to West Africa, building on its market-leading positions in the CIS and Africa," Mr Jennings said in a statement.
"We are putting in place a world class management with a track record of managing global scale businesses and an entrepreneurial drive to build businesses."
