Corporate Stars of the “New Russia”

In its current issue, Global Finance Magazine lists what it calls the “Stars of the New Russia” across a variety of business sectors. A lot of the preamble will probably not come as a shocker to those watching Russia on a continuous basis, but there are a couple of quotes that leapt out at me:

Kingsmill Bond, London-based senior Russia analyst at Troika Dialog:

“Russian corporates are used to handling volatility and difficult times. They can adapt quite quickly. Other countries are not used to such dramatic changes in the economic landscape. Russian firms are used to being thrown around and rebounding very quickly. They have had periods of high growth and high inflation in the past, and they have recovered. Russia is better positioned to bounce back when markets return. Russia will bounce back harder and quicker [than in 1998].”

Alexandra Evtifyeva, Senior Economist of VTB:

“They still need to do a lot on cleaning of banks’ balance sheets. Non-performing loan levels are rising quickly.” Most estimates put the proportion of non-performing loans in the system at between 10% and 20%. “There will be a major shakeout of Russia’s 900 banks. Risks are quite concentrated in the largest banks. The smallest banks don’t take risks. We expect some restructuring in the banking sector.”

Unnamed analyst:

“The country needs to produce a good-bank/bad-bank structure, but politicians appear to be shying away from the big decision.” Such a lack of clarity mirrors the early reluctance of Russia’s politicians to admit that the country was facing any sort of crisis.

Ok, enough of the peanut gallery. On to the award winners:


Beverages – Baltika Breweries
Consumer – Magnit
Gas – Novatek
Media – Rambler Media
Non-Ferrous Metals and Mining – Polyus Gold
Oil – Rosneft
Steel – TMK
Telecom – MTS
Transport – Novorossiysk Commercial Seaport
Utilities – Mosenergo
Domestic Bank – VTB
Foreign Bank – ZAO Citibank
Regional Bank – UralSib
Domestic Investment Bank – Troika Dialog
Foreign Investment Bank – Credit Suisse
Commercial Bank – Sberbank
Consumer Bank – ZAO Raiffeisenbank
FX Bank – VTB
Domestic Trade Finance – VTB
International Trade Finance – Deutsche Bank
Asset Management – Troika Dialog
Fixed Income Sales and Distribution – ZAO Standard Bank
Syndicated Lending – JP Morgan
Bookrunner / Primary Equities – Morgan Stanley
International M&A – Morgan Stanley
Equity Research – Troika Dialog
Domestic Bond Research – Troika Dialog
Eurobond Research – Deutsche Bank