22 June 2004 05:39
Citigroup to Trade in Moscow
Citigroup, the world's largest financial services firm, said Monday that it will open an office in Moscow this
year to trade and research Russian equities.
The move is intended to give Citigroup's vast clientele easier and better access to Russian stocks, the company
said in a statement.
"Russia is a priority market for Citigroup," Jim Cowles, Citigroup's head of European equities, said
in an e-mail interview.
"We believe it offers significant growth prospects with an expanding equity market which is attractive to our
global client base," Cowles said.
The new office will be headed by Stuart Harley, former head of equity sales for Citigroup's emerging markets
division in London.
Citigroup, which has been in Russia since 1993, already has 600 employees in Moscow and offers consumer, credit and
investment banking services, as well as fixed income and treasury operations.
"We're very keen to deepen our coverage of the market," Harley said by telephone after arriving in
Moscow late Monday. "We already trade and research some of the big blue chips in Russia, but we'd like to add
a further dimension to our research, sales and trading efforts by establishing a platform here in Moscow."
Citigroup joins a host of big-name banks that are moving to increase their presence in Russia, which is enjoying a
sixth straight year of robust economic growth and a threefold rise in its benchmark stock index since the end of
2000.
Earlier this month, Morgan Stanley said it would apply for licenses to trade Russian bonds and stocks; Merrill Lynch
announced in February that it would open a new Moscow office this year, and in January, Deutsche Bank bought 40 percent
of the Russian investment bank United Financial Group.
In addition, Zurich-based Credit Suisse recently opened a representative office in Moscow to help advise clients on
investing in Russia, and London's HSBC, Europe's largest bank by market value, has said it plans to offer
elite private banking services to wealthy Russians.
"Every major investment bank has to be here because Russia's economy and its companies are very
important," Stephen Newhouse, president of Morgan Stanley, said earlier this year. "When you look at growth
rates in the world, Russia is somewhere everyone has to be, just as you have to be in India and China," he
said.
Citigroup said it expects the Russia's record expansion to continue beyond 2005.
Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin told an international investment conference organized by Renaissance Capital earlier
Monday that foreign financial services companies will continue to have access to the Russian market in the future,
although he cautioned that banking will remain more protected than other financial sectors.
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[The Moscow Times] |
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