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April 21, 2017 www.intellinews.com I Page 4
ready earned $17mn so far this year compared to just $1mn for all of 2016.
The total value of initial and secondary share ofer- ings raised in Moscow reached $1.2bn since the beginning of 2017, hitting a six-year high. Com- panies that sold shares during the period include children’s goods retailer Detsky Mir, which at- tracted $335mn in an IPO, Russia’s largest pro- ducer of steel pipes TMK, which raised $180mn
in an SPO, and phosphate fertiliser major Phosa- gro and aluminum producer Rusal, whose SPOs brought them $250mn and $240mn, respectively.
Loan deals continue to grow at a steady pace with $10mn pocketed by banks so far this year. M&A continues to stagnate, particularly as consolida- tion of Russia’s once-bloated and corrupt banking
sector came to a halt. Fees from M&A deals slid by more than 50% to $8mn during the first four months compared to $19mn for the same period last year.
However, hopes that this renewed boom for US and European bankers in Moscow will continue are fading fast. Prospects for a rekindling of ties between Russia and the US under President Donald Trump have diminished after Russia’s support of the regimes in Syria and North Korea. And initial hopes that US and European sanctions would be relaxed this year have also largely evap- orated. “A big question is whether the US banks will remain at the top given the political situation now,” said Nassof. “The geopolitical mood seems to be trending in the wrong direction since the optimism we saw earlier in the year.”