OREANDA-NEWS. October 9, 2012. Renaissance Capital, the leading emerging markets investment bank, has been named Most Innovative Bank from Central & Eastern Europe (CEE) at The Banker 2012 Investment Banking Awards.

The Banker, and the awards competition judges, cited Renaissance Capital’s 100% success for managing Russian IPOs in 2011-2012, while other firms withdrew deals from the market. Renaissance Capital was also commended for the diversity of its advisory work.

“As a leader in the CEE space, we are enormously proud to receive this award,” said Alexander Merzlenko, Head of Russian Investment Banking at Renaissance Capital, and Deputy CEO of Renaissance Group in Russia. “The outstanding talent of our teams and the nimbleness of our organization allow us to provide innovative solutions to our clients. Our strong commitment to our core market Russia gives us the ability to react quickly to changing market conditions. We believe this is a valuable asset for our clients.”

Excerpt from the award citation

The Banker

Most Innovative Investment Bank from Central & Eastern Europe

Winner: Renaissance Capital

Shortlisted: Sberbank-Troika Dialog, VTB Capital

Size does not always go hand in hand with innovation, but Renaissance Capital has always managed to strike a neat balance. The Russian bank boasts numerous industry and regional firsts – from being the first Commonwealth of Independent States investment bank to gain London Stock Exchange membership, to launching the first foreign IPO on the Istanbul Stock Exchange, to taking Russian firms to the New York Stock Exchange and Hong Kong – all the while maintaining a leading regional position.

In tough times, it takes innovation just to get business done, and when it comes to Central and Eastern Europe (CEE), Renaissance Capital has done that better than any other investment bank in the region over the past 12 months.

Conditions have been far from easy in Renaissance Capital’s home market of Russia, with numerous IPOs pulled due to less-than-buoyant market conditions. Nevertheless, the bank maintained a 100% success rate in all of its Russian IPOs from 2011 to June 2012, managing eight successful deals with no pulled or withdrawn IPOs. The next best ratio was five successful to one pulled.

Renaissance Capital was the only bank to manage both of Russia’s two successful IPOs of 2012, while lead managing six out of nine Russian IPOs from the beginning of 2011 to June 2012. Its equity capital markets franchise also extends to leading Russian equity research, as well as a sales team consisting of 43 employees focused on Russia, and 65 dedicated to the emerging markets - more than any other bank.

Moreover, it holds the number one position in mergers and acquisitions league tables for the CEE Region, closing 29 deals from 2011 to June 2012, versus the nearest rival’s 23.

Over the past 12 months, Renaissance Capital has been involved in deals including the landmark USD 4.6bn merger of the Moscow Interbank Currency Exchange, or Micex, and RTS, which on the bank’s suggestion was organised as a so-called ‘dual track’, leading to its co-leadership of the IPO process. In addition, it provided full support to state-owned telecoms operator Svyazinvest Group in a reorganisation of its assets – one of the largest deals in Russian and CEE M&A history – helping to confirm reorganisation terms, arrive at a valuation, and negotiate with the largest institutional investors.