OREANDA-NEWS. June 29, 2016. Renaissance Capital, a leading emerging and frontier markets investment bank, held its 20th Annual Russia Investor Conference in Moscow last week. The event is a well-established discussion forum for major global investors and senior management figures from some of Russia’s largest companies across a wide range of sectors.й

Anthony Simone, Acting CEO, Renaissance Capital, commented: “This year’s event was marked by more positive sentiment than in previous years as a result of faster-than-anticipated economic stabilisation. Interest from international investors in Russian equity and debt has started to pick up this year and we have seen a growing number of deals in the market since January. The progress of the government’s privatisation programme also signals that new opportunities in the Russian market are presenting themselves.”

Daniel Salter, Head of Equity Strategy, Renaissance Capital, added: “We are seeing encouraging signs of recovery in the Russian economy. We estimate that Russian GDP growth will exceed 1.5% in 2017 if the oil price remains at the current level. Declining inflation is leading to interest rate cuts and we anticipate another 150bp of rate cuts over the remainder of 2016, with 200bp of additional cuts to come in 2017. Ease of doing business reforms are ongoing and further progress on privatisations and pension reforms would contribute to a more positive investment case for the country. Overall, in our base-case scenario, we believe Russian equities should outperform global emerging markets even presuming that international sanctions will remain in place.”

This year, the conference was attended by around 250 participants from the USA, UK, continental Europe, Russia and South Africa. Around 300 one-on-one meetings took place on 20 and 21 June, and dedicated site visits, including to Fitch Ratings CIS, Russia’s Finance Ministry and the Central Bank of Russia were organised.