New York-based investment bank Jefferies Group plans to hire up to four investment bankers for its first Moscow office, even as its international competitors are scaling back involvement in investment banking in Russia, the financial news website Bloomberg reported.
Jefferies recruited Ildar Iksanov from Deutsche Bank AG in June to establish the Moscow office, which will focus on mergers, high-yield financing, acquisitions and global equity distribution, Peter Bacchus, co-head of Europe Investment Banking at Jefferies London office told Bloomberg.
Jefferies is entering the Russian market as some European banks have been downgrading their involvement in the face of competition from state-controlled Sberbank and majority-state owned VTB group, according to Bloomberg.
Italy's largest lender UniCredit announced it was closing its Russia operations last year, while Dutch financial services group ING said last October that it would shutter its equities unit. Credit Suisse was reported in December as having transferred part of its Russian capital-markets and advisory businesses to London, Bloomberg reported on Tuesday.
