Private Equity Russia

RusAgro, one of the largest Russian agricultural holding companies, is preparing for IPO in May, 2010.  Reuters originally reported that the IPO would be held in London, but Forbes is now reporting that the IPO will be in Russia.

The company will seek to raise from $250-$300 million.

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Kommersant has reported that Renaissance Group is restructuring its asset management division, Renaissance Investment Management into two separate units that will focus respectively on private client wealth management and institutional asset management.  This decision was taken due to the weakening position of Renaissance Investment Management in the market, largely due to the investment environment, management and ownership shakeups at the group level and the exodus of key managers and clients from the division over the past year.

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Renaissance Capital announced yesterday that it will be purchasing 100% of the equity of Cyprus’s Leadbank (formerly Bank of Cyprus) for an undisclosed sum.

Leadbank LLC, which was established in April 2007 as Bank Kypra LLC, operated through a single Moscow branch and was basically a shell following Bank of Cyprus’s consolidation of its Russian operations in 2009.  At that point, 100% of the bank’s loan portfolio was sold to 80% Bank of Cyprus subsidiary Uniastrum Bank, which has a network of 220 branches throughout Russia.

According to Bank of Cyprus, the sale will be at a premium to the net asset value of Leadbank LLC, which was around €11.7 million as of December 31, 2009.

The private equity acquisition is still pending approval by the Central Bank of Russia.

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