Prior Group - Russia - New Zealand - Новая Зеландия - Россия

MOSCOW, Feb 12 (Reuters) - New Zealander Stephen Jennings, co-owner of Russia's biggest private investment bank Renaissance Capital, is to return as chief executive alongside new hires from JP Morgan and Lehman Brothers to spearhead the group's expansion. Jennings will take on the role he gave up in 2007 as the group opens ventures in such emerging markets as Mongolia, Belarus and sub-Saharan Africa, while in Russia new rivals, including VTB Capital, an investment arm of state-run VTB , fight for clients.

"Future growth in investment banking will come from the emerging markets. The scale of the opportunity for a bank with deep local roots ... is enormous," Jennings said in a statement issued on Friday.

RenCap also hired Nick Andrews, the former head of Asia Pacific and Emerging Markets equities at JP Morgan in Hong Kong, as head of global equities.
His appointment comes as a host of Russian companies eye stock-market listings in Hong Kong in the wake of the recent $2.2 billion initial public offering (IPO) of aluminium giant UC RUSAL .

Andrews will be joined by two veterans of Lehman Brothers -- the collapsed bank that has come to symbolise the failure of the global banking system.
Mark Harris, formerly head of compliance for Lehman Brothers in Europe, will join as RenCap's global head of compliance, while Michael Schulz will be global head of risk, having previously worked in the same department at Lehman.

MOSCOW VETERAN

Renaissance Capital was hit hard by the global financial meltdown in 2008, forcing Jennings to sell a 50 percent stake in the bank to billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov for $500 million and sack 40 percent of the workforce.

Jennings was one of the first western bankers to come to Moscow following the collapse of the communist Soviet Union, working on early privatisations for Credit Suisse First Boston before setting up Renaissance in 1995.

He will replace Alexander Pertsovsky, who will become first deputy CEO and president of RenCap. Pertsovsky will continue to oversee the firm's institutional securities business, Russia and CIS businesses, and to manage senior client relationships internationally.

Renaissance Group includes several other businesses -- an asset managing company, retail bank and merchant banking division.

More on Stephen Jennings here.