OREANDA-NEWS. November 13, 2010. Renaissance Capital, the emerging markets investment bank, today announces the opening of an office in Hong Kong to extend the Firm’s capabilities in Asia.

In May, Renaissance Capital filed with the Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) for Type 1 and Type 4 licenses that will allow the Firm to engage in dealing in and advising on securities transactions. The Firm is currently in the process of working with the SFC through the licensing process.

Like Renaissance Capital’s offices in London and New York, the Hong Kong office will distribute securities from Russia, Central Asia, Eastern Europe, Africa and other emerging markets to institutional investors.

It is expected that the Hong Kong office will have a staff of 15 by the end of 2010. This will include sales and trading staff, as well as four or five senior investment banking professionals, with a focus on the metals and mining sector. In addition, Renaissance Capital expects to have a light investment banking presence on the ground in Beijing by the end of the year.

Jeremy Sparrow has been seconded from London to Hong Kong to lead the office as CEO. Sparrow, a Managing Director since 2001, is a former head of equities and former head of international sales at Renaissance Capital.

Stephen Jennings, CEO of Renaissance Capital, said: “The center of global capital for emerging markets is moving east, and we expect Hong Kong to be the greatest beneficiary of that process. We are also witnessing a major M&A integration between Asia and other emerging markets. For these reasons we are building out an Asian presence with an office in Hong Kong.”

Renaissance Capital Hong Kong CEO Jeremy Sparrow said: “Russia is the largest commodities producer in Asia. Asia, and China in particular, is becoming the world’s largest consumer of commodities. Thus it is natural for these two regions to integrate further, including integration through the financial markets. There are large pools of Asian capital, both sovereign and private, looking for commodity driven ideas. Renaissance Capital has a dominant position in these resource rich geographies and we believe we are ideally positioned to intermediate these flows.”