emergingmarkets

A doubling in the price of the metal after after a shift to quarterly contracts helps the Brazilian miner deliver a healthy rebound in the second quarter

By Ivan Anderzhanov

Bulge bracket investment banks Goldman Sachs and Credit Suisse have acquired 3.88 percent and 2.77 percent stakes respectively in the Bank of Moscow, a top ten lender.

Goldman’s stake in the state-controlled bank is worth about $200m and Credit Suisses’s around $14m at the current market price.

The Moscow government has been the bank’s core shareholder since it was established in 1995. It owns a 46.48 percent stake directly. The stake was recently cut after a share issue by 1.63 percentage points. The government also controls the bank via Capital Insurance Group, whose 17.11 percent stake was cut by 1.18 percentage points after the issue.

The bank’s senior managers, President Andrei Borodin and Deputy Board Chairman Lev Alaluyev, have also cut their stakes by 2.75 percentage points to 20.32 percent.

By Andrei Skvarsky

Jacques Der Megreditchian, chief business officer at Russian investment bank Troika Dialog, was re-elected on July 27 as chairman of the board of the RTS stock exchange.

Leaving Der Megreditchian in the post he has held since 2004 was a key result of a meeting of the RTS board of directors that also elected two deputy board chairmen, the bourse said in a press release.

One is Oleg Yachnik, general director of Moscow-based investment company OLMA. The other is Oleg Jelezko, who is managing partner at the Moscow operation of Da Vinci Capital, an alternative investments group.

Der Megreditchian, who holds qualifications from the European Business Institute and the French Centre for Financial Analysis, has a record of top financial jobs in Russia that goes back to the early 90s.

The meeting also approved exchange fees for repurchase agreement (repo) trading. The release did not disclose what the fees are.

Samsung Electronics, the world's biggest technology company by sales, tempered its unveiling of record operating profits with a warning that profitability could sag in the second half of the year due to a difficult climate for consumer products

Mexican security forces on Thursday killed a leading figure in one of the country's most powerful drugs cartels, army officials have confirmed

Korea National Oil Corporation is close to arranging the loans needed to launch a formal £1.7bn offer for Dana Petroleum as the UK oil explorer battles to convince its shareholders to push for a higher offer

South Africa's government has been accused of planning an "assault" on press freedom after it published a bill that critics say could drastically restrict the media's ability to hold the authorities to account.

New opposition leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu set for a gruelling summer campaign to persuade voters that he will end a long history of army intervention in politics

David Cameron, the UK prime minister, narrowly escaped a full-blown diplomatic crisis when Pakistan reluctantly buried its outrage at his warning to stop "promoting terror" during a visit to arch-rival India.

Pact allows the Chinese state-owned miner to buy in to a rich iron ore project in Guinea, in a move that places both mining companies at the centre of multi-billion-dollar scramble for west Africa's iron ore

Digital Sky Technologies, the Russian internet group that has invested in Facebook, is selling up to 25% of its local unit in an initial public offering next year

David Cameron, the UK prime minister, has appealed for New Delhi's support to defeat forces of economic nationalism that threatened to close down the world trading system at a time of economic weakness

Everyone wants to clean up in emerging markets, but they all can't come out smiling

Never have so many emerging markets been as flush as they are today, so investors with a long-term horizon should add selectively to their exposure

The latest crop of quarterly earnings shows sector in rude health

By Marcus Williams

The corporate trust of BNY Mellon has been hired as trustee, paying agent, calculation agent and transfer agent for Vnesheconombank’s $30bn loan participation note programme.

Vnesheconombank, Russia’s state development bank, was founded in 1924 and emerged as a cornerstone bank during the crisis.

BNY Mellon will provide VEB with all of its debt servicing and maintenance requirements.

BNY Mellon has expanding its business in Russia a year since settling a $22.5bn lawsuit with the Russian government  relating to a 1990s money laundering scandal. The bank ended up paying the government’s legal fees of about $14m.

US drug research firm has called off a $1.6bn deal to buy Chinese group after its largest shareholders voiced strong opposition to the move

Google said that its search and advertising services were being blocked in China for first time since its groundbreaking compromise with the Chinese government earlier this month

EDF Networks has low-voltage electricity distribution networks in the east and south of England, long-term contracts with businesses such as London Underground, Heathrow and Gatwick, and the Channel Tunnel

People associated with Mr Cameron's visit said it was suspected that she had been taken ill and was travelling