Dragon Capital Recognized by Finance New Europe for Top Deal in Ukraine
Kyiv, December 12, 2006 – Financial news provider Finance New Europe has given Kyiv-based investment bank Dragon Capital first place in the category Top Deal in Ukraine for 2006. The award was announced Dec. 6.
FNE, a bi-monthly and online business news publication, honored Dragon Capital for its handling of Rodovid Bank’s Initial Public Offering (IPO), which raised $47 million for a 19 percent stake in the bank in very short turnaround time.
Rodovid Bank, a medium-sized bank based in Kyiv, ranks as the fastest-growing bank in the country in terms of assets and has former Olympic pole vault champion Serhiy Bubka as its president.
Ukraine’s banking sector had a stellar year in 2006, generating immense outside interest in the sector sparked by the purchase of Bank Aval by Austria’s Raiffeisenbank in late 2005. Since then more than half a dozen Ukrainian banks have been bought by foreign counterparts, and five Ukrainian banks went public, with Dragon managing the placement for four of these deals.
“By the time that we started marketing (Rodovid Bank)’s IPO in April, they had already attracted the attention of many investors familiar with the country’s rapidly expanding banking sector,” said Dragon Capital Director of Investment Banking Brian Best.
“The combination of strong investor interest in the Ukrainian banking sector, the bank’s young and dynamic management team with their focused strategy on the fast-growing consumer finance business made this deal hugely attractive for investors.
“Under an immense amount of time pressure, the Rodovid team handled themselves like true professionals and market veterans,” Best said. “It was a pleasure to work with them.”
Dragon Capital Managing Director Tomas Fiala also expressed pleasure at the announcement, adding that the award recognizes Dragon for having “the brightest and most experienced people in the market.”
“Dragon has had its best year in its six-year history,” Fiala said. “The company has built up its leadership position over old and new competitors alike and beaten them across the board.”
To help raise its profile in Central and Eastern Europe, Fiala said that Dragon Capital had raised nearly $500 million in equity capital and about $300 million in debt for Ukrainian companies in 2006, accounting for the lion’s share of new equity capital raised in the country.
Fiala expects the investment bank to triple its debt and equity raising totals in 2007 and to help put the spotlight “on the best and fastest-growing Ukrainian companies.”
The FNE awards for 2006 recognized a host of investment banks and financial institutions across the CEE region in a range of categories. This is the first year that FNE has focused on Ukraine in its annual presentations. Ukreximbank got the nod as Ukraine’s top commercial bank.
FNE has not been the only organization to acknowledge Dragon’s efforts this year. In July, financial news magazine Euromoney named Dragon Capital the 2006 winner of “Best Equity House in Ukraine” – an award Dragon has won in every year in which the award has been given.
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