Lehman Brothers is set to hire Nick Jordan of Deutsche Bank to head up the firm’s return to Russia. The move will see Lehman poach one of the region’s foremost and most experienced bankers from his current position as co-head of Russian investment at Deustche Bank.
It is thought that Jordan’s Kremlin connections made him especially attractive to Lehman in an economy that is increasingly state-run. The US bank had pulled out of the fast-growing Russian market in the wake of the economic meltdown in 1998 which lead to huge losses for a series of US banks.
Lehman’s return comes at a time when Morgan Stanley and Merrill Lynch are expanding their presence in the area as the market undergoes a revival, which has been driven chiefly through petro-cash.
“To call yourself a global investment bank, you have to be in Russia,” says Roland Nash of Russian investment bank Renaissance Capital. “The financial revolution taking place in Russia is extremely attractive for western investment banks.”