Midnight In Moscow As Investment Banks Pull Back

Citigroup's Moscow-based equities head Igor Kan and sales chief Anatoly Darakov are leaving the bank, according to three people with knowledge of their departures.

Bloomberg reports that Kan joined Citigroup in 2010 after 15 years at Morgan Stanley, where he had worked his way up to deputy chief executive for Russia. He is considering a move to Rosneft Bank, the financial arm of Russia’s biggest oil producer, which hired three former Morgan Stanley executives last year, according to the people, who asked not to be named because his plans to leave haven’t been made public.

U.S. and European investment banks have been retreating from Moscow because of falling revenue and reduced margins. ING Groep NV, the biggest Dutch financial services company, said last month it will close its Russian equities unit, following Italy’s UniCredit SpA, which said in June it would shutter its Russian securities operation. Citigroup was the seventh-biggest arranger of Russian equity sales last year and in 2010, down from third in 2007, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

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