Renaissance Capital, a leading emerging and frontier markets investment bank, is pleased to announce that Alastair Jones has joined the firm as Director, Telecoms Research Analyst.
Alastair will spearhead Renaissance Capital’s telecoms research across its geographies, including Russia & CIS, Emerging Europe, MENA and Africa. The new Director will be based in London and report to Daniel Salter, head of research, Eurasia/head of equity strategy, and Yvonne Mhango, head of research Africa, Africa Economist.
Yvonne Mhango, head of research Africa, Africa Economist, Renaissance Capital, said: “We are happy to welcome Alastair to our team. Amongst the key players and beneficiaries of the great fintech shift that we can see happening in many of our core markets, telecoms have come to investors’ spotlight. I am convinced that with his successful track record in the industry and global emerging markets in general, Alastair will help us excel in the sector coverage and provide our clients with top-quality research support.”
Daniel Salter, head of research, Eurasia/head of equity strategy, Renaissance Capital, said: “In many of our markets, particularly in frontier, we see telecoms as an integral part of the ongoing fintech revolution, which is fast-tracking the availability of financial services to a much wider population. Over the past couple of years, we have already established a dedicated and award-winning Africa financials/fintech research team, covering 20+ listed and pre-IPO companies. Our recent specialist Nigeria Tech/Fintech Conference witnessed considerable investor interest in the sector and the Firm is already exploring further opportunities to grow our expertise and pipeline. We are also happy to announce that following 2.5 years in Research, Alexander Vengranovich, Telecoms Analyst, will be moving to our investment banking team as a Director to continue to work with TMT clients in a new capacity.”
Alastair Jones, telecoms research analyst, Renaissance Capital, said: “Renaissance Capital’s excellent reputation for providing insightful views on the emerging and frontier markets is well known, and I am thrilled to join the team and build on the already strong research product. The telecoms sector is at a very interesting juncture with investors increasingly acknowledging the opportunity for growth in adjacent sectors – particularly fintech. I look forward to working closely with the team to help investors navigate through the industry’s ambitious plans to drive growth and unlock shareholder value.”
Alastair brings in a wealth of 20 years of experience as a telecoms analyst. He has joined from New Street Research LLP (London, UK), where he was Partner, GEM Telecoms & Media, covering listed telecom operators in South Africa, Kenya, Russia, Turkey, China, Taiwan, South Korea, Hong Kong and Singapore, and was in regular dialogue with the buy-side, company management and industry experts to develop proprietary views on the investment universe.
Prior to that, he worked at Morgan Stanley as Associate, Emerging Markets and Associate, Western European Telecoms. Alastair graduated with honours from the University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban with a Bachelor of Commerce degree in Accounting, Auditing, Managerial Accounting & Tax.
Alastair will be supported by Samuel Njihia, who has joined Renaissance Capital from Faida Investment Bank and will be based in the Firm’s Nairobi office.
At Faida, Samuel was covering the banking, telecoms and cement sectors. He also worked as a corporate finance analyst, where he helped businesses raise capital, and structured and wrote fairness opinions on various corporate transactions. Samuel has passed all three levels of the CFA programme and graduated from Kenyatta University with a Bachelor of Economics and Finance.
