Kyiv Post's Best of Kyiv 2010: Dragon Capital
Investment houses have come and gone in Kyiv, but core members of Dragon Capital’s top-notch team have been around about as long as the Kyiv Post, which started in 1995, and have been getting Best of Kyiv awards for many years.
Czech-born Tomas Fiala was part of Wood & Company investment house before it exited the country. Taking core team members with him, Fiala started Dragon Capital in 2000.
Fiala’s decision to stay in Ukraine proved a lucrative one. The company he runs participates in more than a third of transactions on the benchmark Ukrainian Exchange.
So what’s kept Dragon on top? The company’s managing director, Brian Best, said it’slong-term relationships with Western clients and a research team that’s in tune with Ukrainian markets. “When you work and help foreign investors, you build relationships, and investment banking brings in corporate clients,” Best said.
Most importantly, Best said, Dragon offers everything a Western investment house does, providing for a well-roundedness that separates the company from the pack. “Others try doing everything, but we do everything,” Best told the Kyiv Post.
Dragon’s track record hasn’t gone unnoticed. In December 2007, Goldman Sachs purchased a minority stake. Today, Dragon, according Best’s estimate, has about a 30 percent market share, making it the largest investment banking, securities brokerage, asset management and private equity firm in Ukraine.
“We came to the Ukrainian market in the mid-1990s. We withstood at least two economic crises and we know how best to deal with Ukraine’s difficult economic situation,” Best said.
The bank has completed more than 50 deals, including initial public offerings, private placements and merger and acquisition transactions since 2005, raising about $2 billion. Dragon’s asset management arm has $600 million under management.
Some of Dragon’s latest transactions include Platinum Bank’s Hr 100 million bond offer, financial advice for $25 million long-term debt and quasi-equity financing for pharmaceutical distributor Laona and financial advice for a $22 million International Finance Corporation loan to home improvement chain Nova Linia.
