Visor Capital dominates in Kazakhstan category of Thomson Extel survey and wins award as Best Local Investment Bank.

Almaty, June 18^th  2009

Visor Capital, the leading Kazakh investment bank, ran out as the clear winner in the Kazakhstan category of 2009 Thomson Extel’s “European Emerging Markets Research” survey yesterday.  The global survey ranks financial research around the globe based upon votes by Fund Managers.

In the results, published on 17 June 2009, Visor Capital received 81.72% based upon commissions paid, within the Kazakhstan category, with no rivals achieving more than 10%.  In addition to the overall ranking, Visor Capital also had the top three analysts, Dominic Lewenz (Oil), Jason Hurwitz (Financials) and Leila Kulbayeva (Mining).

In May, Visor Capital was already awarded the title of “Best Local Investment Bank” by EMEA Finance magazine, recognising Visor Capital's "leading corporate finance and M&A team" for its role as exclusive adviser to Kookmin Bank in its purchase of a controlling stake in Bank CenterCredit, which is the largest Korean investment in a bank ever made outside of Korea.

Michael Carter, CEO, commented: “These two awards demonstrate Visor Capital’s continuing mission of being the leading local partner for investors and corporate clients in Central Asia. This commitment has been undiminished throughout the current crisis”. End of statement.  

For the Editor: Kookmin Bank, Korea's leading financial institution acquired a controlling stake in Bank Center Credit. Kookmin Bank’s initial investment for the 30% stake amounted to approximately USD 634 million (equivalent to KRW 621.3 billion), made through a combination of a purchase of shares from existing shareholders and a subscription for new shares issued by BCC to support the bank’s further growth. VISOR Capital acted as exclusive financial adviser to KOOKMIN BANK, with Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP, Shin & Kim and Grata acting as legal advisers. The deal is the largest ever cross-border M&A transaction by a Korean financial institution and a major step for Kookmin towards securing an opportunity for overseas growth.