Renaissance Capital, the Russian investment banking subsidiary of Renaissance Group, is in “advanced negotiations” to buy brokerages in five to six African countries, reports The Financial Times, citing Stephen Jennings, the firm’s co-founder and chief executive.

According to the report, Jennings, who returned in February as chief executive officer to lead RenCap’s expansion into Asia and sub-Saharan Africa, expects to complete deals within the next few months in a hope to reinforce the bank’s ambition to “dominate trading flows on the continent”.

RenCap is reportedly one of the most active dealmakers on the African continent, executing 18 transactions in 10 countries.

In addition to its offices in Nigeria, Kenya, Zambia, Zimbabwe and Ghana, in February the bank opened in South Africa and hired Clifford Sacks, formerly a senior banker at Merrill Lynch, to head up the operation.

“We see Nigeria as a new Russia or Brazil in terms of the size you can get to. We wouldn’t be shocked to see [trading volumes] at the rate they have done in Russia,” Jennings is reported to have said. He also predicts Africa to be the fastest growing part of the world.

According to different media reports, Jennings is rebuilding RenCap after a sharp fall in Russian stocks. As a consequence, the brokerage had to fire 40 per cent of its staff and sell half the business to Mikhail Prokhorov, a Russian billionaire, for $500 million.