TROIKA Dialog, Russia's oldest investment bank, will add 500 positions by the end of September ahead of a possible initial public offering in 2010, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Ruben Vardanian said.

"We are preparing ourselves for an IPO, which is becoming more and more visible," Vardanian said on Friday in an interview with Bloomberg News. "But we are not desperate to go public," he said. The hires would increase the bank's workforce to 2,000.

Troika is owned by 92 partners. Vardanian has doubled the company's staff in the last two years. The bank aims to increase revenue by at least 35 percent a year for the next five years. "We will be ready in 2010 but that doesn't mean we will" do an IPO, he said.

The Moscow-based bank had net profit of more than US$200 million last year, while revenue increased about 30 percent to US$700 million, the Russian news agency Interfax reported on January 29.

"For us it's a great market," Vardanian said. "You are getting more and more M&A transactions."

The bank ranked No. 1 in advisory work for Russian mergers and acquisitions in the last five months, he said. The bank has US$10 billion in assets under management and 1,000 private banking clients, he said.

Troika isn't planning acquisitions because there is enough growth potential in its main markets of Russia, Kazakhstan and Ukraine, he said.