OAO UTair Airline denies any allegations as to the company being offered for sale. ‘The rumors that the air carrier is now offered for sale have no factual grounds whatsoever: we are not planning on selling the business either in parts or as a whole, and not one of UTair’s managers took part in any negotiations to this extent,’ the airline says. Meanwhile, Kommersant carried an article on the company’s prospective sale. For one, the newspaper claimed the airline was negotiating with five potential buyers, among whom were Moscow Government, Lufthansa, Aeroflot, and Siberia Airlines.

VUZ-Bank (Life Financial Group’s asset) BOD decided not to distribute any profit for the year 2009 because no profit whatsoever was actually made last year. The bank’s Board of Directors suggested that the shareholders also decide not to pay any dividends for 2009 at the AGM. The final decision will be taken and the annual general meeting on May 21, 2010.

The BOD of Yekaterinburg-based oil plant suggested that the stockholders vote for passing last year’s dividends at the upcoming AGM. The stockholders’ annual general meeting has been scheduled for May 31, 2010. Apart from the issue of the dividends, the shareholders will also have to consider profit and loss distribution in the financial year 2009 and to approve a number of agreements signed with the framework of the loan at interest taken from OOO RusAgro Group.

OAO LSR Group, whose business activity involves a number of projects in Yekaterinburg, Sverdlovsk Region, might end up attracting some $100m less than expected in the course of its SPO. In fact, at the close of the sign-up session, the Group had to reduce the stock price by over 12%, that is, down to $8.5 to $9.5 per GDR, Vedomosti reports. So OAO LSR, Saint Petersburg’s major builder, declared that GDRs would be offered to the investors at $8.5 to $9.5 per receipt or at $42.5 to $47.5 per share (one share being equal to five GDRs). The total amount of investment should thus reach $667m, with

Sverdlovsk Region Government, Yekaterinburg Municipal Council, and RUDEA (the Russian-German energy agency) signed a cooperation agreement. The agreement provides for the three parties’ long-term and mutually beneficent cooperation in the field of energy-saving and energy efficiency in Sverdlovsk Region and Yekaterinburg. The agreement also covers a number of investment projects. The paper was signed by the region’s Communal Housing Services Minister Yuri Shevelev, Deputy Mayor of Yekaterinburg for Communal Housing Services and Housing Policy Konstantin Krynin, and RUDEA’s General Director