The Economic News Agency prepared a rating of Russia’s best lobbyists in April 2011 for Nezavisimaya Gazeta. BOD Chairman of Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) Viktor Rashnikov was given the 21st position in the First People Lobbyists category (Strong Efficiency subgroup), which means he retained the position he got in the previous rating. This is actually one of the best results among the VIPs of Russia’s ferrous metallurgy business. The research, which Nezavisimaya Gazeta carries on a monthly basis, determines just how effective the performance of private and state organizations’

Some changes were introduced to UralTransBank BOD recently: President of Ural Federal University Stanislav Naboichenko, who is no longer an independent director after being on the Board for over seven years, has been replaced by UFU Provost for Economics & Strategic Development Daniil Sandler. The decision to this extent was taken by the bank’s stockholders in the course of the annual general meeting on May 27, 2011.

In accordance with Order 62-11-601/pz-i of Russia’s Federal Financial Markets Service Ural Federal District division as of May 27, 2011, the issue of Sverdlovsk Region-based Ural University Campus ordinary registered paperless shares was halted.

Nissan Company’s Saint Petersburg-based plant had to put up with a five-day stoppage, that is, until June 3, 2011, inclusively, ITAR-TASS reports. Now it is this particular enterprise that is currently the key supplier of Nissan automobiles to Yekaterinburg. According to the company’s press service, this idle time will allow them to synchronize the plant’s production processes with the schedule for delivering the car parts from Japan. The decision to change the Saint Petersburg’s plant’s working hours was made because the production in Japan stopped at the end of March and early in April

Forbes came up with its rating of Russia’s 30 most business-friendly regions. Tatarstan was declared No.1, while Sverdlovsk Region was given the second place, followed by Krasnodar Territory. Areas like Moscow, Saint Petersburg, Moscow Region, and Leningrad Region did not compete in the rating because of their unique status, whereas the republics of the North Caucasus were not featured in the rating due to security problems.

UTair Airlines plane traveling from Tyumen to Moscow’s Domodedovo Airport had to perform an emergency landing due to engine failure, Rosaviation’s official representative Sergey Izvolsky told RIA Novosti. The plane departed from Tyumen at 7:40 PM local time (5:40 PM Moscow time) and had to get back to the airport as soon as twenty minutes after the take-off. The crew announced that the aircraft would have to perform an emergency landing in Tyumen. There were sixty-five passengers aboard the plane; no one was hurt. Later on, these passengers flew to Moscow via another airplane.

RBC Rating and Banks-Rate.ru came up with a rating of Russia’s 500 largest banks. The rating contestants were ranked on the basis of several criteria, including the size of net and liquid assets, a bank’s lending portfolio, the volume of loans issued to businesses and private individuals, and a bank’s deposit portfolio. According to the ranking based on the banks’ liquid assets as of April 1, 2011, VUZ-Bank was one of Russia’s 300 largest banks, with its liquid assets growing by 49.43% in the course of one year, which secured the company a promotion in the rating by as many as fifty-seven

The international rating agency Fitch Ratings called off the ratings of Bank Rossiya, including the long-term Issuer Default Rating (which stood at B). Fitch will no longer have access to enough information needed to keep the ratings going, as the bank decided not to get rated any longer. Fitch no longer rates this bank or provides any analysis for it,’ the agency reports.

Evraz Kachkanarsky Ore Mining and Processing Enterprise’s Board of Directors recommended that the company’s shareholders vote for passing the dividend for the year 2010 at the upcoming AGM. The annual general meeting is set for June 30, 2010.

Fitch Ratings rated Russia-based Home Credit and Finance Bank at BB- in terms of long-term Issuer Default Ratings in national and foreign currencies, with Stable Rating Outlook. The bank’s ratings are supported by its good profitability, reasonable asset quality throughout the economic cycle, and clever risk management as well as its great capacity to generate monetary resources and its impressive capitalization. At the same time, even though the bank had its funds diversified considerably due to deposits, these deposits still have to stand the test of time and prove stable. What is more, the

The international rating agency Standard & Poor's reconsidered the rating outlook of Russian Bank Uralsib from Negative to Stable; the bank’s long-term and short-term contractor ratings were affirmed at B+ and B, respectively. The new rating outlook indicates that the bank’s financial performance has been experiencing less market pressure lately due to the gradual improvement of working conditions at home. Uralsib cut down on the transactions with the related parties and the quality of its assets tends to be improving now. The pressure on the bank’s liquidity isn’t as strong as it

This Kurgan Region-based enterprise might not be able to deliver a number of upgraded combat vehicles, which the Russian airborne troops are now switching to, to the army due to financial reasons, head of troops Vladimir Shamanov told RIA Novosti. According to this military official, the rearmament of the troops is being carried out in strict accordance with the set regulations. First of all, this involves upgrades of our BMD-1 (combat vehicles 1), BMD-2, and Nonnas, the self-propelled guns, through automation,’ the General said. However, the problem relating to fulfilling the state defense

Bank CIT Finance BOD approved of the terms of the agreement the bank is to sign with Bank VTB 24 regarding the sale of the bulk of its mortgage portfolio. The portfolio amounts to 34bn RUR. The agreement will probably be completed before the end of 2011 through a transfer of mortgages to Bank VTB 24 in several stages. All the money thus obtained will be directed to paying the bank’s creditors, namely, the Deposit Insurance Agency State Corporation and Russian Railways Public Company,’ says Chairman of Bank CIT Finance BOD Yuri Novozhilov.

Yekaterinburg-based Koltsovo Airport’s Board of Directors was unable to decide on any recommendations to the stockholders regarding the scale and the payment of dividends for the year 2010. In the meantime, the annual general meeting took place the other day, the company reports.

The Dubai-Yekaterinburg flight by Flydubai that was called off the day before is now expected to arrive at 2:20 PM. The Yekaterinburg-Dubai flight is therefore expected to take off at 3:05 PM. The said flight was cancelled the other day. According to the airline representatives, the route between Dubai and Yekaterinburg turned out to be dangerous because of the volcanic ashes concentration in the air. We took the experts’ advice and cancelled the scheduled flight between Dubai and Yekaterinburg,’ the airline’s press officer reports.

MMK Group is expected to save over 9m RUR this year due to the energy-saving measures launched at the group’s enterprises in the first quarter of 2011. For one, Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) runs programs on reducing energy spending every year. Most of the measures were targeted at saving electric power. These included replacing the older light bulbs with the new, energy-saving ones, installing new electrical machinery instead of the old power-hungry type, and improving on the production processes. In the course of one year, the savings will amount to nearly 1.8m kilowatt-hours,

The copper enterprise Uralectromed’s Board of Directors recommended that the stockholders vote for passing the last year’s dividends in the course of the annual general meeting. The AGM took place today, May 25, 2011. Uralelectromed is the key asset of Ural Mining & Metallurgical Company.

Supporting the ruling of the court of appeals, a cassational court stated that Russia’s Federal Antimonopoly Service’s Sverdlovsk Region division imposing a fine on the Bank of Moscow for violating the existing antimonopoly legislation had been legitimate. The bank has already paid the 370,430-ruble fine to the federal budget for violating the antimonopoly agreement. The administrative offense action was taken when the FAS’s Sverdlovsk Region division detected an instance of the antimonopoly legislation violation on the part of the Bank of Moscow.

Khanty-Mansiysky Bank put off the date of launching its 5bn RUR bond issue BO-01 for an indefinite period of time, Kommersant refers to the bank as reporting. It was announced earlier that the bond offer auction was supposed to have taken place on May 26, 2011. The bank had meant to go through with 5 million bonds with a face value of 1,000 RUR each by public subscription. The bank’s press officer informed Kommersant that ‘the bank currently has enough recourses at its disposal to implement its development programs and needs no additional means at the moment.

The revenues of UTair Engineering (UTair Airlines’ daughter enterprise), calculated in accordance with the Russian Accounting Standards, declined by 6.8% in January-March 2011 compared with the first quarter of 2010 and came to 407.1m RUR, the company reports. The net loss amounted to 307.39m RUR, which was 94% more than in the first quarter of 2010. The company explains the net loss has to do with the expenses exceeding the profits.