‘Auchan supermarkets are set up in places where the company can actually bring something new onto the local market. There are normally two ways our company does this: we either acquire the local stores (as in Moscow) or build our own commercial centre (in Yekaterinburg),’ Sales Headquarters Director of Auchan chain stores Jeanne Pierre explained. ‘I don’t believe big regional companies are interested in cooperation; the businesses that would benefit most would be fairly small ones,’ M. Germaine noted. ‘The first Auchan supermarket in Yekaterinburg will be located on the grounds of IKEA in

Magnesite Group bought 35 million RUR worth of equipment for its Magnezit Industrial Complex mine as part of their investment program in 2005. One of the items is the Boomer 282 boring rig (the third in the collection) bought last week. In addition, the miners have already been doing appraisal surveys using the new MetrIter core drill received from South America in December. This investment program will allow the miners to raise the magnesite extraction by 100,000 tons and reach the point of 750,000 tons a year, the company’s spokesperson said to UrBC representative.

In 2005, Chelyabinskgorgaz JSC received its state registration certificates of ownership of 30 high-pressure gas pipelines, the company’s PR-department reported to UrBC representative. These pipelines passed into the company’s ownership mainly during its privatization in 1994. To receive the registration, specialists of Chelyabinskgorgaz had to complete the inventory of the pipelines that included drawing up the log and refinement of siting on the executive survey for every item in the pipeline network. Thus, the company presented a detailed plan of more than 100 kilometer of high-pressure

On February 3, 2006, Russian Heineken Group announced the upcoming production of new Patra Strong and Patra Draught Beer brands using Patra JSC brewery of Yekaterinburg. As the company’s spokesperson says, Patra Strong and Patra Draught Beer brands will hit the local and regional stores in mid-February. Both brands will come in 0.5-liter Long neck glass bottles and 1.5- and 2-liter polyethylene ones, and they are thought to add to the economy price segment. Patra beer proper is to acquire the new design as well. All of the company’s brands will now come in 0.5-liter Long neck glass bottles.

Chelyabinskiye Stroitenlno-Dorozhniye Macshini JSC, road building machines maker of Chelyabinsk, has decided to launch repetition work of a new V125 frontlift in the summer of 2006. Says the company’s Chief Designer Viktor Revin: ‘The launch of this frontlift will allow us to master the production of all the other varieties. We are currently making frontlifts with 2-, 3- and 4- cubic meter loader bucket capacity, yet the ones that sell best are the 1.5-cubic meter capacity models. There is a demand for them, so we decided to launch the V125 frontlift with 1.5-cubic meter bucket capacity.’

SPAS, the local fleet of taxis, became the official ground carrier for Koltsovo airport to Yekaterinburg trips in 2006. SPAS was given a tender after it had been chosen by Koltsovo airport among the other fleets of taxis operating in Yekaterinburg in the end of 2005. Starting February, a taxi trip from the airport to any destination within Yekaterinburg, at any time, will cost you 350 RUR (as opposed to last year’s 300 RUR). The passengers can either call the company beforehand or use the dispatcher service in the domestic or international flights arrivals halls upon landing. The company uses

‘The excise label equipment has finally been delivered, yet the computers and printers still have to be programmed by Atlas, a specialist company. The work is now in progress,’ Director of Tagilvodka JSC distribution subsidiary Evgeniy Kulaev said to UrBC representative. According to Mr Kulaev, the plant has also been idle due to the lack of the papers needed to get the excise labels. ‘The new labels do exist, but we haven’t been given them yet, and acquiring all the documents is time-consuming. Besides, the companies now have to pay 10% off each excise duty in advance. The duty excised on a

‘The airport representatives have rejected our application for performing Yekaterinburg to Moscow flights referring to the airport’s low carrying capacity. In similar cases, the carriers have the right to ask the Timetable Center based with Federal Air Transport Agency to investigate the carrying capacity of the airport. The investigation of Koltsovo airport has already been completed and its capacity has been found sufficient for Siberia Airlines to perform the flights. Thus, Koltsovo was recommended to comply. However, despite the federal findings and requests, the airport still refuses to

On February 1, 2006, former GD of OMZ-Kran Vitaliy Nedelskiy was appointed General Director of Uralskiy Turbinniy Zavod CJSC, turbine works of Yekaterinburg. Former GD Sergei Zyryanov was appointed Chair of the Board, as had been suggested by Renova Group, one of the shareholders. These new appointments are targeted at improving the quality of corporate business management and were caused by the growing need to make and track the strategic decisions within the Board of Directors. ‘During the crisis, the company’s top priority was mere survival, but we have overcome the hardships and have even

In the fall of 2005, Russia adopted the project aimed at setting up credit interchange bureaus – a very bright idea given the booming consumer loans and higher risks faced by the banks. The bureaus would make getting the loan for the law-abiding applicants easier and quicker, and crediting organizations would have fewer no-money-returns, the spokesperson for Uralfinprombank JSC said to UrBC representative. ‘Yet the banking history legislation hardly works in real life; Uralfinprombank JSC and many other banks have been supplying information about disloyal clients, which is regulated by the

Chelyabenergosbyt, supplier of Chelyabinsk, cut off electricity in the administration building and some pipelines of the local water supplier in regional Miass due to agreement violations. As the company’s spokesperson said to UrBC representative, the water supplier of Miass has not been paying the bills for a while and does not comply with the precious agreements concerning their debts. By February 1, 2006 the water supplier had come to owe Chelyabenergosbyt over 19 million RUR.

Mechel Bank JSC made more services available via plastic card. It is now possible to pay your mobile phone bills (if your operator is Megafon, MTS, Utel, Beeline, Corbina, Motiv, Yenisey Telecom), pay for the television subscription (for Cosmos TV, NTV+, Comcor, TV AKADO) or the Internet service (for MTU-Intel STREAM) and put money into your WEBMONEY and Yandex-money accounts using Mechel Bank plastic card. One can also check how much money one has in one’s account as well as to print out the account statement. There are nine Mechel ATMs available altogether.

Ural Interregional Department of Russian Federal Property Fund announced the results of a public auction to which Uraldrevproekt JSC, local research enterprise, share holding had been previously put up. The holding comprised 25.1% of the company’s authorized capital. There were 4260 common shares offered, the state serial number being 62-1п-699 and face value coming to 0.05 RUR. The opening bid was declared as 7,620,000 RUR; the share holding was bought at 4, 572, 000 RUR.

Says Koltsovo airport spokesperson Yulia Fedotova: ‘Siberia Airlines applied for a permission to perform Yekaterinburg-Moscow flights via our airport in the end of 2005. Yet in mid-January 2006 Koltsovo decided to refuse them the slots they needed.’ Ms Fedotova explained that the arrival of one more carrier onto Moscow-bound market would hardly be expedient. Koltsovo airport specialists had estimated that 250,998 people traveled from Yekaterinburg to Moscow via 3,290 flights performed by Ural Airlines, Aeroflot, Transaero using TU-154, TU-134, IL-86, Airbus 320, and Boeing 737. 2, 921 flights

According to the spokesperson for the Federal Financial Markets Service, the additional allotment issue of uncertificated registered common shares of Zvezda Winery JSC, Yekaterinburg was registered on January 31, 2006. The corresponding document states that the emitting company should allot 490 million uncertificated registered common shares with a par value of 0.1 RUR each. The total value of the issue comprises 49 million RUR. The state serial number is 1-01-32085-D-001D.

Chelaybinskiy Tsinkoviy Zavod JSC, zinc plant of Chelyabinsk, produced 116,336 tons of zinc and zinc-based alloys in 2005, which signifies a 23% decrease compared to the previous year’s 151,974 tons, the company’s spokesperson Mikhail Bendyak said to UrBC representative. Despite a fall in production, the company’s sales profits grew by 19% compared to 2004 (3,997,000,000 RUR) and thus reached the point of 4,770,000,000 RUR in 2005. Over 70% of the zinc produced by the company was distributed on the home market. The plant intends to produce 130,000 tons if zinc in 2006.

An extraordinary general meeting is to be held at Kombinat Stroitelnikh Konstruktsiy JSC, structural unit producer of Chelyabinsk, on February 28, 2006. The items on the agenda include the amendments and additions to the company’s Charter, the possible early termination of powers of Members of the company Board and the election of the new Board of Directors.

Sibur-Russian Tyres holding (set up as part of Sibur Holding JSC on January 1, 2006) summed up its achievements in 2005. Uralshina Ltd., Yekaterinburg-placed holding member, produced 2,031,000 tyres of all kinds, including car tyres. According to the company’s spokesperson, there were 1,065,000 car tyres, 286,000 truck tires, and 73,000 agricultural tyres produced altogether. The plant also started the Increasing Tyre Output within Plant Specialization investment project in 2005. 55,000,000 RUR of investments were used in 2005. The projected total amount of investments comes to 292,600,000

Chelyabenergosbyt JSC, electricity supplier, set up the Bankrupt Business Cooperation Project aimed at coordinating all the services dealing with electricity consumers as well as at preventing the long-terms arrears. The local bankrupt or nearly bankrupt companies owe Chelyabenergosbyt JSC 32 million RUR. Ninety more debtors were added to the list in 2005 alone, and the company’s losses occasioned by the bankruptcies were five times as big in 2005 as they were in 2004. The major debtor happens to be the hardware plant of Minyar that owes the company 16.7 million RUR. To make matters worse,

Yuzhno-Uralsky armaturno-izolyatorny zavod JSC (Yuzhno-Uralsk producer of reinforcement and insulators, YuAIZ) was visited by specialists of a representative company in mid-January. This company is going to present the production of YuAIZ on the Spanish market. Among the other guests were the representatives of Spanish certification center that is going to test customizability of YuAIZ insulators for Spanish power engineers. The visit was preceded by YuAIZ Technical Director Vladimir Golovin visiting Spain. Mr Golovin contacted various companies engaged in transmission facilities building in