Concern Kalina’s net profit (calculated in accordance with the International Accounting Standards) went down by 34.3% in the first quarter of 2009 compared with a year earlier and reached 139.4 million RUR, the spokesperson for the company reports. The cosmetics manufacturer’s revenues amounted to 3.6 billion RUR and its gross profit to 1.91 billion RUR over the same period of time. EBITDA rose by 17.3% and came to 471.88 million RUR. Besides, the changing lending practices and the devaluation of the ruble against the U.S. dollar and the Euro in the second half of 2008 and the early months of

URSA Bank made ?14m worth of coupon payments on its LPN bonds coupons. The coupon yield was determined at 7% a year, the bank’s press officer reports. Ireland-based URSA Finance Plc went through with its ?400m Eurobonds issue on May 21, 2007. The issue was also coordinated by ABN Amro and Deutsche Bank. The bonds are to be in circulation for three years. According to URSA Bank, there are currently ?202.17m worth of this issue’s bonds on the market.

Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) developed its environmental program for 2009. MMK comes up with such a program on a yearly basis in order to decrease its negative impact on the environment and to make sure they keep to the norms of air and water emissions and industrial waste limits. ‘Some of our most important tasks include putting up a dust exhausting unit for our Mill 5000 that will trap at least 900 tons of dust a year. In addition, some gas-purification units will be installed at our CC machine department. All in all, we plan to spend 300 million RUR on air-friendly innovations

‘Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) produced about 1.1 million tons of metal goods at the beginning of 2008, whereas at the moment, the figure comes to 600,000 tons, or about 60% of the earlier outputs. Unfortunately, there is little or no purchasing power on the home market right now; moreover, we have to export at prices below the prime cost. Nevertheless, we did manage to break even in March 2009. We put a lot of effort into decreasing the prime cost, so now MMK is gradually starting to make a profit again,’ MMK BOD Chairman Viktor Rashnikov said at a press conference following the

‘It’s hard to speak about this or that company’s competitive advantages just now, because all businesses are going through hard times at the moment. Nevertheless, this crisis is bound to end sooner or later, and then, I am positive that MMK is going to have a great advantage over its rivals,’ British Petroleum’s Vice President for Russia and Kazakhstan and Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) BOD member Peter Charow announced at a press conference dedicated to the enterprise’s annual general meeting. ‘First of all, MMK is conveniently located in the Urals, where most of the demand for

The stockholders of Nizhniy Tagil boiler plant decided in the course of the annual general meeting to pass the dividend for 2008. At the same time, each BOD members is to get the monthly remuneration of 30,000 RUR and is going to get all the job-related expenses covered (provided all the financial proofs are submitted properly).

The net profit of Ural Railway Machine-Building Plant went down by 128.464 million RUR, or 12.898% in the first quarter of 2009 (from 996,000 RUR worth of net profit in the last quarter of 2008 to 127.468 RUR worth of net loss in the first quarter of 2009). The plant reports the decrease in profits has to do with increased non-sales expenses, that is, growing U.S. dollar exchange rate.

Bogdanovichskiy District’s Justice of the Peace returned the verdict of ‘guilty’ upon a sole trader Oksana Cherdantseva, who was declared to have committed crimes describes in Article 146 (part 2) of the Russian Federation Criminal Code (violation of author’s rights), the spokesperson for Sverdlovsk Region’s public prosecution authorities reports. It was detected in the course of the court inquiry that Ms Cherdantseva had been selling pirated copies of audiovisual materials at one of the local malls since January 2008. In fact, 172 counterfeited DVDs with 598 illegally copied movies were

Sverdlovsk Region Arbitration Court keeps looking in the claim laid by the region’s Ministry for Public Property Management against Avtosan (case А60-6917/2009-С 2). The plaintiff insists on the defendant paying over 500,000 RUR for missing the deadline for making the rent payments. ‘Unfortunately, it happens quite often that a tenant fails to meet the terms of the renting agreement. Avtosan rented a land allotment from us in June 2008 but never paid the rent and ignored our complaints. This is why we had to take legal action in order to get the debt paid through legal enforcement,’ says the

URSA Bank started offering the new money orders within the framework of the Zolotaya Korona system, so its customers can now have money transferred through terminals and cash-in ATMs in any of the bank’s offices in Siberia, the bank’s press officer reports. The money orders are processed in rubles within Russia and in rubles and foreign currency (up to $5,000) outside Russia for residents; as far as non-residents are concerned, there are no limits as to the sum or legal constraints. The exchange rate used is the one set by the Bank of Russia on the day of the transaction. The bank’s

The Central Bank of Russia reports volume of private individuals’ deposits and other investments in Perviy Respublikanskiy Bank valid for 31 to 90 days had gone down by 10.41% (from 321.227 million RUR to 287.77 million RUR) by April 1, 2009.

The Central Bank of Russia reports volume of loans given by Perviy Respublikanskiy Bank to non-state for-profit organizations for 1 to 3 years had gone down by 14.75% (from 547.103 million RUR to 466.379 million RUR) by April 1, 2009.

The international rating agency decreased AKB Absolut Bank’s long-term Issuer Default Rating from BBB+ to BBB, with Negative rating outlook. This decrease is actually a follow-up on Fitch’s demoting the bank’s parent enterprise KBC Bank’s rating down to A; besides, the lowered rating reflects the agency’s concerns over KBC Bank’s weakened financial status and its dependence on the state support. What is more, the bank’s ability to help its Russian daughter enterprise if necessary looks a bit dubious at the moment. The Negative rating outlook indicates that KBCB’s own financial indicators keep

The bank’s shareholders decided at the annual general meeting in Yekaterinburg that they should pass the dividend for 2008. What is more, they voted unanimously for closing down the previously created development fund, savings fund, and consumption fund. The leftovers of these funds’ reserves are to be directed into the undistributed profit category. The meeting closed with the approval of the bank’s annual report for 2008 and electing the BOD members.

‘We’ve had some problems with getting some of our loans prolonged and refinanced at Bank Severnaya Kazna, despite our being their major customer and having the largest lending portfolio there,’ President of Mayak Corporation Marina Konkova said at a regional committee meeting. This seventeenth meeting of Sverdlovsk Region Government Committee for Business Support was chaired by Head of Sverdlovsk Region Government Viktor Koksharov.

The Board of Directors of Sverdlovenergosbyt was unable to plan the agenda for the upcoming shareholder meeting. Nevertheless, the agenda has to be decided upon no later than May 20, 2009. The meeting itself is to take place in Moscow on June 24, 2009.

Severnaya Kazna (the asset of Alfa-Bank) no longer handles any money orders through Western Union, Blizko, or Contact. The information to this extent is available via the bank’s official website.

Home Credit & Finance Bank’s stockholders decided at their latest general meeting in Moscow that the 1,198,505,761 RUR worth of losses in 2008 should be compensated by the undistributed profits accumulated over the previous years. The decision was approved of by the votes of the shareholders present at the meeting.

Absolut Bank Joint Stock Commercial Bank’s BOD suggested that the stockholders should abstain from distributing the net profit for 2008 and pass the share dividend. The latter are supposed to make this decision at the AGM in Moscow on June 4, 2009.

The Federal Financial Market Service annulled Bank24.ru’s license entitling the business to brokerage and dealing operations as well as security transactions. This news has been announced via the bank Group’s official website.