UrBC, Yekaterinburg, November 17, 2011. Auchan is now Yekaterinburg’s only large supermarket chain that does not sell anything produced at Reftinskaya poultry factory. This became the case after the factory transformed into a new legal entity. ‘We still haven’t signed a new supply agreement with Auchan. The new agreement was needed because the factory transformed into a new legal entity when it was turned into a joint stock company at the end of August. ‘Auchan’s management was informed of the changes well beforehand, but it’s mid-November now, and the agreement still has not been signed by

UrBC, Moscow, November 17, 2011. Russia’s steel-making enterprises have now felt the metallurgical industry’s global downfall. For one, the financial performance indicators of Vladimir Lisin’s Novolipetsk Iron & Steel Works (NLMK) went drastically down in the third quarter of 2011, Kommersant reports. Among other things, the company’s key efficiency indicator – its EBITDA profitability – dropped down to the levels of the recession-hit year 2009. Up till now, NLMK’s figures were some of the best in the industry, but the company had unlucky timing with the consolidation of its European

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, November 17, 2011. Ural Airlines’ fleet of vehicles now comprises as many as twenty-one Airbus aircraft. The company’s eighth Airbus 321 arrived in Yekaterinburg’s Koltsovo Airport yesterday, marking yet another step on the way to Ural Airlines getting an upgraded fleet of vehicles, the airline’s press officer reports. The new plane was leased in Dublin, Ireland. The aircraft is fit for 220 economy class passengers and will be used by the company mainly for chartered flights. Before the end of the year, the air carrier intends to buy two more Airbus 321 planes and operate

UrBC, Moscow, November 17, 2011. Mercedes Benz RUS is planning to set up a dealership center in Kurgan. The company explains they are currently on the look-out for an investor with some experience in the automobile business. Under the company’s conditions, the center must be located on the side of a highway and have a convenient customer driveway. Mercedes Benz RUS is willing to support the dealer in designing the concept of the business, picking out equipment, and all-level employee training.

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, November 16, 2011. YIT Uralstroy, the daughter enterprise of the Finnish company YIT, acquired a 100% shareholding in the authorized capital of Yekaterinburg-based Olimp Management Company. At the close of the transaction, the company was given the new name of Olimp-Service Management Company,’ YIT’s press service reports.

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, November 16, 2011. Vladivostok Avia is closing down its representation in Yekaterinburg. The decision was made at the company’s BOD meeting recently. The office was located in Uralskaya St. In fact, the airline decided to close down the representation in Kemerovo as well. Now Aeroflot recently got access to the aviation assets of RosTechnologies State Corporation, with its daughter enterprise Aeroflot-Finance receiving, among other assets, a 52.15% stake in Vladivostok Avia. The air carrier is now reported to run the chance of losing its current name in the course of a

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, November 16, 2011. SUAL Kremnij Ural dumped 4,400 tons of pollutants in the air last year, which amounted to 11.4% of all the harmful emissions in the town of Kamensk-Uralsky. These data are available from a public report on the state of and protection of Sverdlovsk Region environment in the year 2010. The report was compiled on the basis of data provided by the state statistical bodies and environmental monitoring agencies as well as information provided by state-run environmental protection agencies and leading conservationist and environmentalist organizations.

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, November 16, 2011. Qatar, one of Russia’s key rivals on the global oil markets, might get a stake in Russia’s largest independent natural gas producer Novatek and join its project for the production of natural gas and liquefied natural gas in Yamal. The two countries’ energy ministers declared that the negotiations were already being held ‘at the corporations’ level’, with full support and promotion from both states. Still, Novatek itself has not confirmed the reports that the company might get a new shareholder any time soon, Kommersant reports. Meanwhile, the first

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, November 16, 2011. A picket in protest of closing down the electrolysis facilities at UC RUSAL Bogoslovsky smelter will be held in Krasnoturyinsk’s main square from noon to 1 PM on November 26, 2011. The city council has already given the applicants the permission to protest, Vecherny Krasnoturyinsk reports. In the meantime, the company is planning to shut down some of its loss-making, obsolete hydrolysis facilities. ‘Before one shuts down such facilities, new jobs must be created, and where are those jobs? Ever since UC RUSAL arrived at the enterprise, the company has

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, November 15, 2011. The first ten electrolysis tanks at UC RUSAL Krasnoturyinsk-based Bogoslovsky smelter will be shut down as soon as today, which can only mean one thing: UC RUSAL decided to do away with Buildings 1-4 at the smelter, Vecherny Krasnoturyinsk reports. According to the newspaper, Building 1 contains at least 130 electrolysis tanks, and these will be shut down step-by-step: ten tanks every three or four days. ‘This means that in a month, or a in a month and a half, Building 1 will stop operating altogether. Once the tanks have been shut down, some of the

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, November 15, 2011. Microsoft Corporation came up with the latest updates on its piracy monitoring program in Russian provinces. In August-September 2011, about 23% out of 3,016 retail outlets in eighty Russian cities offered for sale unlicensed copies of computer software programs in one way or another. In spite of the traditional seasonal increase in the number of pirated software programs on sale (the results of the monitoring in the fall showed 23% of programs were pirated, whereas in the spring, the figure came to 17%), all in all, piracy keeps going down. In

The awarding ceremony of the Event of the Year in Russia’s Metallurgy took place in Moscow for the first time this year in the course of the annual international exhibition known as Metal Expo. Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) was awarded the prize for its contribution to the technological and innovational development of the metallurgical industry, which was made possible due to the launch of cold-roll Mill 2000. The exhibition’s coordinating committee observed that Mill 2000 was unique to Russia. Its produce is meant to meet the Russian car-makers and the foreign car manufacturers’

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, November 14, 2011. The net profit of Concern Kalina decreased by 20.6% and came to 868.21m RUR, Finmarket.ru refers to the company’s report as stating. At the same time, the concern’s gross profit rose by 3.3% and amounted to 5.09bn RUR. The sales revenues went down by 5.3% and reached 2.41bn RUR. The company’s pre-tax profit declined by 26.6%, down to 1.02bn RUR.

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, November 14, 2011. ‘The information posted via the Czech Republic’s Ministry of Justice’s website is inaccurate and outdated. The share I used to have in Reltec International s.r.o. was handed over to trust management experts and does not belong to me any more. Besides, my Czech visa expired in September 2011,’ Deputy Head of Sverdlovsk Region Government and the region’s Minister for Industry & Science Alexander Petrov told UrBC. Now according to Prazhsky Telegraph, Alexander Petrov is the Managing Director at the Czech company Reltec International Ltd, with a 20%

UrBC, Moscow, November 14, 2011. The power supplier Enel OGK-5 came up with an un-audited financial report (drawn up in accordance with the International Accounting Standards) for the nine months of 2011. The company supplied 31,122 gigawatt-hours to consumers in January-September 2011, which was a little less than in January-September 2010 (31,652 gigawatt-hours). The decrease in the supply of electric power was caused by upgrades at Section 5 of Sverdlovsk Region-based Reftinskaya power station and the long-term overhaul of Section 9. ‘The decline in power supply was made up for by the

UrBC, Moscow, November 14, 2011. Rosaviation came up with a list of airlines that were allowed to operate flights in the coming month, the Association of Russian Tour Operators reports. Meanwhile, the European Commission is planning to publish a black list of air carriers that will be forbidden to operate flights to Europe in the last ten days of November. At the moment, among the blacklisted companies are VIM-Avia, Tatarstan, Dagestan Airlines, and Yakutia. The ban was imposed after checks by the Safety Assessment of Foreign Aircraft (SAFA). The date for lifting the temporary ban has not

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, November 14, 2011. The net debt of Enel OGK-5 amounted to 26.52bn RUR on Septeber 30, 2011, which exceeded the figures for 2010 by 6.31bn RUR. The company explains the increase in its net debt has to do with the capital expenses occasioned by the implementation of the company’s investment program for 2011. This information is available from the company’s financial report (drawn up in accordance with the International Accounting Standards) for the three quarters of 2011.

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, November 11, 2011. Ural Mining & Metallurgical Company (UMMC) offered some comments on an emergency in the Czech Republic that left two BOD members of one of the company’s enterprises dead. An armed man, who was formerly employed by the company, entered the third floor of the Russian-Czech enterprise Aircraft Industries’ administrative building on November 10, 2011 and came into the room where the BOD meeting was being held at that moment. ‘During a break in the meeting, an armed and insane person assaulted the people in the room, killing two BOD members who were

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, November 11, 2011. Ural Airlines’ 7th Airbus A321 painted in company colors landed in Koltsovo Airport of Yekaterinburg today. The arrival of the new plane was yet another step on the way to renovating the airline’s fleet of vehicles, the carrier’s press officer reports. The new plane arrived from Dublin, Ireland. This means the airline now operates twenty Airbus planes (thirteen A320 ones and seven A321 ones).

UrBC, Moscow, November 11, 2011. The net profit of UTair Airlines (calculated in accordance with the Russian Accounting Standards) decreased by 1.5 times in January-September 2011 and came to 131.05m RUR against 202.32m RUR in January-September 2010, the company reports. At the same time, the air carrier’s revenues grew by 18% and amounted to 35.91bn RUR against 30.35bn RUR a year earlier. The company’s gross profit declined by 11.7% in the three quarters of 2011 and reached 1.39bn against 1.576bn a year earlier, RIA Novosti reports.