Ural Business Consulting Agency of Information and Analytics became the member of South Ural Chamber of Commerce and Industry. This Chamber is an NGO aimed at promoting entrepreneurial development. It comprises over 440 enterprises, including a number of major companies of Chelyabinsk Region, and provides for 100 types of services. The membership awarded to UrBC is the reliable indicator of the agency’s reputation; throughout its five years on the information market, the company grew to become the backbone mass medium covering agenda-setting economic issues. The award ceremony is to take

Trubnaya Metallicheskaya Kompaniya (Tube Metallurgical Company) JSC took part in the Russian National Exhibition in Baku on February 20 to 22, 2006. The exhibition was held within the framework of Year of Russiain Azerbaijan celebrations and was attended by Russian President Vladimir Putin and President of Azerbaijan I. Aliev. Over 170 companies coming from 21 Russian regions presented their produce. The tube company has developed strong partnerships with consumers of Azerbaijan and supplies tubes and pipes of different kinds, including those used in oil- and natural gas-fields development.

Due to the damage done by some rival companies to the high-voltage cables of ComEnergo CJSC (part of KES Holding) that makes up 30% of the total cable damage, the uninterrupted supplies of electricity may not be guaranteed any longer, reports the company’s spokesperson. Thus, residents of 30 private houses in Oktyabrskaya and Naberezhnaya Streets of Krasnoturinsk had power cuts on February 26, 2006. The emergency team only set to work a day later. On February 27, the high-voltage feeder providing for 2 pumphouses, 1 sewage facility, a kindergarten, 2 schools and some blocks of flats stopped

‘GranComBank shareholders are thinking of selling the business to Converse Group in the first half of 2006,’ Chairman Dmitry Kotsyuba announced at the recent briefing. ‘The decision was actually made about two years ago; banking business used to be considered super profitable but the experience of the last couple of years speaks of the opposite. Everybody is having a rather hard time at the moment as large Moscow banks push the smaller crediting organizations away from the market,’ Mr Kotsyuba said. UrBC reported the possible transaction as early as October 2005.

‘The Director of Ziehm Imaging CmbH Jorg-Peter Strebel visited Sverdlovsk Region and met Governor Eduard Rossel. The meeting was also attended by the representatives of Sverdlovsk Region Ministry of Health and executives of firms dealing in medical equipment,’ reports the PR Department of the Governor. ‘Mr Rossel suggested considering a joint venture dealing in implants and surgical instruments,’ says the press release.

Proprietor of Kluychevsk ferroalloy works S. Gilvarg is going to sign the agreement of lawsuit with Danko Konchar of Croatia who is the 50% shareholder of Russian Chrome CJSC. The conflict was kindled in 2005 when Mr Gilvarg accused Mr Konchar of not meeting the contract liabilities in regard of selling his 50% share of Russian Chrome (the other shares belonged to Stoppani of Italy). The issue was crucial as the three-year agreement signed in the spring of 2005 states that Russian Chrome should deliver 400 tons of chrome oxide to the ferroalloy works monthly. Mr Gilvarg took legal action

‘Chelyabgortrans, our transportation service, is now a very unprofitable business; the city allotted 20 million RUR to support it in January 2006, but it wasn’t even enough to cover the debts that keep building up,’ Mayor of Chelyabinsk Mikhail Yurevitch announced at today’s administration sitting. ‘The problem has to be dealt with somehow, we haven’t raised the ticket fare for 3 years while the fuel has become 2 times and electricity 60% more expensive,’ Mr Yurevitch said. The Mayor says that selling the business to a private owner could result in leaving the remote districts without any

Two switchyards with capacities of 400 and 250 kilovolt-amperes have recently been installed in Artemovsk network of SverdlovEnergo JSC. To make this possible, a five-kilometer transmission facility for 10 and .4 kilovolt was built; the project was estimated to cost 2.4 million RUR. These switchyards are to provide electricity for residents of Alexander Matrosov St and Shkolnaya St with their 80 private houses, 2 blocks of flats, a school and a kindergarten. The introduction of switchyards will also provide for the village of IMZ in Irbit, Sverdlovsk Region, reports the company’s spokesperson.

TIRUS Interregional Dealer Network (dealing in tubes) has recently become part of CHTPZ Group. According to the spokesperson for CHTPZ, both networks have so far been working independently but coordinating their sales and supplies. The two companies will merge in the second quarter of 2006. According to CHTPZ Sales and Marketing Director P. Pelyugin, the merger will ensure a more effective promotion of tubes and pipes produced by Tube Works of Pervouralsk and Tube Rolling works Chelyabinsk on the regional markets.

KarabashMed CJSC (copper works and part of Russian Copper Company) assessed the preliminary results of their non-waste production project. According to the spokesperson for Russian Copper Company Alexander Khanin, the project started five years ago with the launch of an oxygen plant produced by Linde AG of Germany in May 2001. The oxygen feeding of furnaces and converters reduced the amount of process gas and the level of pollution considerably. Some intake facilities in Bogorodskiy pond and the reverse water supply system were introduced in 2001 as well. The next step consisted in launching

‘We have placed a claim against Khoroshiy Vkus (Good Taste) food enterprise with the Court of Arbitration recently,’ the meatpacking plant’s Marketing Director Sergei Vorobyov said to UrBC representative. Sverdlovsk Region Court of Arbitration is to consider the claim tomorrow. ‘We thought it was essential that the patenting services make an examination and produce the results; this should have been completed by tomorrow, and our further strategy will entirely depend on their decision,’ Mr Vorobyov said.

Two switchyards with capacities of 400 and 250 kilovolt-amperes have recently been installed in Artemovsk network of SverdlovEnergo JSC. To make this possible, a five-kilometer transmission facility for 10 and .4 kilovolt was built; the project was estimated to cost 2.4 million RUR. These switchyards are to provide electricity for residents of Alexander Matrosov St and Shkolnaya St with their 80 private houses, 2 blocks of flats, a school and a kindergarten. The introduction of switchyards will also provide for the village of IMZ in Irbit, Sverdlovsk Region, reports the company’s spokesperson.

Russian Federation Government annulled the so-called gold share privilege in 36 companies after the corresponding decree had been signed by Head of Government Mikhail Fradkov on February 20, 2006, reports the spokesperson for the Government. The unfortunate companies include joint-stock companies: Kachkanar and Vysokogorsk ore mining and processing enterprises, and South Ural Cryolite Works.

Sole trader Lev Kovpak reports that the regional Kirovskiy supermarket chain is to acquire new proprietorship in the second half of 2006 (at the moment, 95% of the stores function as individual enterprises belonging to Mr Kovpak). ‘This is being done in order to adjust our policy to the new alcohol-trading legislation. In the second half of 2006, sole traders will begin to grow less efficient, so we’ve decided to move on to joint-stock companies that will probably have all the rights to Kirovskiy trademark,’Mr Kovpak said.

Moscow Interbank Currency Exchange (MMVB Stock Exchange) began to trade the interest-bearing documentary non-convertible bonds of Magnesite Group Ltd. Face value of a bond is 1,000 RUR, the total quantity of the bonds is 1.5 million RUR. The total number of coupons is 6. The first three coupons interest rate has been established at the level of 9.85 % per annum. The drawn-on date is December 18, 2008.

‘In January, the freezing weather and the natural gas supply limits the plant’s output underwent some changes. Basically, we had to merely survive and all our efforts were aimed at meeting the scheduled production goals,’ the company’s spokesperson said to UrBC representative. According to the plant management, the company shipped (by rail) one-third less of metal in January 2006 than a year earlier. The loss of profits has been estimated to come to 70 million RUR. Yet the plant ships 18% of everything transported via the local railroad service.

Russian Federation Government annulled the so-called gold share privilege in 36 companies after the corresponding decree had been signed by Head of Government Mikhail Fradkov on February 20, 2006, reports the spokesperson for the Government. The unfortunate companies include Russian Tube Industry Research Institute JSC.

Magnesit Group investments into reconstruction and replacement of its member, Kombinat Magnesite, conservation services are expected to come to 91.76 million RUR within 2006. The company’s strategy is guided by the need to make sure that its environmental management system complies with the international standards as well as the growing requirements of Russian environmental regulations. Environmental projects section of Magnesite Group investments program provides for reconstruction of existing nature-conserving services, withdrawal of outdated units, perfection of existing environmental

UralRromBank Board of Directors announced the annual general meeting on April 7, 2006. The points on the agenda include approving the annual balance sheet as well as the profit and loss account as well as their distribution. In what regards the dividends, the Board decided to pay only the preference share dividends and pass the other types. Besides, the shareholders will have to agree on Listik and Partners Ltd. as their auditor and Ms N. A. Yudina as their inspector. Some amendments to the company’s Charter and the Board of Direction Statute.

The decennial jubilee of SUAL Group was celebrated on February 22, 2006 with the SUAL member Sevuralboksitruda JSC mining its 200,000,000th ton of bauxite ore. The celebration of the event took place at Kalyinskaya mine. It was attended by the regional government First Deputy Industry Minister Nikolai Tikhonov, SUAL Holding Ural Regional Vice-President Anatoly Sysoev, Sevuralboksitruda GD Viktor Rad’ko, Head of BAZ-SUAL Sibagatulla Aminov, top-management representatives of UAZ-SUAL, Director of Kalyinskaya mine Viktor Neustroev and the crew of Mikhail Novozhilov that mined the 200,000,000th