The amount of ferrous and non-ferrous shipments Russian Railways Public Company handled in April 2011 went down by 2.3% and 1.3%, respectively, the online portal RZhD-Partner reports. Russia’s cargo index (which refers to the volume of railway shipments around the country) came to 104.8% in absolute terms in April 2011; this was 1.8% less than a month earlier. Last month, the shipments of only three out of nine cargo types that the cargo index covers were actually greater than in April 2010. The decrease is also noticeable in the maim cargo types in the mining and metallurgical sector: the

A meeting was held in Cherkessk on the construction of an all-seasons mountain ski resort Arkhyz there. The meeting was attended by Deputy Plenipotentiary Representative of Russian Federation President in North Caucasian Federal District Maxim Bystrov and head of Karachayevo-Cherkess Republic Rashid Temrezov. The head of Russia’s Regional Development Ministry’s Interregional Department in North Caucasian Federal District Alexei Ivanov, First Deputy Head of Karachayevo-Cherkess Government Ruslan Tambiyev, the Managing Director of North Caucasian Development Corporation Timur Charto, Vice

Sverdlovsk Region Arbitration Court ruled that founder of Omega Group Holding Oleg Fleganov should undergo bankruptcy proceedings. The businessman agreed to the necessity of declaring himself insolvent,’ the court’s press officer informed UrBC. The application asking to declare Mr. Fleganov bankrupt was placed with the court by Yekaterinburg Oktyabrsky District’s division of the Federal Tax Service of the Russian Federation on April 15, 2011. The applicant suggested that Vadim Permikin of Razvitiye Self-Regulatory Organization of Trustees in Bankruptcy should be chosen as the trustee in

The National Rating Agency affirmed the Ural Bank for Reconstruction and Development’s individual paying capacity rating at AA- (extremely high capacity Level 3). The bank’s financial situation at the moment is seen as stable and strong. The bank keeps on expanding its share of the market dynamically, its performance indicators are adequate to the market opportunities and reflect the growing inflow of resources, primarily from the deposits and their later investment in business and consumer loans as well as in a marketable blue chips portfolio. The profitability of the bank’s transactions is

VIM Avia and Moscovia delayed more flights than any other company in April 2011, Russia’s Federal Air Transport Agency (Rosaviation) reports. For one, VIM Avia delayed 96 out of 395 flights operated last month, which comes to 24% of the total number of flights; Moscovia put off 35 flights out of 181, which came to 19% of all the flights operated in April. Kogalymavia, Avianova, Taimyr, Mirninskoye Airlines ALROSA, and IzhAvia also delayed quite a few flights in April 2011: the number of delayed flights came, respectively, to 17%, 12%, 10%, 10%, and 10% of the total number of flights operated

Uralmechanobr decided not to declare any dividend for the year 2010. The 98.74m RUR worth of net profit will be directed to working capital replenishment. This decision was taken in the course of the annual general meeting.

Deutsche Bank Trust Company Americas increased the shareholding it owns in Concern Kalina up to 9.83%. The Yekaterinburg-based company’s other shareholders’ holdings were modified as well. For one, Prego Holdings Limited increased its holding from 29.98% up to 45.41%, Kalina Finance raised its share from 3.59% to 5.44%, and Renaissance Securities (Cyprus) Limited raised its share from 7.98% to 12.09%.

It has been reported to RBC daily that Russia’s Federal Antimonopoly Service might soon start looking into the activity of Visa and MasterCard to check whether the commissions the companies charge for the administration of the cards are actually competitive. The FAS had actually planned to start the investigation as early as two months ago, but no formal pretext presented itself just then. The banks that were unhappy with the growing hidden commissions and charges allegedly refused to place official protests with the FAS. Now the Service has obtained valid grounds to start investigating the

A.K. Serov Metallurgical Plant (UMMC ferrous metallurgy division) made 148m RUR worth of net profit in 2010 against 1.7bn RUR worth of losses in the year 2009. In terms of output, the company produced 477,000 tons of rolled metal stock and calibrated steel, which was 30% better than in the year 2009, but still 12% lower than what the plant achieved before the recession, in 2007 (535,900 tons). At the same time, UMMC press service reports that, despite all the positive changes occurring in 2010, the retail rolled metal stock prices went up more slowly than the raw materials prices and those

The Deputy Chairman of Russia’s State Duma Valery Yazev coordinated an extended Duma session dedicated to financing The Industrial Urals-The Polar Urals, a multi-faceted investment project, in 2011-2013. Yazev feels the implementation of the project is obviously hindered by a number of obstacles. The main reason behind this lagging behind is the insufficient federal budget financing of the key infrastructure item, that is, the bridge over the Ob in Salekhard. The plans to build the bridge do exist, but the deadlines are set in the distant future. Until we have a clear and distinct federal

The level of computer piracy went down by 2% in Russia and now comes to 65%, which is quite close to the average figures for Central and Eastern Europe (64%). Such are the findings of 2010 Global Software Piracy Study conducted all over the world by BSA, the Business Software Alliance. According to this research, about $3bn worth of illegal software was installed on Russian PCs last year. Whatever happens on the world and national markets, Russia’s computer piracy level has been going down for the last six years, which means the recently adopted copyright protection measures do work,’ says

Uralmash Heavy Machine-Building Plant got some new shareholders recently. For one, Uralmash Machine-Building Corporation reduced its shareholding from 74.17% down to 50.29%. The 23.88% shareholding was given over to OOO Aragon that didn’t use to have any shares in Uralmashzavod before.

Head of Yekaterinburg City Council Alexander Yakob held a meeting of the city strategic development committee in order to look into an updated version of a strategic project on Yekaterinburg hotels. The project began in 2005, and over fifty new hotels with a total of over 3,000 rooms have been built since then, with fifteen hotels reconstructed as well. At the moment, there are ninety-five hotels in Yekaterinburg ready to host 7,732 people altogether. Five foreign hoteliers run their business here, namely, Hyatt, Park Inn, Ramada, Angelo, and Novotel. Twenty-five more hotels will have been

Transaero Airlines’ net loss rose by 46% in the first quarter of 2011 against the first quarter of 2010; the figures were calculated in accordance with the Russian Accounting Standards. The net loss thus came down to 350.67m RUR, the company reports. At the same time, the company made 175.35m RUR worth of net profit in the fourth quarter of 2010. The airline explains the drop in profits has to do with seasonal variations as well as with some extraordinary circumstances on the Russian air carrier market.

The Ural Federal District division of the Federal Financial Market Service issued Order 62-11-512/pz-I on May 10, 2011 that halts the issue of Sverdlovsk Region-based AKADO-Yekaterinburg ordinary registered paperless shares.

The net profit of the cement making company Sukholozhskcement dropped by 134.96m RUR, or 54% in the first quarter of 2011, that is, from 248.81m RUR in the fourth quarter down to 113.85m RUR in the first quarter of 2011. According to the company, this loss had to do with a 9% drop in cement sales revenues in the first quarter of 2011 compared with the fourth quarter of 2010. The decrease in revenues, in its turn, was brought about by the changing shipment volumes. What is more, the prime cost of the cement sale went up by 19%. The company’s other profits declined by 65%, mainly due to the

Sverdlovsk Region Arbitration Court made a local sole trader A. M. Frolova face administrative liability for selling counterfeited clothes. The legal action started when the owners of Burberry trademark applied to Sverdlovsk Region Department of Internal Affairs, asking to look into the illegal use of Burberry trademark by a clothes shop in Hermes Plaza mall in Yekaterinburg. The inspection that the police officers conducted resulted in confiscation of some clothing items, including those with Burberry labels. The examination of the confiscated produce proved that the clothes were fake and

Starting May 10, 2011, the annual interest rates VUZ-Bank offers on its ruble and euro deposits (Trustful, Optimal, SuperDeposit, and Retirement) go up 0.5%. All these deposit types can be topped up throughout the entire first half of the deposit period, with a fixed interest rate.

Russia’s Ministry for Industry & Trade drew up a presidential decree on the transfer of seven Russian machine-building enterprises’ shares from the federal authorities to Uralvagonzavod, Kommersant reports. The largest asset in question is a 42.5% shareholding in the Tver-based railway carriage-making plant TVZ. The Ministry feels, the newspaper’s sources familiar with the notes accompanying the decree are referred to as saying, that the logic behind transferring the companies’ stock to Uralvagonzavod is that Russian Railways and its daughter enterprises happen to be the key customers of

Fitch Ratings promoted Bank Russkiy Standard’s Issuer Default Rating outlook from Stable to Positive and confirmed the rating at B+. We reconsidered the rating outlook because we expect the bank to start growing again after three years of run-down lending; this is likely to improve the company’s performance indicators because of greater profit generation and a larger scale of doing business. What is more, we feel very positive about the bank becoming less dependent from the finances it gets on the capital market and about the bank proving capable of paying off its $4bn market funds during the