OAO Sverdlovsk Energy Service Company’s Board of Directors suggested that the plant’s shareholders decide not to pay the dividend for the year 2009 on Type A common or registered stock. The agenda of the AGM, scheduled for June 11, 2010, also covers issues related to the early dismissal of ZAO IrkutskEnergoStroy from the position of Sverdlovsk Energy Service’s management company.

Kati Klaime, a fur boutique located in Mytniy Dvor Mall in Yekaterinburg, will stop operating at the end of May 2010. The shop managers have said off the record that the store is closing down due to bad-looking rent the mall charges them. The shop assistants also explain that the sales turnover leaves a lot to be desired, so the shop is currently operating at a loss. Kati Klaime boutiques can also be found in Park House and Carnival Malls. Kati Klaime first hit the market in August 2003 as a fur hat shop. Now the company deals in retail trade of fur and leather coats, fur hats, and leather

‘We have a long waiting list for Ford Focus cars manufactured in Russia, with the wait coming to two or three months. Customers wishing to buy Ford Focus Limited Edition will have to wait until September before the available cars arrive; those who are interested in Ford Fiesta or Ford Fusion will have to wait for two to four months. People also have to queue for up to six months for Mazda CX-7 and wait until September to buy Mazda BT-50. There is also some shortage of Mazda6 makes. Besides, anyone who wants to get a Mitsubishi Outlander XL make has to be put on the waiting list and come back

OOO VIZ-Stal’s revenues decreased by 38.15% in January-March 2010. The figures dropped from 3 billion RUR in the fourth quarter of 2009 to 1.9 billion RUR in the first quarter of 2010. The company’s gross profit went down by 52.13%, or down to 775.2 million RUR. In addition, the sales revenues plunged by 56.58% and the net profit declined by 48.44%. The enterprise explains these less-than-impressive financial achievements have to do with the 31% drop in sales. This, in its turn, was brought about by the increase in FOB shipments, which resulted in major delays in the registration and sales of

The revenues of OAO Novolipetsk Iron & Steel Works (NLMK) decreased by 10.87% in the first quarter of 2010 compared with the last quarter of 2009 and thus amounted to 35.2 billion RUR. The company reports this was because of the seasonal drop in demand and therefore in sales. On top of that, the growing raw materials prices and the increased fees charged by the natural monopolies for their services exerted additional pressure on the company’s gross profit. The gross profit actually went down by 26.62%, from 13.59 billion RUR in the last quarter of 2009 to 9.97 billion RUR in the first

The Ural division of Rostechnadzor (the state environmental, technological, and nuclear safety watchdog) completed an all-round inspection of OAO Vanadium (Kachkanar-based ore mining and processing enterprise and member of OOO Evraz Holding). The inspection was carried out in accordance with Rostechnadzor’s decree on scheduled inspections of Evraz Holding enterprises; the inspections were targeted at checking the company’s compliance with the industrial safety requirements. As a result of the checks carried out at Vanadium, eighty-five industrial safety violations were detected, most of which

‘The company is planning to set up another dealership in the Urals, which will definitely improve the speed and the quality of customer service. We are currently interviewing the potential candidate firms,’ Jaguar Land Rover Russia’s PR Manager Yulia Malyina informed UrBC. After Avtoland Holding’s dealership license had not been renewed, Krasnolesye car center remained Land Rover and Jaguar’s only representative in Sverdlovsk Region. As a result, the customers wishing to get some maintenance service were faced with enormous queues. ‘The after-sales services can only be provided to Jaguar and

The outdoor advertisements used by Calligaris, the Italian furniture boutique, were recently called in question by Sverdlovsk Region’s division of the Federal Antimonopoly Service. The billboards with the Calligaris ad carry a picture of a man and a woman kissing each other by a table. The accompanying slogan reads, ‘Love-table… It happens.’ ‘Article 5 (part 6) of the Advertising Act states that no advertisement can use obscene or offensive images, comparisons, or expressions,’ the Service explains. To find out what the locals think of this advertisement, the Federal Antimonopoly Service

A protest picket took place in front of Kyshtym copper electrolysis plant (part of Russian Copper Company) administration building in Kyshtym, Sverdlovsk Region on April 30, 2010. The picketers expressed their dissatisfaction with the employer’s pay policy and with the way the plant’s management exerted pressure on the trade union members, says the spokesperson for Russia’s Ore Mining & Metallurgy Trade Union. The picket was attended by about 350 people. ‘Not all of the plant’s workers were able to come to the protest picket because the working day on Friday, April 30 was one hour shorter

Head of Sverdlovsk Region Government Anatoly Gredin organized yet another meeting of the region’s recession-fighting committee in order to consider the situation at TGK-9, the local power supplier. ZAO KES’s subsidiary Generatsiya Urala’s Legal and Corporate Issues Director Vladimir Kanov made a report on the clashes between the workers and the management regarding the collective labor agreement. According to the local trade unions, the employees of OAO TGK-9 (the company comprising the energy facilities of Sverdlovsk Region, Perm Territory, and the Republic of Komi) have been receiving wages

This year, Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) has designed and launched a number of new high duty rolled metal manufacturing technologies. This was done within the framework of a special program on adjusting the company’s automobile body sheets for the demands of foreign automobile and car parts manufacturers. The new technologies have been applied to the production of pilot batches of hot-rolled S355MC, cold-rolled HC340LA, and galvanized HX300LAD and HX340LAD high-duty rolled metal products that meet the Western standards DIN EN 10149-2:1995, DIN EN 10268:2006, and DIN EN 10292:2007,

The Economic News Agency compiled a political influence rating for the Russian entrepreneurs and investors valid for the first quarter of 2010. The agency was asked to create this rating by Nezavisimaya Gazeta. The ranking method for creating a list of Russia’s Top 50 Most Influential Entrepreneurs & Investors has remained the same as before. Thirty-seven experts looked into the degree of 104 candidates’ political influence using a scale of 0 to 5, with 0-1 signifying minimal influence, 1-2 standing for weak influence, 2-3 standing for average influence, 3-4 standing for strong influence,

The net profit of OAO Urals’ Interregional network distribution company (MRSK Urala) plunged by 393.834 million RUR, or 87.72% over three months. The figures declined from 448.968 million RUR in the last quarter of 2009 to 55.134 million RUR in the first quarter of 2010. The company explains they had to set up 673 million RUR worth of doubtful receivables reserve in order to make up for the writing off of doubtful debt that had not been paid in due time and had not been provided with any collateral, guarantee, or bank security.

The net profit of OAO TGK-9, the power generating company, dropped by 54.15% in the first quarter of 2010. The company’s net profit reached 1.48 billion RUR in the last three months of 2009 but only amounted to 681.17 million RUR in January-March 2010. According to TGK-9, the drop in profits was caused by the cost amortization that followed the re-assessment of the company’s key assets on January 1, 2010. In addition, the power generating enterprise had to create assessment reserves to make up for the heating bills not paid by their customers.

The net profit of OAO Sverdlovenergosbyt went down by 47.718 million RUR, or 23.52% in January-March 2010. The figures dropped from 202.917 million RUR in the fourth quarter of 2009 down to 155.199 million RUR in the first quarter of 2010. The main reason the profits declined was uneven distribution of payments on the energy-purchasing agreements signed for the year 2010, the company reports. Under these agreements, the average price for the first three months of the year is generally higher than the year’s average price.

The Russian Federation Industry &Trade Ministry recently added more car makes to the list of automobiles that will be sold with a 50,000 RUR discount under the government’s car recycling program. The list now comprises seventy-nine instead of sixty-six models. The Ministry’s order to this extent was carried in Rossiyskaya Gazeta. Among the new car makes available under the program are Volkswagen Group Rus’s Volkswagen Passat, Skoda Yeti, and Skoda Superb as well as Peugeot 308 and Citroen C4 that will be manufactured by the new joint venture PSA Peugeot Citroen and Mitsubishi. There are

Integra Group, the O&G machinery manufacturing and maintenance company, saw a 42.2% drop in revenues in 2009; the figures plummeted down to $836.2m due to sagging demand for O&G maintenance services, the group’s report states. The enterprise’s net loss reached $118.9m last year. At the same time, the company’s EBITDA margin rose to 13.1% as a result of the company’s cost-cutting efforts throughout the year. Also, Integra’s free cash flow was on the rise, which made it possible for the company to reduce the amount of borrowed funds to $175.4m.

Central Yekaterinburg Department of Rospotrebnadzor’s (the state consumer rights watchdog) Sverdlovsk Region division looked into the activity of ZAO Space Motors based at 77 Zavodskaya St. in Yekaterinburg. The activity of the dealer selling Ssang Yong automobiles had to be investigated due to a number of customer complaints. It was detected in the course of the inspection that the dealer actually violated the existing consumer rights legislation in that a 3% commission was withheld by the seller if a customer wished to take the car back to the shop and get a refund. Upon revealing this

OAO Uralmashzavod’s debt to creditors reached 1.7 billion RUR at the end of 2009; this figures included 79.9 million RUR to be paid to the budget. The machine-building plant’s pre-tax book loss amounted to 1.2 billion RUR in January-December 2009. These data were provided by Sverdlovsk Region Union of Machine-Building Enterprises, of which OAO Uralmashzavod is a member. At the same time, the plant had nothing in terms of accounts receivable in January-December 2009.

ZAO StarBank is leaving Sverdlovsk Region’s market and is going to close down its Yekaterinburg representation in the nearest future, the bank informed UrBC. All of the bank’s local employees will have to be made redundant. The bank’s office in Yekaterinburg is currently located at 44 Kraul St. The representation is run by Svetlana Vaganova.