Chairman of Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) Board of Directors Viktor Rashnikov took part in the governmental committee’s meeting devoted to the Russian metallurgical industry’s development. The meeting was chaired by Deputy Prime Minister Igor Sechin. The agenda of the meeting covered issues related to the metallurgical sector’s post-recession development, the current investment programs, and the ways to increase demand for metal products on the construction and machine-building markets. Viktor Rashnikov observed that stimulating demand within the metal goods-consuming industries

Sverdlovsk Region Arbitration Court refused to meet the demands of AlfaStrakhovaniye and declare the decision of Sverdlovsk Region’s division of the Federal Antimonopoly Service invalid, the spokesperson for the Service reports. The FAS’s Sverdlovsk Region division ruled on August 18, 2009 that Bank24.ru and three insurers, Uveren.ru, Guta-Strakhovaniye, and AlfaStrakhovaniye, violated Article 11 (part 1, paragraph 5) of the Competition Protection Act. The companies were found guilty of an administrative offense as stated in Article 14.31 of the Administrative Offense Code. The division

‘The handling of the case involving L’Etoile (suspected of sending out text messages with advertisements without the phone number users’ written assent) was postponed because we were not provided with all the necessary documents relevant to the case,’ the spokesperson for Sverdlovsk Region’s division of the Federal Antimonopoly Service Marina Yusupova informed UrBC. Sverdlovsk Region’s division of the Federal Antimonopoly Service is looking into the case of OOO Alcor-C (L’Etoile cosmetics chain store). The company is suspected of violating Article 18 (part 1) of the Federal Advertising Act.

Following Bank Severnaya Kazna’s financial recovery procedure, only 28.57% of the bank’s business customers got transferred to Alfa-Bank, the new owner. ‘Bank Severnaya Kazna had about 21,000 active business customers, of whom approximately 6,000 joined Alfa-Bank,’ Alfa-Bank’s Regional Business Customer Development Director Mikhail Povaliy said in the course of an online conference broadcast via Alfa-Bank’s official website. When asked about the number of Bank Severnaya Kazna’s e-customers at the start of the financial recovery procedure, however, Alfa-Bank’s top executive seemed at a loss.

OAO Alfa-Bank had to close down five offices of Bank Severnaya Kazna in the course of the financial recovery procedure the latter needed, Bank Severnaya Kazna’s Deputy Chairman of the Supervisory Board Roman Vitkovskiy said in the course of an online conference held by the two banks. The conference was broadcast via Alfa-Bank’s official website. ‘Bank Severnaya Kazna used to have thirty-eight offices throughout Russia. Five of them stopped operating, and so did one of Alfa-Bank’s own offices. The remaining outlets are now used by both banks to make sure customers can get serviced in the

Over 24,000 business customers of Bank Severnaya Kazna refused to get transferred to Alfa-Bank. Alfa-Bank’s managers report that Bank Severnaya Kazna, which Alfa-Bank bought about fourteen months ago, used to have 30,000 business customers, of whom only 5,626 agreed to carry on with the new owner. ‘About 30,000 legal entities used the services of Bank Severnaya Kazna. Some 22,000 of them were active, that is, they performed at least one transaction a month. 5,626 business customers moved to Alfa-Bank by December 31, 2009, with over 1.556 billion RUR in their accounts. Ninety-four business

Alfa-Bank’s top executives still cannot decide what to do with their new asset, Bank Severnaya Kazna, Alfa-Bank’s COO Valeriy Novikov announced in the course of an online conference held by the two banks. The conference was broadcast via Alfa-Bank’s official website. ‘We have to options to choose between: liquidation or a merger. The final decision will be taken by April 1, 2010, this is the deadline stated in the bank’s financial recovery schedule,’ Novikov explained when asked by a reporter. Yekaterinburg-based Bank Severnaya Kazna found itself on the brink of bankruptcy late in 2008 and

OAO Alfa-Bank was unable to retain all of Bank Severnaya Kazna’s customers, about 40% of whom refused to switch to the Moscow-based bank, Alfa-Bank’s Chief Operating Officer Valeriy Novikov announced in the course of an online conference held by the two banks. ‘Nevertheless, the remaining 60% of customers from various service segments actually became Alfa-Bank’s new clients,’ he added. Alfa-Bank’s management reports transferring business customers from Bank Severnaya Kazna to Alfa-Bank is more difficult than transferring private customers. ‘The business customer migration process is much more

The losses incurred by Bank Severnaya Kazna were actually planned by the management of Alfa-Bank, the new owner of the business, Alfa-Bank’s Chief Operating Officer Valeriy Novikov announced in the course of an online conference held by the two banks. ‘Bank Severnaya Kazna’s financial performance indicators look just like we expected them to,’ he said. In fact, Bank Severnaya Kazna’s losses increased by 2,944,317,000 RUR, or 187.13% last year compared with the year 2008. The bank’s net loss amounted to 1,563,449,000 RUR at the end of 2008 and to 4,517,766,000 RUR at the end of 2009. Bank

Sverdlovsk Region’s division of the Federal Antimonopoly Service keeps looking into a case involving OOO Alcor-C (L’Etoile cosmetics chain store). The company is suspected of violating Article 18 (part 1) of the Federal Advertising Act. Namely, the company is believed to be sending out text messages with advertisements without the phone number users’ written assent. The ad hoc committee first discussed the case in January 2010, but the proper handling had to be postponed because the defendant failed to produce the necessary papers. L’Etoile currently operates thirteen retail outlets in

ProjectFinance magazine declared the agreement on financing the construction of MMK Atakaş the Deal of the Year. The magazine says that, although many metallurgical projects had to be cancelled or put off last year, the sponsors of this one – the Russian Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) and the Turkish Atakaş concentrated all their efforts on implementing the project. What is more, the financing of MMK Atakaş was organized under quite advantageous terms, despite the global liquidity crisis at the time. This agreement has a lot of symbolic importance for the metallurgical industry

The sales of new automobiles in Yekaterinburg dropped by about 60% last year, Head of Yekaterinburg Commodities Market Committee Viktor Konteev’s press secretary Ilona Starodubtseva reports. At the same time, the sales of second-hand cars delivered to Russia from Japanese and European auctions plummeted by 90% in 2009 compared to 2008. In addition, the number of show rooms in Yekaterinburg decreased from 53 to 50; out of the three centers that closed down two used to sell Russian cars and one dealt in foreign ones.

‘Sverdlovsk Region is a special region in terms of its development, given particularly the number of locals who fly abroad. Our task is to make Yekaterinburg an easy-to-reach city. All the airplanes we buy can operate flights to any destination on the globe, and we are planning to get some long-distance aircraft like Airbus A330 or Boeing 767 that will make it possible to travel non-stop to places like Japan. I am positive that these plans will be carried out,’ General Director of Ural Airlines Sergey Skuratov said at a press conference in Yekaterinburg. ‘We launched a scheduled flight to

Following a rock burst at UC RUSAL’s Severouralsk bauxite mine (SUBR), an ad hoc committee checked all the mines for compliance with the security regulations and found now serious damage. All mines are operating as usual at the moment, SUBR’s official representative Roman Lukichev informed UrBC. The rock burst occurred at Krasnaya Shapochka mine at 8:40 AM on February 13, 2010. The mine was closed at the time, so no one was hurt. No damage was done to the nearby towns of Severouralsk, Kalya Tretiy Severniy, or Cheremukhovo, either.

OAO National Bank Trust is going to close down its subsidiaries in Ryazan and Irkutsk, with the branches transferred into the category of the bank’s Lipetsk and Barnaul subsidiaries’ retail outlets, respectively. Therefore the bank’s BOD ruled that Chairman of the Supervisory Board should place all the necessary papers with the Central Bank of the Russian Federation’s head office in Moscow as well as with the Central Bank’s divisions in Lipetsk and Irkutsk Regions. National Bank Trust says nothing about the future of its Yekaterinburg office so far.

‘Experts are growing increasingly pessimistic about The Industrial Urals-The Polar Urals (a large-scale project on the industrial development of the Urals’ north). The project has been around for five years already and could now come to a halt unless some effective measures are taken. It is essential for the ad hoc work team to control all the field operations,’ General Director of OAO Siberian Scientific Analysis Center Anatoly Brekhuntsov announced at a recent meeting. The meeting was aimed at assessing the implementation of the all-round exploration work scheme for the Northern, the

Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) came up with the quality improvement plan for 2010. To make sure the enterprise’s quality management system remains functional and efficient, MMK sets a number of quality targets for the enterprise as a whole and for its departments every year. This year, MMK intends to produce at least 11.2 million tons of metal goods. The company’s production departments are expected to improve the technologies used and thus to use no more than 1,070.2 kg of metal per ton of ready rolled products. Also, the labor productivity is expected to rise to 53.7 nominal tons

Novotel, the French hotel chain, recently opened its 13th four-star hotel in Yekaterinburg. Quite a few local VIPs were invited to attend the opening ceremony, but only two actually showed up. These were Governor of Sverdlovsk Region Alexander Misharin and Sverdlovsk Region Economics Minister Mikhail Maksimov. The General Director of OOO Kesko (the project investor) Evgeniy Bidilo, Accor Group Hotel Management Director Alexis Delaroff, and CEO Novotel were the hosts of the ceremony. Over the last two years, Kesko has invested about $30m in the hotel construction. The company’s CFO Alexander