A share holding of Commercial Bank Gran is reported to have possibly been bought by a financial holding of Moscow. Converse Group Holding appears to be the likeliest buyer, says UrBC private source. According to the facts available so far, the transaction has already been made and the legal proceedings are to have been finalized by the end of February 2006. The arrival of the new owner may result in Gran entering the holding and the introduction of the new bank management. As the holding official website has it, Converse Group currently consists of thre Russian financial enterprises, namely,

According to the data presented by Sverdlovsk Region Ministry of Agriculture and Food Industry, Sredneuralskiy Vinzavod (Winery of Sredneuralsk) Ltd. produced 125,080 decalitres of grape wine in 2005, which makes up 51% of the output for 2004 (245,100 decalitres).The output of wine produced by the company in December comprised 9,320 decalitres, which makes up 26.7% of previous December’s output, of which 6,520 decalitres had not been sold by January 1, 2006.

The petrol prices appear not to have gone up during the last few days. According to the spokespersons of Ural District oil dealers, the prices have not changed in comparison with the beginning of the year. ‘Some private companies might have actually raised their prices, but the larger ones have been maintaining them and are planning to keep doing so,’ said the spokesperson for Yekaterinburg subsidiary of LUKOIL Permnefteproduct Ltd. Yet as Kortes information agency reports, the market prices have gone up by 6.45% throughout January 14 to January 20.

According to the company’s spokesperson, Chelyabisnkgorgas JSC assessed its success in providing for the company’s industrial safety. The total amount of natural gas transmitted via local gas pipelines comprised 3.295 billion cubic meters in 2005. There were 4 accidents that were not, however, the company’s fault, and the problems were fixed promptly. Chelyabisnkgorgas JSC employees examined 187 kilometers of pipelines using special equipment, to make sure they were airtight, among other things. 38 insulation finish defects and 22 faulty shutdown devices were fixed and sacrificial anodes of

Uralsevergaz JSC, local natural gas supplier, decided to go down to the previously scheduled amount of gas supplies in Sverdlovsk Region starting January 24, 2006. The company had been supplying the agreed amount and the extra 7 million to 13 million cubic meters a day throughout the bitterly cold January 14 to January 24. Yet, as Uraltransgas Ltd. reports, the unusually low temperatures observed in virtually all of Russia resulted in an acute shortage of natural gas within the Russian Federation United Gas Supply System, which now makes it necessary to do something to prevent a general

‘An increase in sugar prices destabilizes the production but this could actually become our competitive advantage: our plant managed to keep up the regular output due to some reserve and, more importantly, we could afford not to raise the prices whereas most of the other producers had their prices go up by an average of 33% shortly after New Year (the average seasonal increase being only 5%). We are now targeted at sticking with the price segment we are currently in,’ Sales Manager of Confectionery of Vishnevogorsk (Chelyabinsk Region) Yana Stroeva said to UrBC representative. ‘It’s too early

The quotas are approved for Aleksandrinskaya gornorudnaya kompaniya JSC and Miasszoloto JSC. Their total limit is 635 kilos of gold, 22 tones of silver and 1 kilo of platinum. The projected returns to the regional budget should be about 12 million RUR. According to the report made by Chelyabinsk Minister of Industry and Natural Resources Evgeny Teftelev, on December 30, 2005, the regional commission for examination of applications and suggestions on quotas allocation considered and approved application documents of the mentioned companies, and found no complaints to file against their mining

An air separation station is being constructed at Ashinskiy Metallurgicheskiy Zavod (Metallurgical Works of Asha, Chelyabinsk Region) OJSC. 15 foundations have already been laid in № 3 sheet-rolling shop area, the spokesperson Lev Selesnev reported. Kriogenmash OJSC of Balashikha, Moscow Region, is currently supplying the station equipment worth 70 million RUR. The company’s personnel are going to carry out installation supervision and precommissioning process as well as to train the local employees. The mounting is scheduled to start in March, and the station itself is expected to have been

Moscow Interbank Currency Exchange (MMVB Stock Exchange) CJSC is selling the shares of Serovskaya GRES JSC (Water Power Plant of Serov, Sverdlovsk Region) by auction. These stocks were included in the non-listed stock Index of MMVB Stock Exchange CJSC. This was done to make sure the emissive securities belonging to joint stock companies that are being set up in the course of restructuring Russian electroenergetics remain liquid, says the spokesperson for RAO UES.

Khrustalevskiye Zavody Ltd., the winery of Lesnoy, Sverdlovsk Region, produced 97,490 decalitres of vodka in 2005, which signifies a 98.2% increase against the 49,200 decalitres produced in 2004. According to the data presented by Sverdlovsk Region Ministry of Agriculture and Food Industry, the winery’s output in December comprised 17,720 decalitres (an increase of 44,1% compared to December 2004 with its 12,300 decalitres), of which 2,160 decalitres had not been sold by January 1, 2006.

‘The sugar prices have been going up since the end of December 2005 and come to 19 RUR per kilogram at the moment. Yet the figure for the beginning of December 2005 was only 15 RUR per kilo. This price rocketing is caused by the increase in raw prices currently experienced at the New York Exchange, and it is only in two to three weeks’ time that we are going to find out when the going up of prices actually stops,’ explains Sugar Ural Ltd. Sales Manager Alexander Shevshchenko.

‘Freezing weather is making us incur great losses due to less profits being made,’ says the spokesperson for Absakovo Ski Resort JSC. ‘We don’t operate the elevators or open any ski-tracks for the visitors if the temperature is 25 below or less. Therefore we had to cancel the contests scheduled for the second half of January; to make matters worse, some of the skiers who’d come for a few days had to leave early.’ ‘It is, however, still possible to use the hotel facilities. If a visitor has already bought a multiple skiing ticket and hasn’t yet been able to use it because of the frost, we are

Uralprivatbank JSC summed up its achievements in 2005. The total amount of the deposited money comprised 811 million RUR, of which 471 million RUR come from investments made by natural persons. The loan portfolio came up to 709 million RUR, reported the press secretary of the bank.

‘Despite the increasing wholesale prices, the retail diesel oil prices have remained stable this month,’ the spokesperson for Most Ltd. (part of Most filling stations chain) said to UrBC representative. ‘We are not expecting the petrol prices to soar any time soon. The demand for diesel oil has remained the same and there doesn’t even seem to be any shortage that could be possible due to cold weather,’ the spokesperson noted. The data presented by Kortes information agency indicate that the Russian wholesale prices have gone up by an average of 2% since the beginning of the year, thus

During their business tour of Sverdlovsk Region, representatives of Imex Engineering of Slovenia took part in the production startup of Tajfun splitting and crosscutting line of YUT business enterprise (forestry of Kourovka). The line is a part of a would-be charcoal production unit. Imex Engineering is a representative of firms such as Tajfun, Ledinek, and Javor that supply equipment for logging, processing low-grade timber, woodworking and making wood-based panels and veneer. Governor of Sverdlovsk Region Eduard Rossel suggested doing some joint projects aimed at developing Ural timber

Uralkaliy JSC, potassium fertilizers maker of Perm Region, produced 5.417 million tons of fertilizers in 2005, which exceeds the figures for 2004 by 7.6%. The output of grainy potassium chloride reached a point of 1.242 million tons, which exceeds the figures for 2004 by 5.9%. The company is expecting to increase its potassium chloride output to 5.69 million tons in 2006 and to 10 million tons by 2016, which would make Uralkaliy JSC the world’s No. 1 producer.

VostokAlko Ltd., winery of Irbit, Sverdlovsk Region, produced 33,130 decalitres of vodka in 2005 and 94,100 decalitres in 2004. According to the data presented by Sverdlovsk Region Ministry of Agriculture and Food Industry, the output of vodka and liquors produced by the company in December comprised 5,010 decalitres which exceeds the figures for December 2004 by 92,7%, of which 5,360 decalitres had not been sold by January 1, 2006.

According to the spokesperson for Chelyabenergosbyt JSC, electricity distributor of Chelyabinsk, 25% more of housing bills were paid during the first working week of January as opposed to the beginning of December 2005. The Housing Code states that the payment deadline be the tenth of the following month, but because of the holiday season dwellers were allowed to pay up to January 20th. It is also in January that the new electricity tariffs are going to be introduced. Kilowatt-hour rates will go up from 0.66 RUR in 2005 to 0.74 RUR for tenants in the houses equipped with stationary electric

According to the company’s spokesperson Oleg Vlasov, no consumption limits have yet been introduced as the weather is still freezing; however, Uralsevergaz CJSC did ask the consumers to use less natural gas for industrial purposes whenever possible and switch to other types of fuel such as coal and black oil instead. Power plants, for instance, have been using those already. Explains Mr Vlasov: ‘Since it is really cold now in virtually all of Russia, we have had to ask our clients to use their gas supplies wisely. The top priority in gas provision is given to population and socially important

On January 20, 2006, the Board of Directors of Sinara Group CJSC decided to appoint Alexander Shiryaev General Director starting February 1, 2006. The former GD Yuriy Sokolov was appointed the company’s Chair of the Board. Alexander Shiryaev had been Deputy GD of TMK JSC throughout 2002-2005. He’s been Vice Chairman of Sinara Group CJSC since 2005. Sinara Group is a conglomerate of metallurgical, machine building and investment enterprises varying in scale and spheres of entrepreneurial activities.