October 31, 2012. Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) representatives were declared Russia’s most skilled corporate governance experts in the annual Director of The Year Prize ranking. The solemn awarding ceremony took place in Moscow last week. According to the coordinators, the primary mission of this prize is to draw attention to the personal contribution of these businesspeople and managers to the development of corporate governance and to the introduction of high standards and the best corporate governance practices into the operating performance of Russian companies and their

October 31, 2012. The Expert-Ural magazine carried the rating of the Urals and Siberia’s 400 largest enterprises in 2011. MMK Group came fourth in the rating. Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) Group, with its revenues at 273.5bn RUR (according to the IAS), was given the fourth position in the rating, which means it has retained its last year’s position. This is the best result among all metallurgical companies and businesses outside the O&G sector. The companies’ position in the rating was based on the figures for sales of produce (work, services) in the year 2011. The rating

October 30, 2012. Ural Airlines operated its ‘maiden’ flight from Rostov-on-Don to Moscow. The plane left Rostov-on-Don at 7:00 AM and arrived in the capital at 8:50 AM: the duration of the flight was 1 hour and 50 minutes, and all passengers were treated to a hot breakfast on board. During the check-in, all the passengers were given the traditional gifts from the airline, Ural Airlines’ press service reports. ‘When launching this new flight in Rostov-on-Don, we were trying to offer our passengers a convenient link between the capital of the Russian South and Moscow. The flight is rather

Renova Group founder Viktor Vekselberg outstripped Russia’s richest man Alisher Usmanov in the Bloomberg rating. Given the agreement relating to Rosneft buying TNK-BP, he is now estimated to be worth $1.5bn more, that is, $18bn, RIA Novosti reports. According to Bloomberg, Vekselberg’s assets are now worth $700m more than those of Usmanov, who was the No.1 on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index since March 5. Vekselberg’s spokesman Andrei Shtorkh told the news agency that the billionaire intended to focus on investments in the technological sector. Russia’s No.1 billionaire, Vekselberg is only

Sverdlovsk Region timber industry enterprises would like to join the priority forestry development program that provides for 5.422bn RUR worth of investments in 2012-2018. ‘We are working on a number of promising investment projects at the moment, and their implementation will facilitate the regional timber industry reaching a new technological height,’ says Sverdlovsk Region Industry & Science Ministry’s Timber Industry Director Vyacheslav Tyumentsev. He said that four projects were currently selected to be put on the priority list. The first project is a molded stock plant with the

0.2 sq m per capita worth of housing was put up in Yekaterinburg in January-August 2012, the city council’s press service reports. ‘Over a million sq m worth of housing has been commissioned in Yekaterinburg annually for the last two years. The city council sees as its main objective keeping up with this tempo and ensuring good working conditions for all the building market players. This is why over 1 million sq m worth of housing is expected to be commissioned in Yekaterinburg by the end of 2012,’ the press service says. According to forecasts, an additional 10.9m sq m worth of housing must

Bank Koltso Urala paid the coupon yield on the first coupon period of its 01 Series bonds. The bondholders were paid 57.66 RUR per bond, with the coupon interest rate set at 11.5% a year. The total coupon yield paid amounted to 57.66m RUR, the bank’s press service reports. Bank Koltso Urala went through with its first bond issue (01 Series, total face value 1bn RUR) on April 27, 2012. The bonds are to be in circulation for 2 years (1,098 days), with the offer to buy them at 100% of face value in one year’s time. Promsvyazbank acted as the underwriter for the issue. In October 2012, the bank’s

Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) looked into the performance of its environmental management system in the first half of 2012. MMK’s environmental management system has been certified in accordance with the international standard 14001: 2004 requirements. The performance analysis has shown that MMK’s production activity in the first half of 2012 was carried out in compliance with the requirements set by the Russian Federation environmental law and with those set by the international standard. The enterprise was particularly successful in implementing its water-protection initiatives.

The Expert magazine carried its annual rating of Russia’s 400 largest enterprises for the year 2011. The research methodology has remained the same: the companies’ position in the rating was determined through ranging them in terms of sales volume, be it products, work, or services, last year. The rating does not differentiate between various branches of industry, so this meant that companies from nearly all of the existing economic sectors were featured in the rating. Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) is always present in this rating and is normally ranked as one of the country’s

Ural Airlines came up with a special winter season offer that is specifically targeted at people living in Zabaikalye Territory. Starting October 28, the airline will be operating daily direct flights from Chita to Moscow and back without any stopovers, and for an appealing price. The cheapest one-way tickets are available for 5,000 RUR, the company’s press service says. What is more, the air carrier will also be offering a Chita-Yekaterinburg-Chita flight two times a week, so passengers will be able to use the company’s connecting flights options in Yekaterinburg. For one, it means that if

Uralvagonzavod Scientific & Production Corporation is about to complete the reconstruction of the first section of its all-plant filtering facilities; this is done within the framework of the program for the improvement of the company’s environmentally friendly segment. The obsolete technologies are being replaced with up-to-date ones, which means the negative environmental impact will be reduced several times and the production site will get plenty of recycle water that meets the utility water standards, Uralvagonzavod Corporation’s press service reports. The project has been implemented

Uralvagonzavod Corporation started the early repayment of the 2,856m RUR worth of government guarantees that were issued to back up OOO ChTZ-Uraltrac’s loans, the corporation’s press service reports. The guarantees helped this Corporation member get a 2,880-million-ruble loan at Sberbank of Russia (the guarantee amounted to 2,016m RUR) and a 1,200-million-ruble loan at VTB (the guarantee amounted to 840m RUR). This money was directed to the development of Chelyabinsk Tractor Plant (ChTZ-Uraltrac), one of Russia’s largest manufacturers of a wide range of caterpillar and wheeled road building

October 26, 2012. Uralvagonzavod Corporation started the early repayment of the 2,856m RUR worth of government guarantees that were issued to back up OOO ChTZ-Uraltrac’s loans, the corporation’s press service reports. The guarantees helped this Corporation member get a 2,880-million-ruble loan at Sberbank of Russia (the guarantee amounted to 2,016m RUR) and a 1,200-million-ruble loan at VTB (the guarantee amounted to 840m RUR). This money was directed to the development of Chelyabinsk Tractor Plant (ChTZ-Uraltrac), one of Russia’s largest manufacturers of a wide range of caterpillar and

October 26, 2012. Uralvagonzavod Scientific & Production Corporation is about to complete the reconstruction of the first section of its all-plant filtering facilities; this is done within the framework of the program for the improvement of the company’s environmentally friendly segment. The obsolete technologies are being replaced with up-to-date ones, which means the negative environmental impact will be reduced several times and the production site will get plenty of recycle water that meets the utility water standards, Uralvagonzavod Corporation’s press service reports. The project

October 26, 2012. The Municipal Transport Enterprises Committee for Transport, Traffic Coordination, and Road Network Development that was set up in preparation for the World Cup 2018 is going to purchase 250 new buses, 100 trams, 100 trolley-buses, and 32 underground carriages, Yekaterinburg Council’s press service reports. All these vehicles are expected to be low-floor ones and fitted with GPS GLONASS, video recorders, heaters, and air conditioners. Deputy Mayor of Yekaterinburg for Urban Development, Transport, & the Environment Evgeny Lipovitch asked the local transport experts to

October 26, 2012. According to Kaspersky Lab and B2B International’s research carried out in July 2012, Russian companies see cyber threats as one of the key factors that jeopardize their businesses. However, in 40% of cases, these companies’ IT infrastructure is not secure enough to resist the malefactors’ cyber attacks, Kaspersky Lab’s press office reports. 42% of Russia-based companies don’t have enough intellectual property theft prevention systems, and 41% are positive that the infrastructure protection system they use cannot prevent industrial espionage from happening. Kaspersky Lab

October 26, 2012. Seversky Pipe Plant (STZ), a member of Pipe Metallurgical Company organized an Initiation Ceremony for its young workers. The ceremony was attended by a hundred college and vocational school graduates who joined STZ this year. The event took place in the plant’s museum facility, next to the casting yard of Severskaya Furnace, which is a 19th century industrial architecture landmark. To commemorate this event, heads of production departments, chairmen of trade unions, and the company’s long-service employees prepared their speeches for the newcomers and gave them booklets on

October 25, 2012. The sales output of Transport Machine-Building Design Office (an Omsk-based member of Uralvagonzavod Corporation) came to 1.77bn RUR in the nine months of 2012, which is 2.2 times better than a year earlier, Uralvagonzavod’s press service reports. Special attention is paid to the foundry department’s produce this year, namely, to goods cast from carbon- and manganese-bearing materials. The office is effectively implementing its metallurgical production facilities modernization program: the third steel-smelting furnace has recently been launched; then, some new, up-to-date,

October 25, 2012. Industrial Loader PK-46 manufactured by Chelyabinsk Tractor Plant/ChTZ (a member of Uralvagonzavod Corporation) will be used in the agricultural sector, the Corporation’s press office reports. The loader was purchased by one of the agricultural businesses in Amur Region. The farm, located in the vicinity of Blagoveshchensk, had some very good crop harvest this year, so the PK-46 loader will be used for loading grain now and for shoveling snow in the winter. The vehicle has already been delivered onto the site. ChTZ Amur Region dealer handed the loader over to the consumer,

October 25, 2012. Tyumen Region public prosecution authorities have detected over 400 violations of the law in the fuel and energy sector since the beginning of the year. To eliminate these violations, the authorities issued 84 decrees, placed 11 claims with the court, and made 2 warnings. Following the public prosecutor’s reports, 85 people had to face disciplinary liability and 67 people had to face administrative liability, the spokesperson for Tyumen Region public prosecution authorities reports. This is why the recent meeting resulted in the decision to take additional steps targeted at