Renaissance Securities (Cyprus) Limited increased its share in Concern Kalina, a Russian cosmetics manufacturer, from 12.09% to 15.51%. At the same time, Prego Holdings Limited reduced its share portfolio from 45.41% down to 30.66%, whereas Kalina Finance’s share in the company went up from 5.44% to 18.56%.

Sverdlovsk Region Arbitration Court is not processing the claim placed by the region’s prosecution authorities; the authorities insist that the agreement on Sverdlovsk Region Government car park buying a Mercedes Benz S500 for the Governor be declared invalid, the court’s website states. The thing is, the claim, filled by the deputy prosecutor, does not meet all the requirments of Articles of 125 and 126 of Russia’s Arbitration Procedural Code. Now Sverdlovsk Region public prosecution authorities want Sverdlovsk Region State Order Department, Sverdlovsk Region Government car park, and Stern

Yekaterinburg-based Koltsovo Airport is going to become one of the airports that will be offered a 50% discount on the transfer of passengers from the Far East. The proposal was considered at a meeting devoted to the Mid-Urals transportation infrastructure development; Russia’s Transport Minister Igor Levitin took part in the meeting, in fact. We agreed that this measure should be introduced next year. We feel this will make passenger travel much cheaper and will facilitate the development of an aviation hub in Yekaterinburg,’ Governor of Sverdlovsk Region Alexander Misharin said.

Former deputy of Sverdlovsk Region Duma Dmitri Vershinin was appointed the new head of the Russian Red Cross Sverdlovsk Region division. He succeeded Olga Kharitonova, whose powers expired on May 25, 2011. I have been aware of the Red Cross activities for a long time now; we used to work on a number of projects together when I was a Duma deputy. It was Olga Kharitonova who recommended that I should become the new chairman of the regional division. We are now busy handing over the authority, revising the documents, and making decisions on the development of the division,’ Mr. Vershinin told

The deputies of Russia’s State Duma agreed on the wording of an inquiry to head of Russia’s Federal Antimonopoly Service Igor Artemiev. The MPs are worried about the lack of transparency within the payment systems that are currently operating in Russia; the systems do not disclose the particulars of their rate policies or the terms of their partnership with the banks. It has been suggested that the Federal Antimonopoly Service should look into the activity of the payment systems in question, RBC daily reports. According to the enquiry, there is now a number of payment systems in Russia that

Yekaterinburg Municipal Bank is not going to pay any dividends for the year 2010; this was decided upon at the annual general meeting that took place in Yekaterinburg recently. The bank reports the decision was made because the bank’s losses amounted to 194.36m RUR last year.

Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) carried out the first tests of its cold-roll Mill 2000 (a continuous etching line combined with a tandem mill) first section. According to MMK PR Department, the tests have shown that some positive performance indicators were observed in terms of speed modes and the thickness parameters. At the moment, the things being tested are the performance of the emulsion system and of the automated control system. The assembly of the technological machinery relating to the first section of Mill 2000 has already been completed. The technique of grinding backup

The merger of Yekaterinburggaz and GAZEKS might get competed as soon as January 2012, so that a single gas-distributing company EGRO will be created as a result, GAZEKS Managing Director and Yekaterinburggaz DG Denis Pasler announced at a press conference in Yekaterinburg. This year, Sverdlovsk Region’s two main natural gas distributing networks are working under a single technological policy. This was made possible due to IES being allowed to handle the operation management of Yekaterinburggaz since December 2010,’ Pasler explained.

The criminal lawsuit involving a Yekaterinburg entrepreneur Alexei Kalinichenko is still in progress; the businessman is suspected of setting up a pyramid scheme called Global Gaming Expo and stealing over 1 billion RUR worth of 4,000 Russian citizens’ savings. The investigation of the case has been prolonged till September 2011 and could be prolonged even further not only because this is a difficult case but also because the amount of work to be done is enormous. There are about 4,000 victims, and everyone has to be accounted for. Our investigative officer works every day,’ the press service

Bank Yekaterinburg Board of Directors held a meeting on May 31, 2011 to elect Mayor of Yekaterinburg Alexander Yakob Chairman of the Board. The news has been reported via the bank’s official website.

Yekaterinburg has 0.5 sq m worth of office space per every 1,000 dwellers, which makes it Russia’s No. 2 in terms of office in space, the spokesperson for Deputy Mayor of Yekaterinburg Viktor Konteev Ilona Starodubtseva announced recently. As far as good quality offices are concerned, Yekaterinburg is only overcome by Moscow with its 2.2 sq m of office space per every 1,000 dwellers. The two leaders are followed by Saint Petersburg with its 0.4 sq m of office space per every 1,000 dwellers, and Kazan and Omsk, with 0.27 sq m and 0.17 sq m worth of office space per every 1,000 dwellers,

Sverdlovsk Region is going to buy 150,000 shares of Mid-Urals Development Corporation; each share comes at 1,000 RUR apiece. The shares in question are an additional issue of the corporation’s ordinary registered paperless shares worth a total of 150m RUR.

UTair Engineering BOD recommended that the stockholders vote for passing the dividend for the year 2010 at the upcoming AGM on June 22, 2011, the company’s press service reports. The dividends will probably not be paid because the company’s losses amounted to 94.63m RUR last year.

The European and American inflation rates have left the Russian ones behind, says the statistical report provided via the website of Russia’s Federal State Statistics Service on the inflation in Russia and abroad. According to Rosstat, the inflation rates came to 0.4% in Russia in march 2011, whereas in the EU inflation reached 0.5% on average, and the inflation rates for the United States were registered at 0.6% on average. In April 2011, consumer prices went up most dramatically against March 2011 in Byelorussia (4.5%), Malta (2.1%), and Cyprus (1.4%). Prices actually went down in one

Uralkhimmash Board of Directors suggested that the enterprise’s stockholders vote for passing the dividend on either ordinary registered shares or type A preferred registered shares for the year 2010. The recommendation was made because the company sustained some losses in the past financial year. The agenda of the upcoming annual general meeting also covers issues like confirming the changes in the company’s charter and adopting a new edition of the provision on the BOD.

Pervouralsk New Pipe Plant (a member of ChTPZ Group) was declared one of Sverdlovsk Region’s best taxpayers in the year 2010. This decision was made by a special board of experts at a meeting in the region’s Ministry for Industry. The awarding ceremony will take place in June 2011.

The Economic News Agency prepared a rating of Russia’s best lobbyists in April 2011 for Nezavisimaya Gazeta. BOD Chairman of Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) Viktor Rashnikov was given the 21st position in the First People Lobbyists category (Strong Efficiency subgroup), which means he retained the position he got in the previous rating. This is actually one of the best results among the VIPs of Russia’s ferrous metallurgy business. The research, which Nezavisimaya Gazeta carries on a monthly basis, determines just how effective the performance of private and state organizations’

Some changes were introduced to UralTransBank BOD recently: President of Ural Federal University Stanislav Naboichenko, who is no longer an independent director after being on the Board for over seven years, has been replaced by UFU Provost for Economics & Strategic Development Daniil Sandler. The decision to this extent was taken by the bank’s stockholders in the course of the annual general meeting on May 27, 2011.

In accordance with Order 62-11-601/pz-i of Russia’s Federal Financial Markets Service Ural Federal District division as of May 27, 2011, the issue of Sverdlovsk Region-based Ural University Campus ordinary registered paperless shares was halted.

Nissan Company’s Saint Petersburg-based plant had to put up with a five-day stoppage, that is, until June 3, 2011, inclusively, ITAR-TASS reports. Now it is this particular enterprise that is currently the key supplier of Nissan automobiles to Yekaterinburg. According to the company’s press service, this idle time will allow them to synchronize the plant’s production processes with the schedule for delivering the car parts from Japan. The decision to change the Saint Petersburg’s plant’s working hours was made because the production in Japan stopped at the end of March and early in April