Kommersant came up with the 11th annual rating of Russia’s Best Managers recently. The rating is a joint project with the Russian Managers Association aimed at finding the most professional managers and leaders in various branches and departments each year. BOD Chairman of Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) Viktor Rashnikov was once again featured in the Business Leaders rating alongside with the country’s most prominent top managers and CEOs of major Russian businesses. According to the analysts who compiled the list, the main principle behind the rating system was, ‘Let the best

A group of officials from Chelyabinsk Region, headed by Governor Mikhail Yurevitch, is going to take part in the World Universal Fair EXPO 2010 in Shanghai on October 18-23, 2010. This is the first time the region is attending the event. The delegates have a number of goals to achieve, the most important ones being improving on Chelyabinsk Region’s international connections, attracting foreign investment, networking with the business community representatives, and promoting Chelyabinsk Region on the global arena. The agenda of the Russian pavilion at the fair provides for Chelyabinsk Region

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, September 21, 2010. Ural Airlines operated 1,810 flights in August 2010, including 707 international ones, 845 domestic ones, and 258 flights within the CIS. This was actually 5% better than a year earlier. As for the passenger turnover, 236,797 people flew with the carrier in August, which was 6% better than twelve months earlier. Ural Airlines managed to improve on its performance indicators thanks to entering some new markets: in the year 2010, the airline did more business in Moscow, Saint Petersburg, Novosibirsk, Samara, and Irkutsk. This winter, the air carrier

UrBC, Magnitogorsk, Chelyabinsk Region, September 21, 2010. The rating agency has recently promoted the rating outlook of Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (ММК) from Stable to Positive; the enterprise’s long-term IDR has been affirmed at BB. Fitch Ratings reports the decision to improve the company’s rating outlook was brought about by a great increase in MMK’s ability to provide itself with raw materials over the last few years. What is more, the enterprise is to implement a number of investment projects to build up its raw materials base in the next three to four years. The promotion of

UrBC, Magnitogorsk, Chelyabinsk Region, September 20, 2010. A millionth ton of goods generated by plate mill 5000 was produced in the sheet-rolling shop No. 9 of Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (ММК) during a night shift on September 13, 2010. The ‘anniversary’ batch of К60 (Х70) metal was meant for Vyksunskiy metallurgical plant, a member of United Metallurgical Company. Mill 5000 is the key component of MMK’s plate iron facility that also comprises an out-of-furnace processing unit and a continuous casting machine. MMK signed a contract for the delivery of the equipment with SMS-Demag,

UrBC, Magnitogorsk, Chelyabinsk Region, September 16, 2010. Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (ММК) carried a financial report for the second quarter of 2010; the report was drawn up in compliance with the International Accounting Standards. MMK Group’s revenue in the second quarter of 2010 rose by 25%, or up to $2,068m against the first quarter of the year. The consolidated EBITDA went up by 17% and reached $437m. ‘Despite the dramatic increase in the raw materials prices in the second quarter and less favorable market opportunities, our EBITDA margin still looked good at 21.1% starting

UrBC, Magnitogorsk, Chelyabinsk Region, September 13, 2010. President of MMK Management Company Viktor Rashnikov signed an order for pay rises at Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (ММК). The increase in wages and salaries will go along the wage-growth program adopted by the company. For one, the pay of workers, managers, white-collar experts, and clerks will go up 10%. This is the second time the enterprise’s employees have got a pay rise this year, as the wages and salaries went up 10% in March 2010. All in all, MMK is expected to spend about 1 billion RUR on wage increases in the year

The rating agency has recently promoted the rating outlook of Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (ММК) from Stable to Positive; the enterprise’s long-term IDR has been affirmed at BB. Fitch Ratings reports the decision to improve the company’s rating outlook was brought about by a great increase in MMK’s ability to provide itself with raw materials over the last few years. What is more, the enterprise is to implement a number of investment projects to build up its raw materials base in the next three to four years. The promotion of the rating outlook also stems from the agency’s positive

OAO Gazpromneft-Ural is to pay a 500,000-ruble fine for committing an administrative offense in the securities market field; the company’s charges are based on Article 15.19 (part 1) of the Russian Federation Administrative Offense Code. The decision to this extent was made by Ural Federal District’s division of the Federal Financial Markets Service.

VSMPO-Avisma Corporation no longer owns a shareholding in OOO Tirus Insurance Company. The corporation used to have 19.9% of the insurer’s stock.

A delegation of Egyptian officials from Advanced Press House is to visit OAO Ural Compressor Plant on September 21, 2010. The delegation consists of four senior position executives from the Egyptian defense industry enterprises, who come to the Urals in order to look at and run a preliminary commissioning procedure of Ural Compressor Plant’s produce that has been prepared to be shipped to Egypt. Advanced Press House is, in fact, the plant’s official representative in Egypt. The two parties signed a cooperation agreement in the spring of 2010, so Ural Compressor Plant is now to deliver its

Governor of Sverdlovsk Region Alexander Misharin and a shareholder of OAO ChTPZ Andrei Komarov held a meeting dedicated to the upcoming launch of a new steel-smelting unit on the premises of Pervouralsk New Pipe Plant. During the meeting, the name of the new investment project, Iron Ozone 32, was presented to the Governor. The steel-smelting unit in Pervouralsk is the largest investment project Sverdlovsk Region is running this year. The investments will amount to 19 billion RUR; the unit is being completed with the help of the state guarantees and Sberbank of Russia’s loan. The new name,

‘We received a proposal from an American businessman Andrew Welch at the beginning of winter. His idea regarding Artemovskaya heat and power plant was to have a Chinese coal station transferred there. LP Amina, his company, was willing to invest some $5m in order to co-won the station, provided that Sverdlovsk Region’s government delivers all the equipment necessary for the installation and hookup of the Chinese unit. However, a body of experts considered the project and said it could not be implemented: investing in somebody else’s property would have to be very large, and the machinery was

A millionth ton of goods generated by plate mill 5000 was produced in the sheet-rolling shop No. 9 of Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (ММК) during a night shift on September 13, 2010. The ‘anniversary’ batch of К60 (Х70) metal was meant for Vyksunskiy metallurgical plant, a member of United Metallurgical Company. Mill 5000 is the key component of MMK’s plate iron facility that also comprises an out-of-furnace processing unit and a continuous casting machine. MMK signed a contract for the delivery of the equipment with SMS-Demag, a German machine-building concern, in November 2006. The

Chelyabinsk Region Ministry for Economic Development and the Governor Administration are going to work on changing the region’s image both country-wide and on the international arena. Following a staff meeting, Governor of Chelyabinsk Region Mikhail Yurevitch explained the challenge: ‘This region is often associated with the accident at Mayak Corporation and nuclear waste. The thing is, the accident occurred many years ago, and all its impact has been localized long since. The amount of pollutants the enterprises based in the South Urals are now discharging and dumping is ten times less than

Sverdlovsk Region’s Public Prosecutor stated that the premises of Venta (a Nizhnyaya Tura-based machine building plant estimated at dozens of millions in the national currency) had been sold at a price that only amounted to one-tenth of their actual worth. As a result, some serious damage was done to the company. The officers of Nizhnyaya Tura Internal Affairs Administration’s Economic Offense Department had been investigating the incident for a quite a while, but the legally valid procedural response was only made after the regional public prosecution authorities got involved. Following the

Two French architects applied to Yekaterinburg city council, asking for help on their noteworthy project – a description of cities and districts that have proved the most advanced in the environmental and urban development aspects. In Russia, the architects were enticed by Yekaterinburg’s new Academic district. Besides, they are planning to visit and report on Shanghai, Vancouver, South Korea’s Songdu, and Japan’s Kitakyushu. The main idea behind these trips is to see, comprehend, and analyze each urban project and to share the experience. Upon the completion of the tour, a report on the

OAO Alfa-Bank bought out all the shares of OAO Bank Severnaya Kazna that it hadn’t previously owned yet, thus increasing its stake from 95.03099% to 100%, Alfa-Bank Yekaterinburg branch’s PR Director Anna Gorobtsova informed UrBC. ‘The buyout was completed in full compliance with the legal requirements and at a market price that was actually higher than the price Alfa-Bank purchased the stock at during the buyout offer launch,’ she said. Alfa-Bank offered to buy the shares out from Bank Severnaya Kazna’s other stockholders at the end of March 2010; the suggested price was 0.000256497 kopecks

Bank Koltso Urala’s business customers have recently set yet another record as the bank’s business customers’ deposits volume reached the point of 3.5 billion RUR. This means the figure has gone up by 1.5 billion RUR in less than three months. The bank’s Deposits Department’s employees report this impressive volume growth is primarily caused by the local entrepreneurs’ enhanced business activity.

The international rating agency’s estimate is that 25% of loans issued by Russian banks are bad debt; this coincides with the agency’s basic forecast produced about a year ago, Fitch’s Financial Institutions Senior Director Alexander Danilov announced at a press conference on Thursday, RIA Novosti says. The agency’s year-old worst case scenario predicted the share of toxic assets might rise to 40%. ‘We are now in our basis scenario zone given the off-balance-sheet transactions and restructured debts,’ Danilov said. Fitch believes the banks gained more control over the bad debt problem in the