The head of Novolipetsk Iron & Steel Works (NLMK) profile division Olga Naumova resigned of her own accord recently. The former senior-level manager from NLMK’s Production Directorate Alexander Burayev has been appointed to succeed her in the position. Alexander Burayev is going to supervise the development of Nizhneserginskiy metal goods plant, Ural precision alloys plant, Kaluga-based scientific & production electro-metallurgical plant, the companies belonging to Vtorchermet NLMK Production Association, and a number of other enterprises that comprise NLMK’s profile division.

OAO Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) underwent a certification audit procedure last week; the audit touched upon the production of some earlier certified goods and the produce of the company’s plate mill 5000. The inspection was carried out by the auditors from Germany-based TUV NORD; they tested MMK’s hot-rolled profile, coiled, and flat stock made of EN 10025-2 construction steels for compliance with the European Directive 89/106/ЕС for building materials. They also tested some flat and coiled AD 2000-W0 tubing products for compliance with the European Directive 97/23/ЕС for

The international rating agency demoted the International Industrial Bank’s long-term and short-term contractor credit ratings from ВВ-/В to В-/С. At the same time, both ratings were placed on the CreditWatch list with Negative rating outlook. ‘This demotion has to do with the bank’s very vulnerable liquidity status, the company’s increased risk of debt refinancing, and our concerns over the bank’s ability to save enough money to pay off its large-scale loans whose repayment dates are approaching. One such loan is a ?200m Eurobond one that is to be redeemed on July 6, 2010,’ says Standard

Bank Severnaya Kazna (the asset of Alfa-Bank) published a report on the changes among its stockholders recently. According to the bank’s release as of June 3, 2010, Cyprus-based Vallaur Limited is no longer a shareholder of the bank, with its share dropping from 10.00333% to 0%, Kommersant refers to the bank as saying. At the same time, Alfa-Bank raised its share in the authorized capital of the bank it had once put to a financial recovery procedure from 85% to 95%.

Madura Holding Limited informed OAO Uralkaliy that the holding carved out 53.2% of its share capital in favor of Kaliha Finance Limited (Kaliha), Aerellia Investments Limited (Aerellia), and Becounioco Holdings Limited (Becounioco) on June 11, 2010; the three companies are jointly referred to as customers. The beneficiary owners of Kaliha, Aerellia, and Becounioco are Suleiman Kerimov, Alexander Nesis, and Filaret Galchev, respectively. During the equity carve-out, the biggest 25% shareholding was acquired by Kaliha. Now Madura Holding, the company of Uralkaliy founder Dmitriy Rybolovlev,

‘Neither the Russian budget nor that of the Russian Railways can possibly cover the expenses related to a high-speed Yekaterinburg-Moscow train in the next five years or so,’ Deputy Head of Sverdlovsk Region Railways for Passenger Travel Sergey Nekh announced at a press conference in Yekaterinburg. ‘The existing railways can’t handle the pressure of a train traveling at 160 to 260 kilometers per hour, so we’ll need a new railway for it. This railway will have its specifications and complications, especially given the fact that the Perm direction is already overloaded with freight carriages,’

Ural Airlines has finalized its summertime timetable on the flights from Yekaterinburg to the popular holiday destinations in Russia and the CIS. For one, the summer flight to Simferopol has been operated since the beginning of June 2010. For three months, the flight will be operated on an A320 airplane three times a week, that is, every Monday, Tuesday, and Friday. In addition, the airline is planning to offer its customers a number of flights to the south of Russia: Yekaterinburg-Sochi flight will be operated daily throughout the entire summer and until early fall; Yekaterinburg-Anapa

The Russian Federation Ministry for Industry and Trade announced the winners of Russia’s Best Exporter of the Year 2009 contest. The contest is held by the Ministry on a yearly basis and is a part of the state industrial export support program. It has been held for the 13th time this year, with the participants (coming from sixteen basic industrial branches) competing in categories like the Branch’s Best Russian Exporter, the Branch’s Best Russian Exporter to the CIS, and the Branch’s Most Dynamically Developing Russian Exporter. The applications were considered by the Ministry’s Foreign

The international rating agency confirmed OOO Home Credit & Finance Bank’s long-term and short-term contractor credit ratings at B+ and B, respectively. The Rating Outlook is still Negative. ‘The fact that we affirmed the ratings means we believe Home Credit & Finance Bank’s commercial activity indicators went up and its financial development indicators have remained stable. We also feel the bank managed to keep up with high market capitalization,’ Standard & Poor's credit analyst Viktor Nikolskiy reports. At the same time, the trying conditions of working on Russia’s highly

‘The Greater Yekaterinburg project will help the local towns to fight unemployment. We all know that people who have lost their jobs during the recession are now coming to the capital of the Urals, Yekaterinburg, in search of work. In fact, the delinquency statistics available can serve as the circumstantial evidence of my claim: according to these data, 50% of local offenders are actually not Yekaterinburg dwellers,’ Director of the Russian Academy of Sciences’ Ural branch Institute of Economics Alexander Tatarkin said to UrBC reporters. Now the project provides for the merger of

The Russian Federation Ministry for Regional Development came up with the results of its monthly report on the socioeconomic and finance & banking situation in Russia’s federal constituencies in January-April 2010. The data used were valid as of May 28, 2010. In terms of socioeconomic development, Sverdlovsk Region exceeded the average levels for the country on the whole. Still, the region did not make it to the list of seven Russian territories where things were considerably better than the average levels for the country on the whole, whereas its two neighbors in Ural Federal District –

OOO Torgoviy Dvor now has a number of new owners: European-Asian Company has recently bought a 25% shareholding in the business. According to the company’s official statement, the shareholding was estimated at 9.5 million RUR.

RBC.Rating came up with its quarterly report on the Russian banks’ performance recently. Their latest research focused on the banking activity in the first quarter of 2010 and resulted in a rating of Russia’s one hundred most profitable and efficient banks with the widest range of services. The Ural Bank for Reconstruction and Development made it to Russia’s Top100 Banks list in all the available categories. The company came 58th in the country-wide profit rating thanks to its 185.92 million RUR worth of profits (as of April 1, 2010) and became the Urals’ most profitable bank in the first

Sverdlovsk Region’s division of Rospotrebnadzor (the state consumer rights watchdog) carried out a scheduled inspection of a wholesale warehouse for dietary supplements that belongs to Protek-14, the subsidiary of ZAO PROTEK Promotion Center, based in Berezovskiy, Sverdlovsk Region. Rospotrebnadzor’s regional division detected a number of storage regulations violations and exerted some administrative pressure on the company. For one, Protek-14 was ordered to remove all the instances of non-compliances with the existing rules and to stop selling produce that did not meet the legislative

Sverdlovsk Region’s division of the Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS) is going to resume the investigation of the case involving the presumably illegitimate advertisements run by Limerence Shopping Center and Extreme Fitness Athletics gym chain. Case No. 39, filed against OOO Krona and Limerence Shopping Center’s management, contains charges based on Article 18 (part 1) of the Federal Advertising Act. The defendants are suspected of distributing their advertisements in text message format without the mobile phone and number owners’ written consent. The complaint was originally placed with

A number of Magnum strong drinks supermarket chain stores had to stop operating for the time being in Yekaterinburg. The chain store representatives do admit they have been suspended; they refuse to provide any comments on the causes of the halt, however. Magnum currently comprises nine stores, eight of which are located in Yekaterinburg, with the remaining one based in Nizhniy Tagil, Sverdlovsk Region. UralBusinessConsulting found out that at least two of the chain’s stores had been closed upon the order of Sverdlovsk Region’s division of the Federal Service of Court Officers. The Service’s

UC RUSAL denies all the allegations made by OOO VICOM and ZAO Uralelectromash as to RUSAL’s inability to deliver the metal on time and the resulting production stoppage. Nor does the aluminum producer agree to be held liable for this stoppage. Besides, UC RUSAL actually accuses OOO VICOM and ZAO Uralelectromash of information raiding. The two companies have complained earlier that the aluminum prices set by UC RUSAL for the home market were actually unjustified. According to OOO VICOM and ZAO Uralelectromash, they started experiencing delivery problems where UC RUSAL’s Ural smelter was

Governor of Sverdlovsk Region Alexander Misharin coordinated a meeting dedicated to the state of affairs at Malyshevskiy emerald and beryllium deposit. The meeting was attended by members of Sverdlovsk Region Government, heads of the security forces, and representatives of Kaliningrad amber plant (the deposit’s current subsoil user). The amber plant is operating under a temporary license at the moment; however, the Governor asked the federal Finance Ministry and the Ministry for Natural Resources & Environment to speed up the decision-making process related to offering the plant a

The Russian Federation Federal Antimonopoly Service is currently investigating the actions of OAO RUSAL Krasnoyarsk, OAO RUSAL Sayanogorsk, OAO RUSAL Bratsk, OAO RUSAL Novokuznetsk, and OAO SUAL. The inquiry is being carried out within the framework of a recently filed lawsuit, the FAS’s press officer reports. ‘The companies are suspected of violating Article 10 (part 1) of the Competition Protection Act through manipulating prices on the wholesale electric power market,’ the press officer explains.

Ural Federal University’s Supervisory Board has been considering the idea of setting up the university’s campus in Shartash, along Vysotskiy St. in Yekaterinburg. According to the existing project, a ‘student forum’ is going to become the centerpiece of the place. It will be surrounded by eight buildings: a hotel, a library/information center, and a number of departments or research and education centers under the general names: Construction, New Materials & Materials Sciences, and Economics & Management. The central set will be continued in a line of five-storey student dormitories