The revenues of VIZ-Stal dropped by 73.42% in the first quarter of 2009 compared with the last one of 2008; at the same time, the company’s gross profit went down by 71.86%, its sales revenues by 75.77%, and its net profit by 74.56%. Such are the results of Novolipetsk Iron & Steel Works (NLMK) daughter enterprise’s performance in January-March 2009. NLMK’s press officer reports the problems have to do with the plummeting demand for VIZ-Stal’s products. ‘The global demand for transformer steel decreased at the beginning of the year because of the economic crisis and the customers’

METCOMBANK’s latest EGM resulted in the decision to go through with an additional share issue in 2009. This is expected to raise the bank’s authorized capital by 2 billion RUR; with the issue’s total volume coming to 4 billion RUR. The spokesperson for the bank reports METCOMBANK will thus be able to reach the scale of Russia’s Top 50 banks in terms of capital volume (and in terms of asset volume, potentially). The increase in capital will also widen the bank’s business development and lending opportunities.

It was detected in the course of an inspection carried out by Nizhniy Tagil environmental prosecution authorities that two local enterprises kept polluting the environment and had no discharge permits at that. Ruslich, an iron foundry based in Verkhnyaya Salda has got over ninety harmful emission points, while Uralskoye (dealing in building stone production) has got thirty-three such emission points and discharged over 40 tons of air pollutants in 2008. The General Prosecutor’s Office reports Ruslich’s chief engineer and Uralskoye’s environmental expert will have to face lawsuits, with

VUZ-Bank’s BOD meeting on May 4, 2009 resulted in the decision to suggest that the stockholders pass the dividend for 2008 at the upcoming AGM. The acquired revenues are expected to be directed to the capital investment and reserve funds.

Governor of Chelyabinsk Region Petr Sumin chaired the regional anti-drug committee meeting. This was attended by the members of the State Boundary Commission (headed by the head of the Federal Drug Control Service Vladimir Kalanda). Kalanda said the main aim of their coming to the region was to look into the regional anti-drug committees’ performance as well as to propose a set of specific measures to make their job more efficient. The spokesperson for the Governor reports the region is home to a major drug trafficking artery starting in Afghanistan and gets some inflow of drugs from Troitsk,

Uralkhimmash BOD suggested that the stockholders should pass the common registered stock and preferred type A stock dividend for 2008 in the course of an AGM. The meeting itself took place on April 30, 2009.

The net loss of Pipe Metallurgical Company (TMK) rose by 2,431,390,000 RUR, or 32.7% in the first quarter of 2009, the company’s press officer reports. The company’s net loss amounted to 9.877 billion RUR (in accordance with the Russian Accounting Standards) in January-March 2009 compared with 7.445 billion RUR in October-December 2008. A year earlier, however, TMK’s net loss came to 2.841 million RUR. The company’s press service explains their loss figures in the first quarter of 2009 have to do with the re-assessment of their foreign currency liabilities.

MRSK Urala finished off the first quarter of 2009 with 389.948 million RUR worth of losses, which caused the company’s net profit to go down by 1,251,300 RUR, or 145.3% (from 861.352 million RUR in the last quarter of 2008). The interregional network company reports the poor financial performance has been brought about by the need to create the 586-million-ruble bad debt reserve to make up for the overdue bad debts unsecured by any collateral or guarantee.

Bank Severnaya Kazna’s former top managers are apparently accusing the bank’s former BOD Chairman Vladimir Frolov of destroying the business. At least, that is what Leonid Bratsev, Valery Malkov, Sergey Kuroptev, and Evgeniy Parfenov said to a Delovoy Kvartal interviewer. The managers claimed the bank never needed any financial recovery at all and was quite capable of coping with the difficult circumstances on its own. The only reason Bank Severnaya Kazna was sold to Alfa-Bank was the decision taken by the BOD Chairman and majority stockholder Vladimir Frolov, they feel. The former bank

Governor of Chelyabinsk Region Petr Sumin signed a provision regarding the prevention of АН1N1 flu outbreak in the region. The list of measures is to be drawn up by his deputies Andrei Kosilov and Evgeniy Redin, who will lead an ad hoc team consisting of Health Minister Viktor Shepelev, Minister for Agriculture Ivan Feklin, Minister for Radiation and Environmental Safety Gennady Podtesov, head of Rospotrebnadzor’s Chelyabinsk Region division Anatoly Semenov, head of Rosselkhoznadzor’s Chelyabinsk Region division Sergey Naumov, and heads of some other ministries and departments. This team is

Vladimir Baltin has been appointed the Director of URSA Bank’s Chelyabinsk branch after being approved of by the Central Bank of Russia’s local division, the bank’s press officer reports. ‘Vladimir Baltin was born on November 18, 1970 in Izhevsk, the Republic of Udmurtia. He graduated from Izhevsk Mechanical Institute with a major in instrument making in 1993. In 1998, he got his degree in Finances and Lending at Izhevsk State Technical University. Between 1993 and 2007, Baltin was employed in various capacities ranging from an economist to a deputy branch CEO at Udmurtinveststroybank,

The international rating agency has recently demoted LSR Group’s long-term Issuer Default Rating (the foreign currency one) and their priority, unsecured rating from B to B-. What is more, the Group’s long-term Issuer Default Rating has been placed on the Rating Watch as Negative. ‘The drop is reflexive of Fitch’s feeling that the company is faced with an increased risk of not getting the financing needed in due time. Meanwhile, the Group needs this money to pay off its short-term debts,’ Fitch Ratings reports. The agency also took into account the fact that LSR Group’s liquidity figures went

The City of Revda’s own budget was implemented by 72 million RUR (in terms of revenues) in the first quarter of 2009, which comes to 87% of the figures for a year earlier, Mayor Andrei Semenov announced at a governmental meeting targeted at supporting Sverdlovsk Region’s enterprises. The information to this extent has been supplied by the spokesperson for the Governor of Sverdlovsk Region. According to Nizhneserginskiy metal goods plant’s acting General Director Fanis Khusainov, the plant’s losses amounted to more than 1.9 billion RUR in the first quarter of the year.

Novolipetsk Iron & Steel Works (NLMK) and Zaporozhstal’s countermanding their 1.5 billion RUR worth or orders (nearly completed by the company already) turned out to be Uralmash Machine-Building Corporation’s major problem, the enterprise’s acting GD Vadim Dadyka explained at a governmental meeting targeted at supporting Sverdlovsk Region’s enterprises. ‘Our storehouses keep getting packed with half-finished and completed items, and our workers’ wages have gone down by 8,000 RUR to 9,000 RUR on average,’ he added.

Governor of Chelyabinsk Region Petr Sumin decided that nearly 51 million RUR is to be paid from the region’s budget to the Great Patriotic War veterans, the Leningrad blockade survivors, and death camp prisoners who were under age at the time, on Victory Day. In fact, this 500-ruble allowance per person has been paid for the third time this year. This is a limited list for this difficult year: before the crisis, the allowances used to be paid to all of the region’s retirees. According to the spokesperson for the Governor, the payments will be received by over 95,000 veterans, including nearly

Standard & Poor's affirmed AKB Investbank’s national scale rating at ruBB recently, whereupon they called off this rating upon the bank’s request. ‘As a result, Investbank is no longer being monitored by Standard & Poor's,’ says the agency’s analyst Sergei Voronenko.

Maxi Group looked at the results of its performance in the first quarter of 2009. The holding’s enterprises produced 380,000 tons of steel, 291,000 tons of bar iron, and 37,000 tons of metal goods. This was, respectively, 16%, 27%, and 10% more than in the last quarter of 2008. The company repots this has to do with the metal goods market growing more stable. In addition, the holding produced 44,000 tons of steel ingots. At the same time, Maxi Group’s steel and bar iron output levels dropped by 22% and 10%, respectively, compared with a year earlier.

Pavel Fedulev, who is currently serving his term in prison, has been charged with new offenses described in Article 17 (part 4) and Article 102 (paragraph a) of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic Criminal Code and Articles 159 (part 4), Article 33 (part 3), and Article 105 (paragraphs a, g, h) of the Russian Federation Criminal Code. The announcement to this extent was made by Sverdlovsk Region’s division of the public prosecution authorities today. For one, the authorities are looking into the assassination of E.B.A. Corporation’s President Andrei Yakushev on May 9, 1995 (this

Sverdlovsk Region’s State Construction Surveillance Administration insists on making UralInvest face administrative liability for an offense described in Article 9.5 (part 1) of the Russian Federation Administrative Code; the Administration also wants the builder to be punished by a ninety-day stoppage, says Sverdlovsk Region Arbitration Court’s press officer. The plaintiff claims UralInvest has been putting up an apartment block without the necessary construction permit.

URSA Bank raised the interest rates offered on ruble deposits for private individuals by .5% to1% (depending on the amount of money in the deposit and the deposit period) on April 27, 2009. The changes involve three deposit types: the maximum annual interest one can get on Pension Bonus, Guaranteed Income, and Second Salary deposit types now comes to 15.8%, 16%, and 15.75%, respectively, the bank’s press officer reports. ‘The bank has always paid close attention to our customers’ needs and so launched the floating rates principle that allows us to adapt quickly to the market changes. Over