OGK-5, a power generating company, has announced an investment counselor contest in order to issue an extra share holding targeted at attracting more investments, reports the spokesperson for SverdlovEnergo JSC. OGK-5 was the first of the five generating companies to be allowed to pilot the extra issues by RAO UES of Russia, the majority shareholder. Since RAO UES of Russia does not have any settled decisions as to the ways of attracting investments at the moment (and the application deadline is July 5, 2006), OGK-5 is asking its potential investment counselors to present their skills in all

Vanadium Ore Mining and Processing Enterprise JSC of Kachkanar (part of Evraz Group) has considered and introduced a program aimed at enhancing the safety of and upgrading the drilling-and-blasting operations in 2006-2010. According to the company’s spokesperson, the Program provides for the preliminary testing of an electronic blasting system called Ore, for testing and installation of the emulsification unit, and for design and introduction of the modern mix-pump trucks. It also sees to improving the drilling-and-blasting characteristics and replacing the drilling equipment with the better

Snezhinskiy JSC set up the Universal United Bank Management Fund. As the bank’s spokesperson said to UrBC representative, the Fund was registered with the Bank of Russia General Administration in Chelyabinsk Region on June 26, 2006; this is the first fund of such nature set up by a regional bank. Starting July 3, Snezhinskiy JSC will be accepting investments directed to the Fund, with the lower investment limit set at 100,000 RUR (Russian currency only). The commission of the managing body comes to 1% of the current market value of the assets per annum (charged monthly or in case of

On June 28, 2006, the premises of Ural Airlines JSC were visited by Tamir Ori, the executive of Air Safety Division of Israel’s Department of Transport. The Department only allows the carriers to fly to Israel after the airline proves its compliance with the safety regulations. Mr Ori was going to see how safe the Yekaterinburg-Tel Aviv flights of Ural Airlines were; he also gave some training to the company’s employees, examined the level of personnel air safety preparedness, looked at the set of measures aimed at preventing illegal interference in the civil aviation activity and came to the

The Board of Directors of Ural Smithy JSC agreed on the terms of the contract delegating the sole executive powers to Mechel Managing Company Ltd. This contract was based on the decision made at the company’s AGM in April 2006. Former General Director Ramil Zakirov was appointed Managing Director, the company’s spokesperson said to UrBC representative.

152 graduates of Metallurg professional lyceum were offered jobs at Metallurgical Industrial Complex of Nizhniy Tagil JSC (part of Evraz Group). Alongside with their diplomas, 18 graduates received the company’s personal invitations as a sign of special encouragement. For the first time this year, Evraz Group introduced five corporate fellowships (6,000 RUR per semester). The whole project is part of Evraz Holding Ltd. welfare program. ‘Thanks to the united corporate promotion network developed within the company, we are able to train our employees while they’re still at college. We have been

On June 29, 2006, Chkalovskiy District Court of Yekaterinburg returned a verdict on the share-selling agreement made by Chairman of Bank24.ru Sergey Lapshin and Business Club Globus CJSC. Mr Lapshin was going to sell the latter a 19.66% share holding of Stroyplastpolymer JSC, but the court found the agreement void, the spokesperson for Sverdlovsk Region Court said to UrBC representative. This agreement was, in fact, part of a larger transaction that involved trading the assets of Bank24.ru (including the shares of Stroyplastpolymer JSC) for a 20% share holding of Bank24.ru (which Mr Lapshin

Gorno-Shorsky branch of Evrazruda JSC has started overhaul of small skip hoist of its Skip shaft in order to replace two of its skips. The skip hoist is calculated to lift 8.4 tons of weight and is operating at the floor of +185 meters. The overhaul is the second stage of the complex repairs of skip hoists that began in March 2006 with the replacement of skips at the big hoist of Skip shaft. The complex overhaul carried out at Skip shaft is expected to reduce its operating costs, preclude emergency breakdowns, and improve the production standards through reducing the share of common manual

ChelyabEnergoSbyt has recently held the annual general meeting that resulted in approving of the company’s annual report, the accounting report, including the P&L statement, and profit distribution for 2005. The shareholders declared the dividend of .0097495 RUR per ordinary share and .0097495 RUR per preference share. They also elected the inspection committee and the Board of Directors: A. Vlasov, General Director of a mortgage-lending agency A. Kondrashov, Deputy GD of Mechel Energo Ltd. V. Chudo, General Director of Mechel Energo Ltd. T. Ufimtsev, the leading executive of the local

Chelyabinsk Generating Company JSC held the annual general meeting on June 28, 2006. The shareholders approved of the company’s annual report, the accounting report, and agreed on the profit distribution for 2005. They also made amendments to the company’s Charter, elected the inspection committee and the Board of Directors (two state representatives, one representative of a minority shareholder, and eight representatives proffered by RAO UES of Russia). The attendees decided to spend 128.592 million RUR of net profit on dividends (this covers the interim dividend for the first half of 2005),

The extraordinary general meeting of Trubodetal JSC (Chelyabinsk), member of OMK, was held on June 30, 2006. The stockholders approved of a transaction between the company and OMK-Steel Ltd. According to the terms of the transaction, OMK-Steel Ltd. is to conduct transactions, including import ones, of purchasing rolled metal, and other kinds of raw materials and consumables for Trubodetal JSC. The estimated annual worth of the transaction comes to 450m RUR.

Chelyabinsk Region Government decided to privatize its share in the authorized capital of three companies, namely, Chelinformcenter Ltd., Ural-Tonar Ltd., and South Ural Investment Company JSC. According to Evgeny Teftelev, Chelyabinsk Region Minister of Industry and Natural Resources, the share of the regional Government in the authorized capital of Chelinformcenter Ltd. amounts to 52.02%. It was acquired in 1999 through reorganization of Regional Information Center CJSC that resulted in setting up Chelinformcenter for rendering information services to the Government. The investments of the

Argayashskiy radio plant JSC has recently held the annual general meeting that resulted in approving of the company’s annual report and the accounting report. The attendees decided to pass a dividend for 2005 and elected the Board of Directors: Kamil Diyarov, Irina Galeeva, Lyubov Artyukova. Mr Diyarov was elected the company’s GD.

According to the Central Bank of Russia, the arrears of credit payments by natural persons to Ural Treasures Bank CJSC went up by 22.747 million RUR (from 104.908 million to 127.655 million) throughout January 1, 2006 to May 1, 2006.

Commission of the Central Administrative Board of Ministry of Emergency Management in Sverdlovsk Region has completed a complex testing of Kachkanar urban district, which is to be done every five years. The commission audited all the records of Ore Mining and Processing Enterprise of Kachkanar (member of Evraz Group), verifying their compliance with the Ministry of Emergency Management standards. Within the testing framework, training in terrorist act prevention was arranged as well; this was directed at determining the degree of preparedness of the local civil defense headquarters, rescue

Ural Turbine Works CJSC (part of Renova Group) resumed management-employee meetings this June, reports the company’s spokesperson. After he’s got acquainted with the production process and made a number of personnel changes, the new General Director Vitaliy Nedelskiy has been presenting the employees with the company’s prospective development strategies and set the new goals for achieving the best management structure. Face-to-face interaction with the employees is also maintained by the company’s Deputy Director for Manufacturing Contracts Management Andrei Koshelev, Deputy Director for

Six pilots of Ural Airlines JSC were allowed to fly Airbus-320 aircraft, reports the company’s spokesperson. The pilots have been fully trained by the company’s experts and flew enough instructional flights in order to be given permission for performing flights on their own. Not only the captains selected to fly the planes but also the other members of the crew, including the flight attendants, had to undergo special training and were allowed to work on the aircraft.

‘We are currently not interested in the dramatic widening of our client network. If, for whatever reason, our subscribers happen to be unhappy with Utel service, then, according to the existing legislation, we can simply cancel our agreements,’ Deputy GD of Uralsvyasinform JSC (Utel’s owner) Andrey Belobokov announced at the press conference yesterday. According to Mr Belobokov, the company is trying to raise its profits rather than increase the number of subscribers as 90% of the company’s clients are quite active users of the service. ‘We are not organizing any promotion events to attract

‘To date, the only regional company licensed for selling electricity to private consumers is Magnitogorsk Power Engineering Company,’ said Vladimir Skovorodkin, Head of Technological and Ecological Supervision Department of Rostekhnadzor Chelyabinsk Regional Administration during the recent meeting of Social and Labour Relations Adjustment Committee. ‘Chelyabenergosbyt JSC was refused the licensing due to some primary inadequacies to licensing requirements. Yet the company keeps selling electricity without a license for selling electricity to private consumers,’ Mr Skovorodkin said.

Ural Turbine Works CJSC signed a contract with Interdex providing for the acquisition of some spare parts for Т-100/120-130-3 Ural-made steam turbine by the Croatian company. Interdex is going to renovate the turbine, which is why they decided to negotiate a contract worth approximately $4 million, reports the spokesperson for Ural Turbine Works CJSC. ‘This is our company’s second contract with Interdex, preceded by the contract in 2005. We are currently negotiating on supplying spare parts for Gyandzhinskaya heating plant of Azerbaijan, KievEnergo of the Ukraine, Ferganskaya heating plant of