Castorama Opened Hypermarket in Perm in Russia

The first in the Urals hypermarket of the international chain Castorama has been opened in Perm. The DIY (Do It Yourself) shop is occupying the area of about 12 thousand square metres.

Shoppers are presented with 35 thousand different products for home and garden. The new hypermarket is the thirteenth Castorama site in Russia.

Castorama has been planning to come to the Urals and Siberia for some time. In Ekaterinburg, for instance, the company was offered to choose from several sites for the development but the negotiations proved fruitless. In the meantime OBI, a competitor to Castorama, is going to open a second complex in Ekaterinburg by the end of 2010. 

According to assessment provided by Andrey Kochnev, an OBI representative, the supply on the Urals DIY market is still inadequate to the demand and the competition is extremely low in comparison to that in Europe. 

In order to satisfy demand of a large city 7 to 9 stores of this format are needed whilst in Russian cities with the population exceeding one million, except for Moscow and Saint Petersburg, we now have four large players at most.

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Russian Norilsk Nickel Earned 100 Billion Rubles Last Year

Net income (according to RAS) of the world's largest nickel producer - "Norilsk Nickel" for last year is more than 98 billion rubles. A year earlier the company recorded a loss of $ 86 billion USD. 

This 33 billion rubles the company earned for the IV quarter of the last year.

This figure is 56,7% more than profit of Norilsk Nickel in the III quarter of 2009. For the period of 9 months the metal giant made a profit of $ 65.64 billion rubles., the report said.

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iPad Sales Start This Weekend

The long awaited Tablet PC iPad from Apple Inc will appear on the shelves of Apple stores and Best Buy in the next weekend, said the corporation. 

  

iPad with communication Wi-Fi will be available in more than 200 U.S. stores of Apple, as well as in most stores of Best Buy. 

As previously reported, the unit price will be $ 499 - $ 699 depending on the hard disk. 

Models with support for 3G will be available in late April this year. 

IPad designed for easy work in the Internet, watching videos, reading e-books and games, actually consists of a 9.7-inch screen and uses an adapted operating system iPhone OS. The shell thickness is 13.4 mm, weight - 680 grams. 

On Sunday, Apple announced that shipments of computers iPad online store will begin no earlier than April 12, but buyers have had time to make your reservation before, will be able to get the device about April 3.

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IPO of Russian Group of Companies Protek

Group of Companies Protek plans to attract about $ 400 million during the IPO, said President of the Group Vadim Muzyaev. 

The transaction is planned in May - early June. He declined to specify the proportion of issued shares of the company. 

Protek Shares will be placed on behalf of companies Tantarra Holdings Limited and Streitum Investments Limited, registered under the laws of Cyprus.

Tantarra announced its intention to use a portion of the proceeds from the placement for the purchase of new ordinary shares for private subscription, which will be carried out later. 

Protek operates in three major segments of the pharmaceutical industry: distribution, retail and manufacturing. Distribution accounts for about 85 percent of total revenue. 

Investment banks estimated Protek approximately at  $ 2 billion to the IPO. 

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NATO Cooperation with Russia

NATO countries must agree on the establishment of a missile defense system from such countries as Iran, and use every opportunity for cooperation with Russia, said NATO Secretary General, Mr. Anders Fogh Rasmussen. 

"We need a decision at the next NATO summit in November, that the missile defense of our population and territory is the main purpose of the unit. And what we use every opportunity to cooperate with Russia", - Rasmussen said in the text of the speech prepared for presentation at conference in Brussels on Saturday. 

Stressing the need for cooperation with Russia, Rasmussen added that "in order to see the missile defense system as an opportunity rather than as a threat," requires a decision of Moscow.

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Central Bank of Russia Lowered Rates

Central Bank kept its tactics and carefully lowered rates by 25 basis points, as market participants had expected, prompting non-aggressive sale of bonds and the Russian currency. 

Board of Directors of Bank of Russia on Friday decided to reduce from 29 March 2010 benchmark interest rates to historic lows: the refinancing rate - to 8.25 percent, the minimum repo rate - up 5.5 per cent.

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Russia Switched to Daylight Saving Time

Today at 2 in the morning Moscow time, Russia has switched to daylight saving time. Most people have transferred their clocks one hour forward.

However, this time not all regions of the country has switched to daylight saving time. The reason is that Russia reformed to change the lap time in a number of regions.  Today five subjects of the Russian Federation began living in a new way.

In particular, Udmurtia and Samara Region and switched to Moscow time, the Kemerovo region - to Omsk Time (3 hour time difference with Moscow), and the Chukotka Autonomous Okrug and Kamchatka joined the timezone of Magadan (MSK+ 8).

With these changes concepts such as "Samara Time" and "Kamchatka time" ceased to exist, and the number of time zones in the Russian Federation declined from 11 to 9.

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Record Refinancing Rate by Bank of Russia

Bank of Russia has decided to lower the refinancing rate by 0.25 percentage points. Since 29 March this year this rate in Russia will amount to 8.25% per annum, according to Central Bank.

The rate on overnight loans also decreased by 0.25 percentage points and is set at 8.25% per annum. This reduces the Bank of Russia is a fixed rate on collateral loans at 0.25 percentage points, and establishes new ones: for a period of one calendar day - 7.25% per annum for a period of seven calendar days - 7.25% per annum for a period of 30 calendar days - 7,25% per annum.

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Russian Polyus Gold Increased Net Profit

Net profit of Polyus Gold by Russian Accounting Standards (RAS) in 2009 amounted to 3 billion 358 million rubles.  But in the previous reporting year, the company had losses of 3.71 billion rubles.

As a result of IV quarter of 2009 net profit amounted to 1 billion 439 million rubles. (In III quarter the figure was slightly less than 310 million rubles).

The increase in net profit in the quarterly calculation of the company explains due to the receipt of dividends from JSC "Polyus" for 9 months of 2009.

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Reasons For Doing Business in Russia

The answer you'll find in the NCISS (USA) report.

As the result of the crisis world economic power shall be shifted from western countries to the East. More than 50% of the world GDP shall account for developing countries.

Unidirectional system shall be totally dead by 2020. It will produce less stable multiple world system totally different from the existing one.

Developing countries are not so deeply touched by the world economic crisis as the leading ones. In Russia development of the stock market and mortgage was insignificant against Europe and especially the US in 2008 when the crisis rose up. This fact gives more opportunities to governmental unticrisis measures to be quite successful.

Russia shall be number 6 in the list of the world leading economics replacing even the Great Britain in 2013. Growth of Russian GDP may show good results against decrease of the British economy world share to 2,9% from 3,3%.

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Lukoil Dividends 2009

OJSC LUKOIL plans to spend more than 1.5 billion dollars for dividends 2009, said at the presentation of financial statements by the standards of US GAAP the Vice-president of LUKOIL Leonid Fedun. He added that no major acquisitions in the current year were planned. 

Investments of LUKOIL in the next two years will amount to 8-8,5 billion dollars a year, said today Mr Fedun. He explained that most of the funds will be directed to the production development.

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WOW 

 

World Bank Believes in Russian Economy

World Bank experts predict stable development to Russian economy. In its progress report on the situation in Russia World Bank praised the country's authorities for the successful work to overcome the crisis.

Moreover, the bank has traditionally proved to be more optimistic than not only their colleagues from other international financial institutions but more optimistic than  Russian authorities. World Bank experts have calculated that in 2010 Russian GDP will grow by 5,5%.
 

World Bank noted that the loss of Russia's economy were lower than expected at the beginning of the crisis. "This was partly due to the large-scale package of anti-crisis measures taken by the Government," - the report says. 

Either way, the World Bank notes that Russia has started this year under very favorable external and domestic environment: the increasing influx of capital, increase of domestic demand and the suspension of a recession in the labor market. That is why forecasts for economic growth have been so optimistic.


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RusHydro Intends to Attract Foreign Strategic Investor

OJSC RusHydro attentds to attract strategic foreign investor in 2012-2013 to implement plans for expansion abroad, said a member of the Board George Rizhinashvili in Russia Power Conference today. He noted that the state's share in the company will be retained.

In February Energy Minister Sergei Shmatko said about the need for "RusHydro" to consolidate a number of design institutes and contractors, as well as begin work on construction projects of hydropower facilities abroad. "I think with the end of 2011 begin to implement this strategy," - added Rizhinashvili. 

"RusHydro" is the largest generating company in Russia, bringing together 60 items of renewable energy. The installed capacity of "RusHydro is 25.4 GW, including the Sayan-Shushenskaya HPP  PS Neporozhny (6400 MW).

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New Plant of Japanese Yokohama Rubber Co Ltd in Russia

The solemn ceremony of laying the stone at the construction site of a plant for the production of tires for passenger cars, the company Yokohama Rubber Company Limited was held on Tuesday in a special economic zone "Lipetsk"  in Russia.  

"In the Lipetsk region a lot of foreign investors have already been working. But we particularly expected appearance of the Japanese business. The latter always brings innovation, high technology and quality, responsible attitude ", - said  the head of the regional administration Oleg Korolev. 

The managing director of the Yokohama Rubber Company Limited Sinti Suzuki said that release of the first production at the new plant is scheduled for next year summer and in 2014 production will reach 1.4 million tires. 

Press Officer of the regional administration said that the project is implemented under the agreement between Japan and Russia on the development of cars production and production of automotive components. The total investments in the construction of the plant will amount to nearly $ 400 million. The latter will create about one and a half thousand jobs. 

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Russian Silicon Valley

Plans to build in Russia the Center for Research and Development Medvedev announced in February this year.

Then he explained that the new innovation center will become Russia's equivalent of the American Silicon Valley, a kind of prototype of the futuristic city to be a major testing ground for new economic policy.

It was agreed that the ultra-scientific-technological complex for the development and commercialization of new technologies will be built in Skolkovo in Moscow region.

President Dmitry Medvedev instructed the Government of Russia to resolve the issue with a special legal regime of Russia's "Silicon Valley" in the near future .

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Developer RGI Expects Russian Real Estate Growth

Developer RGI International, has traditionally specialized in building of luxury properties in Russia, decided to start building of a large economy class housing complex  in Moscow in the second half of 2010, hoping for a speedy recovery in this sector. 

 "We believe that the housing economy class will be the first segment of real estate, which will begin to grow once financial markets would restore its normal operations", - stated in the RGI.

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