Ekaterinburg Hotel Market in Russia

The hotel market in Ekaterinburg is gradually crawling its way out of the black hole of the financial crisis. In the past five years, the size of the market has almost doubled. There are now 92 hotels in town, capable of hosting a total of 7,300 guests. But half of those rooms were empty for most of 2009. This forced the hotels to truly compete with each other and focus on every potential customer.The growing number of visitors has prompted the development of the hotel market. 

The business outlook for the hotels began to deteriorate in the shadow of the global economic crisis. According to the Migration Service's data, in 2009, Ekaterinburg received only one seventh of its previous number of tourists from abroad. In addition, six new hotels opened in the city, adding 800 beds. These were built as part of the preparations for the Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit, which took place in Ekaterinburg in June of 2009. There were no problems putting up the government delegations from twenty countries, but when the delegations left, the hotels were deserted. The occupancy rate fell by 45% last year, from its peak of almost 70% in 2008.

Today there are five international hotel chains operating in Ekaterinburg: the Hyatt Regency Ekaterinburg, Novotel Yekaterinburg Centre, Park Inn Ekaterinburg, Angelo Airport Hotel Ekaterinburg, and Ramada Yekaterinburg. One-third of the local hotels are rated under the Russian hotel classification system. And although the price of hotel accommodation (regardless of the hotel's number of stars) varied widely in 2007 and 2008, one night in a double room today costs an average of 3,000-5,000 rubles.

Players in the market say that this tendency for the prices to average out is connected with the fact that during an economic downtrend and period of uncertainty, both the five-star hotels and the tiny hotels intuitively seek the level of demand. Since we are battling fiercely for each customer, the customer's budget is a deciding factor when they are deciding about cooperation. And as a result, the price of a room is about the same, whether it's in a three- or five-star hotel. In Ekaterinburg right now, the price of a night in a five-star hotel starts at $100.

According to Ekaterinburg's city administration, the total hotel occupancy rate in 2010 will be at least 56%, an increase of 10-11%. These promising forecasts are based on some international events that have been planned, in particular, the Russian-German summit held in Ekaterinburg in July and several major international exhibits, which led to many hotels being fully booked. The preliminary data on passenger traffic also supports this prediction. According to the figures from Ekaterinburg's Koltsovo airport, their number of passengers increased by 29.5% in the first half of 2010, in comparison to the same period from last year.

One of the main trends this year will be an insignificant increase in occupancy along with a decrease in prices, so the financially the hotels will be at about the same position they were in 2009.

Investors were encouraged by this wave of cautious optimism about the market, and talk of building yet more hotels resumed - four new ones may appear in Ekaterinburg by the end of 2011.

Profits of "Top-30" Russian Banks Grew by 5.7 Times

Profits of the 30 largest banks in Russia in the I half of 2010 grew by 5.7 times compared to the same period last year, the Bank of Russia reported today. The cumulative profit of "top-30" Russian banks reached 192.5 billion rubles.
Revenues increased by several times due to the low comparative base of 2009. In the I half a year earlier, in the midst of a crisis, incomes of Russian bankers from the "top-30" were much more modest - only 33.6 billion rubles.
Assets of "top-30" banks, according to Central Bank, is totaled to 22.14 trillion USD. (8.45%).

Competition on Oilfields Development in Russia

The Head of "Rosnedra" Anatoly Ledovskikh signed the order on the competition of oilfields named after Roman Trebs and Anatoly Titov in the Nenets Autonomous District, the press service department reported today.
The Order was signed on 30 July, the report confirmed.
"The competition for deposits will be held in the fourth quarter of 2010," - said in a statement.
Deposits of oilfields named after Trebs and Titov are considered to be one of the most promising in the Timan-Pechora province. The deposit of oilfield named after Trebs is estimated at 78.9 million tonnes of C1oil, field nameв  after Titov - 63,4 million tons of C1 oil.
Interest in fields often Rosneft, Lukoil, Gazprom Neft, Bashneft and Zarubezhneft. The hthese ead of Gazprom Neft, Alexander Dyukov did not rule out an alliance of companies for the development of this site. President of LUKOIL Alekperov said that the company may be willing to participate in the investment tender in a consortium with partners.

Geotechnical Work Started in Skolkovo - Russian Silicon Valley

Geotechnical work began on Thursday in the territory where Skolkovo Innovation Center will be located, the Development Fund the center reported.
"It is planned that the field work on the investigations will continue at the end of September 2010, and office analysis of primary material will be completed by October 15," - stated in a press release the fund.
The company, which conducts work  is "Moscow City Trust of Geological and Geodetic and Cartographic works (" Mosgorgeotrest "). It was chosen as a result of a closed competition.
"In situation of the fire-danger in the Moscow region where the Innovation Center Skolkovo will be located, great attention is paid to fire safety: all fields are regularly watered, and the perimeter of the site had been dug trenches", - underlined in the message.
Director of Territory Development Fund Skolkovo Viktor Maslakov noted that when creating buildings and infrastructure, the center will adhere to the principle of the "four" E ": ecology, ergonomics, efficiency and energy efficiency.
"Building of Innovation Centre Skolkovo will be implemented in three stages: first - preparatory works for a land plot and urban planning, the second - the design of individual properties, networks and roads, and construction started, and the third - commissioning of the first and second phase of construction, as well as creation of social infrastructure "- Maslakov said.
Plans to establish Skolkovo near Moscow - ultramodern scientific and technological complex for the development and commercialization of new technologies, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev announced in February. Innovation Centre has become a Russian analogue of U.S. Silicon Valley, a kind of prototype of the future city and the largest testing ground for new economic policy.

Temporary Ban On Export of Grain from Russia

Agro-Industrial Union does not preclude suspending export of grain from Russia until mid-2011, President of the Agro-Industrial Union Ivan Obolentsev reported.
He noted that in December 2010 when the effect of the government's decision to suspend the export of grain is ended, it can be renewed again. The latter will depend from the results of the harvest, sowing of winter crops and improved data on stocks of grain.
I. Obolentsev also stressed that the Ministry of Agriculture should address the issue of direct management of fodder resources (hay, silage, etc.) not to affected livestock, especially dairy.
Temporary ban on the export of grain from Russia applies to wheat and meslin, barley, rye, and wheat or rye flour. Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said today at a meeting of the Russian Government about the ban on foreign supplies of grain.
The Prime Minister noted that Russia has enough reserves, but it is necessary "to prevent the growth of domestic food prices, to keep livestock, build reserves for the next year." The ban on exports is  introduced from August 15 and will run until the end of December 2010.

Foreign Investment Return to Russia After Crisis

Direct foreign investment to  Russia in I half of 2010 amounted to 21 billion dollars. Such data was given today by Prime Minister Vladimir Putin at a meeting of the governmental commission for control over foreign investment.
The Prime Minister added that the volume of capital investments in the Russian economy in June 2010 turned out to be 7,4% higher than the same month of 2009. "In general, indicators of investment activity this year was quite favorable," - stated the head of the government. He also drew attention to the fact that business returns to the implementation of those plans that have been temporarily postponed due to the crisis, but also initiates innovative projects.

Russian Government Approved Sale of Large Companies to Foreigners

Today the government commission monitoring implementation of foreign investment under the leadership of Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has been given permission to sell a number of Russian companies to foreigners.
The Commission approved the application of Danone to acquire Unimilk Holding. The deal calls for investments to Russian production in the amount of 15 billion rubles within the next 5-7 years.
"Unimilk " is the second largest producer of dairy products and baby food in Russia. Danone and OAO Unimilk in June 18, 2010 announced merger of the dairy industry in Russia and CIS. Merging apply to companies in Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan and Belarus, affecting all companies produced dairy products. The turnover of the new company would be approximately 1.5 billion Euro per year. Danone will pay shareholders of "Unimilk " as part of a combined company 120 million Euro.The share of the combined company Danone - Unimilk in the Russian dairy market is estimated to be about 21%.
In addition, the Russian government supported a petition of Coca-Cola to acquire 100% of "Nidan Juices". The exact amount of investments is not defined. Most likely, it is about hundreds of millions dollars.

The government commission approved the acquisition by Canadian gold producer Kinross Gold 100% of the company "Avrelius Holding", which owns  "Northern Gold" and "Regionruda".The amount of the transaction is sabout 365 million dollars.
Entry of foreign investors, including Fraport, the company managing Frankfurt airport, to  the project development of Pulkovo airport as approved by the Russian authorities. The Frankfurt company will play one of the most important roles in this project, while it will be a co-investor and one of the co-managers of the new airport.
In addition, Russian authorities approved the deal on the international airport "Kazan". The foreign investor is Bulgarian Aviation Group. 
Another government decision is preliminary approval of the acquisition by TNK-BP Holding  of  "Verkhnechonskneftegaz" voting shares . Earlier it was reported that TNK-BP owned 69% of the company. Another 26% was owned by OAO Rosneft.

Australian Panoramic Is Interested in Nickel Deposits of Nornikel in Australia

Australian Panoramic Resources has formed a team to assess the Australian nickel deposits of the company Norilsk Nickel, managing director of Panoramic Peter Harold said in an interview.

Norilsk Nickel, the world's largest producer of nickel and palladium producer, is currently preparing to sell a small portion of its assets in Australia, because they were ineffective during the crisis period 2008-2009.

Potentially, these fields can make about 10.000 tons of nickel a year,  Panoramic sais.
"If they decide to put these assets for sale, we would be interested in them, - said Harold. - We have already assembled a team of mergers and acquisitions."
According to him, some of the nickel deposits of the Russian company in Australia including deposits of the Black Swan and Silver Swan are of great interest to Ranoramic.

Raven Russia Sold Project "Baltic" for $ 42 Million

Fund Raven Russia building a warehouse property in Russia, sold the warehouse project "Baltic" near Moscow to Cyprus company Casebre Holdings Limited for $ 42 million, said Raven today.
The project includes storage space of class A with area of about 28.000 square meters, located near the Moscow Ring Road.
The purchase price represents a 48-percent premium to the assessment made by the company on December 31, 2009. After the payment of current debts to banks of $ 22.3 million mortgage on the property which was for sale "Baltic" will bring the company $ 19.7 million - reported Raven.
Closing is expected during the fourth quarter of 2010.
Raven has acquired the property in 2005, and in 2009 received an operating revenue of $ 3 million.
The annual loss of Raven in 2009 totaled to $ 139.3 million, and total loss from revaluation of investment properties - $ 108.5 million.
Raven Russia portfolio includes more than 10 warehouses located in Moscow, Moscow region, St. Petersburg, Rostov and Novosibirsk.
Evaluation of Raven Russia portfolio at 31 December 2009 amounted to $ 879 million.
Fund Raven Russia established the British investment companies Raven Mount for investment in Russian warehouses.

Russian VSMPO-Avisma Starts Delivering Medical Titanium to Japan

The Japanese NIPPOROS Corporation starts receiving titanium sheets and slabs manufactured

by VSMPO-Avisma. The Ural company is going to deliver 2 tons of flat-rolled titanium products to 

the customer.

The VSMPO-Avisma Press-Service has informed that Japan will receive the first-time delivery of 

special medical alloy. After the international audit performed in June 2010, the company plans to 

export the titanium produce to Japan, China and Europe. Oleg Leder, Deputy General Director 

in Marketing and Sales reckons that in 2011 VSMPO-Avisma will encounter an upswing in

demand for titanium suitable for medical applications.