Business, Energy or Environmental regulations or discussions

Business, Energy or Environmental regulations or discussions

Bloomberg: EuroChem 2009 Profit Declines 60% to 11.1 Billion Rubles

March 22 (Bloomberg) -- EuroChem, Russia’s largest fertilizer producer, said profit slumped 60 percent last year.

Net income slumped to 11.1 billion rubles ($377 million) from 27.9 billion rubles in the previous year, the Moscow-based comapny said today in an e-statement. Sales fell 34 percent to 73.6 billion rubles.

Fourth-quarter net rose to 2.16 billion rubles after a loss a year earlier, as sales rose 5.4 percent to 18.3 billion rubles.

To contact the reporter on this story: Maria Kolesnikova in Moscow at mkolesnikova@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: March 22, 2010 02:58 EDT

Bloomberg: Prof-Media May Delay $500 Million London IPO, Kommersant Says

By Maria Kolesnikova

March 22 (Bloomberg) -- Prof-Media Ltd., billionaire Vladimir Potanin’s media company, may delay a $500 million initial public offering of shares in London planned for this spring until stock prices rise, Kommersant said, citing unidentified bankers. Prof-Media’s sales rose 4 percent to 16.1 billion rubles ($550 million) last year, the newspaper said, citing a company presentation.

To contact the reporter on this story: Maria Kolesnikova at mkolesnikova@bloomberg.net

2010-03-22 08:45

MOSCOW, March 22 (Reuters) - Russian fish and seafood producer Russkoye Morye is planning to raise up to $200 million in a flotation of ordinary shares on two Moscow stock exchanges in what would be the first IPO of 2010 in Russia.

(Reporting by John Bowker and Dmitry Sergeev; Editing by Hans Peters) Keywords: RUSSKOYE IPO/ (john.bowker@reuters.com;+7 495 775 1242 Reuters Messaging: john.bowker.reuters.com@reuters.net)

Plans are afloat to transform Alrosa into an open joint stock company, reports say, and proposals for this are likely to be ready by mid-2010. The strategy will benefit Alrosa in increasing its potential to attract investment. The company requires funds to convert its open pit mining into underground mines which is const intensive, and considering diamond resources are finite, it plans entering other areas of mining applying similar technologies, which is also a costly affair, reports say.

The company needs $2 billion-$3 billion to build the world's biggest deep mine with capacity of removing 4 million tons of ore annually at the Udachny diamond pipe. Also, the company has received iron ore licenses in Yakutia, reports add.

To initiate the process of proposals, a working group is being formed to create a technology for the transformation into an open joint stock company. However, Yakutia government affirms that the technology so devised must involve Yakutia keeping a stake. At present Alrosa is Russia’s diamond mining monopoly, in which the Russian Federation owns 50.9 percent and Yakutia government holds 32 percent stake.

VTB Capital, Russia

News: RusHydro is to bring another 640MW unit on line at the Sayano- Shushenskaya HPP, bringing installed capacity at the power plant to 1.3GW, Interfax reports this morning. Kommersant had previously reported that the genco would bring four units (roughly half of working capacity, or 40% of total installed capacity) on line by the end of this year.

In separate news, RBC Daily has this morning quoted Deputy Minister of Energy Stanislav Svetlitsky as saying that the Ministry hopes the cost of reconstructing the power facility will be cut to RUB 33bn (from the RUB 37.7bn initially expected by the government).

Our View: Even though the market had anticipated the launch, the news is positive for RusHydro. The earlier the genco re-launches the units which were damaged during the accident, the more money it will save on the electricity market (where it has to fulfil its take-or-pay obligations).

In our model, we estimate that only two units will be brought back on line this year. Accelerating the reconstruction process to four units not only means that the company might be able to secure electricity deliveries under the take or pay contracts but would also represent an upside risk to the 2010 profits figure that we assume in our model.

The news will in our view improve sentiment over RusHydro and the overall view of the new management team.

Alfa, Russia

Last week we visited two of Rusal's aluminum smelters, Sayanogorsk and Khakassk, located in the Republic of Khakassia in Central Siberia. Around 30 mostly sell-side analysts from Russian and global banks, including six people from Hong Kong, participated in the trip.

Rusal's most modern smelters: SAZ (0.5m t) and KhAZ (0.3m t) are located on a single production site near Sayanogorsk and represent 20% of Rusal's capacity. These are the company's newest production facilities, commissioned in 1985 and 2006, respectively. The smelters produce primary aluminum in the form of ingots, slabs, and billets. Alloys, which carry a price premium to LME, represent up to 70% of the output.

In-house technology: Both smelters utilize advanced pre-baked anodes technology developed by the company (RA-300 and RA-400), which is more efficient and cleaner than the anode paste technology utilized at Rusal's largest smelters, Krasnoyarsk and Bratsk. We also saw a pilot shop where new RA-420 technology is being tested.

We had the impression that the management of the smelters is focused on optimization of operations and cost reduction: The example shown to us was the implementation of the Kaizen approach in SAZ's cast house. Also, the company is seeking to reduce logistical costs by using big bags for alumina transportation so that is can be shipped in the gondola rail cars loaded with aluminum when dispatched from the smelter.

Downstream facilities: We also saw the SAYANAL plant, which produces foil and packaging materials. Its production volume is relatively small (2010 planned output is 38 kt), but the realized price for these products is high, averaging $8,000/t.

Our impression is generally positive, both from the smelter's management and the conditions of the production facilities, though there were no big surprises from the company. Most of the questions (including those from Hong Kong analysts) were focused on technology and costs.

22.03.2010 - Fitch Ratings

Cbonds: Fitch Revises Outlook of Russia-based Renaissance Capital to Stable, Rates New HoldCo ‘B’

Fitch Ratings-London/Moscow-19 March 2010: Fitch Ratings has today assigned Renaissance Financial Holdings Limited (RFHL) a ‘B’ Long-term Issuer Default Rating with a Stable Outlook. RFHL is the holding company of the Russia-headquartered investment banking group, known as Renaissance Capital (Rencap), and ultimately owns substantively all of the group’s subsidiaries. The agency has simultaneously revised the Outlooks to Stable from Negative on RFHL’s UK subsidiary Renaissance UK Holdings Limited (RUKHL) and Renaissance Capital Holdings Limited (RCHL), which owns 50% plus half of one share in RFHL. A full rating breakdown is provided at the end of this comment.

The revision of the Outlooks to Stable reflects Fitch’s view that near-term pressure on operating performance should be manageable, the group’s markedly lower leverage levels, stronger capitalisation compared to pre-crisis metrics and an improving market environment. At the same time, the ratings remain constrained by Rencap’s high exposure to market risk, sizeable related-party business, still weak operating profitability and the complex group structure.

Fitch notes that RCHL’s Long-term ‘B-’ IDR is one notch lower than the ratings of RFHL, RUKHL and Rencap’s outstanding eurobond, reflecting the fact that RCHL now controls only 50% plus half of one share in RFHL. The residual stake in RFHL has been held by ONEXIM Group (Onexim), controlled by prominent Russian businessman Mikhail Prokhorov, since June 2009. RCHL’s consolidated financial results do not in most respects differ materially from RFHL’s accounts. However, RCHL has recently raised debt to help meet repayments in other parts of wider Renaissance Group, and in Fitch’s view RCHL may not always have access to cash flows from RenCap to service this debt.

RFHL reported weak operating results over the past two years. Despite the significant reductions in operating expenses, performance has suffered from lower trading volumes and leverage as well as a weaker business environment, resulting in markedly lower investment-banking fees. However, such results in a generally challenging operating environment remain consistent with the current ratings. Although some pressure on operating performance is likely to persist in months to come, Fitch expects RFHL’s profits to grow as a result of an improving market environment.

RFHL continues to rely largely on short-term money markets instruments to fund its market-making/proprietary trading activities, while its equity and long-term debt funding is largely tied up in illiquid assets. At the same time, positively for creditors, balance sheet leverage levels remain far lower than during the pre-crisis period. RFHL has significantly reduced volumes of its repo business and succeeded in securing a EUR100m three-and-half-year facility from EBRD in Q110 to support its market-making business. Also, favourably, RFHL’s capital position is considerably improved from the pre-crisis level due to the USD500m injection by Onexim.

Fitch is concerned that over USD800m of Rencap’s assets (equal to about 75% of equity) at end-2009 represented related-party exposures to other Renaissance Group companies, in particular Renaissance Partners. Rencap is restricted by covenants in agreements with Onexim from making further loans to the wider Renaissance Group of companies, but may still pay dividends to help support group companies' funding needs.

Rencap was founded in 1995 and is now a leading Russia-headquartered investment bank, with operations also in other CIS countries and sub-Saharan Africa. In addition to the controlling stake in Rencap held by RCHL, the broader Renaissance group also includes a Russian consumer finance bank, CB Renaissance Capital, certain merchant banking assets under the umbrella of Renaissance Partners and Renaissance Investment Management.

The rating actions are as follows:

Renaissance Financial Holdings Limited:

Renaissance Capital Holdings Limited:

Renaissance UK Holdings Limited

USD225m senior unsecured debt due April 2011 issued by Renaissance Securities Trading Limited and guaranteed by RCHL and RFHL: affirmed at Long-term ‘B’, Recovery Rating assigned at 'RR4'.

22 March 2010

RUSSIA - Freight forwarder F.S. Mackenzie has marked the significant opening of its fifth office in Russia at the Black Sea port of Novorossiysk. This brings the number of F.S.Mackenzie offices worldwide to fourteen.

The Russian network of F.S. Mackenzie offices now extends to the important commercial and business centres of Moscow, St. Petersburg, Kazan, Novosibirsk and Novorossiysk. The new office is headed by Vitaly Shishkin, a freight industry professional with a considerable background in international freight forwarding, including 12 years at major German forwarders.

Alfred Stienen, F.S. Mackenzie managing director commented: “Novorossiysk is, after St. Petersburg, the second largest port in the European part of Russia and strategically very important for southern Russia and the CIS.

“In opening the office, we are staking our presence in one of Russia’s most strategic and vital gateways. Since we opened our wholly-owned office and operations centre in Moscow in 1997, we have gained unrivalled knowledge of forwarding activity and the business world in Russia.

“Business for our Russian department is booming. By opening up in Novorossiysk, we will be in an even better position to serve clients based in and around Russia’s second port. Our clients know we have invested substantially, and continue to invest, in our operations in Russia.”

As part of the Famous Pacific Shipping (FPS) global family of forwarders, F.S. Mackenzie is able to tap into the worldwide network of like-minded forwarders to help Russian import and export traffic.

“The new office is, of course, also part of the wider FPS Network and geared up to handle LCL, FCL, customs clearance, warehousing and local distribution. Customers know that both F.S. Mackenzie Russia and F.S. Mackenzie UK are exclusive members of the FPS Group in their respective countries and can take advantage of the interconnectivity we can offer worldwide,” Mr Stienen added.