Cherkizovo and Spanish Grupo Fuertes to Produce Turkey Meat in Tambov

May 16 – Russian meat firm OJSC said on Saturday that it has set up a 100 million euro joint venture with Spanish company Grupo Fuertes to produce turkey meat in the Tambov region south of Moscow.

The Board of Directors of Cherkizovo approved the joint venture between Cherkizovo Group and Grupo Fuertes on May 10, 2012.

As the company says, it is planned that a complex for the production of turkey meat will be built on a plot of five hectares on the First and Staroyurevskom areas of the Tambov region. Read the rest of this entry »

Sinopec and Sibur to Produce Rubber in Krasnoyarsk

May 15 – China Petroleum and Chemical Corporation (Sinopec) and Sibur, the Russian petrochemicals group, have entered into a cooperation agreement to form a butadiene nitrile rubber joint venture in the Siberian city of Krasnoyarsk.

The cooperation deal was signed by Sibur’s CEO Dmitry Konov and Sinopec’s president Wang Tianpu at the recent Russian-Chinese Forum on commercial investment cooperation in Moscow.

The cooperation agreement includes a mechanism for the financing of the joint venture, and arrangements relating to share capital, management, raw material supplies and marketing. Read the rest of this entry »

Moscow to Privatize Metro

May 14 – Moscow City Hall is considering privatizing the city’s metro system to further develop the capital’s infrastructure, according to the project titled, “The Strategy for Socio-Economic Development of Moscow until 2025.”

The document, posted on the website of the city’s economic policy and development department, proposes “attracting private investment from outside the [city] budget for metro system development, including by corporatizing the metro system.”

According to the strategy, the Moscow Metro (now a state-own enterprise) would be run by a private-public partnership “while preserving a controlling stake for Moscow.” Read the rest of this entry »

First-Ever Business Angel Week Held in Russia

May 7 – Investors from all over the world came to the first-ever business angel week in Russia, which started in Moscow but is continuing for a week across 25 regions.

Business angels are investors who not only finance entrepreneurial projects at an early stage and readily risk their own money, but they also support the project with their business experience and contacts. Basically, business angels work in innovative sectors. Read the rest of this entry »

Russian Businesses Losing Out Due to Language Inadequacies

May 3 – Cultural differences and linguistic barriers are keeping Russian companies from expanding internationally, according to research released on Tuesday.

Unfamiliarity with foreign mores and a poor command of languages are perceived to be obstacles to global business success by 89 percent of Russian companies surveyed by the Economist Intelligence Unit and language-teaching firm Education First in a report titled “Competing Across Borders.”

The report, conducted in February and March 2012, showed that 49 percent of Russian respondents admitted that their companies had been hit by financial losses as a result of linguistic and cultural difficulties — 6 percent higher than the global average. Read the rest of this entry »

S&P Upgrades Novosibirsk

May 2 – Standard & Poor’s upgraded Russia’s third largest city, Novosibirsk, from “stable” to “positive,” the credit-rating agency said in a statement issued this Monday.

The ratings are constrained by what the agency regards as the city’s limited financial flexibility and predictability, as well as low economic productivity. However, these constraints are mitigated by a relatively diverse economy, moderate debt, and prudent debt management which is resulting in a favorable debt profile.

As with other Russian local and regional governments, Novosibirsk’s financial predictability and flexibility is severely limited because the federal government regulates tax rates and shares and distributes responsibilities to different layers of the government. Standard & Poor’s still regard Russia’s institutional frameworks as “developing and unbalanced” as defined by the credit-rating agency’s criteria. Read the rest of this entry »

Russian Law Firms to See More Work with WTO Accession

Apr. 27 – Russian lawyers look forward to Russia’s World Trade Organization upcoming accession, which is highly expected by the end of this summer, as it will boost the demand for legal services, the local press reports quoting market participants.

“The need for legal services will definitely increase,” Alexander Muranov, the managing partner of law firm Muranov, Chernyakov & Partners, said to the Russian daily Vedomosti.

“Some new practices will be built up, for example in the insurance market where expansion of foreign companies is very much expected,” Oksana Balayan, the managing partner of Hogan Lovells, notes. The firm is considering the possibility of establishing a practice in Russia this year. Read the rest of this entry »

Russia Needs to Decentralize Power to Attract Investors

Apr. 26 – Russia needs to decentralize power to lure a greater number of investors, former Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin said at a conference run by Russian lender VTB Capital in New York.

“The vertical of power that’s built today is flawed and the effectiveness of state governance is very low,” Kudrin said, adding that “the power to regulate currently held by federal ministries should be passed to municipal governments.”

Should the government boost social spending to fulfill promises made during Prime Minister Vladimir Putin’s successful campaign for president, taxes will “inevitably” increase, Kudrin said. Read the rest of this entry »

Russia Insists Foreign Companies Use GLONASS

Apr. 20 – The Russian government will insist that foreign companies in the country use the GLONASS satellite navigation system equipment, Deputy Prime Minister Vladislav Surkov said at the Sixth Annual Satellite Navigation Forum in Moscow.

According to Surkov, the requirement to use chipsets supporting Global Navigation Satellite System (GLONASS) will affect communication equipment producers and carmakers.

Meanwhile, some of the foreign gadgets already support GLONASS. Read the rest of this entry »

Russia Sees Factoring Market Nearly Double in 2011

Apr. 19 – Russia’s factoring market almost doubled last year, according to worldwide industry statistics for 2011 released this week by Factors Chain International (FCI). The total worldwide volume for factoring grew by 22 percent in 2011 compared to 2010.

Russia’s market factoring turnover totaled 21.174 billion euros, with 20.944 billion euros from the domestic market and 230 million euro made internationally. In 2010, Russia’s total market turnover was 12.163 billion euros. Read the rest of this entry »

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