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 »

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 »

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 »

Flights between Alaska and Kamchatka to be Restored

Apr. 9 – The air bridge between the U.S. state of Alaska and Russia’s Kamchatka Peninsula will be resume this July five years after the collapse of direct flights between Anchorage (Alaska’s largest city) and Petropavlovsk-Kamchatski (the urban and administrative center of the peninsula).

Yakutia Air, based in Russia’s northern Republic of Sakha, plans to offer direct flights over the Bering Straits starting in July, permitting direct travel to the isolated Russian peninsula for researchers, adventurers, businessmen and Russian expatriates living in Alaska.

Yakutia Air flies a fleet of 27 planes, including the Boeing 757, Boeing 737, and Russian planes like Tu-154, An-140-100 and An-24RV, according to the airline’s website. It flies to about 40 destinations in Russia and also flies to Asia and Europe. Read the rest of this entry »

Foreign Workers to be Sent Home from Russian Far East

Apr. 5 – Moscow has forced Vladistok’s regional authorities to kick out foreign workers from the Russian Far East as soon as they finish their work on construction sites for the upcoming APEC 2012 Summit, which will be held in the city this September.

The majority of the foreign workers, mostly citizens of China and North Korea, came to the Russian Far East to work on the APEC Summit and benefit from a simplified foreign labor entry regime to Vladivostok, which was set up by the country’s Ministry of Regional Development upon mass requests by APEC contractors. Read the rest of this entry »

McDonald’s to Expand into Siberia

Mar. 29 – U.S. fast food giant McDonald’s Corporation reportedly has begun to search for franchisees to expand into Siberia.

The fast-food giant intends to open new outlets using the franchise business model that is the basis for 80 percent of its restaurants worldwide, but has not been used in Russia yet, according to RBC Daily. All of the company’s 314 restaurants across 85 Russian cities are operated independently.

Last week, McDonald’s announced plans to open restaurants in the West Siberian cities of Novosibirsk, Tomsk, and Barnaul. According to a city official from Tomsk, the company intends to open on its own, and also by granting franchises. Read the rest of this entry »

Marriott to Expand Presence in Siberia

Mar. 21 – The second Marriott Hotel will be open in Russian Siberia from December 2014, the Marriott International announced this week. The group’s first hotel was Courtyard by Marriott, built in Irkutsk with 208 rooms at an estimated cost of 25 million euros.

The new Marriott Hotel will be constructed in the Siberian city of Krasnoyarsk.

“We are excited to announce this great new addition to our portfolio,” Amy McPherson, president and managing director of Marriott International Europe said. “We currently operate 14 hotels in Russia and see tremendous opportunity to expand across our brands here.” Read the rest of this entry »

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