NEWS & EVENTS

July 24. Gazprom's BoD has authorized a RUB 111.53 bn increase in the company's investment program for 2008 to RUB 821.66 bn,

July 24. Novolipetsk Steel (NLMK) has closed a deal to attract a USD 1.6 bn 5-year syndicated loan at LIBOR + 1.2% pa.

July 24. Standard & Poor's has upgraded its long-term rating for NLMK to the investment level of BBB-.

July 24. Polymetal may engage its partners in a project to build a hydrometallurgical plant in Amursk, Khabarovsk Territory

July 24. X5 Retail will file a claim at the Moscow Arbitration Court with a request to declare invalid the conditions set by the Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS) while authorizing the deal to acq

July 24. Any court ruling under the lawsuit filed by X5 Retail Group against the Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS) will play in favor of the suppliers' defense

July 24. The OGK-3 BoD has terminated the powers of the genco's board member and CEO, Sergei Tazin,

July 24. RusHydro has defined the form of its energy retail asset consolidation.

July 23. In 3Q, Russian banks will make foreign debt payments to a total of USD 13.4 bn, a 37% decrease from USD 21.3 bn in 2Q.

July 23. On 1 August 2008, oil export duty will hit new historical record high and amount to USD 495.9 per ton.

July 23. Severstal revised upwards its planned volume of investments into the development of US-based WCI Steel (Warren, Ohio).

July 23. Mechel has started making long-term contracts for coke supplies with Russian consumers.

July 22. Novolipetsk Steel (NLMK) has wrapped up the buyout procedure in Dolomit, Stagdok and Altai-Koks

July 23. LSR Group, the largest developer and construction materials producer in North-Western Russia, has become an important player in the commercial property segment in Moscow.

July 23. Acron's price range within the SPO amounts to USD 12-15 per GDR and USD 120-150 per share

July 22. The commercial production data for Russia in June 2008 show that the slowdown in certain industries was caused by cost-push inflation, ruble strengthening and credit appreciation

July 22. Russian president, Dmitry Medvedev warned the governors that if they do not fulfill their parts of the gasification program, they will face "administrative and organizational measures"

July 22. Gazprom Neft 1Q net profit under US GAAP grew by 6.6% q-o-q to USD 1.41 bn

July 22. Severstal, Indian-based Essar, China-based Shagang and a consortium of Japanese companies are at the second stage of the struggle for CSN's iron-ore subdivision in Brazil

July 22. Fitch has assigned its B+ long-term issuer default rating (IDR) to Tattelecom with a positive outlook

July 21. Gazprom board chairman, Alexei Miller, and Rosneft president, Sergei Bogdanchikov, have signed an agreement on cooperation in gas distribution issues in the Far Eastern Federal District

July 21. Lukoil values the project for oil production at the Varandei field on the Arctic shelf at RUB 130 bn

July 21. Lukoil has purchased an Italian oil refinery, which will enable Lukoil to perform undisturbed oil supplies to the Balkan region

July 21. Lukoil plans to produce 94 mn tons of oil and 16 bcm of associated gas in 2008

July 21. At a meeting held in absentia on July 16, RusHydro BoD approved the floatation of its additional share issue for a total of RUB 8.68 bn in favor of the state

July 21. At a meeting on Friday, St. Petersburg town-planning committee considered the development blueprint for the territory bounded by Dobrolyubov Avenue, the Malaya Neva Embankment, Talalikhin

July 21. On July 14, Gazprom sent a fax report to Ukraine's Naftogaz with the request to take urgent measures to bring gas consumption by Ukraine into compliance with the contract between Naftogaz

July, 18. The Powers of NorNickel CEO Denis Morozov expire on Friday.

July, 18. The International Monetary Fund increased the forecast of world economic growth for 2008-2009,

July, 18. The conflict between the shareholders of Russian-British BP will ruin it,

July, 18. Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs (RUIE) offered a plan to establish International Financial Center (IFC) in Moscow.

July, 18. The number of directors on the board of state-controlled pipeline monopoly Transneft was slashed to seven from nine, with four of them being independent, the company said.

July, 18. Russian developer Sistema-Hals intends to boost its market cap to USD 5 bn by 2012 from current USD 1.5 bn,

July, 18. Russian food holding Wimm-Bill-Dann (WBDF) launched the production of baby formula at a plant of Dutch-Swedish holding Arla Foods in Denmark, director of WBD's baby food division Ilya Sok

July 17. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke did not rule out possible interventions on the FX market.

July 17. The US homebuilder confidence index fell to a new low in July 2008,

July 17. US oil inventories grew in the week ending July 11,

July 17. Russian companies could boost borrowings on external markets at lower cost after Moody’s has upgraded the credit rating of the Russian Federation,

July 17. NorNickel Deputy CEO Tav Morgan has opted to leave the company following Denis Morozov.

July 17. Moody’s upgraded ten Russian banks long-term ratings of deposits in foreign currency to Baa1:

July 17. Deputy Chairman of Gazprom Alexander Ananenkov and General Director of Beltransgaz Vladimir Mayorov addressed execution of contract on gas supply in 2007-2011 at the working meeting in Mos

July 17. Trading in Inter UES shares will begin on MICEX and RTS on Thursday,

July 16. Providing stability on financial markets is a priority for the US Federal Reserve, since the weakening housing market, tighter credit conditions and surging oil prices pose a threat to the na

July 16. Libya is to cut oil output 100,000 bpd starting this week due to the maintenance, National Oil Corp. chairman Shokri Ghanem said. "The pipeline linking the Waha and Defa fields will be out of

July 16. Vice PM and Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin was re-elected as the chairman of VTB Supervisory Board, the bank said in a press release. In addition, the bank's supervisory board addressed and a

July 16. Trading in FGC UES begins on stock exchanges MICEX and RTS on Wednesday, July 16, 2008, the company's press service said. RTS press service reported that the utility's common shares were assi

July 16. Far East Shipping Company has wrapped up a transaction to acquire 50% of shares in Vladivostok Container Terminal from N-Trans group of companies, according to the company's materials. FESCO

July 16. Major shareholder of United Heavy Machinery (OMZ), Forpost Management (FM), intends to wrap up a transaction to acquire a controlling stake in Ekaterinburg-based Urals Chemical Engineering Wo

July 16. Rostekhnologii and Boeing will set up a JV on the basis of VSMPO Avisma by the end of the year to produce titanium products, Rostekhnologii General Director Sergey Chemezov told journalists a

July 16. RTS will cut the number of AvtoVAZ common and preferred shares today on news of securities cancellation in the course of the company's reorganization, the stock exchange said in a press relea

Sovkomflot could be technically prepared to go public by 2008, CEO Sergey Frank said.

Russian Railways Company (RRC) is looking to raise a $1 bln syndicated loan in February-March 2008.

TGC-2 shareholders to address the SPO issue on December 5, 2007.

Rosneft intends to spend some Rub 3 bln to carry out the first stage of the Syzran Refinery’s revamping program in 2007-2010.

Magnit is set to open hypermarkets in Solnechnogorsk (Moscow region), as well as in Kingisepp (Leningrad) and Kamyshin (Volgograd region), by the end of 2007.

Gazprom could take French O&G giant Total onboard to tap the Astrakhan gas condensate field.

Rosnedra's commission for premature license revocation issued an order to Ulyanovskneft, a subsidiary of Russneft, to eliminate violations at the Zimnitsky acreage within 3 months.

GAZ Group intends to triple auto component purchases from manufacturers in the State of Michigan (USA) to $1.2 bln by 2010.

Russian President Vladimir Putin thinks it's reasonable to work out a concept for macro regions of Russia and does not rule out that this will change boundaries of federal districts.

It's advisable for Ukraine to form a portion of currency reserves in Russian rubles, since at a certain point in the future Russia could switch to the ruble in export supplies, first vice PM and Finance Minister Nikolay Azarov believes.

UES expect to see the capacity market as part of the wholesale electric power market launched as of January 1, 2008.

UES has not dropped plans to place WGC-6's GDRs on LSE.

UES will have to perform revaluation of MUEGC and MCEGC ahead of their subsequent merger.