Moscow press review for March 18, 2013
MOSCOW. March 18 (Interfax) - The following is a digest of Moscow newspapers published on March 18. Interfax does not accept liability for information in these stories.
POLITICS & ECONOMICS
The Russian government has spent 186 billion rubles that were supposed to go into the reserve fund. But even this will not be enough to cover the new requests from ministries and agencies. There could be a federal budget shortfall of 500 billion rubles this year, Deputy Finance Minister Tatyana Nesterenko said (Vedomosti, p. 1).
In exchange for 10 billion euros in financial aide from Europe and the IMF, Cyprus is taking the unprecedented step of imposing a one-time levy on bank deposits. Russian depositors could lose about $2 billion (Kommersant, p. 1; Vedomosti, p. 4).
The State Duma is preparing to consider a bill that would make it far easier for Russian companies to attract new major investors through private offerings of shares. Analysts believe the chief beneficiary of the amendments will be state bank VTB, which is planning to increase capital (Kommersant, p. 1).
Finance Minister Anton Siluanov will on Monday present Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev with a detailed plan to cut government procurements by 5% of the level set in 2012 under the three-year budget, which would mean a second round of cuts in 2013 (Kommersant, p. 6).
OIL & GAS
Latvian bank Reverta has secured a freeze order on the assets Severneft-Urengoi, a company with a license to a Russian field with reserves of 17 billion cubic meters of gas and 25 million tonnes on oil. The bank is trying to recover a loan of $75 million (Vedomosti, p. 1).
The Energy Ministry believes that if Russia liberalizes exports of liquefied natural gas (LNG), independent gas producers should only be able to export to the Asia-Pacific region. The European market would remain closed to them in order to prevent competition with pipeline gas supplied by Gazprom (Kommersant, p. 9; Vedomosti, p. 13).
METALS & MINING
Russia's Federal Anti-Monopoly Service has found that pipe companies have not been supplying large-diameter pipes to Gazprom through traders by choice. The problem is how the gas giant organizes its pipe procurements. The regulator recommended Gazprom work directly with pipe makers (Vedomosti, p. 12; Kommersant, p. 11).
BANKING, FINANCE & INSURANCE
Sberbank, Russia's biggest lender, lowered interest rates on loans to corporate borrowers by an average of 1 percentage point in March. Competitors are not rushing to follow the bank's example (Vedomosti, p. 10).
The intermediate results of the first IPO in a long time to be carried out only in Russia are not encouraging. The Moscow Exchange's share price has not risen a kopeck since its IPO a month ago, while most of the trading turnover in the shares was organized by state investment bank VTB Capital (Vedomosti, p. 11).
TELECOMMUNICATIONS, MEDIA & TECHNOLOGY
The communications and economic development ministries are proposing to dismiss the head of Rostelecom, Russia's national telecommunications provider. The draft order to replace Alexander Provotorov with Sergei Kalugin, the former CEO of National Telecommunications, has already been submitted to the government (Kommersant, p. 1; Vedomosti, p. 10).
TRANSPORTATION
Russia's Investigative Committee suspects the CEO of Novorossiysk Commercial Sea Port, Rado Antolovic of bribery and has opened a criminal investigation. Antolovic said the charges are groundless. The news comes on the eve of a board meeting at Russia's largest port operator, which has been plagued by a shareholder feud (Vedomosti, p. 11).
AUTOMOTIVE & ENGINEERING
Fiat-Chrysler's main Russian project could become assembly of Jeeps at the Tagaz plant, which is in the midst of bankruptcy proceedings. The company, which has dragged its feet in choosing a strategy for production in Russia, is trying to save a lapsed agreement on industrial assembly (Kommersant, p. 9).