Moscow press review for August 21, 2012
MOSCOW. Aug 21 (Interfax) - The following is a digest of Moscow newspapers published on Aug 21. Interfax does not accept liability for information in these stories.
POLITICS & ECONOMICS
The slowdown of the Russian economy has spread beyond industrial production and investment activity to the consumer sector. Retail sales growth slowed to 5.1% in July from 6.9% in the previous month, the Federal Statistics Service reported on Monday (Vedomosti, p. 1).
The Russian government has approved the rules for extending state guarantees worth 500 billion rubles in 2012. These resources might be released if there is a "deterioration in the situation on financial markets." The transition to formal methods in distribution of state support is intended to bolster business confidence, but there is no formal criterion for when exactly this anti-crisis reserve might be used (Kommersant, p. 2).
OIL & GAS
Businessman Farkhad Akhmedov is demanding that Russian gas giant Gazprom buy out his 49% stake in their joint company Northgas under a put option. Akhmedov says the stake has been appraised at $1.8 billion-$2.6 billion. But Gazprom might not agree to the demand, in which case the partners will resume their court battles (Vedomosti, p. 7).
India's ONGC wants to join one of the joint ventures that state oil major Rosneft is forming with foreign investors to implement offshore oil projects. ONGC's previous attempts to expand its presence in Russia have not been very successful, and the company has no experience working in the Arctic (Kommersant, p. 9).
UTILITIES
The head of the Federal Grid Company, Oleg Budargin on Monday essentially called for direct government co-financing of the investment programs of Russian power grids. Analysts worry that turning away from the current model, where investment is factored into rates and shifted onto existing consumers, in favour of state financing could disappoint investors (Kommersant, p. 7).
METALS & MINING
President Vladimir Putin has decided to intervene in the long-running dispute between the principal shareholders of mining giant Norilsk Nickel, Vladimir Potanin's Interros and Oleg Deripaska's UC Rusal. The Kremlin is trying to work out a resolution to the conflict, which could involve one of the shareholders selling their stake (Vedomosti, p. 1).
BANKING, FINANCE & INSURANCE
Russia's Federal Financial Markets Service has imposed its first ever sanctions against a private pension fund, in part due to the fact that the regulator's inspectors could not gain access to the fund's offices. The Transstroy pension fund is behind on its rent and the landlord has locked out its employees (Kommersant, p. 1).
RETAIL & CONSUMER MARKET
The owner of Russia's second largest retail chain Magnit, Sergei Galitsky intends to invest EUR350 million in hothouse farming. This amount of investment could make him one of the country's largest vegetable producers (Vedomosti, p. 7).
Russian state-owned public opinion polling center VTsIOM has begun collecting data on television audiences using its own method, through mobile phones. The center hopes to compete with international company TNS, which current has a monopoly on TV audience measurement (Vedomosti, p. 7).
REAL ESTATE & CONSTRUCTION
The St. Petersburg authorities have granted permission for the construction of Gazprom's 463-meter Lakhta Center skyscraper over the protests of local conservationists and the UNESCO World Heritage Committee. Analysts believe the project will seriously hurt the popularity of Governor Georgy Poltavchenko (Kommersant, p. 1).
Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev has finally approved the program to reduce administrative barriers in the construction sector. The time it takes to secure construction permits in Russia is supposed to be slashed by 90% from 423 days to 56 days by 2018 (Vedomosti, p. 3).
TELECOMMUNICATIONS, MEDIA & TECHNOLOGY
The loss of its business in Uzbekistan could force Russian mobile operator MTS to write off $1 billion for the second quarter. This is the amount that MTS invested in its Central Asian subsidiary, which lost all of its operating licenses a week ago (Vedomosti, p. 11).
AUTOMOTIVE & ENGINEERING
MosavtoZiL, a subsidiary of Moscow auto plant ZiL, has won regulatory approval to buy the Khimeks group, which has a 'dormant' industrial assembly agreement with the Russian government. The agreement is needed to set up contract assembly of trucks and cars at ZiL for potential customers such as Renault, Fiat-Chrysler and Hyundai (Vedomosti, p. 7).
