MOSCOW, July 14 (RIA Novosti) Gazprom continues buying foreign assets / Sistema to gain foothold in China and Bangladesh / Ukrainian companies want to get $500 million from Russia / GM to launch Chevrolet Cruze production in St. Petersburg / Laser show damages eyesight of over 30 music fans at concert
Vremya Novostei
Gazprom continues buying foreign assets
Gazprom CEO Alexei Miller yesterday went to Tehran to sign a memorandum of understanding in the oil and gas sector with Iranian Oil Minister Gholam Hossein Nozari, and Seifollah Jashn-Saz, managing director of the National Iranian South Oil Company (NISOC).
"The parties have agreed to set up a joint venture for oil and gas projects in Iran, Russia and other countries, and discussed possible exchange operations," the Russian gas monopoly said in a press release.
Last week, Miller proposed that the Libyan leadership sell to Gazprom all uncontracted oil, natural gas and LNG, and he probably discussed a similar idea in Tehran, along with investment in new fields.
Iran has the world's second largest gas reserves after Russia, but is only producing small amounts of gas, of which it exports a tiny fraction.
In the past few months, Iran lost two foreign operators of the Pars LNG and Persian LNG projects at the South Pars field (each with reserves of 9.6 million tons of LNG annually). Gazprom was probably offered to take the place of Shell, Repsol and Total, because the Russian concern has no serious business in the United States and is therefore invulnerable to the U.S. economic sanctions imposed on Iran and companies implementing infrastructure projects there.
Gazprom can use partnership with Tehran to increase pressure on Europe, which still views Iran as a major potential supplier of natural gas.
Miller told journalists before his trip to Iran that he would soon go for gas talks to Central Asia. He was most likely referring to complicated commercial talks with Turkmenistan on the gas acquisition conditions from January 1, 2009.
The press service of Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov said that last weekend Deputy Prime Minister Tachberdy Tagiyev reported to the president on the progress of talks with Kazakhstan regarding Turkmen gas supplies.
The press release did not report the outcome of the talks, but said that Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev made the offer to President Berdymukhammedov during the celebration of the 10th anniversary of the Kazakh capital, Astana, in early July.
Gazprom has been the only buyer of Turkmen gas exported northward since 2006.
Kommersant
Sistema to gain foothold in China and Bangladesh
AFK Sistema, the largest diversified consumer services corporation in Russia and the CIS, has been working in India since September 2007 and is now seeking a niche in China and Bangladesh. It is negotiating the acquisition of an operator in Bangladesh, most likely Teletalk, valued at $300-$500 million.
The corporation will have to compete in the region with VimpelCom, Russia's second-largest mobile phone operator, which has started its Asia-Pacific expansion in Vietnam.
Sistema has signed telecommunication agreements with the governments of China and Bangladesh, Vladimir Yevtushenkov, the main beneficiary of Sistema, said during a meeting with President Dmitry Medvedev on Friday.
The corporation has been granted a license to provide mobile services in the border provinces of China and is considering buying a local operator, Yevtushenkov said.
According to a source of the business daily Kommersant in the corporation, it will most likely seek to buy a stake in a state-owned company.
At present, six mobile operators are working in Bangladesh. According to the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC), the total number of their subscribers as of late May was 42 million (25% of the population).
Sistema, set up in 1993, gained a foothold in the Asia-Pacific region in September 2007, when it bought a 10% stake in Indian cellular operator Shyam Telelink. It has since increased the stake to 74% and plans to invest $5-$7 billion in this project.
Gennady Frolov, the holding's director for corporate communications, said Sistema had agreed with Sberbank to obtain a $450 million loan.
Sistema will have to compete with VimpelCom in the region.
Yevgeny Solomatin, director for development at Russian consulting and marketing company Cominfo Consulting, said: "Their interests are already overlapping in the region, where they will rival for licenses and moderately priced assets."
VimpelCom has announced its interest in Laos and Burma. Its deal to buy a 90% stake in Cambodian operator Sotelco from Altimo, which owns a 44% stake in VimpelCom and is managing the assets of Alfa Group, was approved in June, Solomatin said.
Sistema and VimpelCom have invested as much as $1.8 billion in Vietnam, but even multibillion-dollar investment will not make them leaders on the Vietnamese market.
Vedomosti
Ukrainian companies want to get $500 million from Russia
Timur Khromayev, head of Ukraine's Union of Investors in U.S.S.R. Vnesheconombank, comprising 50 affected companies, has said the union will demand $500 million from the Russian government, the owner of Vnesheconombank, whose accounts were frozen in early 1992.
Although the bank later repaid its debts to private individuals and legal entities in Ukraine and Russia, 80 Ukrainian companies did not get their money back.
This March, the association sued Vnesheconombank's successor, the Ukrainian Export Import Bank, and the Russian bank as co-defendant. On July 1, it notified Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Justice Minister Alexander Konovalov that it would take the case to the Stockholm Court of Arbitration and also sent a copy of the letter to the Swedish capital.
Under the Russian-Ukrainian investment agreement, all disputes can be examined at the Stockholm Court of Arbitration, Ilya Rachkov, a partner with the Moscow branch of Noerr Stiefenhofer Lutz, an international law firm, told the paper.
Ivan Marisin, a senior partner and head of litigation and arbitration at the Moscow office of Clifford Chance, the largest law firm in the world, said both sides had six months to settle the case out of court upon notifying the defendant, and that the Russian government had been notified of this.
Rachkov said the Stockholm Court could decide to try the case. The plaintiff must prove his status as investor and that his rights were subsequently violated, Marisin told the paper. According to Khromayev, Vnesheconombank deposits were invested in the Russian economy.
Marisin said the court could examine disputes concerning deposits made from January 1, 1992 till January 13, 1992 when they were frozen.
The court may meet some client demands; and both sides are likely to compromise, Rachkov told the paper.
A Vnesheconombank spokesperson declined to comment. In March 2005, bank CEO Vladimir Dmitriyev told Interfax-Ukraine that the issue of domestic foreign-currency bonds to Ukrainian legal entities was the best option.
Spokespersons for the Russian Finance Ministry and Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko declined to comment on the situation on Sunday. A spokesman for the Russian Foreign Ministry could not be reached for comment either.
Vedomosti
GM to launch Chevrolet Cruze production in St. Petersburg
In the summer of 2009, GM will begin making the Chevrolet Cruze at its plant at Shushary, the company's press service reported.
This is a new model on the platform of the Chevrolet Lacetti, GM spokesperson Agnesh Rona said.
The company will demonstrate the new car at the Paris auto show early in November. On European markets, the car will not start selling until the spring of 2009. The Cruze will be 90mm longer than the Lacetti, and will be powered by a 1.4 l engine.
In November 2008, GM will open a fully integrated plant at Shushary with an output of 70,000 units a year. It will also assemble the crossovers Chevrolet Captiva and Opel Antara and sedan Opel Astra (the company is already turning them out at a temporary venue in St. Petersburg by large-unit assembly method).
According to Rona, the volume of production for the Cruze has not yet been determined. Earlier, GM purchase manager Ksenia Komyagina said that 45,000 Chevrolet Lacettis a year would be manufactured at Shushary.
The price of the new Cruze will be "one of the most attractive in the segment of compact cars," said Marc Kempe, a spokesperson for GM Europe. But he did not give exact figures. The Lacetti currently costs 342,000-535,200 rubles in Russia for a hatchback and 353,200-546,900 rubles for a sedan.
The new Lacetti will cost 5-10% more, say Anton Mikhailovsky, Avtomir director for GM, and Yevgeny Bogdanov, head of automotive practice at A.T.Kearney.
GM hopes that the new model will enable the Chevrolet to remain No. 1 in sales among foreign makes in Russia, Kempe said. The Lacetti (known as the Cobalt in the United States) is very popular in Russia: last year it sold 40,627 units.
In the first six months, according to the European Business Association, the Lacetti moved to second place in the list of the most sold models in Russia, selling 44,989 cars (the Ford Focus was first).
GM can look to selling 30,000 Cruze cars a year, Mikhailovsky and Bogdanov believe. The Cruze's main rivals will be the Ford Focus (352,000-549,000 rubles), Mitsubishi Lancer (491,775-717,972 rubles), and Mazda 3 (491,000-686,000 rubles), Bogdanov said.
GM is making a timely entry into the market: the niche is currently spacious enough for everybody, but in a couple of years the manufacturers will feel crowded, he said.
It is the fastest growing segment with competition running high even now, said Dmitry Rotkin, chief executive director of the Rolf Import company (Mitsubishi distributor). He is not afraid of the Cruze: the alignment of companies will remain the same, only the Cruze will gradually oust the Lacetti from the market.
Currently the Lacetti is being assembled under a license at Kaliningrad's Avtotor plant (40,000 in 2007).
Kommersant
Laser show damages eyesight of over 30 music fans at concert
Over 30 people, who attended an open air music festival near Moscow in early July, have suffered eyesight damage with doctors fearing the effect could be permanent.
The Aquamarine Festival was held near the town of Vladimir, around 170 km (106 miles) east of Moscow on July 5. People started seeking medical assistance on July 7 complaining of aching eyes and eyesight loss.
"Usually, laser beams at such concerts are directed into the air. But it was raining heavily and the organizers had to stretch a canopy over the dance floor, and the [laser] beam at times fell below the canopy," one of the victims was quoted by Kommersant as saying.
A doctor told Kommersant that many of the victims, aged between 16 and 30, who sought medical treatment were suffering from burnt retinas.
Doctors say the "loss of eyesight is up to 80% in some cases" and for some of the victims "it will not be possible" to restore their eyesight.
Those affected by the laser have made complaints against the organizers. "The doctors must prove, that the injuries were caused only by the laser, and not by alcohol or, for instance, loud noise," one of the patients said, however.
Cosmic Connection, the concert organizer and promoter has been unavailable for comment.
The head of the EQ laser show firm, Valentin Vasilyev, however, called the incident "unprecedented" and told Kommersant that if a laser beam hit the retina, then the burn would be instantaneous and blamed poorly trained personnel and badly maintained equipment for such incidents.
But a DJ involved in music festivals said the firm that organized the concert had all the required health and safety certificates.
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