ProLogis (PLD), one of the leading global providers of distribution facilities, has recently signed an agreement with Marks & Spencer, a premier retailer in the U.K., to lease about 382,000 square feet of space in the country. The leased facility is located at ProLogis Park Store in Stoke-on-Trent city, which is approximately an hour from the Birmingham city center. The site has easy access to the highways, and offers better flexibility and efficiency for the supply chain operations of Marks & Spencer. ProLogis owns and manages interests in over 2,500 distribution facilities, service offices, and properties spanning 475 million square feet (including properties under development) of space. As of Jun 30, 2009, the company had 200.5 million square feet of direct-owned industrial properties -- 81.5% of which was located in North America, 14.2% in Europe, and 4.3% in Asia. With approximately 18.5 million square feet ...

Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin is basing next year's budget on the prediction that oil will be at least $50 a barrel - an improvement on this year's prediction of $41.  Medvedev is not so optimistic, presenting his budget priorities himself and showing a pessimistic outlook, urging for budgetary cost-cutting: 'in 2009, unfortunately, we expect a deeper contraction than our initial forecasts', with a budget deficit of 7%.  Mikhail Khodorkovsky has said that business chiefs are not taking the right measures to help Russia emerge from the crisis.  Restructuring debt or default is the prospect faced by highly leveraged companies who need to pay roughly $130 billion in debt repayments this year.  British retailer Sainsbury's is apparently contemplating opening stores in Russia.  Food prices in Russia have sky rocketed this year, increasing by 5.8%, ...