Another Moscow market has fallen foul of the authorities: Izmailovsky Market, a popular place for tourists has been shut in connection with the closure of Cherkizovsky Market.  The Federal Council has rejected a Medvedev-initiated bill to create small innovative companies at universities.  The President will hold an extra session in order to pass it.  Sunrise owner Sergei Bobylev will be held in detention for fraud investigation; the most recent in the series of crackdowns on proprietors of big retail chains, such as Arbat Prestige and Yevroset.  Metalloinvest has apparently asked the government to guarantee its loans.  Mikhail Prokhorov's Onexim Group has announced that it will buy 51% of business news service RBC for $80 million.  According to the Economist's Big Mac index, the Russian Big Mac has become 13% more expensive and shows Russia closing the ...

Precision Petroleum Corporation, an independent energy company engaged in the acquisition, exploration and development of oil and natural gas properties in the United States, recently announced the appointment of Mr. James Kirby as the company’s chief financial officer effective June 3, 2009.

With an extensive background both in the petroleum industry and the financial sector, Mr. Kirby has successfully re-organized financial institutions and possesses strong expertise with state and federal regulations pertaining to the financial and petroleum arenas. His senior-level management experience includes engagements at The First National Bank of Shawnee, Bank One, Liberty Bank & Trust, Choctaw State Bank and The Republic Bank of Tecumseh.

In a recent statement, Richard Porterfield, the president of Precision Petroleum Corporation, commented that the appointment of Mr. Kirby will help strengthen the company’s administrative core. He also stated that James Kirby’s financial expertise will prove valuable with the company’s recent acquisitions of nine producing

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As you’ve likely heard, a Chinese company will soon own the Hummer brand. Heh, let’s count the ways this transaction epitomizes the new economic landscape…

1. A Chinese company now owns an automaker that will build and sell cars in the U.S. – a first.

2. That company – Sichuan Tengzhong Heavy Industrial Machinery – doesn’t even make cars. For its first foray into passenger automaking, it’s chosen Hummer, perhaps the world’s most challenging and polarizing brand.

3. Business is so booming at Tengzhong HIM (its core is road construction and energy equipment) that the company will completely self-finance the deal…not one yuan borrowed from the Chinese government.

4. While neither party will disclose the price, Hummer was likely sold for a song…less than $500 million.

5. The White House is billing it as a victory: It’s “good news for the 3,000 Americans who will be able to keep their jobs, the two American plants

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The Russian Finance Ministry says that all of the major tax breaks have been introduced and there will be 'no sensations' in tax proposals over the next three years.  Rusal claims to have cut costs by $554 million in the first quarter, but workers suggest this is affecting safety and efficiency.  According to Ria Novosti, Rusal has seen a decrease in its primary aluminum output by 7.2% year-on-year in January-March.  Alfa Bank has restructured 5% of its loan portfolio, according to Reuters the figure stands at 15%.  Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works has agreed to restructure car maker Avtovaz's outstanding debt in a long term cooperation agreement.  Vladimir Yevtushenkov's Sistema is apparently hoping to bid for control of telecoms giant Svyazinvest.  Sberbank issued 16.5 billion rubles in mortgage loans in the first quarter.  The ...

The number of unemployed in Russia has reached an eight-year high.  Vladimir Potanin has reduced his stake in Norilsk Nickel to 25%.  Potanin's Rosa Khutor Sochi ski resort development has borrowed $94 million from state bank VEB.  Chrome maker RosSpetsSplav is optimistic that output will revive after summer.  Gold miner Peter Hambro has announced a 53% increase in earnings.  Steel manufacturer Severstal says it expects demand for steel to fall by 25% on last year's rate.  Developer LSR Group lost $238 million last year.  Czech authorities have left Aeroflot out of a tender for Czech Airlines, due to what Russia called 'politicized and artificial' security issues.  VSMPO-Avisma has made a $4 billion deal to supply Airbus with titanium parts up until 2020.  Alfa Bank's profit dropped 9.2% last year, due to ...

The number of unemployed in Russia has reached an eight-year high.  Vladimir Potanin has reduced his stake in Norilsk Nickel to 25%.  Potanin's Rosa Khutor Sochi ski resort development has borrowed $94 million from state bank VEB.  Chrome maker RosSpetsSplav is optimistic that output will revive after summer.  Gold miner Peter Hambro has announced a 53% increase in earnings.  Steel manufacturer Severstal says it expects demand for steel to fall by 25% on last year's rate.  Developer LSR Group lost $238 million last year.  Czech authorities have left Aeroflot out of a tender for Czech Airlines, due to what Russia called 'politicized and artificial' security issues.  VSMPO-Avisma has made a $4 billion deal to supply Airbus with titanium parts up until 2020.  Alfa Bank's profit dropped 9.2% last year, due to ...

A 'stable and predictable' ruble will see Russia through the financial crisis, according to the head of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs, reports Bloomberg.  Moscow City Hall will help developers to complete delayed construction projects by allowing city-owned firms to co-invest.  Norilsk Nickel's plan to sell its treasury shares, reported yesterday, has apparently been suspended.  In the Moscow region property prices in rubles have remained fairly constant since October 2008; dollar prices have fallen.  State bank VEB will postpone its planned eurobond issue for one month, but will also double the amount it planned to raise to at least $2 billion.  Landline operator Southern Telecom is seeking a $90 million loan.  Despite rising sales, X5 Retail Group recorded a loss in the fourth quarter due to a goodwill impairment charge.  Kamaz stocks rose on ...

Friday December 26, 2008 Navivest

GMAC Financial Services, the financial services division of General Motors (GM), announced on Wednesday that it too had been approved by the Federal Reserve to become a bank holding company.

With the approval, GMAC, which of late, has been struggling to raise money in the capital markets to finance its operations can now tap into the $700 billion financial rescue plan that was approved by congress on October 3, 2008. Under the plan, GMAC will receive an initial $4 billion in loans by December 29, and another $5.4 billion by January 16.

GMAC also announced that its GMAC Bank, which now operates as an industrial company, has been approved by the Utah Department of Financial institutions to convert into a state bank.

GMAC’s request was approved even though it did not meet the capital requirements. As a result, the Federal Reserve used its emergency powers to

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These are tough times for the Russian economy - and those days when the political leadership was bragging about its easy liquidity and its status as a shelter during the storm seem quite distant indeed. Credit is tightening up, so major international banks and financial institutions are all calling for early repayment of their loans to big businesses, and Russia's many over-leveraged multi-billionaires are finding themselves hard pressed to come up with cash to keep the various companies and assets they have pledged as collateral. One need not worry about the fates of the country's numerous billionaire elite businessmen. Today trading surged on the Russian markets for the first time in weeks after the state bank VEB deployed the first measures of its rescue plan for Mikhail Fridman and Oleg Deripaska, and no doubt ...

Financial NewsJason Corcoran in Moscow28 October 2008 Russian state bank VTB is defying the global downturn and dismal domestic markets by opening new sales and representative offices for its investment banking arm in New York and Dubai.Yulia Chupina, the VTB board member responsible for the expansion of its investment banking subsidiary, said the bank would open offices shortly in the US and Dubai.She said: "We are being cost conscious by freezing hiring and development in some areas while continuing to develop in other areas."VTB has already established three investment banking hubs in Moscow, London, and Singapore. It has dominated this year's hiring war in Russia by recruiting bankers from Deutsche Bank and key figures from a number of banks in Moscow.In response to the crisis, the bank said it was considering cutting costs by between 15% and ...