Feb 08, 2008: News in Brief

Binbank Reports Gain

ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) — Binbank reported a total gain of $366 million in international financing in 2007. Out of that funding, $206 million was attracted in long-term and short-term trade financing, the bank said Tuesday in a statement.

In April last year, Binbank’s syndicated loan increased from $40 million to $52 million. The bank operates over 100 branches and offices in Russia. On January 1, 2008, assets stood at 76.9 billion rubles and capital at seven billion rubles.

Currency Exchange Up

ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) — The St. Petersburg Currency Exchange doubled turnover last year compared to 2006, Interfax reported Tuesday.

In 2007, turnover increased to $450 billion, with the exemption of standard contracts. Dollar turnover increased by 3.8 times and accounted for $110.6 billion, euro turnover grew by 2.9 times up to 7.45 billion euros. The turnover of Russian state bonds decreased by 32 percent to $1.77 billion, and the turnover of corporate bonds decreased by 20.5 percent to $285.5 million.

Minerals Up For Sale

KHABAROVSK (Reuters) — Russia plans in 2008 to sell at least two of four large minerals deposits, including the Sukhoi Log gold and Udokan copper fields and the Sakhalin-3 oil and gas field, the Natural Resources Minister said on Thursday.

Yury Trutnev, addressing a meeting at which presidential candidate Dmitry Medvedev was present, also named the South Yakutia coal deposit as a potential candidate for a government sell-off this year.

“In the course of 2008 we plan to hold contests for a minimum of two of the above mentioned,” Trutnev said.

Vodka Plant For City

MOSCOW (Bloomberg) — Image Holding, the Ukrainian producer of Khortytsa vodka, plans to build a plant in Russia to increase its local market share, the Russian newspaper Kommersant reported.

The distillery in St. Petersburg will be able to make 18 million decaliters (1.5 million barrels) a year when it beings operation in 2009, the newspaper reported, citing Sergei Velichko, marketing director at Image.

The company said it plans to have 7 percent of Russia’s vodka market in three years, he added. It had less than one percent of the “sub-premium” segment of the market in the first 10 months of 2007, the paper reported.

Image competes with Nemiroff Ukranian Vodka Co., Kommersant reported. Nemiroff also plans to open a distillery in Russia, possibly this year, the newspaper said, citing Nemiroff President Alexander Glus.

Budget Funds In Banks

MOSCOW (Bloomberg) — Russia may allow banks to temporarily hold funds from the federal budget starting in March to boost liquidity, the Interfax agency reported on Thursday.

The central bank and the Finance Ministry will agree on the amount of money from the budget made available to banks at weekly auctions, which will depend on the level of liquidity in the system, the Moscow-based news agency cited Deputy Central Bank Chairman Alexei Ulyukayev as saying.

Ulyukayev expects banks’ daily demand for liquidity to peak in March or April this year at about 400 billion rubles ($16 billion) a day, the agency said.