By John Helmer in Moscow

An announcement last week by LUKoil’s number-2 executive and shareholder, Leonid Fedun (see image), that the Russian oil producer expects to find more crude oil in Africa than in Russia was intended to set off alarms bells at the Ministry of Finance in Moscow. That is where Fedun is negotiating for tax concessions for his company’s newly developed oilfields in the Russian sector of the Caspian Sea and in western Siberia. Company sources admit there was nothing new about the African projects in what Fedun had to say. Whether the Finance Ministry intends to offer tax benefits to temper LUKoil’s African enthusiasm remains to be seen. And for the time being, West African spending represents a small fraction – maybe less than a tenth – of LUKoil’s global exploration budget.
(more…)

by John Helmer - Friday, September 10th, 2010
No Comments »

(more…)

by John Helmer - Friday, September 10th, 2010
No Comments »

By John Helmer in Moscow

A Moscow brokerage named Metropol has recommended buying Alrosa shares with the promise of a 72% upside in value. But there’s a catch. At present, it isn’t quite legal for those who don’t already own shares in the closed joint stock company form of Alrosa to buy and sell them.
(more…)

by John Helmer - Thursday, September 9th, 2010
No Comments »

By John Helmer in Moscow

The Valdai International Discussion Club is a collection of journalists, academics and erstwhile opinion-makers from countries whose hostility towards the Kremlin has traditionally been a problem. Neutralizing that sentiment has been the principal reason the club’s annual autumn trip to Russia and talk-show with Vladimir Putin have been organized and paid for out of the state’s information budget.
(more…)

by John Helmer - Tuesday, September 7th, 2010
No Comments »

By John Helmer in Moscow

The promoters of United Company Rusal at Bloomberg have kicked off a new marketing campaign for Oleg Deripaska’s heavily indebted aluminium company, disclosing this week that “Rusal is planning Russia’s first offering of bonds in China, spurred by McDonald’s Corp.’s debut sale in yuan.” A roadshow to test whether the Chinese taste for McDonald’s will carry over to an appetite for Deripaska risk products is planned with investors and banks in about a fortnight’s time. Yuriy Humber, Bloomberg’s ace reporter on Rusal’s affairs, found a source in Frankfurt, Germany, who says: “For Hong Kong-based investors, this issue will be a great diversification play with significant yield pick-up compared to the majority of local bonds.”
(more…)

by John Helmer - Tuesday, September 7th, 2010
No Comments »

By John Helmer in Moscow

Even in ignominy or retirement, a big boy’s toys are worth playing with.

Uralkali is Russia’s dominant producer of potash fertilizer and will soon merge with Silvinit to become the national potash champion, according to a government scheme first reported here on June 15. At the time, the head of investor relations for Uralkali, Anna Batarina, called this report disreputable nonsense.
(more…)

by John Helmer - Monday, September 6th, 2010
No Comments »

By John Helmer in Moscow

Runaway inflation and unemployment rates are the conventional killers of campaigns for reelection in the democracies, such as the US and the UK. But in the autocracies, the rising price of bread (or rice), leading to hoarding, usually does the trick.
(more…)

by John Helmer - Friday, September 3rd, 2010
No Comments »

By John Helmer in Moscow

An order of the Russian Government has this week lifted last month’s total ban on grain exports, but stopped well short of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin’s forecast that significant export shipments of Russian grain may be allowed later in the season.
(more…)

by John Helmer - Thursday, September 2nd, 2010
No Comments »

By John Helmer in Moscow

Oleg Deripaska is preparing a series of presentations to institutional investors next week in Boston and New York, chaperoned by one of his largest creditor banks, BNP Paribas. Rarely has so unconvincing a lamb been led to market by so well-known a wolf; or such an odd couple asked to be believed for the sincerity of their hand-holding.

The prospectus released by United Company Rusal to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange on December 31 reveals that BNP Paribas’s affiliated banks are owed more than $415 million by Rusal; no other international bank appears to be owed a larger sum by Rusal than that.
(more…)

by John Helmer - Wednesday, September 1st, 2010
No Comments »

By John Helmer in Moscow

Russia’s Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin, who also chairs the supervisory board of state diamond miner Alrosa, is considering selling rough diamonds from the state stockpile more than a year earlier than has been forecast by the stockpile agency, Gokhran. It is unclear whether Kudrin is trying to lower the price of the rough to be included in a sale of part of the stock Gokhran bought in 2009 from Alrosa for about $1.2 billion, or stampede the stockpile managers into doing what they have so far refused to do. Moscow sources agree that Kudrin is trying to secure the diamond disposals from Gokhran because Alrosa is running out of mine supplies to meet its buyer contract obligations, especially to the Indians.
(more…)

by John Helmer - Tuesday, August 31st, 2010
No Comments »