By John Helmer in Moscow

Land-based delivery of Gazprom’s natural gas is more than holding its own in the European gas market against competing seaborne deliveries of liquefied natural gas (LNG), according to a report from Gazprom in Moscow yesterday. This says that Gazprom’s exports to the European Union (EU) increased by 19.4% in the third quarter of this year, compared to the second quarter. This was also up 9.5% on the same period of 2008, and 8% above the the level for Q3 2007.

The figures are a sharp demonstration that Gazprom is managing to regain its share of Europe’s gas market with lower prices than the LNG tankers from Qatar, Algeria and Egypt can deliver through the Adriatic and Mediterranean. The Italian market is leading this new trend, with 22% growth in Gazprom purchases compared to last year. This is despite the relative ease of access for tankers to deliver LNG to Italian port terminals at Isola di Porto Levante (Adriatic), Panigaglia (Mediterranean), and Brindisi (Adriatic).
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by John Helmer - Wednesday, November 18th, 2009
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By John Helmer in Moscow
 

This report is powered by kryptonite! Be an Interactive Investigator! Call in if you have news on Superboy’s latest deal! Add your leads to the record of his business acumen!

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by John Helmer - Tuesday, November 17th, 2009
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We interrupt this news bulletin to bring
you a broadcast from Captain Obvious
on location live above the Kremlin
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by John Helmer - Monday, November 16th, 2009
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Put a little Hong Kong whitewash on your Rusal brush, and look at the difference it makes to your teeth…
 

Before

After

By John Helmer in Moscow

A left turn and quick walk out of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange (HKEx) building on the waterfront in Central Hong Kong will take you to the ferry for Macau, where, in less than sixty minutes , you can be at the roulette wheel of the Sands Macau; and within a comparable interval you can gamble away a fortune. This Thursday, inside a closed meeting-room of the exchange, a handful of insiders will decide whether the HKEx intends to spin a wheel of its own, and offer a betting opportunity to a selected group of financial institutions. The HKEx wager is much bigger; the odds less chancy.
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by John Helmer - Sunday, November 15th, 2009
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We interrupt this news bulletin to bring
you a broadcast from Captain Obvious
on location live above the Kremlin
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by John Helmer - Thursday, November 12th, 2009
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By John Helmer in Moscow

The Russian grain trade is complaining that there has been another outbreak of the weevil wars delaying large consignments of Russian export wheat from being landed and sold at ports in Syria and Egypt, ostensibly for reason of infestation.

This time, two vessels and 110,000 tonnes of grain, originally loaded at Novorossiysk, are reported to be standing at the Syrian port of Tartus. The Russian Grain Union president, Arkady Zlochevsky, revealed the shipping problem at a meeting in Moscow yesterday of the Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS).
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by John Helmer - Thursday, November 12th, 2009
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By John Helmer in Moscow

Yury Privalov, the former head of Sovcomflot’s London-based shipping operations, wound up his testimony in the High Court this week with half a dozen new allegations undocumented before in court, or since his release on parole from a Moscow prison on October 10, 2008.

Testifying over eight days by videolink from Moscow, Privalov, who has already served 22 months in Swiss and Russian prisons, revealed that his sole employment now is as a consultant to Sovcomflot chief executive, Sergey Frank (right figure). Details of hidden commissions he admits skimming from newbuild contracts and bank loan transactions were admitted in court, with deal percentages ranging from 1% to 4.3%. In total, Privalov’s bank account balances were identified in testimony at $14.5 million at the end of 2004, when Frank started an investigation.
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by John Helmer - Thursday, November 12th, 2009
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By John Helmer in Moscow

The Russian government has decided to underwrite the refinancing of pipemaker TMK’s loan portfolio with state repayment guarantees. TMK is controlled by Dmitry Pumpyansky (see right figure).

A curt statement, issued Tuesday by Deputy Minister of Industry and Energy, Andrei Dementyev, said “the necessary papers are being processed by the Finance Ministry”. What the official didn’t say was how much debt the guarantee (and taxpayer obligation) will cover; and whether it will be limited to Russian state bank loans, or TMK’s entire loan portfolio. At present, TMK’s debt is more than $3.6 billion, of which $2 billion is short-term, and must be repaid within six months.
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by John Helmer - Wednesday, November 11th, 2009
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By John Helmer in Moscow

A flurry of sales and revenue claims posted on the Alrosa website have yet to be substantiated by the chief executive, Fyodor Andreyev, or his spokesman, Andrei Polyakov. Their silence four months into Andreyev’s term in office recalls the claims, issued in June and July by the former chief executive, Sergei Vybornov, that he had fixed from 6 to 15 sales contracts for a total value of $900 million. The pricing formula, according to Vybornov, was “the price-list of the Ministry of Finance plus 17 %”. Each contract, according to Vybornov, had been for not less than $200 million, and for terms of 3 to 5 years. The buyers, Vybornov claimed, included Tiffany of the US; Dali Diamonds and Diarough of Belgium; and some unidentified Israeli companies. “We have begun with [the Belgian companies],” Vybornov said publicly, “for the simple reason that the Belgian government declared the granting of guarantees to the diamond banks for a total of $1 billion A bit later, this initiative got the [additional] support of the Flemish authorities, declaring guarantees for $250 million.”
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by John Helmer - Wednesday, November 11th, 2009
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By John Helmer in Moscow

In the business of boxing, a pugilist’s hands are not only his stock in trade, but weapons as potentially lethal for him to wield as a pistol is for a stickup man. If a boxer uses his fists outside the ring, he may have difficulty proving self-defence, while his adversary will have less trouble justifying having to shoot him.

So in the business of banking, if a banker offers a mining company not money, but advice, what exactly is the service rendered, and what is the banker’s word worth? How dangerous might it be for the financial health of a business to take the advice, and who carries liability, especially if the banker doesn’t perform any other service except being on the losing side of a takeover bid? And what of the practice of bankers charging twice and three times over for the same advice, plus signing fees, monthly retainers, and personal expenses on top?
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by John Helmer - Tuesday, November 10th, 2009
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