Russia will invest over 285 billion dollars over the next decade to accelerate the pace of road construction, said today the country’s Prime Minister Vladimir Putin. Thus, it addresses one of the most sensitive issues for the Russians. Putin, who has hinted that it may participate in the presidential elections in March 2012, seek to meet the demands of car owners. Studies show that Russians are increasingly concerned about the quality of the roads after the number of vehicles in the country doubled to 40 million over the past decade and is expected to reach 60 million by 2020. The World Bank stated that the road infrastructure in Russia is considered a major obstacle to economic growth, with only one third of the roads in the country meet the quality standards.
“The state of our roads is a real problem that limits business activity, investment and development of Russian territory,” Putin said at a meeting of local authorities in the city of Tver, 220 km from Moscow.
“Our financial resources allow us to double the volume of road construction over the next ten years,” said Putin.
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HSBC, which is the Europe’s largest bank, has decided to suspend its operations in retail banking in Russia just two years after entry into this business and after that make another British bank – Barclays, Reuters reported, citing a document sent by HSBC to customers.
“We invite all members to close their accounts and HSBC Premier HSBC Plus before June 30, 2011, specifies the document said. HSBC, whose branch in Russia is among the 100 largest banks in the country by assets, will focus on serving corporate customers, bring in a statement. This decision of HSBC, which started operations in retail banking in Russia in mid-2009, comes after the news, announced in February by Barclays to sell their business in retail banking in Russia and will be redirected to investment banking. In the Russian banking sector dominance are state-owned banks, which control nearly 60% of total assets in the system.

Russia will build the first nuclear power plant in Bangladesh, which suffers from severe power shortages. The government of Bangladesh has signed a preliminary agreement with Russia to build nuclear power plant with capacity of 2000 megawatts, transmits Reuters. Two reactors, each with a capacity of 1000 megawatts will be built by the Russian state corporation Rosatom Atomic Energy Rupur in the city in the northwestern part of Bangladesh. According to the preliminary estimates construction of the plant will cost about $ 2 billion. The contract was signed during the visit of a delegation of Rosatom in the South Asian country. Russian state company Rosatom will supply fuel for reactors, spent fuel will take and then help the decommissioning of nuclear power. Bangladesh, which is one of the poorest countries in the world, is facing a serious shortage of electricity, which cause civilian protests and cited as an obstacle to foreign investment. The country’s reserves of natural gas are depleted quickly, and most of its deposits of coal are left unused. Only 45% of the 150 million population of Bangladesh has access to electricity.
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The Dutch carmaker Spyker, owner of Saab, has signed a preliminary agreement to sell its sports division cars CPP Global Holdings for nearly 32 million EUR. The CPP Global Holdings is owned by Russian businessman Vladimir Antonov and is based in the UK, which already produces the sports model of the C8 Aileron Spyker.
“The company management has many exciting plans for Spyker, the brand is entering a period of great development, said in Bredan O’Toole, managing director of CPP.
From Spyker Cars have indicated that the company name can be changed at the conclusion of final agreement. By the Dutch group said that so we can focus exclusively on the business of Saab, reducing debt and improving its operating results. Really the price is good and the bankrupted company was saved from the Spyker cars ans year ago and need of strong management to make the financial situation more stable. The company realized good financial reports in the last quarters, but the sports cars division is not in the plans for developing of Saab management.

The council of the Federation of Russia (upper house of Russian Parliament) ratified the Russian-Turkish intergovernmental agreement establishing the project company for the construction of Turkey’s first nuclear power plant – Akuyu, “Interfax reported. Shares of the project company, directly or through subsidiaries, are 100% owned by the Russian government authorized companies. The project company is to realize the construction of NPP Akuyu, which consists of four nuclear units, each with a capacity of 1200 megawatts. The company will hold all (or controlling shares) of the future Turkish NPP, and also owned and produced by her power. The Government of Russia provides the main contractor of the construction of NPP Akuyu – Russian Atomstroyexport (which has been selected for implementation of the construction of Belene NPP) credit on preferential terms. It is envisaged the return of funds to be credited to the account of sale of electricity produced from nuclear power Akuyu electricity since its introduction in operation for 15 years. The total value of NPP is estimated at 20 billion dollars. The Turkish state energy company Tetas in turn guarantees the purchase of the project company 70% of electricity from the first two commissioned nuclear reactors of NPP Akuyu “and after commissioning of the other two nuclear blocks Turkey will purchase 30% of produced by their electricity.
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The Russian government yesterday approved a plan to sell state assets to about 1 trillion. rubles (or 32 billion dollars) through privatization of state companies over the next three years. This became clear after yesterday’s meeting of the Russian cabinet, writes Reuters. By selling part of its stake in some of the largest and most attractive Russian companies, the state hopes to reduce the large budget deficit and attract key investors. Late last week it became clear that Russia’s budget deficit amounted to 2.1 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) during the first ten months of the year. For the whole year 2010 the government of the expected budget deficit of 5.4 percent of GDP or 2.4 trillion rubles (76.60 billion dollars). Minister of economic development Elvira Nabiulina told reporters yesterday that large-scale privatization is not only a means to reduce the budget deficit, but primarily to attract investment in key economies of the Russian companies. By selling shares in them and the government hopes to attract foreign investors to improve corporate governance of some of the most powerful companies in the country.
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The U.S. investment fund Texas Pacific Group (TPG) Capital is negotiating with the Russian government to acquire 10% stake in Russia’s second largest bank VTB, the state plans to sell by year’s end. This writes the newspaper Kommersant, citing its sources by the government. If the deal is done, the U.S. fund may become the largest minority shareholder of VTB Bank (Foreign Trade Bank), in which the state currently has a share of 85.5%. According to preliminary estimates 10 percent of the capital of VTB may cost 2.4 to 3.1 billion dollars. Data to Release on Monday on the issue of selling a package of 10% of the shares of VTB had a meeting with Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov. Experts explain that if that deal with U.S. fund is implemented, this would have happened to “circumvent” the standard procedure of privatization in Russia, “for which there is a way. During the meeting in question, according to an inside source, it became clear that so far the major potential strategic investor for VTB is TPG Capital, which has said it intends to bring the transaction to a group of nearly 40 other co-investors.
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Russia will build a new cosmodrome worth 810 million dollars as part of its efforts to protect its share of an increasingly competitive market space flights, said Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, quoted by Reuters News Agency forward. As in Soviet times, Russia currently has a dominant role in the global space industry: in 2009, 78 launches of spacecraft in the world. Now, however, is facing increasing competition from Europe, Asia and the United States, while the aerospace market is increasingly commercialized. Baikonur “Vostochniy will be built in the Amur region in the Far East within three years. “I hope Vostochniy will become the first Russian cosmodrome in civilian use and will ensure full independence of our aerospace business,” said Putin at a meeting with representatives of the aerospace industry. Envisaged “Vostochniy” be open for unmanned flight in 2015 and flights of people in 2018 new spaceport will serve all space activity in Russia, including flights of cosmonauts, transport missiles and future missions and other planets. Russia now pays rent of $ 115 million annually to Baikonur in Kazakhstan after the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991 The lease expires in 2050
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Global manufacturers are planning to inject medicine over a billion dollars in Russian-made as part of its attempts to acquire the status of local producers and to circumvent the rigid position of the government to import medicines, writes Reuters. Rhythmic growth this market is a key for the corporate front lines against the backdrop of slowing sales in western markets and the loss of patent protection for many leading medicines. Relevant to the planned investment is the prospect of preferential treatment by Russia’s protectionist tuned. Russia has set itself the goal by 2012 to increase the share of domestic producers in the total sales of the medicines in the country to 25% and by 2020 it reaches 50% from current 20 per cent. The acquisition of status “local player” by building or buying factories in the country is so global companies to gain access to the expected strong growth in a time when the government plans to limit imports, sources of comment on Wednesday. It is expected that this year Russia with its 140-million population reported double-digit percentage growth in its pharmaceutical market, according to industry analysts, against an estimate of 4-6 percent for the sector globally.
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Raiffeisen International Bank Holding AG may sell units in Russia and Ukraine in the event that the financial company had to strengthen its capital base and reserves with which to cover possible losses from bad loans to its subsidiaries. This forward Moskow News, quoted the Chairman of Raiffeisen International Christian Conrad, the Austrian group that is ready to give up control over their Russian and Ukrainian banks. Raiffeisen International is one of the largest foreign banks in Russia and owner of Raiffeisen Russia in Russia and Raiffeisen Bank Aval in Ukraine. According to Christian Conrad final decision will depend on whether and how much will have to increase the reserves of the subsidiaries of the Bank’s bad loans. By Raiffeisen International also stated that there are several possible scenarios for the development of the group in the future, one provides its teams in Russia and Ukraine to be sold through initial public offering (IPO). In February, Raiffeisen Zentralbank Osterreich, which is one of the largest cooperative banks in Austria and Raiffeisen International announced plans for a possible merger. Raiffeisen International is a public company in which 70% of capital held by Raiffeisen Zentralbank, the rest are traded freely within the Austrian Stock Exchange. The main market is Raiffeisen International Central and Eastern Europe, the bank is represented in 17 countries in the region.
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