Canada Pork Ban Lifted
OTTOWA — Canada said on Friday that Russia has “essentially lifted” a ban on some of the country’s meat products imposed after an outbreak of swine flu.
“I received a letter from the Russian Embassy informing me that the bans on pork and pork products originating from Quebec and on other meat products from Ontario are essentially lifted,” Canadian Trade Minister Stockwell Day said in a statement.
Nikolai Vlasov, deputy chief of Russia’s food-safety watchdog, said Friday that Russia might ease bans on pork from some parts of the United States and Canada if tests being conducted show that the virus cannot be transmitted via uncooked meat.
(Bloomberg)

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Russian Fund Eyes Porsche?
FRANKFURT — Three more bidders are interested in a stake in German sports car maker Porsche, rivaling investment plans by Qatar, German magazine Focus reported Saturday.
In an advance release of remarks to be published Monday, Focus said without citing sources that a Chinese and a Russian sovereign wealth fund as well as a hedge fund were interested. A Porsche spokesman declined to comment on the report.
(Reuters)

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LUKoil’s $1.2Bln Loan Talks
LONDON — LUKoil is signing a $1.2 billion syndicated loan with a group of 12 banks, banking sources close to the deal said Friday.
The club deal pays a margin of more than 400 basis points over the London interbank offered rate, one of the sources said. The deal is structured as a secured pre-export financing to provide extra security for lenders.
(Reuters)

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VEB Seeks $1Bln Loan
LONDON — Vneshekonombank  is looking to secure a syndicated loan worth up to $1 billion and has invited banks to submit proposals for the deal, banking sources said Friday.
So far this year, no Russian bank has tapped the international loan market, though bankers have told Reuters that MDM and Bank of Moscow are looking for smaller loans.
(Reuters)

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Polish Gas Contract to 2035
WARSAW — Poland may prolong its gas contract with Russia until 2035, the prime minister’s energy adviser was quoted as saying Friday.
Maciej Wozniak, who advises Prime Minister Donald Tusk, told Rzeczpospolita newspaper that Poland also expected to increase its gas usage by nearly 30 percent to 18 billion cubic meters by 2015. Asked whether Poland would prolong the contract until 2035, Wozniak said, “We can agree to the contract’s extension.”
(Reuters)

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Standard’s Troika Stake
Standard Bank Group, Africa’s largest bank, said Friday that it had no immediate plans to increase its stake in Troika Dialog.
“We have no plans at present to increase our stake,” Erik Larsen, a spokesman for the lender, said in an e-mail. “We are still awaiting regulatory approval for our 33 percent stake.”
Kommersant reported that Standard Bank was interested in taking a bigger stake in Troika, citing an interview with the lender’s CEO, Jacko Maree. According to Larsen, Maree said although the bank would have liked a larger stake, it was “important that Troika be controlled by the local Russian shareholder.”
(Bloomberg)