Business in Brief

6.0% GDP Forecast

The government expects the economy to grow by 6.0 percent this year, Interfax reported, citing Economic Development and Trade Minister German Gref.

Gref also said the government had earlier raised its 2005 economic growth forecast to 5.9 percent from 5.6 percent, Interfax reported.

Russian industrial output rose 0.8 percent in July, putting the annual growth rate at 4.9 percent, Gref said.

Russia's economic growth accelerated in the first half to 5.6 percent as crude oil prices rose to a record, Gref said in June.

Increased manufacturing, led by machinery output, helped lift growth from 5 percent in the first quarter. (Bloomberg)

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Gazprom H1 Profit Soars

Gas monopoly Gazprom said on Monday that its first-half net profit under Russian Accounting Standards rose 40.7 percent to 88.45 billion rubles ($3.12 billion), boosted by higher prices.

Sales were up 35.8 percent to 595.54 billion rubles, Gazprom said.

Second-quarter net profit fell 11.52 percent from the first quarter of 2005 due to seasonal factors as sales to Europe, the former Soviet Union and Russia fell after the end of the heating season, Gazprom said. (Reuters)

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September Oil Exports

Russia will cut pipeline crude oil exports from the Black Sea port of Novorossiisk in September due to planned maintenance on a pipeline but will boost shipments from the Baltic Sea's Primorsk.

Traders said on Monday a very preliminary plan by pipeline monopoly Transneft showed Novorossiisk would export 3.65 million tons (890,000 barrels per day), down from 3.89 million tons (920,000 bpd) in August.

Primorsk will boost shipments to 4.9 million (1.2 million bpd), up from 4.83 million tons (1.14 million bpd) in August. (Reuters)

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Sibneft H1 Profit Up

Sibneft reported a net profit of 21.264 billion rubles ($749.1 million) for the first half of 2005 on Monday, up from 20.642 billion rubles in the same period of last year.

The firm, controlled by Roman Abramovich, said that sales rose to 110.978 billion rubles in the period, up from 81.844 billion rubles in the first six months of 2004.

Cost of sales and services rose to 61.370 billion rubles from 43.508 billion rubles. (Reuters)

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St. Pete Workers to Strike

Dock workers at St. Petersburg Sea Port, part of Russia's largest port complex on the Baltic Sea, are set to strike Aug. 30 because of disputes over new contracts, a local union leader said.

Workers at three of the four largest docking companies at St. Petersburg Sea Port plan to strike, Alexander Moiseyenko, the chairman of the port's labor unions committee, said Monday. (Bloomberg)

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VSMPO-Avisma Expands

VSMPO-Avisma, the world's largest titanium producer, has acquired five companies based in the Perm region, the company said Monday.

VSMPO-Avisma now owns 100 percent stakes in each of five companies: Avisma-TransAvto, Avisma-Mashinostroitel, Avisma-MetrATek, Avisma-TekhnoEkspert and Avisma-Kombinat Pitaniya.

VSMPO-Avisma said that it had not held any shares in these companies before the deal. VSMPO-Avisma was established in early 2005 as a result of the merger between Sverdlovsk region-based Verkhnesaldinsk smelter, or VSMPO, with AVISMA Titanium-Magnesium Works. (Prime-Tass)

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Norilsk Q2 Profit Down

Mining giant Norilsk Nickel on Monday reported a 37 percent year-on-year drop in second-quarter net profit due to the transfer of a stake in fellow miner Gold Fields to a subsidiary.

The world's biggest nickel company said in a report that net profit to Russian Accounting Standards shrank to 9.6 billion rubles ($338.3 million) in the period from 15.3 billion rubles in the second quarter of 2004.

The company had previously said it expected net profit to be lower because of the transaction.

Norilsk transferred its 20 percent stake in Gold Fields, a South African gold major, to gold unit Polyus as part of a plan to create a major international gold company with a Western listing. (Reuters)

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MICEX Buys Bourse

The Moscow Interbank Currency Exchange, or MICEX, has bought a 51 percent stake in Russia's Asian Pacific Interbank Currency Exchange, MICEX said Monday.

Under the agreement between MICEX and the shareholders of the exchange, MICEX bought 10,774 shares, which have a total face value of 2.424 million rubles ($85,653), MICEX said.

MICEX currently holds stakes in several regional exchanges in Russia.

Asian Pacific Interbank Currency Exchange, established in 1992 by regional commercial banks and registered in Vladivostok, is the leading exchange in the Far East Federal District, which is open to trades in currency, securities and other financial instruments. Other shareholders of the exchange include Russian minor banks and companies. (Prime-Tass)

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Guatemala Sugar Imports

TAIPEI, Taiwan -- Sugar exporter Guatemala hopes to make significant inroads into Russia by negotiating tariff-free sugar imports this year, industry officials said on Monday.

Guatemala, the sixth-biggest sugar exporter in 2004 according to the International Sugar Organization, hopes to agree on tariff-free exports with Russia in October, said GuatemalaSugar Association Armando Boesche. (Reuters)

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Hryvna Soars Against Dollar

KIEV -- Ukraine's Central Bank intervened again on the currency market it closely controls on Monday, buying dollars at 4.98 hryvnas, the same rate as Friday.

The bank intervened four days in a row last week, in effect allowing the hryvna to drift slowly upward after it broke through the barrier of 5 to the dollar. It bought the U.S. currency at 4.99 on Thursday and 4.98 on Friday.

The hryvna is at its highest level since 1999.

For weeks, the bank tried to hold the rate at 5.01 after engineering a three percent rise in its value in a single day, undermining confidence in the market. (Reuters)

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Moscow Credit Bank Loan

Moscow Credit Bank plans to take out a $25 million, one-year syndicated loan, a banking source said.

The lead managers of the loan are German banks Bankgesellschaft Berlin and Commerzbank, as well as Britain's Standard Bank, the source said. The banks are expected to sign up for the loan before Aug. 30.

Moscow Credit Bank is expected to use the loan to provide financing for small and medium-sized businesses. (Prime-Tass)