Page 113 - RPTRusFeb17

Uzbekistan on the grounds of its asset, Akhangarancement, located in Tashkent Region, RIA Novosti reported on February 15 citing the company’s vice president for policy and production, Sergey Marchenkov. Uzbekistan is trying to increase its cement output to 8.9mn tonnes/year by 2019, with statistics showing it successfully met its target of increasing its cement output to 7.9mn tonnes/year in 2015 from 7.5mn in 2014. Cement accounts for 76% of the construction materials industry in the country. National cement output more than doubled from 3.7mn tonnes in 2002 to 7.5mn tonnes in 2014. Set for completion by 2020, the new plant’s planned annual capacity would amount to 2.4mn tonnes/year, the report said. Eurocement Group bought 75% of Akhangarancement, Uzbekistan’s largest cement producer, in 2006.
Russia's Polyus Gold increased net IFRS profit 1.5-fold to RUB95.3bn (€1.6bn) in 2016, the company said on February 21. Revenues increased by 22% year-on-year to RUB163bn. Most of the revenues came from a 22% increase in gold sales (RUB161bn), while in absolute values the sales grew by 8% to 1.9mn ounces, pointing to gold price growth in 2016. Adjusted Ebitda of Polyus came in at RUB102.2bn in 2016 versus RUB78bn. The company also attributed the growth in Ebitda to lower costs. Net debt of Polyus Gold as of end of 2016 jumped to $3.24bn from $364mn at the end of 2015, due to its share buyout programme. Polyus is now looking to hold an SPO with one or more anchor investors , Interfax reported on January 24. The company's management is said to be considering several options, including a direct sale of a stake to a strategic investor, and an SPO without anchor investors.
Tajikistan’s heavily indebted aluminium producer Talco has relieved Russian fertiliser producer Rusal of its Sozidanie business center and Hyatt Regency Hotel - the two remaining assets of the company in the country - EurasiaNet reported on February 15. The transaction brings an end to the longstanding row between Tajikistan and Rusal, which is owned by Russian billionaire Oleg Deripaska. In 2013, a Swiss arbitration court awarded Rusal $275mn after ruling that Talco had violated a 2003 barter agreement with the Russian company’s subsidiary, Hamer Investing. Hamer supplied Talco with alumina, as Tajikistan can not mine the chemical compound. Talco, which runs the largest aluminium smelter in Central Asia, takes advantage of low electricity tariffs to import alumina, process it and export it in the form of refined aluminium. The Swiss arbitration decision was deemed to carry no legal weight in Tajikistan. To do so, it would have to be confirmed for Rusal in the country’s Supreme Economic Court, which in Tajikistan is an extension of the president’s office. Thus, the issue led to more negotiations.
9.2.12 Other sector corporate news
Power Machines (Silovye Mashiny), a leading Russian producer and supplier of equipment for power plants, last year posted the sharpest decline in its sales value in a decade, Vedomosti daily reported on February 14. The poor performance was caused by the devaluation of the US dollar against the ruble and failure to secure contracts in South East Asia, the company said. Sales were at the same level as the previous year at $5.5bn (€5.2bn), but their ruble value declined by 16.8% from RUB401.11bn to RUB333.61bn as the US dollar lost value last year. Vedomosti quoted Power Machines' director for economics and finances Vadim Chechnev as saying the company expected to obtain sizeable contracts for supply of equipment for thermal power plants in Vietnam and Bangladesh, but potential customers
113 RUSSIA Country Report February 2017 www.intellinews.com