News & Analysis » Russia

MMK, TMK, KamAZ, Volgatelecom news briefs

By Finam

- MMK expects stronger revenue, margins and selling prices. Russia’s largest steel maker Magnitogorsk Metallurgical Plant expects stronger revenue in 4Q and in 2H 2009 on the back of improved trends on the metal product market hit with the crisis. The company controlled by its chairman Victor Rashnikov projects a 15% q-o-q rise in revenue in 4Q 2010, the metal maker’s CFO Oleg Fedonin said at a conference call on Friday. MMK’s revenue in July-September reached USD 1.4 bn. According to the chief financial officer, the company’s revenue in 2H 2009 will climb 50% on January-June when this metric slightly exceeded USD 2.9 bn and EBITDA margin will reach 27%. MMK expects output in October-December at 2.3 mn tons on expectations of higher metal product prices. All in all, marketable metal product output is expected at 8.75 mn tons. Last year, this metric amounted to 10.9 mn tons of metal products.

- TMK is looking to place a RUB 30 bn exchange-traded bond. One of the world’s largest pipe makers TMK has adopted a decision on placement of 3-year exchange-traded bonds for a total of RUB 30 bn, the company said. Series BO-01 and BO-02 bonds will be worth RUB 5.0 bn each and series BO-03 and BO-04 – RUB 10 bn each.

- KamAZ promises RUB 20 bn investments until 2014. The largest Russian truck producer KamAZ intends to invest RUB 19.7 bn in development of new Euro-4 and Euro-5 engines, a new cabin, axle and gearbox by 2014, the company said. In 2010, investments will amount to RUB 3.7 bn. The head of Rostekhnologii, which currently owns a 37.8% stake in the truck maker, Sergey Chemezov told journalists that the investment program will be financed using “those funds which we will earn”. “It will also be necessary to attract credit resources in order to develop a car”, he said and added that this will require RUB 4-4.5 bn in credits. In a separate development, KamAZ said in a press release that recovery on the car market is only expected in 3Q 2010. “As a matter of fact, a recession on the domestic car market is over and in November car sales for the first time since the crisis broke out rose 15%”, the press release says.

- Volgatelecom generates 9M 2009 net profit of RUB 2.8 bn. Net profit earned by regional telecom operator Volgatelecom, drafted to IAS, totaled RUB 2.8 bn in January-September 2009, the telecom carrier said in a financial statement. Revenues of Volgatelecom, which releases its IAS-drafted financials for the first time, came to RUB 24.3 bn, operating profit amounted to RUB 5.14 bn and operating expenses totaled RUB 19.12 bn. As for Volgatelecom’s revenue mix, 35% falls to local voice services, 18% to datacom and Internet access and 14% to intrazonal and mobile services.