Last week the mobile retail business appeared to be mostly rich in news. The operator Tele2 announced at its web-site that the Svyaznoy retailer stopped selling its sim-cards and accepting payments from subscribers in St.Petersburg and Leningrad region. According to the experts’ data, the companies stopped cooperating in some other Russian regions as well.
At the same time it also became known that the operator Tele2 would be engaged in developing the traditional selling channels. The company signed a new marketing agreement with Euroset company. The retailer is obliged to sell 30 000 contracts of this operator per month. Not only will this contract bring Euroset up to $720 000 per month, but will also end the conflicts between the retailer and Tele2.
Euroset also singed a marketing agreement with its other main competitors – Vympelkom and Megafon.
The first set of assize between MTS and Euroset, who broke up their relations in April, was won by the operator. The court decreed to exact 272.3 million rubles of Euroset’s debt of the delivered iPhones. Alexander Malis, the president of Euroset, informed that the company would appeal, but in case the final decision wasn’t in Euroset’s favour, it would certainly pay.
MTS, which bought the Eldorado mobile stores in spring, arranged creating the brand areas at the retailer’s supermarkets. The agreement stipulated establishing all areas in Eldorado hypermarkets, where telephones and notebooks are sold, as well as the entrance and cash-desk areas with MTS logo, and holding the joint advertising and promotion actions.
It became known that the mobile retailer MTS and X5 Retail Group are holding the negotiations on creating a virtual mobile operator. MTS will provide traffic at a wholesale price, and X5 will undertake marketing and sales.
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Last week the selling network Kopeika informed that it was ready to pledge the control stock of the operational company – Kopeika-Moskva Ltd. — and about 50 000 square meters of mortgage in order to receive a Sberbank credit a 2 billion rubles and pass an offer on bonds.
GK Diksi declared the results of its work within the first half of 2009. The retailer’s receipts increased to 16% in rubles and came up to 26 751 million rubles.
The management company Kapital addressed the Moscow Arbitrage Court with a claim against the Seventh Continent a 410 million rubles. The company is one of the holders of the retailer’s second-series bonds. In June Raiffeisenbank also registered a claim to the Seventh Continent on the securities a 585.34 million rubles.
On Wednesday Alexander Mamut became owner of 61% of Spar Moscow Holding, which opens the product stores in Russia under the license of the Dutch network Spar. His company ANN received more than 25% of Spar as a compensation of Dmitry Budakov’s debt, the company’s ex-owner. Another 36% were bought additionally.
The exact date, when the hypermarket network Lenta will change its general director, became known. On September, 1st Ian Dunning, the present head of the Ukrainian Metro Cash&Carry, will take this position. The candidacy of Ian Dunning was discussed on June 30th, at the special meeting of the Lenta shareholders. He was appointed general manager of Metro Cash&Carry Ukraine in April 2009.
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Since the beginning of the year MIR, the network of technical and electronic household equipment, has closed approximately 30% of its stores, thus limiting their number from 72 to 56. Another three shopping centers of the total size a 6800 square meters will be closed at the beginning of August in Yekaterinburg. As the representatives of the companies explained, they didn’t manage to reach an agreement with the owners of the trading places about the rental fees a 3-5% of the store turnover.
The Tverskoy court arrested Sergey Bobylyov, general director of Sunrise group of companies (a network of electronic equipment stores). By decreeing such decision, the court agreed with the prosecution arguments that Mr Bobylyov accused in swindle threatened the witnesses and the injured, released assets from the company and counteracted the inquest.
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Vladimir Nekrasov, the owner of the trade network Arbat Prestige, and Sergey Shneider (also known as Semyon Mogilevich), an authoritative businessman, were released from prison.
Vladimir Nekrasov released from custody demanded more than 610 million rubles from his own company. He addressed Arbat and Co Ltd., an operational company of the holding being under the bankruptcy process, with a demand of this sum. Vladimir Nekrasov might become one of its major creditors, which will make control over the bankruptcy process easier for the holding. The main asset of the network, all stores of which are already closed, is still the Arbat Prestige trademark.
The main management office of the Ministry of Internal Affairs in the Central Federal District declared the end of the investigation of the case of Vladimir Nekrasov, the owner of the broken network Arbat Prestige, and the businessman Sergey Shneider accused of grand company tax evasion.
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The Chinese government delegation, which arrived in Russia due to the closure of the Cherkizovskiy market, didn’t manage to receive a decision of their compatriots’ problems, who stayed without a job and goods, from the Russian government. The Chinese officials hold a series of private meetings, since the members of the Chinese delegation “realized their vulnerable position” and were afraid of “a boom of migration phobia”.
The Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs declared that the scandal around the Cherkizovskiy market “shouldn’t negatively effect the development of the trade and economical co-operation between Russia and China”. The Chinese party confirmed the “achievement of consensus on the question about Cherkizovskiy market”.
The closure of Cherkizovskiy market also affected the regional sellers. Many of them had to start selling more expensive goods. But in some cases the closure of Cherkizovskiy and Izmailovskiy markets became a reason to re-write the price tags on the quiet.
There appeared some news concerning the project, which might appear at the place of the Cherkizovskiy market in Moscow. The press service of the Moscow Eastern Administrative District informed that the planning project of the public center was accepted 18 months ago.
But at the same time the Chinese delegation arranged building a shopping center in Moscow for the Chinese living in Russia. Several areas of the total size from 40 to 60 hectares are considered for building, including the territories of the Cherkizovskiy market.
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In spite of difficult economic circumstances for developing the retail projects, new clothes projects continue to appear in the two capital cities, and the old ones continue to develop.
The Russian producer of Arbus clothes decided to develop its own retail business. In July the company opened its first store in St.Petersburg and informed that it would launch another selling point till the end of the year.
Leonid Alekseev, a designed from St.Petersburg, registered a new clothes trade mark and is going to open the first Anten store for selling it.
In 2009 the store network had a quarter-size growth by increasing the stores number from 13 till 17. Another network store will open in Khimki at the beginning of August.
The digest was prepared by Retailer.RU and was translated by iTrex company. Itrex is a translation bureau. It offers written and oral translation, notary certification and a lot more. Itrex does work with every language: European, Eastern languages and others. Itrex does work with every topic: technical, legal, financial, business, etc.
