Head of Sverdlovsk Region Government Viktor Koksharov held a meeting on the region’s industrial development with a number of other officials, including First Deputy Head of Sverdlovsk Region Government and Minister for Industry and Science Anatoly Gredin, the representatives of the Federal Taxation Service’s regional division, and some business executives.

One of the points on the meeting’s agenda had to do the agreements existing between Maxi Group and Novolipetsk Iron & Steel Works (NLMK). Viktor Koksharov observed the Group’s stockholders’ efficient interaction was a crucial factor in keeping the company’s 15,000 workers employed.

Meanwhile, Maxi Group and NLMK, the enterprise’s majority stockholder (who has 50% plus one share of the business) accused Nikolai Maximov, a minority shareholder, of failing to meet the terms of the agreement signed at the end of 2007, and placed the claim against the man with the arbitration court. Nikolai Maximov, in his turn, placed his claim with the court of Yekaterinburg’s Kirovskiy district, insisting that the company should pay him 1.4 billion RUR, that is, the remainder of the sum he lent the company in January 2008. Maxi Group nevertheless insists that the better part of the money (5.9 billion RUR) was actually withdrawn by Maximov, the company’s President at the moment, in February 2008. The businessman obviously disagrees with the claim and has already taken the case to Yekaterinburg’s Kirovskiy court.