Baltika’s common stock price drops 10.5%

‘A lot of Chelyabinsk dwellers are suffering from alcoholism, and some special attention needs to be paid to the so-called beer alcoholism,’ Vladimir Bogomolov, the director of Wings, an autonomous non-profit organization, said to UrBC. He reported beer alcoholism was widely spread among teenagers. ‘Beer makers target their ads at the younger generation, and some retail outlets (whose licenses must no doubt be annulled) sell beer to minors. Beer is just too easily available these days; the kind made by Baltika (the main beer supplier in the Southern Urals) falls right into the price segment

Baltika beer is now missing from quite a few of Yekaterinburg’s pubs and bars for reasons related not only to the product’s quality and market positioning but also to the fact that the supplier’s terms appear to be less advantageous than what their rivals offer. ‘We do not work with Baltika because we prefer to cooperate with suppliers who offer better terms,’ says Alexander Zhulanov, who runs Out sports bar. As a matter of fact, you will no longer find Baltika beer on the menu of many local cafes and bars. Moreover, the brand does not seem to be very popular even with customers of strong

People who leave their comments on the beer-lovers’ site don’t speak very highly of Baltika’s produce, complaining of some strange addle and a strong metallic after-taste. The online commentators believe Baltika is popular with low-income population groups; this is particularly true of Baltika No. 9, they say. ‘It’s all alcohol and you just can’t drink it. Even plain alcohol would be better than Baltika No.9,’ one regular user’s comment says. Some less strong beer kinds, like Baltika Lite, for instance, appear to leave customers disappointed as well: ‘It has no smell, it has no taste, it’s

Most of Russian blue chips kept going down on May 24, 2007: they were .9% to 4.1% less expensive at both RTS and MICEX as early as 10.45 AM; RTS and MICEX indices dropped down to 1,792.45 and 1,566.37 points, respectively. At MICEX, RAO UES of Russia’s shares (EESR) were sold 2.4% cheaper, those of LUKOIL (LKOH) became 1.8% less expensive, those of GazProm (GAZP) dropped by 2%, those of Norilsk Nickel (GMKN) dropped by 3.1%; the shares of SurgutNefteGas (SNGS) were sold 2.8% cheaper, the price of those of TatNeft (TATN) decreased by 1.4%, TransNeft’s shares (TRNF) went down by 4%.

On April 18, 2007, the Russian market of shares responded to the reduced American stock market indices and the drop in oil prices (now sold at $63.1 per barrel after the U.S. decided to produce more petrol to meet the current demand) by a decrease in all the blue chip prices. The market was slightly over 1,990 after the first two hours of business. In the afternoon, it kept going down due to intense activity in the Russian ADR sales sector and the still decreasing oil prices, reached the minimum of 1,967.32 points at the close of business and remained at a little less than 1,970 afterwards.