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Microcap & Penny Stocks : HGRM--Any Followers? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Jim Burnham who wrote (2817)	7/2/1999 12:06:00 AM
From: Ted M	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 3576

Update on IMF activity: Wednesday June 30 4:48 PM ET IMF Praises Russia's Efforts Full Coverage Russia News By ANNA DOLGOV Associated Press Writer MOSCOW (AP) - The International Monetary Fund expressed satisfaction on Wednesday with the Russian government's efforts to revive its economy, indicating it might soon release an emergency loan. A formal outline of the government's economic policy - which will largely determine whether Moscow would get foreign lending - has also received preliminary approval from the IMF, said Russia's chief liaison with the fund, Mikhail Zadornov, according to the Interfax news agency. The IMF has tentatively agreed to lend Russia $4.5 billion, which Moscow needs to pay off old debts due this year to the fund. But release of the money is conditional on the implementation of a number of economic reforms. Many of the measures have been approved, but an important part of the package - a bill that would have imposed a new tax on gas stations - was defeated by the Russian parliament. Government officials said they have suggested other sources for increasing revenues, which are likely to satisfy the IMF. Prime Minister Sergei Stepashin said Moscow has fulfilled 90 percent of the fund's requirements, and the visiting IMF mission was ''even very surprised'' at how much the government has done, Interfax reported from Vienna, Austria. Stepashin traveled to Austria on Wednesday to attend an economic forum in Salzburg. A decision on whether to resume lending to Russia may be expected in late July, the Interfax news agency reported. ''We see rather good successes of the government and the (Central) Bank of Russia regarding those measures on which we have agreed and are ready for further discussion,'' said the head of the visiting IMF mission, Gerard Belanger, according to the ITAR-Tass news agency. Without IMF lending, Russia may be forced to print money on a grand scale and possibly impose currency controls - further impoverishing millions of Russians and reversing post-Soviet economic liberalization. Despite the Cabinet's efforts, tax collection remains hampered by widespread evasion and fraud. Russian individuals and organizations owe the government a total of $12 billion, said Alexei Ageyev, first deputy chief of the tax police. Meeting another of the IMF's demands, Russia pulled the licenses from four insolvent banks. The dissolution of one of them, the Moscow-controlled Mosbiznesbank, could lead to the city defaulting on upcoming Eurobond payments. The city government could be held liable for nearly $300 million of the liquidated bank's debts, Interfax said, citing an unnamed city official. Paying those debts could make the city unable to pay off its own debts, including $500 million in Eurobond payments, the official said. In addition to pulling Mosbiznesbank's license, the Central Bank's board of directors voted to close Uneximbank, Promstroibank and Mezhkombank. Earlier Stories IMF To Review Russia's Economy (June 28)

To: Jim Burnham who wrote (2817)	7/13/1999 9:52:00 AM
From: Bob Smith	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 3576

I would think this must be considered good news for HGRM since "alcohol products less than 80% strong" are covered under the Russia 601 Government Decree. Tuesday, July 13, 1999 Demand Outpaces Breweries By Mitchell Landsberg THE ASSOCIATED PRESS KLIN, Central Russia -- The Klinsky Beer Factory has all the attributes of a modern brewery - vast copper kettles, shiny, stainless steel fermentation tanks, a bustling, automated bottling line. There's just one thing missing - a warehouse. But the brewery doesn't need a warehouse. It can't make beer fast enough to fill one. Even though the brewery is expanding as fast as it possibly can, a motley fleet of battered trucks is lined up outside its brick walls every day to haul the beer off to market the minute it is bottled. What's happening in Klin, a sleepy, provincial town 90 kilometers north of Moscow, is typical of what's happening throughout Russia. Russians, especially younger people, are drinking more beer. Breweries, scrambling to meet demand, are in a nearly unique position in Russia. They constitute a growth industry, fueled by increased competition and better beer. "Last year, the rate of growth of our brewery was 160 percent,'' said Olga Gulina, a spokeswoman for the Klinsky factory. Some other Russian breweries did even better - and this in spite of the dilapidated state of the economy. There is even talk, perhaps premature, of a generational shift from vodka to beer. It's hard to conceive of anything that could wean Russians off vodka. But just such a shift is occurring in Poland, another vodka-swilling country, and some economists predict it will happen here too. "It's a natural progression," said Hans Christian Jacobsen, a director of agribusiness for the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, which has invested nearly $100 million in Russian breweries. In emerging markets, Jacobsen said, consumers often switch from hard liquor to beer. All this bubbling fermentation has drawn international beer companies to Russia, where a battle is shaping up for shares of the growing market. A Scandinavian consortium has a jump on the competition with Baltika, the country's best-selling beer, which is brewed in St. Petersburg and is the closest thing Russia has to a national brand. SUN Interbrew, a recently formed alliance of Indian and Belgian interests, is challenging Baltika's dominance through a chain of regional breweries - soon to include the Klinsky plant - and is laying plans for a national brand of its own. Other players include Turkey's Efes, which just opened its own factory in Moscow, and South Africa Breweries, which recently bought a brewery in Kaluga. The cutthroat competition is bringing something new to Russian consumers - decent beer. In the Soviet era, beer was unpasteurized, uninspiring and often unavailable. It was usually terrible - and that was if you were lucky enough to find it. It is no surprise, then, that Russians drink far less beer than most Europeans or Americans. Per capita beer consumption is 19 liters per year, compared to 83 liters per year in the United States and 129 liters per year in Germany. At their best, the new Russian beers are as good or better than most imports and cost a fraction of the price. The Klinsky plant has a small marketing department that has produced billboards and market displays, but the firm hasn't done any television ads and doesn't plan to soon. "The situation is such that we can't meet the demand," Gulina said. "So to put our money into advertising makes no sense."