In early May, Norilsk Nickel offered 5.3 billion Canadian dollars ($4.77 billion) for 100% of LionOre shares, beating Xstrata’s offer of $4 billion. The latter had until May 14 to think about it, and decided to continue bargaining. Yesterday, Xstrata announced that it had raised its offer to buy LionOre from 18.5 to 25 Canadian dollars per share. Based on Xstrata’s new offer, all of LionOre is valued at 6.2 billion Canadian dollars ($5.6 billion). The offer is valid until May 25.

“ Novatek ” – “Troika Dialog” Troika Dialog has raised its recommendation on Novatek shares to “buy” from “hold,” leaving the target price unchanged at $6.45. Novatek’s capital expenditures and operating expenses will increase, planned production growth this year is modest, free cash flows in 2007–2008 will likely be lower than in 2006, and the industry’s tax burden may increase, analysts warn.

Rosneft reported its defeat in the Total lawsuit yesterday in its annual US GAAP report. It said that at the beginning of the year, Total received a court decision requiring Rosneft to compensate it for $116 million in damages under the 2002 agreement to purchase a stake in Taimyrneft. The damages are to be collected “with interest” – 6.5% per annum from December 31, 2004 until the payment date, Rosneft noted in the report.

Last year, both leading Russian investment banks negotiated a sale. VTB President Andrey Kostin admitted the state bank's interest in Renaissance and Troika. Investment bankers said that VTB offered $4 billion for Renaissance, and Vardanyan said he had three offers to sell Troika for $2–3 billion. Both refused to sell their companies. Vardanyan promised to return to this conversation in two or three years. Jennings, however, is thinking about an IPO, several investment bankers told Vedomosti.

Ralph Lauren has arrived in Moscow – “style guru”, “the most successful designer in the USA”, “the man who dressed America”, etc., etc.

The idea of ​​microblogging, embodied by the Twitter service (www.twitter.com), which I wrote about a month ago, turned out to be so popular that followers immediately began to appear. Twitter allows you to blog - or rather, even microblog - on the Internet, sending messages to the site in the form of SMS from any mobile phone and receiving messages from other users on it in the form of SMS. A service with a funny name for us has appeared in Finland – Jaiku (www.jaiku.com).

Yesterday, Rice wrapped up her two-day visit to Russia with a joint press conference with Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. All of the head of the State Department’s meetings were held behind closed doors. On Monday evening, she dined with First Deputy Prime Minister Sergey Ivanov. In the morning, she met with five “civil society representatives” at the US Embassy mansion, and then held talks with President Vladimir Putin and Lavrov.

Yesterday morning, city administration representatives headed by Vladimir Antonov, deputy chairman of the committee for improvement and road management, drove construction equipment to the concrete fence of the third stage of the Moby Dik terminal, which dismantled part of the barrier, said a representative of the press service of the Federal State Enterprise “North-West Directorate of Rosstroy - Directorate of the Complex of Protective Structures of St. Petersburg from Floods”.

President Putin promised only 1.5 billion rubles and only for 2006-2007 to the St. Petersburg Higher School of Management when laying its cornerstone; after that, allegedly, there is uncertainty. Allegedly, because entrepreneurs were supposed to help establish the school, which Putin clearly stated in the same speech. It seems, well, what is there to worry about after such definite words from the president?

The festival's favorites in advance this time include, in addition to Wong Kar-wai, the master of thrillers, the American David Fincher with his film about a maniac, "Zodiac", Emir Kusturica with his tragicomedy "Testament", the scandalous Austrian Ulrich Seidl, whose new film is called "Import-Export", the even more scandalous Frenchwoman Catherine Breillat, whose "Old Mistress" will certainly shock the audience, the still fashionable in the festival environment Korean Kim Ki-duk, whose 14th

The first “Shrek” was celebrated in Cannes, the second broke all box office records in animation, so it’s worth recalling the content of the previous series only in a few words: Shrek married the enchanted princess, Shrek met his father-in-law and mother-in-law. Now it’s time to have children – an obvious scheme, but not exactly hackneyed in animation, where family issues are usually not posed so specifically.

Today, RESO-Garantiya intends to announce an agreement with a major international investor. The company's deputy general director, Igor Ivanov, refused to explain the essence of this agreement. One of the investment bankers assures that the minority stake in the insurer will go to the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD). The EBRD itself declined to comment, but did not deny participating in today's event with RESO.

The head of the security service of the president of Turkmenistan, Lieutenant General Akmurad Rejepov, has been relieved of his post due to a transfer to another job, RIA Novosti reported, citing Turkmen television. According to the agency, Rejepov's new place of work was not named by Turkmen television. Redzhepov began guarding the previous president of Turkmenistan, Saparmurat Niyazov, back in 1990.

In early 2007, the Nizhny Novgorod UFAS instructed the regional traffic police department to hold violators of the ban on the use of mobile billboards administratively liable. In late April, the traffic police department for the Nizhny Novgorod region sent a written report to the UFAS, stating that it often could not identify the owner of the billboard: the cars did not have license plates or inscriptions indicating the owner.

The Scientific and Technical Center "Rodos" complained to the FAS about ZMZ. "Rodos" produces components for engines, including ZMZ (the plant uses products from another supplier). But dealers, as stated in its statement, refuse to sell "Rodos" products because of an additional agreement with ZMZ, according to which they "will be deprived of a dealer discount if they sell competitive products," said the head of the FAS department, Alexey Ulyanov.