The Leningrad Region Inter-Governmental Commission approved of allocation of the land plot for construction by LSR Group of the ceramic brick production works. A new works should become the biggest in Russia.

The new works will be included into Pobeda LSR Association, the biggest ceramic brick manufacturer in Russia. The enterprise will be located at the area of some 40 ha in the Kirov District, Leningrad Region, near the Chkalovskoye field of blue Cambrian clay. The Chkalovskoye clay pit is also owned by LSR Group.

Capacity of the new works will amount to 220 million pieces of conventional bricks a year, which would enable Pobeda LSR Association to manufacture some 300 million pieces of conventional bricks a year in the future. The new works would ensure production of cheaper and higher quality bricks using modern technologies.

Investments into this project would exceed RUB 5 billion. The production facilities are to be commissioned in 2009.

The primary products of the new enterprise will comprise facing bricks and other ceramic products. The plan is to sell it on markets of not only St. Petersburg and the North West but also of the Moscow Region, other regions of the Russian Federation and the CIS.

«The most cutting-edge technologies, low cost of raw materials and high automation of production facilities make out new brick works the most efficient enterprise of the industry in Russia and would strengthen positions of LSR Group as the Russian construction industry leader», noted Igor Levit, General Manager of LSR Group.

LSR Group is the leading player of Russia's construction industry. Its core lines of business are production of construction materials, real estate construction and development.

IAS consolidated statements of LSR Group was certified by KPMG. According to these, LSR Group turnover in 2005 amounted to some RUB 15.6 billion. In the first half of 2006, this parameter amounted to RUB 9.3 billion, which is almost twice as high as in 1H05. EBIT in the first half of the current year came to RUB 721 million, and net profit stood at RUB 500 million.

A considerable portion of LSR Group business (a bit more than a half) is in the field of production of construction materials, so the Group is not so susceptible to pricing risks existing on the real estate market.