Ann Lee, What the U.S. Can Learn from China, at Golden Networking's China Leaders Forum 2012

Building off of the momentum of past conferences, Golden Networking brings back China Leaders Forum 2012 (www.ChinaLeadersForum.com), "Political and Economic Challenges for Xi Jinping, China's President-in-waiting", New York, December 7th.

New York City, NY, USA (November 16, 2012) -- Ann Lee, author of What the U.S. Can Learn from China, will speak at Golden Networking's China Leaders Forum 2012, "Political and Economic Challenges for Xi Jinping, China's President-in-waiting", December 7th, New York City, conference that will examine the political and economic challenges facing China nowadays and the long-term opportunities that will be created in the world's largest economy by 2016.

Professor Lee focuses on issues of global economics, finance, and U.S.-China relations. A former investment banker and hedge fund partner, she is a frequent media commentator on economic issues. In addition to television and radio appearances on MSNBC, Bloomberg, ABC, CBS, CNN, CNBC, Fox Business, and NPR, her op-eds have appeared in such publications as The New York Times,The Financial Times, The Wall Street Journal, Newsweek, Businessweek, Forbes, Harvard Business Review, The American Prospect, and The American Banker.

She has been quoted in hundreds of publications and has been an invited speaker at numerous industry and academic conferences. Ann is also an adjunct professor of economics and finance at New York University and a former visiting professor at Peking University where she taught macroeconomics and financial derivatives.

While she was teaching at Peking University, she also acted as an economic adviser to Chinese economic officials as well as to several large Chinese asset management firms. She was educated at U.C. Berkeley, Princeton University's Woodrow Wilson School of International Affairs, and Harvard Business School.

China Leaders Forum 2012 will provide attendees with the responses to the above-mentioned questions and the most up-to-date review of where the Asian giant stands and the challenges and opportunities for businessmen looking to expand their business with China when others only see growth contraction. Recognized experts, regulators, and strategists, will return to China Leaders Forum 2012 in its fourth edition to provide the information practitioners are looking for in an open and unbiased environment, highly conducive to the most efficient and effective networking:

Experts include:

- Mr. Peter Halasz, Partner, Schulte Roth & Zabel LLP

- Professor Robert Vambery, Professor of International Business, Pace University, Lubin School of Business

- Mr. Christopher Thorne, Principal, Broadline Principle

- Mr. John Allen, Chairman & CEO, Greater China Corporation

- Professor Xiaohong He, Professor of International Business, Lender School of Business Center, Quinnipiac University

- Edgar Perez, Author, The Speed Traders (Chinese)

- Mr. Duncan Edwards, President and Chief Executive, Hearst Magazines International

- Mr. David Riedel, President, Riedel Research Group

- Mr. Stuart Freedman, Partner, Schulte Roth & Zabel LLP

China Leaders Forum 2012 is produced by Golden Networking (http://www.goldennetworking.net), the premier networking community for business executives, entrepreneurs and investors. Panelists, speakers and sponsors are invited to contact Golden Networking by sending an email to info@goldennetworking.net.

Contact:
Julia Petrova
Media Relations Manager
Golden Networking
516-761-4712

Art Gallery Announces Stephen Dobson Now in Artist Showcase

Light Space & Time Online Art Gallery (LST) is very pleased to announce that fine art painter Stephen Dobson is now the gallery's featured artist.

Jupiter, Florida, USA - November 16, 2012 -- Light Space & Time Online Art Gallery (LST) is very pleased to announce that fine art painter Stephen Dobson is now the gallery's featured artist and he will be presented in the Light Space & Time's Artist Showcase for the next 30 days.

Stephen Dobson was originally born in Manchester, England prior to immigrating to Canada at a young age and is a self-taught artist who loves painting. He is a very prolific artist who developed a signature style early in his career and was invited to join the Stave Falls Artist Group becoming one of the original members in the group.

Stephen works primarily with oil paints, striving to find light and color using confident brushwork and commonly uses pallet knives and his fingers while painting. He always tries to express his feelings about what he paints and hopes to bring the observer closer to his thoughts about the people, places and things he observes in his daily life and especially in the way people interact with each other and their surroundings.

Stephen has had all of his submitted works accepted by the American Art Awards and has won a number of 1st and 3rd place awards in a variety of Painting categories for the last three years. This is a competition open to all artists from around the world and is juried by 25 well respected galleries, across the United States.

Stephen enjoys travelling throughout the area he lives in Southern British Columbia and especially the City of Vancouver and the Upper and Lower Fraser Valley where he always discovers something fresh to paint. Stephen's original paintings can be viewed in his home studio located in Mission, British Columbia. His work is held in a number of private collections throughout Canada, the United States and Europe. His website is http://www.stephendobson.com.

About Light Space & Time Online Art Gallery

Light Space & Time Online Art Gallery conducts monthly art competitions and monthly art exhibitions for new and emerging artists on a worldwide basis. It is Light Space & Time’s intention to showcase this incredible talent in a series of monthly themed art competitions and art exhibitions by marketing and displaying the exceptional abilities of these worldwide artists.

The art gallery website can be viewed here: http://www.lightspacetime.com

Media Contact:
John R. Math
Light Space & Time Online Gallery
118 Poinciana Drive
Jupiter, FL 33458
888-490-3530

NextPlane Now Offers Free Google Federation

NextPlane Takes the Pain out of Federating Microsoft OCS/Lync and IBM Sametime platforms with Google.

SUNNYVALE, Calif. (November 16, 2012) -- NextPlane, Inc., the market leader in cloud-based federation services for unified communications (UC), is now offering free Google federation to organizations using Microsoft OCS, Microsoft Lync, or IBM Sametime. NextPlane shortens the time it takes to setup federation with Google to less than a day, and eliminates the hassle of installing and configuring an XMPP gateway. NextPlane's cloud-based service does not require any on-premise hardware or software component.

Unlike using XMPP gateways from Microsoft or IBM, end-users benefit from a richer feature set, such as presence, and enhanced presence (custom presence states and activity-based presence). Moreover, IT organizations benefit from greater reliability and scalability, access to usage reports, and 24/7 service availability with no hidden costs. Google federation is being offered as part of free membership in UC Exchange, a cloud-based UC federation service that allows members to find, connect, and collaborate with other federation-ready organizations. Companies who upgrade to a paid subscription to the NextPlane UC Exchange federation service can access additional features including voice and video federation with Google (a feature unique to NextPlane), and federation with other UC platforms, social media, and Skype.

"Our free Google federation for organizations with a Microsoft or IBM unified communications platform gives users a significantly better real time collaboration experience." said Farzin Shahidi, founder and CEO of NextPlane. "By using NextPlane UC Exchange IT departments can go beyond the serious limitations of Inter-vendor UC interoperability solutions which are not being addressed by UC vendors."

In addition to the free Google federation service organizations can access to the UC Exchange Management Portal to search the UC Exchange Members Directory of over 100 'federation ready' organizations, accept inbound federation requests at a no additional charge, and get access to usage reports.

For more information, visit http://www.nextplane.net/get-started.php or contact sales at sales@nextplane.net.

About NextPlane

NextPlane Inc., is the provider of 'UC Exchange,' a cloud based community focused federation service for unified communications (UC). UC Exchange enables member organizations to find, connect, and collaborate with business partners across a wide range of UC platforms and includes powerful features such as UC Federation Services, centralized Members Directory, Social Media Federation, and Skype Federation. Using a unique federation management portal, organizations can search a member's directory for federation-ready partners; manage federation requests and access reporting and analytic tools.

UC Exchange Federation Services enable seamless federation across Microsoft Lync, OCS and LCS, Cisco Jabber XCP, Unified Presence Server (CUPS) and WebEx Messenger (formerly Cisco WebEx Connect), IBM Sametime, Google Apps, Jive OpenFire, Isode M-Link and eJabberd. Organizations can connect users from different companies regardless of their underlying UC platform - with enhanced presence, instant messaging, multi-user chat, voice and video - all as if they are on the same UC platform. Moreover, UC Exchange enables its member organizations to federate their UC platforms with social business communities such as Yammer, Salesforce.com's Chatter, Twitter, Skype, LinkedIn, and XMPP hosted chat rooms.

For more information please visit http://www.nextplane.net, or contact sales at sales@nextplane.net.

Contact:
Farzin Shahidi
NextPlane, Inc.
(650) 305-7404

Tom Woolf
Woolf Media & Marketing
(415) 259-5638

Forestry can help to Diversify Portfolio, says FRA

A recent article from GreenWorld BVI, calling for gold investors to supplement their portfolios with agriculture and forestry investment, has been endorsed by FRA.

Seattle, United States, November 16, 2012 -- A recent article from GreenWorld BVI, calling for gold investors to supplement their portfolios with agriculture and forestry investment, has been endorsed by Forestry Research Associates (FRA).

The main reason that GreenWorld gives for diversifying away from solely gold investment included the fact that gold does not pay an income until it is sold. It is also a "faith-based investment", as GeernWorld explained: "Gold is largely an economically unproductive asset."

Agriculture and forestry are alternative asset classes, as gold is, and they also tend to keep their value during times of economic turmoil and offer a buffer against inflation, like gold. However, through investing in managed forestry and agriculture projects, investors can also enjoy regular incomes. An example is the projects run by Greenwood Management in Brazil, claims FRA.

These projects are intended to offer mid-to long-term investment options for those who want to buy up their own piece of sustainable forestry. Through working with Greenwood Management, investors enjoy the benefits of having their own managed forest land, while receiving income in the form of payouts when trees are harvested in a cyclical process. The timberland is managed to ensure there is new growth to replace mature trees that are cut down and sold. Trees that are sold generate returns for investors, who also enjoy a pay out when their investment reaches maturity.

Investing in forestry is a good option for any risk-averse investors who want to diversify their portfolio further. Spreading investment between several different asset classes offers good protection against risk and forestry is one of the most risk-averse assets. This is because timber simply carries on growing in size and value all the time, so if the market conditions aren't right when investors want to sell, they can simply hang on a little longer and sell a larger product at a higher price.

About Forestry Research Associates

Forestry Research Associates is a research and advisory consultancy that focuses on forestry management, sustainability issues and forestry investment around the globe.

Media Contact:
Peter Collins
Forestry Research Associates
620 Vineyard Lane
Bainbridge Island, WA 98110
(206) 316 8394

URALCHEM HOLDING P.L.C. Reports the First Nine Months of Year 2012 Unaudited IFRS Financial Results

- Revenue increased to US $1,804 million, compared to US $1,556 million in the first nine months of 2011.
- Operating profit increased to US $553 million, compared to US $487 million in the first nine months of 2011.
- Adjusted EBITDA grew to US $632 million, compared to US $560 million in the first nine months of 2011.
- Net profit amounted to US $600 million, compared to US $318 million in the first nine months of 2011.

Moscow, Russia - November 16, 2012 -- URALCHEM HOLDING P.L.C. (hereinafter URALCHEM HOLDING or the Company), a Cypriot holding company of the URALCHEM Group (hereinafter called the Group), one of the largest producers of nitrogen and phosphate fertilisers in Russia, announced its unaudited IFRS financial results for the first nine months of 2012 ending 30 September 2012.

Key financial figures in the first nine months of 2012-2011
($ million
)


1st 9 Months of 2012
1st 9 Months of 2011
Year-on-Year change
Revenue
1,804
1,556
16%
Gross profit
1,041
899
16%
Gross profit margin
58%
58%
-
Operating profit
553
487
14%
Operating profit margin
31%
31%
-
Net profit
600
318
89%
Net profit margin
33%
20%
65%
Adjusted EBITDA
632
560
13%
Adjusted EBITDA margin
35%
36%
-3%
Cash generated from operating activities
472
330
43%

Dmitry Konyaev, CEO of URALCHEM, OJSC (part of the Group), commented on the results for the first nine months of 2012: "During nine months of this year the Company showed steady improvement of its financial performance compared to the results for the same period of 2011. To this contributed the acquisition earlier this year of another production unit, Minudobrenia, located in Perm and rising world prices for our main products, ammonia and urea. Looking back at the first nine months, we are optimistic about the full-year results for 2012."

Financial Results

Revenue in the first nine months of 2012 grew to US $1,804 million, compared to US $1,556 million in the first nine months of 2011. Operating profit amounted to US $553 million compared with operating profit of US $487 million in the first nine months of 2011. Operating profit margin amounted to 31% both in the first nine months of 2012 and in the same period of the previous year.

In the first nine months of 2012, net profit amounted to US $600 million, compared with US $318 million in the same period in 2011.

In the first nine months of 2012 adjusted EBITDA reached US $632 million compared to US $560 million for the same period last year, an increase of 13%. Adjusted EBITDA margin in the first nine months of 2012 comprised 35%, compared with 36% in the first nine months of 2011.

Markets

During the third quarter of 2012, price dynamics for fertilizers and intermediate products were different.

Prices for ammonia in the third quarter showed a significant increase due to growing demand and limited supply. During these three months, the price level rose by $50 / t, and reached $650 / t FOB Port of Yuzhny by the end of September.

In the absence of a strongly marked trend, the urea market was characterized by high volatility. Prices have not shown any significant increase or noticeable reduction, remaining within the limits of $360 to $400 / t FOB the ports of the CIS.

Ammonium nitrate prices mainly matched the dynamics of urea prices during the third quarter.

The global market for phosphate fertilizers in the third quarter of 2012 showed low levels of activity. In September, there has been a downward trend in prices amid a lack of demand in South Asia (India, Pakistan).

Sales

As the demand for the Group's products both in Russia and abroad was high and stable, the volume of sales in the first nine months of 2012 increased by 16% compared to the same period in 2011 and totalled 4,357 thousand tonnes for all products. Sales of urea, increased by 144%, largely contributed to the rise. Due to high demand in the ammonia market, sales of ammonia increased by 54%, while sales of ammonium nitrate decreased by 6%. Sales of "other chemicals" increased by 19%, mainly due to increased sales of ammonium nitrate for industrial use in the domestic market.

Sales of commercial products of the Group in the first nine months of 2012-2011
(thousands of tons)

Name of Product
1st 9 Months of 2012
1st 9 Months of 2011
Year-on Year Change
Ammonium nitrate and its derivatives
1,576
1,681
-6%
Urea
904
371
144%
Ammonia
503
327
54%
Phosphate fertilizers
344
399
-14%
NPK fertilizers
464
486
-5%
Other chemicals, including ammonium nitrate for industrial use
566
477
19%
Total
4,357
3,741
16%

Financial Situation

Increased revenues contributed to the increase of cash generated from operations to US $472 million in the first nine months of 2012 rise, compared to US $330 million in the same period last year.

As at September 30, 2012 the Company's net debt amounted to US $945 million. The weighted average interest rate in the loan portfolio during the first nine months of 2012 comprised 5.8% per annum compared to 7.9% in the same period last year.

For more information, please visit the company web site http://www.uralchem.com or use the following contact information:

PR department
URALCHEM, OJSC
Tel: +7 (495) 721 89 89

URALCHEM HOLDING P.L.C. is a holding company of the URALCHEM Group, which includes four fertilizer manufacturing facilities in Russia. URALCHEM Group is one of the largest producers of nitrogen and phosphate fertilisers in Russia and the CIS with production capacities of over 2.5 million tons of ammonium nitrate, 2.8 million tons of ammonia, 0.8 million tons of MAP and DAP, 0.8 million tons of complex fertilisers and 1.2 million tons of urea per year. URALCHEM Group is the second largest ammonium nitrate producer in the world and number one in Russia, the second largest producer of nitrogen fertilisers in Russia. URALCHEM Group’s key production assets include Azot Branch of URALCHEM, OJSC in Berezniki, Perm Region; OJSC Minudobrenia, Perm; MFP Kirovo-Chepetsk Chemical Works, OJSC, Kirovo-Chepetsk, Kirov region; Voskresensk Mineral Fertilisers, OJSC in Voskresensk, Moscow region.

Some of the information in this press release may contain projections or other forward-looking statements regarding future events or the future financial performance of URALCHEM. We wish to caution you that these statements are only predictions. We do not intend to update these statements and our actual results may differ materially from those contained in our projections or forward-looking statements, including, among others, the achievement of anticipated levels of profitability, growth, cost and synergy of our recent acquisitions, the impact of competitive pricing, the ability to obtain necessary regulatory approvals and licenses, the impact of developments in the Russian economic, political and legal environment, financial risk management and the impact of general business and global economic conditions.