OREANDA-NEWS. May 13, 2011. ITOCHU Corporation (headquartered in Minato-ku, Tokyo; Masahiro Okafuji, President & CEO; hereinafter ЃgITOCHUЃh) announced today that ITOCHU Technology Ventures, Inc. (headquartered in Minato-ku, Tokyo; Toshihisa Adachi, President & CEO; hereinafter ЃgITVЃh), a subsidiary of ITOCHU, completed the first closing of capital investment in the Technology Ventures III Venture Capital Investment Limited Partnership (hereinafter ЃgTV3Ѓh) as the general partner of the TV3, and established it with a total commitment of 5.4 billion yen. ITOCHU will invest one-third of that total, or 1.8 billion yen, in the TV3.

In addition to ITOCHU, the Organization for Small & Medium Enterprises and Regional Innovation Japan, large financial institutions including Mizuho Corporate Bank, Ltd.Ѓ@ and educational institutions have also committed to invest in the TV3. ITV plans to hold the second closing of the investment until the end of this year.

The Great East Japan Earthquake that struck March 11, 2011, has caused massive damage mainly to the coastal areas along eastern JapanЃfs Pacific seaboard. Normal economic activity and daily life in other areas was also disrupted by the disasterЃfs impact on systems such as logistics and social infrastructure.

Under such circumstances, need is growing for technologies to play substantial roles in areas such as post-disaster restoration, disaster prevention, Ѓgsmart citiesЃh, stable power supply and energy conservation. In Japan there is strong desire to create new innovative technologies and business models, mainly in information technology, that can be globally successful. ITOCHU and ITV are keenly watching the above-mentioned growth areas in addition to the traditional IT areas.

ITOCHU plans to actively promote commercialization of excellent technologies and business models innovated by the entities in which ITV is investing through activities such as international business development, aiming to contribute to the Japanese economyЃfs recovery and further growth.

ITV will seek to maximize the TV3Ѓfs investment performance by adding to the corporate value of the investee companies through provision of hands-on assistance. It will also bolster the supply of capital to initial stage venture businesses into which risk capital should fundamentally flow, in order to decisively extend support to optimum business models from a global perspective that encompasses Japan and broader areas. These effortsЃf outcomes are expected to foster innovative entrepreneurs in Japan who will be active on the global stage and to contribute to the recovery of Japan as an IT nation, as well as to the establishment of new Japanese brands and medium- to long-range expansion of employment opportunities.
OREANDA-NEWS. May 12, 2011. National Settlement Depository (NSD), Russia's only settlement depository servicing the full range of debt and equity securities of Russian issuers, reports that on 11 May it signed agreements for provision of transfer agent services with the following registers: VTB Registrar CJSC, PRC CJSC, REESTR OJSC, Reyestr-RN LLC, STATUS CJSC. The company also signed letters of intent with the following registrars: Irkol CJSC, CJSC "Computershare Registrar", "Noviy Registrator" JSC and Registrar NIKoil Company (JSC).

The signing ceremony has been held in NSD's office. Among NSD's representatives attending the ceremony were Eddie Astanin, Chairman of the Executive Board, Boris Cherkassky, Director for Strategy, and Alexei Zhinkin, Director for External Operations. The registrars were represented by Konstantin Petrov, Director General, VTB Registrar CJSC, Vladislav Moskalchuk, Director General, Irkol CJSC, Vadim Protasenko, Director General,  CJSC "Computershare Registrar", Rushaniya Barkhatova, Director General, "Noviy Registrator" JSC, Oleg Savitsky, Director General, PRC CJSC, Mikhail Lomakin, Director General, Registrar NIKoil Company (JSC), Yuri Taranovsly, Director General, REESTR OJSC, Vladimir Shakotko, Director General, Reyestr-RN LLC, and Mikhail Nedelsky, Director General, STATUS CJSC.

Eddie Astanin, Chairman of the Executive Board, NSD, said: "A signing of the agreements is aimed at improvement of efficiency and reduction of expenses related to the market's record keeping system using NSD as a "one stop shop" for interactions between professional market participants and registrars."

Mikhail Nedelsky, Director General, STATUS CJSC, added: "That is a great project, both custodians and registrars need it. We would like to thank NSD acting as the project's coordinator and initiator. Certainly this is one of the first steps towards enhancement of interactions among record keeping institutions. I hope that we will make the next steps with NSD's support. "

Dmitry Ludvik, Junior Vice President, Deutsche Bank Ltd., and Dmitry Medvedev, Senior Account Manager Product Development, ING Commercial Banking, have also attended the ceremony.

Natalya Sidorova, Head Securities Services, ING Commercial Banking, pointed out: "We are happy to see a successful implementation of the first stage of our joint project with NSD, which relates to establishment of a single entrance point for interactions with registrars using EDI. Such interactions represent a primary need; they will allow to reduce the operating risks and the market participants' expenses. We are also happy that ING Bank is the first depository signed a framework EDI agreement with the registrars that had joined the project."

Now NSD's  clients may use a service related to transmission of electronic documents to the registrars for conducting of operations in registers and for receipt of the appropriate reports from the registrars. NSD's EDI Rules establish a procedure of formation, receipt/transmission and processing of electronic documents, as well as NSD's responsibilities connected with processing, checking of the electronic signature's authenticity and keeping of the transmitted messages.

The new service allows:
To exclude necessity in conclusion of agreements of each participant with each registrar when organizing EDI in their accounts with registers. All necessary agreements and contracts are to be concluded with NSD.
To speed up and make cheaper a delivery of orders to the registers and receipt of information from the registers
To simplify compilation of a register of securities holders
To avoid occurrence of fake orders and reports
To arrange a receipt/transmission of electronic documents in PARTAD format; it will allow to speed up and automate a processing of information from the register and execution of orders, as well as to decrease operating risks and expenses.

PARTAD works on a procedure of registration of transfer agent agreements by the self-regulated organization considering implementation of transfer agent functions by NSD.