One year later, sinkhole didn't sink Corvette Museum in Kentucky

Thu, Feb 12 15:59 PM EST By Steve Bittenbender LOUISVILLE, Ky. (Reuters) - Officials at the National Corvette Museum will make lemonade out of lemons on Thursday when they mark the one-year anniversary of a sinkhole that damaged or destroyed eight models of the classic sports car but proved a surprising boon for the museum. The sinkhole, which cratered a showroom floor, could have been catastrophic for the Bowling Green, Kentucky, museum. Security camera footage capturing the collapse generated more than 8 million views on YouTube and garnered worldwide media attention. The buzz generated didn't stop there as more than 250,000 people visited the museum last year, representing a 67 percent spike from 2013. That led to a need for more staff, museum spokeswoman Katie Frassinelli said. "We just started having different challenges that we never faced before," she said. "But it was a good thing because it meant additional revenue for the museum." That's why officials are holding a "lemonade toast" to mark the anniversary. Initially, museum officials wanted to get the cars out quickly and safely and make repairs to the museum. But as the story gained traction, visitors were interested in seeing the sinkhole itself. So, Frassinelli said, officials held off on filling the hole until November. That work was completed last month, and the floor is close to being completed and ready for exhibits. No one was injured as the collapse happened early in the morning before the museum opened, but only three of the cars were considered salvageable for restoration. One of them, a 2009 model, will return to the museum Thursday as part of the anniversary event. The ZR1 will be one of more than 80 Corvette models on display at the museum. But museum officials are working to turn the non-restorable lemons into lemonade as well. The destroyed cars will be part of a planned sinkhole exhibit, Frassinelli said. (Reporting by Steve Bittenbender; Editing by Fiona Ortiz and Eric Beech) --------------- UPDATE 2-Uralkali prepares to start repair work at damaged potash mine Mon, Nov 24 11:19 AM EST * Says no discussion yet on when production to resume * Sinkhole appeared at a nearby mine (Recasts after company clarification on production) By Natalia Shurmina BEREZNIKI, Russia, Nov 24 (Reuters) - Russia's Uralkali , the world's biggest potash producer, is preparing to start repair work at part of the damaged Solikamsk-2 mine, though it is unclear when output of the fertiliser will restart. Production at the mine was halted last week after an inflow of water at the mine, which accounts for a fifth of the company's output and 3.5 percent of global capacity, and a huge sinkhole appeared at a nearby mine as a result. The sinkhole, stretching 30 by 40 metres and found at an abandoned mine 3.5 km (2 miles) to the east, increased concern about the future of Solikamsk-2. An inflow of water and the resulting sinkhole in 2006 forced another Uralkali operation to shut permanently. The governor of the Perm region where Solikamsk-2 is located said the inflow of water at the mine had "practically stopped" and there was no danger to residents of the area from any possible expansion of the sinkhole. "The possibility of starting work at half of the Solikamsk mine is being discussed," Chief Executive Dmitry Osipov told reporters in Berezniki in the Perm region. Later, the company clarified that this referred to maintenance work, and said there had not been any discussion with authorities about restarting full or partial production at the mine. It quoted Osipov as saying that the company was discussing the possibility of starting "the backfilling of areas which could be considered potentially hazardous". Regional governor Viktor Basargin said: "Fortunately everything is unfolding under a different scenario to a week ago. There is practically no inflow." "We can say today that it's possible to start work at the second mine, up to a level of about 50 percent," Basargin said. Uralkali's Moscow-listed shares pared gains after the company said it was not considering restarting production, and closed up 3.8 percent. Shares in Uralkali fell sharply last week after the water inflow forced the company to halt operations at Solikamsk-2. (Writing By Timothy Heritage and Vladimir Soldatkin; Editing by Jason -------------- Uralkali preparing to restart operations at half of damaged mine - CEO Mon, Nov 24 06:16 AM EST BEREZNIKI, Russia, Nov 24 (Reuters) - Uralkali, the world's biggest potash producer, is preparing to restart operations at half its Solikamsk-2 mine, where work was halted last week after an accident, its chief executive said on Monday. The governor of the Perm region where Solikamsk-2 is located also said the inflow of water at the mine had "practically stopped" and there was no danger to residents of the area, where a large sinkhole has formed. (Reporting By Natalia Shurmina, Writing By Timothy Heritage, editing by Elizabeth Piper) ----------

UPDATE 3-China and Qatar seek more Russia investment as U.S. interest fades

UPDATE 3-China and Qatar seek more Russia investment as U.S. interest fades Fri, May 23 13:47 PM EDT * Russia's state private equity fund has raised most funds from Middle East, Asia * China's CIC keen to commit more to Russia * Russia's major investment forum has absence of large U.S. buyout firms (Adds Qatar investment) By Megan Davies ST PETERSBURG, Russia, May 23 (Reuters) - Sovereign wealth funds in China and Qatar on Friday signalled their increased commitment to Russia, boosting Moscow's hopes of strengthening ties with Asia and the Middle East as relations with the West deteriorate. Major sovereign wealth funds in the Middle East and Asia have invested in Russian businesses and backed its state-funded private equity fund, the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF). By contrast, U.S. financial investors in the country remain few. "CIC has invested several billions of dollars in Russia," said Ding Xuedong, chairman of the $575 billion CIC, on the sidelines of the country's main annual investment conference in St Petersburg. "We will continue to increase our investment in Russia, not only in the public markets, but in direct investments," he said. Russia's RDIF separately announced that Qatar's sovereign wealth fund, the Qatar Investment Authority, is allocating $2 billion to investments with the fund. Numerous U.S. financiers avoided the annual investment conference in St Petersburg on advice from the White House. Washington and the European Union have imposed sanctions against various individuals deemed close to Russian President Vladimir Putin in response to the situation in Ukraine. "In our platforms - we raised $10 billion from our partners - around 90 percent came from Asia and the Middle East," said Kirill Dmitriev, the RDIF chief executive. "Those longer-term investors ... take a longer-term view on Russia. They see some turbulence but realise it is impossible to isolate the sixth-largest economy in the world." Among those present on a panel discussion on Friday were senior executives at Korea Investment Corporation and Kuwait Investment Authority (KIA). European funds, facing less government pressure than their U.S. counterparts, also showed commitment to Russia. "We think there is a lot of potential in this country," said Laurent Vigier, CEO at France's CDC International Capital. "We are looking actively at the moment at opportunities in this country and are optimistic about the medium and long term." BUYOUT BLUES Private equity firms have in general found Russia a tricky place to invest, citing concerns about corporate governance, the rule of law and finding a lack of opportunities. U.S. giant TPG is the notable exception, making several times its money on its investment in supermarket chain Lenta. "The history of private equity in Russia is about 20 years old - in that period we have had at least two tsunamis of global political events and upheaval and we are now in the middle of the third," said Drew Guff, founding partner of New York-based Siguler Guff & Co, which has invested in Russia for many years. "There were at one point 30 different private equity funds raising money (in Russia) at the same time. And then the global crisis of '98 came and the tsunami wiped out many of the competitors." Anatoly Chubais, the architect of Russia's post-Soviet privatisations, said a problem is that limited partners (LPs) - the investors in private equity firms - use foreign money rather than Russian investors. He said the solution was a major restructuring of non-government pension funds. "It's ironic when the entire private equity industry that exists here, while investing in Russia, makes almost no use of Russian LPs," Chubais said. "It is totally wrong and the situation could be radically changed." CHINA COMMITMENT CIC, which invests in Russia directly as well as via a joint venture with the RDIF, has a minority stake in Russian potash company Uralkali and has done deals with the RDIF to invest in projects such as infrastructure for senior citizens and forestry. "Our exposure to Russia is relatively small, which means the potential is big," said Xuedong, who is particularly focused on agriculture and energy. "We focus on the long term and on increasing our exposure to Russia." Xuedong said that in the coming 10 to 20 years infrastructure will provide lucrative opportunities and said that Russia should "renew and update" its infrastructure. Using government money for such projects would not be sufficient, he said, and other instruments, such as public-private partnerships, could be used. "Governments should sell some of the businesses ... to private investments and the money received for the sale of such businesses could be rechanneled into projects," Xuedong said. "If we take this approach, we could speed up the infrastructure development rates." Still, some were sceptical that Asian investors would commit heavily given Russia's slowing growth and the risk of recession. "I suspect most Asian and Middle East investors are going to look at this picture and see the same things that everyone else does - that you had growth slowing before the annexation of Crimea and the conflict with the West," said Bernard Sucher, board member of Russian investment group Aton. (Reporting by Megan Davies, additional reporting by Alexei Anishchuk; Editing by David Goodman and Sophie Walker)