Commitments And Contingent Liabilities

9 Months Ended

Sep. 30, 2011

Commitments And Contingent Liabilities [Abstract]

Commitments And Contingent Liabilities

20. COMMITMENTS AND CONTINGENT LIABILITIES

The Company is involved in litigation from time to time and has claims against it in connection with matters arising in the ordinary course of business. In the opinion of management, the outcome of these proceedings will not have a material adverse effect on the Company's operations.

Supply Contracts

The Company has various agreements covering its sources of supply, which, in some cases, may be terminated by either party on relatively short notice. Thus, there is a risk that a portion of the Company's supply of products could be curtailed at any time.

Bank Guarantees

In accordance with current legislation in Russia each producer of spirit beverages must acquire excise stamps and must pay excise tax in full before buying spirit for production purposes. For each lot of stamps purchased the alcohol producer must provide the relevant body with a bank guarantee in the full amount of payment for the excise tax to secure the legality of usage of the excise stamps. This bank guarantee serves as insurance against the illegal usage of excise stamps by an alcohol producer.

In addition, under new legislation effective since August 1st 2011 the producer purchasing spirit alcohol must a) prepay the excise tax in full or b) provide the relevant tax body with a bank guarantee in the full amount of the excise tax before purchasing to secure payment of the excise tax. This bank guarantee serves as insurance that the excise tax is paid in time.

Under this requirement Russian Alcohol signed a "guarantee line" agreement with multiple banks pursuant to which it was provided with a guarantee limit of 11.6 billion Russian rubles (approximately $362.2 million) for a period of 5 years.

Russian Alcohol has the right to obtain bank guarantees during the agreement term for each purchase of excise stamps and for the purchase of spirit. The guarantee for excise stamps is held by the beneficiary (Rosalkoregulirovanie) during the whole production period for which the excise stamps were purchased. The guarantee for excise tax is held by the beneficiary (the tax body) for 6 months after the end of month the spirit was purchased.