Sverdlovsk Gubernskiy Bank CJSC was ‘white-listed’ by the Federal Antimonopoly Administration for transparency of its consumer loans. According to the Administration, they used the data provided by Regional Russian Banks Association, Russian Banks Association, and a number of other banks; so far, 78 banks have voluntarily disclosed information on loans. The Administration and the Bank of Russia issued some recommendations on loan transparency in May 2005. The underlying principle is providing the would-be borrowers with truthful information on the terms of receiving, using and paying back a

Yekaterinburg Electrical Network Company Ltd. is reported to be servicing 90 sites it does not own since these sites are used to supply the company’s consumers with electricity. Allegedly, the end-users should not be bothered by the fact that the actual owner does not take on the responsibility for maintaining the sites in proper condition. The company is currently dealing with the issue of transferring the data recorded on the transformers and distribution points onto the company’s account; it is also possible that they will eventually either buy the sites or sign servicing agreements,

The Ministry for Public Property Management in Sverdlovsk Region is hoping to buy the majority holding of Mount Belaya JSC as early as 2007, Minster Alexei Molotkov announced at a recent press conference. ‘Sverdlovsk Region currently owns a 15%-share holding of this sports facility. We think we’ll have bought another 23.6% of shares by the end of the year, and we’ll probably become the majority shareholder in 2007,’ Mr Molotkov said. The Minster also observed that they had bought 45,000 shares of Euro-Asian International Transportation and Logistics Center JSC in the first half of 2006, with

Evrazruda JSC (part of Evraz Group) started getting ready for the winter season. Special committees meant for supervising all the preparations were set up in all of the company’s subsidiaries. The committees have to report to the central committee consisting of the company’s experts. The bulk of the preparations should have been finished by October 10, 2006. The technicians of Evrazruda are now examining and repairing the heating, hot- and cold-water facilities, pumps, water-removing equipment, and ventilation systems in all of the company’s mines. They are also fixing the cranage, the

‘One of the Region’s largest plants, Uralmash JSC is still having a hard time,’ Sverdlovsk Region Minister for Industry, Power Engineering and Science Vladimir Molchanov noted in his interview to UrBC representative. ‘The plant found itself in a crisis when it was segmented by the owners. Fragmenting the plant into smaller parts and selling them looks rather dubious; it has already led to a dramatic decrease in the number of the employees (from 14,000 to 3,700, or almost by a factor of four). The plant’s losses amounted to 500 million RUR in 2005,’ Mr Molchanov said.

Experts of Evrazruda JSC (Russian ore maker and part of Evraz Group) assessed the company’s success in managing the quality of raw stuff and ready ore in the first half of 2006. All of the company’s subsidiaries met the quality requirements concerning the iron content in the raw stuff and in the primary ore concentrate. Abagurskiy and Mundybashskiy subsidiaries also met the requirements for the agglomerate and secondary ore concentrate. Yet there was some decrease of ore in the final tailings. Mundybashskiy subsidiary rose the fineness of the concentrate by 2.3% (this eases extraction of

Ten billion RUR will be invested in the development of Chelyabinsk Region power industry, Deputy Chief Engineer of ChelyabEnergo JSC Andrey Shabalin announced at the seminar conducted for a group of journalists. According to Mr Shabalin, the best part of money should come from charging for connecting the clients to the electric networks (the profit is estimated at 4.4 billion RUR) and including the so-called investment component into the supplying tariffs (this should yield 2 billion RUR). ‘We need at least 16.4 billion RUR altogether,’ he said. ‘ChelyabEnergo was treated really well by the

Shareholders of Electromachine JSC refused to raise the company’s authorized capital through an additional share issue worth 1,500,000 RUR. This decision was made at the annual general meeting. The initial idea was to issue 1,500, 000 registered paperless shares with face value of 1 RUR per share, which would cost 200 RUR per share. Yet as the shareholders did not agree to the proposals, no such amendments were made to the company’s Charter.

Chelyabinsk Region Government approved of the proposal consisting in privatizing two municipal enterprises, Emanzhelinsk Printing Works and Pharmaceutics Factory, and making them open joint-stock companies, with the 100% share holding still belonging to Chelyabinsk Region Government. Such decision was made at the Government sitting today. According to Evgeny Teftelev, Chelyabinsk Region Minister of Industry and Natural Resources, the privatization of the two enterprises was actually included in the privatization plan for 2006. After the reorganization takes place, the authorized capital of