Ural Turbine Plant (part of RENOVA Group) expanded its production plan by 59.8% against 2005 last year, reports the spokesperson for the company. The enterprise only fell short of the target goods output figures by 1.2%. In 2006, two PT-90 steam turbines were made and stocked for Achinskiy alumina industrial complex and for Inglovait, the Hong Kong-based investment company; one GTN-6-U turbine was made for Gazprom. The company also shipped turbines to SibChimCombinat and Pavlodarskaya and Solikamskaya power plants. Over 1,000 types of steam turbine spare parts worth more than 100m RUR were

‘BusinessManCenter currently put up by MAN Center has no construction permits or agreements. It is not known whether the land was officially registered, the deadlines were never met. It looks like the saying they have about Russian developers (one should extend their deadlines and multiply prices by two) is true as far as this building is concerned,’ lawyer Ivan Kadochnikov said to UrBC representative. ‘MAN has been revealing some alarming symptoms; the company’s agreements, perfect from the point of law, protect neither the investors nor the people who buy an apartment in the would-be

Medialogia, a mass media analysis and monitoring system, published its Top 30 Most Attractively Advertised Russian Banks rating. The rating covers thirty Russian companies that got the best publicity in December 2006. Sberbank, VTB, and Gazprombank (three major players on the Russian banking market) occupy the three top positions. According to experts of Medialogia, SKB-Bank hits the 20th position, based on how much positive publicity they got and how attractive they looked. There are 1,189 banks in Russia at the moment. The company used the so-called most favoured informational status

‘We have got one major rival, Grossmart. When Park House Trade Center that now hosts Grossmart was under construction, we were worried about the upcoming opening of a supermarket in the immediate vicinity of our store. However, we have been able to compete successfully; moreover, we are getting more and more customers since the quality of goods and service in Grossmart leave a lot to be desired. The federal chain stores are trying to lure the customers into their outlets with the help of low prices, but one cannot stick to such prices for a long time. The experience of Park House and

Sverdlovsk Region is one of Russia’s ten regions with the most expensive dwellings, reports Kommersant-First Rating almanac. The average price of a square meter of dwelling came to 48,770 RUR in November 2006; which made Sverdlovsk Region’s houses Russia’s sixth most expensive ones. Moscow, with its 106,236 RUR, is the most expensive city to live in, Saint Petersburg got the second position (55,676 RUR); Khanty-Mansiyskiy Autonomous Region became Russia’s third most expensive area (54,778.7 RUR).

The report on the state of the environment and the way environmental factors affected the health of Sverdlovsk Region population indicates that Yekaterinburg-based enterprises that release gases without recycling them first dumped 16,016 tons of pollutants in the air. Only 12.9% of local emission points have gas-purifying facilities. Novo-Sverdlovskaya power station (part of SverdlovEnergo) becomes the major polluter with its 20.1% share in the total amount of emissions.

The Ministry of Internal Affairs in Volga Federal District initiated a criminal suit against people who are accused of having stolen over 4m RUR from Uniastrum Bank subsidiary based in Nizhniy Novgorod. This money is believed to have been disguised as compensation payments for car loans. The investigation revealed that the offenders had been working in the bank; one more person was running an insurance company. Some 200 borrowers who paid more than they had to for their cars are estimated to have suffered. According to the Ministry of Internal Affairs in Volga Federal District, the accused

UralTransBank is not permitted to act as a depository after the Federal Financial Market Service annulled its license on January 10, 2007 at the request of the bank. Depositary operations include keeping track of the ownership of securities, safekeeping of securities themselves or servicing shares placed in a depositary.

According to the figures as of January 2007, 30,082,145 people are now using MegaFon, the mobile operator. The number of their subscribers rose by one-third last year, which is very good for the saturated market. The company’s client network used to double every year: from 3,020,818 people in January 2003 to 6,358,700 people in January 2004, to 13,647,807 people in January 2005, and to 22,835,985 people in January 2006. ‘The market has almost reached its saturation limit, which signifies the end of the extensive development era, yet it is now when the potential of telecommunication

Based on the report on the state of the environment and the way environmental factors affected the health of Sverdlovsk Region population, enterprises based in Krasnouralsk emitted 72,795 tons of pollutants, with 98.1% of all substances released by Svyatogor (part of Ural Mining and Metallurgical Company). This figure includes 67.2% of total nitrogen dioxide, 99.1% of total sulphur dioxide, 50% of carbon monoxide, and 100% of all emitted lead.