The value of net assets of Energy - Mixed Investments (the unit investment trust) managed by Eurogreen Management Company Ltd. went down by .2% between December 18, 2007 and December 19, 2007. According to Eurogreen’s website, the company’s net assets decreased from 3,476,698.54 RUR on December 18, 2007 to 3.469,889.11 RUR on December 19, 2007.

Central Bank of Russia reports volume of call loans given by VUZ Bank to natural persons went down by 35.36% (from 14.683 million RUR to 9.491 million RUR) in January-November 2007.

‘Some 700 people from Yekaterinburg and Sverdlovsk Region became victims of the fraudsters from Gorod, the regional public fund that operated in the area in 2000-2003. Approximately 3,000 people suffered in the other regions of Russia. These data haven’t been finalized yet, as not all of the victims actually filed their complaints. The criminal suit proceedings involving accusations of fraud (Article 159 (part 4) of the Russian Federation Criminal Code) and organized crime (Article 210) began in 2003. At the present moment, the case has been placed with the regional court,’ Ivan Yablokov of

The retail goods turnover came to over 300bn RUR in Sverdlovsk Region in 2006, the regional Minister of Trade, Provision, and Services Vera Solovieva announced at today’s press conference. According to Ms Solovieva, this exceeds the figures for 2005 by 27% in purely finance terms and by 17% in terms of physical volume. Foods turnover amounts to 15bn RUR out of the total sum. Traditionally, the customers were most active in the fourth quarter of the year: the consumption ratio came to 21% in the first quarter, to 22%-24% in the second and third quarters, and to 30% in the last quarter of the

‘The region’s foreign trade turnover reached the point of $7.5bn in January-October 2006, which is 23.3% better than in the ten months of 2005. The export figures came to approximately $6bn (a 23.3%-growth), the import ones came to $1.5bn (a 23.3%-growth),’ the Minister of Economy and Labour Galina Kovaleva announced at the press conference devoted to the region’s socio-economic development forecasts for 2007. The consolidated budget profits amounted to 78.6bn RUR in January-October 2006, which exceeds the figures for 2005 by 42.4%. The budgetary subsidies and allotments plan was

The court hearing of Federal Antimonopoly Service vs. Koltsovo airport (based on the Competition Protection Act) was put off until January 30, 2007 The Federal Antimonopoly Service suspects that Koltsovo airport has overpriced its fuel; the Service has already found the airport guilty of violating the antimonopoly legislation in the past and ordered them to retain the so-called historic slots for Ural Airlines Moscow-bound flights and to annul their contract of tenancy with Aviaprad, the air carrier.

Finance magazine looked at the results of Russian banks’ activity over the ten months of 2006 and compiled a rating based on the volume of the working assets (it had to be over $100m). There are currently 278 banks in Russia that meet the requirements of this magazine’s rating, with 40 banks joining the list as recently as this year. The assets of these banks have grown by 31% (up to 10.5 trillion RUR) since the beginning of 2006. According to the magazine, the working assets of SKB-Bank have gone up 48% since the beginning of the year and reached the point of 15.259bn RUR, which made it

‘The court officers managed to obtain part of the financial records of HydroSpetsStroy Ltd. (the general contractor of Noviy Grad, the local developer),’ the company’s trustee in bankruptcy Olga Rushitskaya said to UrBC representative. ‘The builder has for a long time refused to cooperate with me even after the court’s decision. Yet now at least some of the papers needed were received,’ she said. Prior to this, HydroSpetsStroy Ltd. failed to comply with the demand of Sverdlovsk Region Court of Arbitration to produce their financial records before November 15, 2006.

The audit procedure conducted in October 2006 proved that quality management in Uralvneshtorgbank meets the international standard requirements. The bank’s quality management was first certified in the summer of 2004, with the company getting the ISO 9001:2000 certificate. The bank now has to undergo audit yearly in order to prove the certificate validity. This year, the auditors observed that the bank’s top management ‘showed that they were complying with the certificate validity requirements, were committed to the quality management principles and were perfecting this quality. The bank

Following the fire at Reftinskaya power station belonging to OGK-5, two power-generating units with the total capacity of 1,000 megawatt had to be shut down yesterday. As a result, the average capacity of the station went down by 27%. There weer no power cuts, though, as the other local power stations were able to make up for the loss. In the meantime, the share market has already been affected by the accident, claim the experts from a number of investment companies. Reftinskaya power station provides over 40% of OGK-5 capacity, so this company now is the only insider among the other power

‘A claim was laid with Oktyabrskiy court of Yekaterinburg against Mobile TeleSystems by our lawyer Anatoliy Bezrukov who has been using this mobile operator’s services,’ Vladimir Vinnitskiy of the regional Economic Bar said to UrBC representative. ‘We intend to place the case-related documents to the antimonopoly service that will have grounds for taking legal action and sanctioning the operator,’ Mr Vinnitskiy said.

The decision concerning the claim laid by Anatoliy Bezrukov of the regional Economic Bar against Mobile TeleSystems regarding consumer rights protection was made by Oktyabrskiy court of Yekaterinburg on December 20, 2006. The court made Mobile TeleSystems cancel illegal tariff changes made to their Unlimited scheme (the pay was raised from 998 RUR to 1,300 RUR within July 12, 2006 to October 9, 2006), reports the Bar. The court also ordered the operator to cancel the recently introduced limitations on the number of outgoing calls covered by the monthly fee (the limit was set at 2,000 minutes)

‘The average existing office price went up 62% compared to 2005 and amounted to 69,463 RUR per one square meter. Class B offices are the ones that enjoy the greatest demand in Yekaterinburg, so the construction of this type of offices receives the heaviest investment at the moment. The local entrepreneurs are trying to get class B offices, but usually end up having to use class C ones or even lower, that is, offices located on the premises of former research institutes. The price of commercial premises grew by 70%, with the average price per one square meter coming to 85,000 RUR,’ Rustam

Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) is going to put up a plant meant for producing automobile pressings in Saint Petersburg. The solemn laying-of-the-foundation-stone ceremony took place on December 21, 2007. The event was attended by Russian President Vladimir Putin, Governor of Saint Petersburg Valentina Matvienko, and MMK’s Chairman Viktor Rashnikov. Mr. Rashnikov noted that the future plant would deal in full-cycle production of body parts and subunits for automobiles that would be totally comparable with their best foreign counterparts. He also thanked Mr. Putin and Ms Matvienko

According to the Central Bank of Russia, volume of for-profit self-regulatory organizations’ deposits in SberInvestBank valid for 1 to 3 years went down by 21.9% (from 21 million RUR to 16.4 million RUR) in January-November 2007.

Moody’s Investors Service raised SKB-Bank’s B2/Not Prime deposit rating outlook in terms of both ruble and foreign currency deposits from Stable to Positive. The bank’s financial stability rating was confirmed at E+ with the Stable outlook. At the same time, Moody's Interfax (controlled by Moody’s Investors Service) promoted SKB-Bank’s long-term credit rating from Baa1.ru to A3.ru. The new improved ratings and rating outlooks stem from SKB-Bank’s better position on Sverdlovsk Region market and its gradual expansion into the nearby regions as well as the good quality of its assets,

Central Bank of Russia reports volume of loans given by UralTransBank to natural persons for 181 days to 1 year went down by 38.3% (from 339.241 million RUR to 209.303 million RUR).

URSA Bank signed an acquiring agreement with Chudodom chain stores. The chain’s thirteen stores based in Novosibirsk, Barnaul, Kemerovo, and Yekaterinburg are going to get thirty-one POS terminals that will handle cards like Visa Int., MasterCard Int., and Gold Crown, the bank’s press officer reports. Incidentally, URSA Bank started processing bank cards in Sibvez chain stores (forty-eight outlets in Siberian Federal District) and Jewelry 585 chain stores (forty-one outlets in Siberian Federal District) in November 2007. Chudodom owns twenty-five retail outlets selling a range of household

Uralmash Machine Building Corporation and ChMK (part of Mechel Group) signed a strategic partnership agreement regarding the upgrade of ChMK’s metallurgical equipment in 2008-2010. The spokesperson for the corporation reports the two parties appear to be interested in a number of joint projects related to modernization of metallurgical machinery and manufacturing of spare parts for blast furnace, steel-smelting, and rolled metal production shops and oxygen-converter plants. For one, the two companies are planning to restore CC machine No. 2 and blast furnaces No. 3 and No. 5, and to come up

'Sberbank and VTB’s IPOs have definitely become this year’s highlights, whereas the impact of a major mortgage crisis in the U.S. was the Russian bank’s worst nightmare,’ says Andrei Emelyanov, the Ural Bank for Reconstruction and Development’s Strategic Development Director. 'Fortunately, this crisis has not affected the regional banks too badly, and our bank was no exception. This year, the Urals have experienced a sort of ‘invasion’ by the banks from other parts of Russia,’ he adds. 'As for the Ural Bank for Reconstruction and Development, this year will probably be