‘If a builder does not have the necessary construction permits, its buildings will be classed as unauthorized construction and will have to be pulled down,’ explains Roman Rechkin, Legal Issues Director of Intellect-C Legal Security Agency. In the meantime, Sverdlovsk Region’s public prosecution authorities insist on freezing the illegal construction process that involves Aston’s apartment building in Radischev and Gurzufskaya St. in Yekaterinburg. For one, the authorities had to react to the local residents’ numerous complaints and conduct an investigation that revealed that this high-rise

Chelyabinsk Tube Rolling Plant (part of ChTPZ Group) delivered over 27,000 tons of tubular goods to KazTransOil (Kazakhstan) in January-May 2008. The pipes were made of 17G1S-U steel, varied in diameter (530,720, and 1020 mm) and thickness (8 mm to 16 mm), and had some trilaminate polyethylene coating on them. These goods are meant for repairs and field operations of Kazakh pipelines. In fact, Kazakhstan’s O&G and power engineering companies have been ChTPZ Group’s key customers from the near abroad for many years now. Last year, the Group’s tube and pipe manufacturers provided their

UMMC Holding and Russian Copper Company decided to go for a new joint venture. The two enterprises are planning to put up a new zinc plant with the capacity of 300,000 tons of zinc a year. The plant will probably be located either in Kirovgrad, Sverdlovsk Region, or Troitsk, Chelyabinsk Region. The construction of the plant is expected to build up both companies’ shares of zinc manufacturers’ market considerably. At the moment, the project is at the design documentation stage. After all the permits and the experts’ assessments have been obtained (supposedly at the end of 2008), the

Ural Airlines has recently acquired its fourth Airbus 320. ‘The three aircraft we’ve leased have already proved to be very comfortable and reliable. These airplanes have the best airfield performance in their price segment, which means Ural Airlines can now enter many more airports. This also means that every new Airbus signals the introduction of new tourist destinations, including those in Europe, Southeast Asia, and the Middle East,’ the airline’s press officer reports. ‘We needed a plane that could be used for the maximum number of flights without requiring enormous maintenance expenses,

URSA Bank has recently made all of its first Eurobond issue payments as well as the coupon ones, with the total sum coming to $66.017m. The coupon payments were determined by the 9.75% annual interest rate. URSA Bank announced it was going through with the redemption of these bonds in March 2008 and bought $160,000 worth of bonds at their face value. This first Eurobond issue, with the original value of $100m, was carried out at Luxembourg Stock Exchange in May 2005 and was to be in circulation for three years. The sum was raised to $175m in December 2005. The issue was coordinated by

Vladivostok Avia is going to launch its scheduled Moscow-Yekaterinburg flight on June 1, 2008. According to the carrier’s press officer, the flights are to be operated daily (except for Wednesdays). The plane takes off in Moscow at 1.05 PM and arrives in Yekaterinburg at 5.20 PM (local time). Then the plane leaves Yekaterinburg at 7.35 PM and arrives in Moscow at 8.05 PM.

Central Bank of Russia reports volume of nonresident private individuals’ demand deposits in VUZ Bank dropped by 62.62% (from 2.261 million RUR to 845,000 RUR) in January-April 2008.

According to the Expert magazine, twenty new players joined the Russian factoring market in 2007, while the market volume grew by 174%. This was in fact a bit slower than a year earlier, which can be explained by the fact that the factors moved on to conquering some new market segments where the demand for their services wasn’t so acutely felt as of yet. Expert RA’s analysts believe the market is to experience some dramatic growth in 2008, though, SKB-Bank’s press officer reports. At the moment, factoring businesses have to face the fiercest competition on Moscow’s factoring market, which is

Bank Yekaterinburg’s own funds dropped by 15.1% over the first four months of 2008 and amounted to 471.265 million RUR on May 1, 2008. These data were provided by Bank Severnaya Kazna’s analysts in their report on the performance of Sverdlovsk, Chelyabinsk, and Tyumen Regions and Perm Territory’s largest banks in January-April 2008.

Bank VEFK-Ural’s loan portfolio went down by 30.4% over the first four months of 2008 and amounted to 1,642,057,000 RUR on May 1, 2008. These data were provided by Bank Severnaya Kazna’s analysts in their report on the performance of Sverdlovsk, Chelyabinsk, and Tyumen Regions and Perm Territory’s largest banks in January-April 2008.