Central Bank of Russia reports volume of loans given by UniCreditBank to nonresident legal entities for 181 days to 1 year dropped by 72.49% (from 1,684,827,000 RUR to 463,483,000 RUR) in January-May 2008.

Ural Bank for Reconstruction and Development Finance (a daughter enterprise fully owned by the Ural Bank for Reconstruction and Development) declared the interest rates on the 9th, 10th, 11th, and 12th coupons of its second three-year bond issues. The coupon rates will thus come to 12.5% a year, or 31.16 RUR per each 1,000-ruble bond. The issuer will have to pay a total of 31.16 million RUR on each coupon period. After the 8th coupon payments are made on July 3, 2008, an offer will be provided for the bondholders. The bonds are to be fully retired on July 2, 2009. The bondholders will receive

‘We used to think of the Academic construction project as a future ambition, but it is now becoming a part of our present,’ says Yekaterinburg’s Deputy Mayor for Capital Construction and Land Use Vladimir Kritskiy. RENOVA-StroyGroup’s top executives and Vladimir Kritskiy recently met to discuss the city’s future district. Project manager Stanislav Pridvizhkin assured the officials that everything was being done in accordance with the schedule. ‘To make sure all the schedules can be adhered to, we need to handle the issues related to engineering infrastructure and road construction first of

According to URSA Bank’s unaudited financial statement (drawn up in compliance with the Russian accounting standards), the bank’s assets reached $7.5bn in January-March 2008, which is 1.5 times better than a year earlier; at the same time, URSA Bank’s net profit came to over $66m, the bank’s press officer reports.

Uralmash Machine-Building Corporation (consisting of Yekaterinburg-based Uralmashzavod and Orsk-based ORMETO-YUMZ) exhibited its oil rigs, pipes, and winches that the company is manufacturing at the moment on June 17-18, 2008. The event was attended by Eurasia, Rosneft-Bureniye, Ukrgazdobycha, Orenburgneft, Belarusneft, and a number of other O&G companies. Visitors to the presentation could see the design of the third generation drilling units; today’s customers want more durable and more multifunctional equipment, which is why this is what the new units are going to be like. They can be

SKB-Bank set up its new branches in Kaliningrad and Krasnodar in order to render banking services to small and medium-scale businesses, the bank’s press officer reports. ‘The office is located in the old town, right inside the so-called Fish Exchange (a business center). In fact, we found ourselves within a stone’s throw of a great cathedral and the grave of the renowned philosopher Immanuel Kant,’ says SKB-Bank’s Kaliningrad branch’s director Dmitriy Tyurikov. SKB-Bank has already introduced its offices in twenty Russian Regions and is planning to go on to Khabarovsk, Yakutsk, Kazan, and

According to one Yekaterinburg dweller, Okami Vostok sells faulty Hyundai cars. Okami’s customer bought a Hyundai Accent with an air conditioner in March 2008; as soon as the hot summer days came, it became clear that the conditioner was not working. The car owner believes that despite the pre-sale preparation, the car sold by the dealer was initially defective. Okami Vostok explained to the unhappy customer that the delivery and installation of the part needed to fix the problem would take between fourteen and forty-five days within applying for repairs. Okami car centers are the official

Expert-Ural came up with a new rating assessing the Ural banks’ activity in the first quarter of 2008. The results of the magazine’s survey indicated that the Ural Bank for Reconstruction and Development keeps growing rapidly in all financial respects. The bank’s net assets rose by 16% within the first quarter of the year, securing it the top rating position among Sverdlovsk Region’s banks. The bank’s loan portfolio went up by 15%, its own funds increased by 10%, its profits rose by 12%. ‘As a matter of fact, we usually prove to be Sverdlovsk Region’s number one bank in terms of private

Rimera (ChTPZ Group’s O&G maintenance division) bought 100% of Taimyrnefterazvedka, Taimyr Autonomous Region’s largest drilling enterprise. Taimyrnefterazvedka can currently boast a 70% share of Taimyr’s exploration drilling market; the enterprise sets up well sites in complicated mining and geological conditions where the rock pressure can be either anomalously high or low. Since 1964, Taimyrnefterazvedka has been able to launch oil and gas wells in fifty areas around Yenisei-Khatangskaya, Anabaro-Khatangskaya, Severo-Tungusskaya, and Pur-Tazovskaya oil-and-gas bearing provinces. All in