‘The current state of the stock market actually opens up a number of opportunities. Apart from focusing on the retail services, METCOMBANK has always been working with big customers and was able to prove its good liquidity and dependability, so we still retain a lot of lending potential at the time of a crisis. Therefore the bank can now use this opportunity to expand its client base thanks to the fact that both companies and private individuals are looking for a reliable bank with financially transparent and serious stockholders. Moreover, METCOMBANK can also build up on the assets used to

‘The global stock markets are closed for the Russian issuers’ stock or syndicated loan coordinators at the moment. The only exception to the rule is the large banking consortiums, so getting a syndicated loan this year is extremely complicated, if not altogether impossible,’ claims Accord Invest Investment and Finance Company’s Deputy GD Konstantin Selyanin. Meanwhile, UralTransBank’s Chairman Valeriy Zavodov said in the course of several interviews that the bank intended to get a syndicated loan on the international capital market in February or March 2009. Zavodov explained the company was

Governor of Sverdlovsk Region Eduard Rossel congratulated Renate Schimkoreit on her becoming Germany’s Consul General in Yekaterinburg and spoke about Sverdlovsk Region and Germany’s proactive cooperation in the economic, cultural, and social fields during their meeting. The Governor suggested that they could draft some joint agreements involving the region and some of the German provinces, for instance, Bavaria, as Sverdlovsk Region has all the potential needed for working successfully with it in the industrial field. At the end of the meeting Governor Eduard Rossel and Dr. Renate

ChTPZ Meta has recently Lindemann ЕС-1034 hydraulic sharing press in its Meta Chelyabinsk plant (part of ChTPZ Meta Group). ‘The launch of the new equipment will make it possible to improve on the end product’s quality and to process all kind of scrap metal, which means more of it will be collected in Chelyabinsk Region and the harmful environmental impact caused by storing and recycling of iron will be reduced,’ the company’s press officer says. Head of ChTPZ Meta Yaroslav Zhdan says launching Metso’s equipment is a great step on the way to all of the Group’s division major technical

Sverdlovsk Region’s Ministry of Economics and Labor reports the gross regional product will keep rising by 8% a year on average and will reach approximately 1,666 billion RUR in 2011, compared with only 800.7 billion RUR in 2007 and the prospective 1,004.9 billion RUR in 2008. Experts believe the manufacturing branch (including food and processing industries) and production and distribution of electric power, natural gas, and water will develop most rapidly, while the retail trade and public catering industry’s turnovers are expected to grow by 17% to 22%. The regional salary fund is likely

IncoreMedia and MegaFon-Ural, the mobile operator, are going to launch a special offer dubbed MegaZachet from September 22, 2008 till October 21, 2008. Upon entering the SIM menu’s Entertainment rubric (except for Games/Java section), you get a text message regarding the offer and a part of a certain word alongside with the content you’ve ordered. After you put the five parts of the word, you can forward it to service number 5016 via a text message and get the media content as a prize, provided you get the word right, of course. The first two senders will get an iPod Nano 4Gb player,

‘Mechel-Bank has gone up by fifty-two positions in RBC.Rating’s ranking of Russian banks in the first half of 2008. This means it is now one of Russia’s fastest-growing banks, as we were able to double our business in less than a year. We appreciate it greatly that the bank has made such progress by its 18th anniversary, so we intend to keep this pace up and make it to the Greater Urals’ top five banks over the next five years,’ says Mechel-Bank’s Chair Elena Nesterova. ‘Both Chelyabinsk and Sverdlovsk Regions have recently adopted development programs for 2008-2020, and our primary challenge

The official cost of living in Sverdlovsk Region determined for the last quarter of 2008 came to 4,723 RUR a month, which is 861 RUR, or 22.3% greater than a year earlier. As far as the budgeting structure is concerned, the food expenses went up by 29.9%, fixed bills and fees rose by 25%, the cost of paid services increased by 18.2%, and non-food items spending grew by 10.4%.

Grand Capital, a pharmaceutical holding, acquired 50.46% of Irbit chemical pharmaceutical plant’s common stock. The company did not use to own any of Irbit plant’s shares before.

Kommersant-Dengi came up with its rating of Russia’s Top 100 Banks (in terms of their capital volume as of July 1, 2008). SKB-Bank thus became Sverdlovsk Region’s No.1 and was given the 71st position among the top hundred, the bank’s press officer says. The magazine reports SKB-Bank’s own funds amounted to more than 5 billion RUR on July 1, 2008, which exceeds the bank’s nearest rivals’ performance by 1 billion RUR. This month, SKB-Bank’s own funds have already reached 5.38 billion RUR. SKB-Bank was also one of Sverdlovsk Region’s top three banks in terms of assets. The bank’s assets came to