The volume of loans offered by Khanty-Mansiyskiy Bank to non-state, for-profit organizations for 91 to 180 days decreased by 50.4% in February 2010. The figures declined from 1,023,230,000 RUR on February 1, 2010 to 507,360,000, RUR on March 1, 2010. These data are available from the bank’s report uploaded on the Central Bank of Russia’s official website.

Italy is going to open a visa center in Yekaterinburg on April 2, 2010. The center will process applications for tourist, business, and student visas as well as for visas needed for business trips or family reunions, Interfax reports. According to the spokesperson for Italy’s National Tourist Office in the Russian Federation, Yekaterinburg’s visa center will accept applications from the dwellers of Sverdlovsk, Chelyabinsk, and Tyumen Regions and of Perm Territory. The center will charge every applicant 900 RUR for an application and 500 RUR to cover the transport fee; the money can be paid in

The volume of deposits opened by private individuals at Uralfinprombank for 181 days to 1 year plummeted by 100% in February 2010; the figures dropped from 2.836 million RUR on March 1, 2010 down to 0 RUR on March 1, 2010. These data are available from the bank’s report uploaded on the Central Bank of Russia’s official website.

VTB Group (headed by VTB, Russia’s second largest bank), cut back on its loans to businesses by 6.8% in 2009. The figures decreased down to 2.1 trillion RUR (if calculated in accordance with the IAS), RIA Novosti reports. VTB says the portfolio shrank due to the Russian companies’ declining demand. At the same time, the bank’s share of the retail market rose up to 10.2% in 2009 against 8.8% in 2008, the company reports. VTB Group’s retail lending portfolio grew by 12.5% last year and reached 435.3 billion RUR, which was a lot better than the market’s average.

OAO Gazpromneft-Ural’s profit decreased by 41.37% in the last quarter of 2009. The figures dropped from 255.04 million RUR in the third quarter of 2009 to 149.53 million RUR in the fourth quarter of 2009. The company repots the profits decreased due to declining oil prices.

Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK)’s quality management system has been successfully certified for compliance with the STO Gazprom 9001:2006 standards recently. This was the second stage of the certification procedure; MMK underwent the preliminary audit procedure at the end of 2009; its quality management system was then tested for compliance with Gazprom’s standards through document checks and interviews with the employees. Now the STO Gazprom 9001:2006 committee kept inspecting MMK’s production shops and departments throughout last week. According to MMK PR Department, the audit

Ural Airlines is about to resume its summer flight to Spain. The Yekaterinburg-Barcelona flight will be operated twice a week, that is, every Tuesday and Saturday, between May 29, 2010 and October 2, 2010. The plane leaves Yekaterinburg at 5:05 AM and arrives in Barcelona at 7:15 AM. The flight lasts six hours and ten minutes. All the flights are operated on an A320 aircraft; the passengers can choose between economy and business class tickets. Ural Airlines is actually the only carrier to offer regular connection between the Urals and Spain.

Betfor concrete goods plant (LSR Group) Board of Directors suggested that the plant’s shareholders should decide not to pay the dividend for the year 2009. The annual general meeting has been scheduled for April 26, 2010.

The volume of deposits opened by private for-profit organizations at OOO Uralfinance Commercial Bank for 91 to 180 days decreased by 51% in February 2010. The figures dropped from 30.7 million RUR on February 1, 2010 to 15.027 million RUR on March 1, 2010. These data are available from the bank’s report uploaded on the Central Bank of Russia’s official website.

The volume of deposits opened by private individuals at VUZ-Bank for 91 to 180 days went down by 22% in February 2010; the figures dropped from 237.930 million RUR on February 1, 2010 to 185.532 million RUR on March 1, 2010. These data are available from the bank’s report uploaded on the Central Bank of Russia’s official website.

The streets of Yekaterinburg have recently been enlivened with a number of billboards featuring a baby whose back is used for snubbing out a cigarette. The image was completed with a slogan, ‘Smoking in children’s presence hurts them even worse. Don’t you care?’ This social service announcement drew great public attention, and the municipal authorities couldn’t help noticing it as well. ‘Yekaterinburg municipal council placed an official inquiry with the Moscow-based firm that was responsible for distributing the billboards in Yekaterinburg and asked to have the announcements removed,’ says

The Bank of Russia’s PR Department reports the bank’s authorized representatives have recently been directed to thirty-two Russian banks. The representatives will act in accordance with Article 76 of the Federal Bill on The Central Bank of the Russian Federation (the Bank of Russia). Among these thirty-two banks are Bank24.ru, Bank Severnaya Kazna, and Khanty-Mansiyskiy Bank.

OAO VSMPO-Avisma Corporation is no longer among the founder members of OOO Ural Gold Ore Mining Company. A short while ago, the corporation used to own a 51% shareholding in the mining business.

The participants and coordinators of a strike at Ford’s plant in Vsevolozhsk, Leningrad Region will have to sustain a disciplinary punishment, the spokesperson for Ford Motors Company informed RosBusinessConsulting. The company says the strike was illegitimate because the administration was only informed of the event within some very short time of the strike’s actual start. This preliminary strike of Ford’s workers began on March 25, 2010 (3 PM Moscow time). The plant’s employees want some changes in the enterprise’s collective agreement and a pay rise.

The net profit of OAO Bank Petrokommerz plummeted by 675.32 million RUR, or 61.2% in 2009. The figures thus went down to 427.69 million RUR. In fact, the bank finished off the year 2008 with 1.1 billion RUR of net profit. Bank Petrokommerz explains the drop in profits had to do with the need to build up on the possible loss reserves and with the increased security transaction profits and foreign currency transaction revenues.

‘The electronic goods and home appliances market shrank rather considerably in the year 2009. Some analysts say it might have decreased by as much as 40%. Naturally, M.Video chain felt this trend as well. Our sales dropped by 10% to 13%, with the sales figures for the Urals looking worse than those for Russia on average,’ M.Video electronic goods chain store’s Store Manager in the Urals Igor Gusak said at a press lunch in Yekaterinburg. ‘On the other hand, the recession made many people think of our products as a possible source of investment. They were afraid of losing their savings and so

‘M.Video, the electronic goods hypermarket, will open its outlet in ComsoMall shopping center in Yekaterinburg in June or July 2010. The new store’s interior has been completed by 90%,’ M.Video’s press secretary Nadezhda Kisseleva announced at a press lunch in Yekaterinburg. ‘Our developer had some financing problems, but they have been solved by now,’ she added. This means the opening of the mall will not take place in March 2010 as has been previously scheduled. The builder has already put off the opening date several times. Now M.Video was originally supposed to co-invest in the

Rostik’s, a fast food restaurant and member of Rostik’s –KFC chain located in Mytny Dvor mall at Vosmoye Marta St. in Yekaterinburg closed down recently, the mall’s administration informed UrBC. Mytny Dvor reports they are already looking for a new tenant. In fact, Mytny Dvor has lost another tenant a bit earlier when a Calvin Klein shop stopped operating there. Rostik’s –KFC runs another restaurant in Mega Trade & Entertainment Center in Yekaterinburg. Mega’s management reports the restaurant is operating at the moment.

Deputy Chairman of the Russian Federation State Duma Valeriy Yazev recently sold a portion of ZAO Yuveliry Urala’s shares he owned. His shareholding decreased from 37.33% to 22.65%. The share of his daughter Svetlana Yazeva in the jewelry business went down from 77.71% to 17.42%. According to the company’s report, 17.42% of shares were presented to Valentina Morozova under a gift contract and 37.33% were handed over to OOO YAVA-Finance Management under a trust management agreement. Also, OOO YAVA Management Company that used to own 19.76% of the company’s shares no longer has a share in the

‘It’s too early to speak of the end of the recession in Sverdlovsk Region; our problems will still be felt in the foreseeable future. So working with our problem enterprises is still one of our top priorities. Even though the situation at Uralvagonzavod, for example, has grown a bit more stable and the company has enough orders for its produce, about 3,000 people might still have to be laid off,’ the region’s Economy Minister Mikhail Maksimov said during his meeting with Sverdlovsk Region’s town mayors. ‘The recession made it obvious that we got used to living off the two or three leading