UrBC, Moscow, July 27, 2011. The international rating agency Fitch Ratings affirmed UralTransBank’s Issuer Default Rating at B-, with Stable rating outlook. The agency reports the affirmation of the rating reflects the improvement in the post-recession operating environment supporting the bank’s profitability and the lending portfolio performance figures; this improvement also makes up (to some extent) for the significant drop in the quality of assets observed in the past. Fitch Ratings says the bank’s lending portfolio shrank by 7% in 2010, whereas the share of bad debt constituted 21% of

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, July 27, 2011. Sverdlovsk Region Arbitration Court rejected the claim laid by KESKO-Ural (the Novotel Hotel) against Zoom Zoom Photographers; the plaintiff insisted on being paid 223,000 RUR. The court meeting was held the other day. According to the defendant, the clash started with KESKO-Ural refusing to pay for the job that had already been done. ‘When we decided to go to court to get our money, they immediately filed a claim to the extent that the entire contract and all the addenda must be declared invalid. KESKO-Ural decided both to keep the money and to make us pay

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, July 27, 2011. Bank NEIVA has successfully undergone Visa certification procedure related to supporting its Fast Funds service, so starting July 27, 2011, the bank offers its customers an opportunity to get instant money orders delivered via Visa Money Transfer onto their Visa card accounts. The money is available to the customers through all the account management tools, and no commission is taken for the money transfer.

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, July 27, 2011. Rosnano keeps looking for an investor who’d be interested in Sverdlovsk Region’s large-scale project, a magnesium plant in Asbest. The construction of the plant was supposed to have started as early as the end of 2005. However, only the most basic jobs have been completed by now, namely, a pilot factory was set up and a construction site was selected and prepared. ‘The basic stage of the project is complete. We now have to start the building jobs, which is why Rosnano Corporation is looking for an investor with the sums needed who is in the know of the

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, July 26, 2011. Two L’Etoile stores closed for renovation in Yekaterinburg. These are the perfume shops in Park House and Carnival Shopping Malls. ‘Two stores are closed for renovation, while the rest of the outlets keep working as usual,’ the cosmetics company’s hot line clerk told UrBC. The clerk was unable to explain why the stores needed remodeling, what exactly was being changed, or when the shops could reopen. Carnival Shopping Mall reported the store would resume operating in September 2011; Park House Shopping Mall couldn’t provide any information as to the

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, July 26, 2011. The Profile magazine carried a rating of Russia’s largest banks as of June 1, 2011. Six banks based in Ural Federal District were featured on the list of the country’s one hundred largest banks in terms of asset volume. SKB-Bank remained on the list of Russia’s Top 50 banks and was rated the country’s 48th largest and Sverdlovsk Region’s largest bank. What is more, the bank was also the Mid-Urals’ No. 1 in terms of own funds. The magazine analysts also came up with a rating of banks based on the volume of loans offered to private individuals. SKB-Bank, with

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, July 26, 2011. A shop assistant from Sport-Maxi at ComsoMall Shopping Center in Yekaterinburg was robbed of a bag with several million rubles in it right in the mall’s parking lot, the press office of Yekaterinburg Department of Internal Affairs reports. ‘Two strangers attacked the man as he was getting into his car, VAZ 2114. They hit him on the head with some metal object, sprayed some toxic substance into his eyes, and reached for the bag with the week’s revenues. The exact sum is being determined now,’ the Department explains. The man was able to call the police; the

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, July 26, 2011. A picket to protect the dwellers of Revda’s ZhBI district was held next to the building of Sverdlovsk Region Government. The picket was coordinated by a local NGO called Clean Yard – Clean City and attracted a number of local non-governmental and political organizations and representatives of ‘green’ movements from Revda and Yekaterinburg. The picket’s main slogan sounded like this: ‘We Want to Live!’ Now ZhBI district is one of Sverdlovsk Region’s most environmentally troubled areas. ‘Sredneuralsky Copper-Smelting Plant is located right next to the

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, July 26, 2011. The construction of a major railway line connecting Obskaya and Korotchayevo (the so-called Severny line) has been postponed for two months, RZhD-Parnter, an online resource reports referring to The Industrial Urals-The Polar Urals Corporation. The company announced earlier that the construction would start with a bridge across the River Nadym on June 27, 2011; before this, the deadline for launching the bridge had been set at the end of May. ‘The construction of the bridge is now expected to begin in September,’ The Industrial Urals-The Polar Urals

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, July 25, 2011. The meeting of the Law Enforcement Agencies Control Committee and Sverdlovsk Region division of the Federal Penitentiary Service was dedicated to the conditions in which the suspects and the convicted individuals live in Yekaterinburg detention ward No. 1 in Repin St, Oblastnaya Gazeta reports. ‘Both the regional and the municipal authorities have done a lot and keep working on making Yekaterinburg an investor-attractive city that is comfortable to live in. The city hosts events of global importance like the Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit or the

UrBC, Moscow, July 25, 2011. The cost of introducing high speed train links in the Urals, in Siberia, and in the Far East (with speed at 160 to 200 km per hour) is estimated at 0.9 to 1.2 trillion RUR, if the complicated climate conditions and the area relief are to be taken into account, Russian Railways’ annual report for the year 2010 states, according to Interfax. The railway company feels it would be expedient to introduce such links (at some indefinite point in the future) between Novosibirsk and Krasnoyarsk, Barnaul, and Kemerovo, between Chelyabinsk and Novokuznetsk and Yekaterinburg,

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, July 25, 2011. Yet another tenant, a bookstore called Knigi No.1, is leaving Mytny Dvor Mall in Yekaterinburg. Now the bookstore opened last year. The workers admit to the fact that the place is closing, but avoid giving the reasons for the decision taken. This is actually not the first time a tenant has left the mall lately. Brunch, Nord, Steilmann, North, Calvin Klein, Mexx, Kati Klaime, Rostic’s, Dom Posudy, and Euroset left the place a while ago.

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, July 25, 2011. The United States Consulate-General in Yekaterinburg announced the launch of a new system of making visa interview appointments. ‘The U.S. Embassy in Moscow and the consulates in Saint Petersburg, Yekaterinburg, and Vladivostok are switching to a new visa interview appointments system: starting August 1, 2011, no fee will be charged for any services, including calling the information center and making an appointment. Starting August 1, all the visa applicants can obtain all the visa-related information via the consulate website. The site will become

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, July 25, 2011. ‘The demand for tours to the Czech Republic keeps going up, the flights from Yekaterinburg to Prague are operated on a daily basis, and an additional direct flight to Carlsbad has been introduced this year. This is likely to remain the case for the next two years as well, despite the growing prices. The thing is, there is just no alternative to the Czech Republic as far as some kinds of holiday-making are concerned. For example, plenty of tourists come to Carlsbad to stay at some health farm, as this place offers the perfect value for the money. Our Russian

The consortium of Russian Directors Institute and Expert RA (a rating agency) promoted Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) corporate governance rating to eight (on a ten-point scale), which corresponds with the Well-Developed Corporate Governance Practice on the National Corporate Governance Rating scale. This means the company complies with the Russian corporate governance legislation, follows most of the recommendations prescribed in the Russian Corporate Behavior Code and some of the recommendations prescribed by the advanced international corporate governance policy. According to

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, July 20, 2011. There are 188 industrial enterprises in Sverdlovsk Region, storing a total of 8.5 billion tons worth of accumulated waste. This makes the Mid-Urals one of Russia’s most polluted places, which is exactly why the regional authorities pay so much attention to environmental issues, the Governor of Sverdlovsk Region’s press service reports. ‘Sverdlovsk Region is now really one of the country’s most environmentally troubled areas. 6% of the region’s population live under condition of multi-faceted chemical pollution. These are naturally not good figures. We are

UrBC, Moscow, July 20, 2011. Russia’s Federal Antimonopoly Service took legal action against Uniastrum Bank: the bank is suspected of violating Article 14 of the Federal Competition Protection Act (unfair competition). The FAS had received citizens’ complaints regarding the bank’s refusal to let them top up their deposits, even though the deposit agreements provided for the opportunity to top up the account. The case will be heard in court on September 19, 2011.

UrBC, Moscow, July 20, 2011. The draft new version of the Russian Federation Civil Code contains a new requirement for offshore companies: they will now have to disclose the names of their beneficiaries, Vedomosti reports. The availability of such information is a sine qua non proviso for doing business in Russia, the new amendments say. A legal entity is prosecuted for misinforming the authorities or for backing out of providing these data. The amendments do not specify, however, how such a legal entity shall be prosecuted for the offense. The proposed version of Article 51 makes it

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, July 20, 2011. An airplane of UTair Airlines operating a flight from Irkutsk to Novosibirsk and then to Yekaterinburg had to perform an emergency landing at Koltsovo Airport of Yekaterinburg. Sverdlovsk Region division of Russia’s Department of Emergencies explains it was reported from Novosibirsk airport that some pieces of rubber were found on the runway after the plane had taken off. This is why when the plane landed at Koltsovo a short check flight had to be performed for the airport staff to examine the chassis. After it had been determined that the main chassis

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, July 19, 2011. Sredneuralsky Copper-Smelting Plant signed an agreement according to which its buildings, facilities and land allotments are mortgaged to secure its debts to Bank VTB. This is over $19m worth of borrowed money, the company’s official statement says. The two parties evaluated the mortgaged assets at 2.58bn RUR, which comes to 13.83% of the issuer’s total asset value (roughly 18.65bn RUR by the end of the first quarter of 2011). The money is to be paid back in 540 days within the date of signing of the agreement and its coming into full effect.