November 1, 2013. METCOMBANK was featured in the rating of Sverdlovsk Region's 100 largest companies that was compiled by the Delovoy Kvartal analysts, the bank's press service reports. The rating comprises businesses that are officially registered in and operate in Sverdlovsk Region as of October 1, 2013, excluding branches of nation-wide and international companies. The revenue in the year 2012 was the main ranging criterion. For banks, the revenue was calculated as the interest rate income plus the commissions income. All in all, four Ural banks were featured in this rating.

November 1, 2013. Holding the world computer programming championship in Yekaterinburg was made possible thanks to the fact that the city can boast a developed IT community, Vice Rector of Ural Federal University and the ACM ICPC coordinator in Yekaterinburg Dmitri Bugrov. 'We applied for the right to host the championship in 2016 and were hoping that the application would be approved for that year or for the next. Yet we actually won the privilege for the year 2014, and this is going to be the second time the ACM ICPC will be held in Russia. This is possible due to the fact that

November 1, 2013. Prices on Yekaterinburg existing homes market went up by 2.9% in the ten months of the year compared with January 2013. As of October 28, 2013, the median price of a square meter of housing currently offered for sale came to 72,119 RUR, Ural Chamber of Real Estate's press service says. The supply volume is still high enough: there are between 8,600 and 8,700 apartments in the Ural Chamber of Real Estate's database alone, and these are only the apartments that are being sold through estate agents. Plus, there are 1,800 rooms in communal apartments for sale at the

November 1, 2013. The very first surveillance audit of the company's quality management system was carried out at Pervouralsk New Pipe Plant (a member of ChTPZ Group). The plant was checked for compliance with the ISO 9001 and the Russian national standard GOST ISO 9001 requirements. The audit was carried out by TUV International RUS, Moscow, and TzMKS, a certification body from Chelyabinsk. During their inspection, auditors looked into the performance of most of the plant's divisions, checked documentation, and evaluated the quality of technological processes and the productivity

November 1, 2013. Sinara-Development, a divisional holding of Sinara Group, won the right to sign rental contracts for a land allotment in Tenistaya St in Shirokaya Rechka District in the course of an auction. The 3.9-hectare land allotment is meant for putting up apartment buildings. The lot came at the price of 54.1m RUR. The development of this allotment will allow for the construction of some 100,000 sq m worth of housing. The area development project that is to be approved of by Yekaterinburg Council will be drawn up in the first quarter of 2014. Sinara-Development expects to start the