URSA Bank proved quite successful in the first quarter of the year. Its balance sheet total reached 147.7 billion RUR on April 1, 2007, which exceeds the figures for a year earlier by 3.9 times (that is, the figures for SibAcademBank - as it then was). The bank’s net wealth went up 3.3 times and reached 107.8 billion RUR. The resource base grew 3.4 times; in addition, the bank managed to attract 5 times the amount of last year’s foreign investments due to cooperating with a number of international financial bodies: the IMF, for example, invested 42.2 billion RUR thanks to Eurobond portfolio

‘Local people mostly choose Turkey and Egypt to go to for the May recess. On average, it costs about 20,000 RUR to go to any of the two countries,’ Commercial Director of Bosfor Travel Agency Alexei Satarov said to UrBC. ‘In the spring, one normally prefers lying on the beach in the sun to going to Europe; we have already sold the lion’s share of tours to Egypt,’ Mr. Satarov said.

‘Travelers are now planning their holidays in advance: most tours scheduled for May were booked as early as March, so the most popular destinations have already been sold out. Europe, with its magnificent spring, is still the most desirable place to go to for local tourists. Prague, Paris, Vienna, and London appear to enjoy the greatest popularity. It costs approximately ?1,000 per person to go to the Czech Republic or Austria,’ Director of Inna Tour Travel Agency Inna Averyanova said to UrBC. ‘As a matter of fact, summer tours are being rapidly bought as well. People know there may not be a

‘Lack of one’s own logistics complex makes transporting and keeping of goods very expensive, but very few companies actually offer such services to grocery retailers,’ says CEO of Alliance Non-Commercial Partnership Alexei Podolyako. ‘The regional retailers’ major challenge lies not in the lack of storage space (though it’s an issue, too) but in the need for a full set of services related to goods transfer,’ he observes. ‘Retailers find it appealing to buy storage facilities, but more people actually rent them since it’s rather expensive to buy a storehouse, or it may belong to the city

According to the Ural Chamber of Real Estate, 1 square meter of existing floorspace in Yekaterinburg cost the average of 97,737 RUR on March 1, 2007. The figure amounted to 49,900 RUR at the beginning of 2006 and went up 16,200 RUR in January-September 2006. The price reached the point of 95,670 RUR per square meter at the end of January 2007.

Acting Head of Sverdlovsk Region Government Galina Kovaleva chaired a cabinet meeting on April 9, 2007 where the Minister for General and Vocational Education Valeriy Nesterov presented his report on the state of education system in the region. He said the National Education Project had been implemented quite successfully in 2006, with 2.6 billion RUR allotted for the project from the regional budget and 18.8 billion RUR invested in education additionally. About 60% of regional schools have an Internet connection, with 465 more of them expected to get access to the Web this year. The

‘President of Russian Railways Vladimir Yakunin is going to arrive in Yekaterinburg on April 13, 2007. The official report on the goals and agenda of this trip will be produced in the nearest future,’ the spokesperson for Sverdlovsk Region Railways said to UrBC. Mr. Yakunin’s visit is believed to have something to do with having to appoint the new head of Sverdlovsk Region Railways after the Board of Directors of Russian Railways decided on March 20, 2007 that the then head Shevket Shaidullin should resign. His former deputy Valeriy Fomin is now acting head of Sverdlovsk Region Railways.

MegaFon Ural experts took part in the international London-based Telecoms Fraud & Risk 2007 conference, reports the company’s spokesperson. The world’s largest telecommunication companies gathered to discuss all the pressing issues related to telecoms fraud and share their experience in preventing it. The event was attended by fraud departments’ directors and experts from Orange communication, Vodafone Group & GSMA Fraud Forum, Telenor Telecom, British Telecom, T-Mobile Czech Republic, MegaFon, and enterprises dealing in providing safe communication. Reports were presented on online

The carrier’s loyalty scheme known as Wings has been available since September 2001, with more than 20,000 people classed as members of the club today. The project is targeted at encouraging customers, who can take advantage of the scheme’s unique offers. For example, one get the so-called bonus money (10% of each ticket) and then use it to pay for a ticket, have a premium flight, or use the discounts offered by the airline’s partners, says the company’s press officer. Besides, Ural Airlines offers premium tickets (available for bonus money) for scheduled international flights on sale between

In Yekaterinburg, office rent has been rising slower than the acquisition prices over the last few years, with average rent growth coming to 10% to 15% a year, reports Yarmarka Real Estate. Yarmarka’s experts say last year was like this as well since the average rent grew 11% and amounted to 860 RUR per square meter at the beginning of 2007. Last year, renting offices in office centers and business centers became 17% and 20% more expensive, respectively, and reached the point of 870 RUR and 1,015 RUR per square meter in January 2007. The price gap between class C offices and offices based in

According to one of Ural Airlines’ employees, the company’s general director received a letter from Deputy GD of Koltsovo airport informing the former that the airport cannot service any transit passengers in the simplified mode. Koltsovo cancelled the system that skipped the in-between flights check-ins and baggage claims. A transit passenger now has to get off in the intermediary airport, get the luggage, check in, and get on the plane again. The airport says the reasons for this are the increased number of flights in the summer and lack of space. The airline employee says this system is

‘I am finally dealing with HydroSpetsStroy’s bankruptcy proceedings now. I am currently looking into the papers in the builder’s office at 13 Vosmoye Marta St.,’ says Olga Rushitskaya, acting trustee in bankruptcy of HydroSpetsStroy Ltd. (general contractor of Noviy Grad, the local developer). ‘The company’s creditors have already appointed me trustee in bankruptcy, so this issue is to be discussed in Sverdlovsk Region Court of Arbitration on April 9, 2007,’ she says. Before she used help of law-enforcement officers, Ms Rushitskaya had been trying to get in the builder’s office for a few days

Ural Bank of Sberbank of Russia conducted a prize-winning lottery for its customers; seven travel tours were at stake. In order to become a participant, one had to open a bank account in Sverdlovsk, Kurgan, or Chelyabinsk Regions or in Bashkortostan between January 22 and March 18, 2007. There had to be at least 30,000 RUR ($1,000, ?1,000) in the bank account on March 19, 2007, and the account had to be valid for at least two years. 25,000 customers were thus eligible to participate; the computer randomly chose the names of the winners, who will be able to decide on the date and destination

Mayor of Yekaterinburg Arkadiy Chernetskiy met city district heads to make sure all the cleanup activities in the streets and backyards were performed thoroughly. According to the spokesperson for the city council, the mayor also looked into how the problems revealed in the course of site inspections had been dealt with. The Mayor said the cleanup process had to be completed very soon, so this and the next week should be devoted to finishing up with the streets and sidewalks. Some districts will have to catch up with the others in terms of de-cluttering the streets or in terms of handling the

Sverdlovsk Region traffic wardens’ performance was assessed by the regional public prosecution bodies; a lot of violations were found, including cases of wardens getting engaged in profit-making activity. In Asbest, for example, a criminal suit was filed against an officer who was selling cars imported from abroad. In Slobodo-Turinskiy area, one of the local officers turned out to be the co-founder of an agricultural co-operative. Some employees happened to be direct subordinates of their close relatives. In addition, traffic wardens would sometimes illegally allow placing advertising

Former Operational Director Ekaterina Golyanova was appointed Deputy Chairperson of SKB-Bank; the decision was taken by the Board of Directors. ‘This new appointment has to do with the bank’s continuous attempts to expand the business and build up infrastructure as well as to improve our operational performance. Our assets doubled last year, and so did the number of offices and subsidiaries. 30 new points of sale were set up in 2006. Both the retail and business areas of the bank’s activity have been developing rapidly, new products and technologies are being introduced all the time. Ms

Ural Customs Administration officers revealed a case of smuggling in the airport of Nizhnevartovsk: a man flying to Azerbaijan on a Nizhnevartovsk-Baku flight failed to declare $11,000. The officers managed to disclose the trick and, since the offender never filled a declaration and did not indicate the sum of money he was taking along (which is obligatory for any amount of cash), he will have to undergo a criminal suit and might get up to five years in prison for smuggling. The decision, however, rests with the court. The investigation is currently in progress; the money was withdrawn and

Federal Transport Surveillance Agency completed the investigation of UTair Airlines related to the crash of the company’s TU 134 plane in the airport of Samara on March 17, 2007. The investigation was mainly conducted in the company’s headquarters in Tyumen as well as in the regional offices in Surgut, Khanty-Mansiysk, Syktyvkar, and Ufa. After it found some violations in the way the flights were organized, the Agency imposed flight performance limitations and issued a warning. UTair’s TU 134 pilots without a sufficient experience in the capacity of an aircraft commander were not permitted to

President of Russian Railways Vladimir Yakunin appointed former First Deputy Head of Sverdlovsk Region Railways Valeriy Fomin the company’s acting Head, First Vice President of Russian Railways Vadim Morozov announced at the meeting of company’s Board with heads of five railway companies based in the Urals and in Western Siberia in Yekaterinburg. The Board of Directors of Russian Railways decided at a meeting in Moscow on March 20, 2007 that Head of Sverdlovsk Region Railways Shevket Shaidullin should resign. There were no official comments on the reasons for his resignation, though Gudok

Expert Ural magazine published the rating of Ural Region’s largest banks in terms of net wealth in 2006 on March 26, 2007. The rating was compiled by Expert Ural analytical center. Bank24.ru went up 7 positions compared to 2005 and thus became the region’s 23d largest bank. It also hit 8th among all Yekaterinburg banks, outstripping Koltso Urala, MDM Bank Ural, Grancombank, UralFinPromBank and a number of others. The bank’s assets went up 82% (from 2,725 million RUR to 4,966 million) last year. Its capital reached the point of 457 million, which exceeds the figures for the beginning of 2006