This year’s housing market development can be defined as stagnating in comparison with last year; the number of actual transactions has gone down dramatically against the second half of 2006, experts of Ural Chamber of Real Estate say. This drop in the buying activity can be explained by a dramatic increase in housing prices, since such increases have led to decreasing demand before. At the same time, the amount of transactions completed in the first quarter of 2007 is not any smaller than in the first quarter of 2006; moreover, this figure outstrips the data for 2002-2005. This means current

‘The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development’s buying a 25% share holding of SKB-Bank’s authorized capital is going to make this Yekaterinburg-based bank much more respectable. It will also ensure cheap money and well-reputed co-directors as well as a great developmental impulse,’ Vitaliy Kalugin, Assets Management Director of Unicom Partner Investment Company, said to UrBC. SKB-Bank reports it signed the share-selling agreement with the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development on May 24, 2007. The share holding is constituted by the bank’s additional share issue and comes to

‘These will mainly be some Moscow-based companies that will actually suffer the greatest losses because of the possible bans for Russian airplanes to fly to Tunis. Ural travelers are not going to be seriously affected as Yekaterinburg dwellers don’t really go to Tunis that much,’ Bosfor Travel Agency’s Commercial Director Alexei Satarov said to UrBC. ‘We are hoping, though, that our authorities actually manage to settle the issue,’ he added. Last weekend, Tunisian authorities cancelled their permissions to enter the country given to all Russian carriers; this lasted a few hours; the flights

According to the Central Bank of Russia, volume of loans given by Sverdlovsk Gubernskiy Bank to state-owned profit-making organizations for 1 to 3 years went down 29% (from 4.999 million RUR to 3.541 million RUR) in January-May 2007.

According to Sverdlovsk Region Ministry for Agriculture and Food, regional farmers are planning to be done with the spring crops by June 4, 2007. Nice weather that’s been around for the last few days made it possible for them to catch up with the usual spring schedule (the sowing campaign was originally supposed to have been finished by May 28, 2007 yet this was not to be since the weather was rather inclement). So far, farmers have managed to sow 220,000 hectares of land, which comes to 42% of the target figures.

A group of Ural Airlines’ employees are going to take part in the 1st International Transport Forum and Russian Transport 2007 exhibition. Both events have been organized and coordinated by the Ministry of Transport and are to be held in Sochi on May 31-June 3, 2007. The forum is expected to become an annual event and one of the most impressive arenas for public presentation of one’s successes and prospects. According to Ural Airlines’ press officer, round about 600 people have applied so far, including a delegation from Italy’s Ministry of Transport, Transport Ministers of Saudi Arabia,

German Consulate-General in Yekaterinburg will be accepting visa applications from dwellers of Chelyabinsk, Kurgan, and Chelyabinsk Regions and from people living in Khanty-Mansiysk and Yamalo-Nenetskiy Autonomous Regions beginning from June 1, 2007. People living in Perm and Orenburg Regions or Bashkortostan will have to keep applying for their visas in Moscow.

According to the Central Bank of Russia, volume of nongovernmental financial institutions’ deposits in METCOMBANK valid for 30 days went down 50% (from 16 million RUR to 8 million RUR) in January-April 2007.

The number of mortgages offered by Russian banks altogether in the first quarter of the year exceeded the figures for the first quarter of 2006 by 4% and reached 82.3 billion RUR. This comes to 32.9% of the target figures for 2007 (250 billion RUR). The average interest rate came to 14% for ruble loans and to 11% for foreign currency loans. The Central Bank of Russia reports Central Federal District’s share of mortgages amounted to 23.4 billion RUR, that of Siberian Federal District to 15.5 billion RUR, that of Volga Federal District to 15.1 billion RUR, that of Ural Federal District to 11.3

SKB-Bank started offering mortgages to members of building societies who would like to have a dwelling built for them. There are several loan schemes available to customers, including the one without the obligatory collateral for the construction period. ‘We’ve got a lot of experience in terms of working with the local builders; all the details and technicalities have already been made clear, so, by launching this new offer, we are giving our building societies a chance to benefit from the federal mortgage program and are expanding our own market as well,’ SKB-Bank’s Mortgage Lending Director

‘May 25, 2007 was the last day for the regional employers to apply for foreign workers they will need next year; we haven’t been able to process all the figures yet, but what I do know is that there had already been applications for 34,500 people by May 18, 2007,’ director of Sverdlovsk Region Placement Service Vyacheslav Krivel said to UrBC. ‘We’ve cancelled all the quotas for the first time this year; last year, however, 43,000 workers were applied for,’ he said. After the applications have been processed, data on the number of workers will be transferred to an interdepartmental committee

According to Sverdlovsk Region Ministry for Economics and Labor, the official unemployment level in the region reached 1.3% on May 1, 2007, with 31,445 people’s files in job centers’ databases. At the same time, regional companies and organizations asked for 41,922 employees.

Agropromcredit Bank’s top executives announced at a recent press conference that the name of their company was actually misleading as it no longer hinted at the bank’s core activities. ‘People often ask what we have to do with the country’s agriculture; the thing is, there used to be some agricultural entities among our founders, but now it’s just a name that does not mean anything in terms of our business directions,’ the bank’s BOD member Yuri Zverev said. Chairman Igor Sogin added that they were about to start a re-branding campaign.

‘The fact that the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development acquired some shares of SKB-Bank is a very good thing for the latter. Firstly, the bank is now able to successfully build on its capital; moreover, doing business with a large international financial institution is a matter of status and prestige which is bound to boost the bank’s capitalization,’ Investments Director of Management Company Alexander Metsger said to UrBC. ‘Seconldy, SKB-Bank is providing additional resources for itself and its customers, which makes it more competitive. Thirdly, the bank is definitely going to

Severnaya Kazna published an obligatory report on important news that could affect a company’s stock price on May 24, 2007. The report states the bank’s net profit amounted to 449,785,000 RUR in 2005 and to 231,710,000 RUR in 2006; this means it went down by 48.48%, or 218,075,000 RUR. The bank says it was due to less favorable market opportunities, expenses occasioned by expanding their retail services and setting up more subsidiaries, and new accounting standards related to deposit interests.

The number of apartments currently offered for sale in Yekaterinburg is bigger than ever before, and the prices stopped going up into the bargain. The average price of a square meter of dwelling now comes to 67,000 RUR; the average price of a square meter of dwelling in the center of the city comes to 80,000 RUR. Experts believe there will be even more supply in the near future, with prices remaining stable, Ural Chamber of Real Estate says.

Chelyabinsk Region Government approved of the action plan based on the President’s address to the Federal Assembly for 2007 on May 24, 2007. According to regional Minister of Economic Development Yuri Klepov, the plan covers four general trends: ensuring great economic growth, improving the living standards, empowering the local governments, and providing for national security. President Vladimir Putin said economic growth was the country’s utmost challenge, which is why Chelyabinsk Region Government intends to keep supporting small and medium-scale business, with 53.5 million RUR already

Rostourism updated its lists of successful applicants wishing to get on the United Federal Register list; only three Yekaterinburg-based companies actually managed to get all the documents needed and were registered by the agency: Ural Tourist Company Ltd., Europort Ltd., and More Travel Russian Club Ltd. No other local travel agents have managed to make it so far; in the meantime, the deadline for submitting one’s applications has been set at June 1, 2007.

‘Sverdlovsk Region banks tend to give more loans to industrial enterprises lately, given especially a certain downfall in the general public’s interest in mortgages,’ Deputy Chairman of the Union of Ural Bankers Evgeniy Bolotin announced at a press conference devoted to banks’ contribution to the country’s economy on May 24, 2007. ‘Equipment used by quite a few regional companies is in dire need of upgrading or replacement, so our industry needs substantial modernization and new technologies. At the same time, banks might find offering loans to industrial businesses even more promising than

‘The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development’s decision to buy a share holding of SKB-Bank is definitely a good thing for the latter. The decision was made after the EBRD looked into SKB-Bank’s investing potential, and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development is now going to support this Russian bank with both finances and shared expertise in the field of bank management and operational policies,’ General Director of Blagodat Securities Investment Company Vsevolod Chaschin said to UrBC. SKB-Bank reports it signed the share-selling agreement with the European Bank for