Ural division of Sberbank of Russia held a press briefing with INVEST United Financial Group executives speaking on the trends and challenges of Russian investment funds on May 15, 2007. ‘Sverdlovsk Region’s investment funds market, as well as that of Yekaterinburg in particular, is very promising. There are, for instance, quite a few federal players and a lot of local companies. We used to have only one Yekaterinburg-based partner in 2002, but this is not the case now. Sverdlovsk Region has a lot of potential in terms of both retail and business markets,’ SKB-Bank’s Securities Director Ilya

‘The Bank of Russia set the dollar/ruble and the euro/ruble exchange rates at 25.79 RUR per dollar and at 34.93 RUR per euro on May 16, 2007. This recent restoration of the euro was mainly due to bad retail sales in the U.S. that turned out to be worse than had been expected; the same was true of producer price index,’ SKB-Bank’s trader Sergey Vetyshev says. ‘This week will probably make the market status quo more transparent, since we are expecting a number of quite interesting reports to be published. Generally, foreign currency rates are now determined by the U.S. consumer price index; if

Mayor of Yekaterinburg Arkadiy Chernetskiy and Sverdlovsk Region Government are expected to sign the agreement on land ownership in Yekaterinburg this week, the spokesman for the Mayor Konstantin Pudov reports. ‘The agreement project is almost finished, there are only some legal details left out. Both parties are willing to settle the issue peacefully. After the agreement has been signed, both the city council and the regional government will have a chance to regulate the distribution of land allotments; the builders are expected to benefit from the agreement as well,’ Mr. Pudov observed.

‘Sverdlovsk Region Government has no right to buy the additional share issue of Sverdlovsk Gubernskiy Bank. I don’t believe they will actually go through with it, since this acquisition will definitely be questioned by both regional and federal law-enforcement agencies. Our public prosecution bodies have to file more and more criminal suits related to abuse of power by various authorities nowadays,’ Sverdlovsk Region Duma Deputy Vladimir Taskaev says. ‘The government must distribute the budgetary funds fairly rather than get involved in commercial affairs. This money would be much better off

The networks belonging to Golden Telecom Ltd. experienced a major breakdown on May 15, 2007, depriving the company’s users of Internet access. The alarming symptoms could be traced early on in the morning when the users’ connection kept going on and off. Then, the web became totally inaccessible at about noon. Golden Telecom was not able to explain what had caused the trouble; nor did the company announce how long it was going to take to fix the problem.

According to the Central Bank of Russia, the volume of loans given by Uralfinprombank to sole traders for a term of 91 to 180 days went down 83% (from 52.4 million RUR to 8.42 million RUR) in January-April 2007.

Officers of Ural Customs Administration found more than 1,000 pirated items while checking passenger trains 306 (Bishkek-Yekaterinburg) and 11 (Chita-Chelyabinsk), their spokesman reports. Among them are ‘PUMA’ sports outfits, ‘ADIDAS’ sneakers, shorts, T-shirts, and other kinds of sportswear. All of the obviously counterfeited goods were confiscated and stored; the owners of the produce will have to undergo administrative trials.

According to the Central Bank of Russia, volume of loans given by SberInvestBank to sole traders for more than 3 years went down 8% (from 8.307 million RUR to 7.564 million RUR) in January-March 2007.

First Power Generating Company on the Wholesale Energy Market (aka OGK-1) summed up the results of its activity in April 2007. The company’s power stations produced 3,853.11 million kilowatt/hours in terms of electricity and 86,480 gigacalories in terms of heat last month. Permskaya and Kashirskaya power stations produced 15.85 million and 87.05 million kilowatt-hours less electricity in April 2007 compared to a year earlier.

‘The court is processing quite a few insolvency claims at the moment; even though initiating bankruptcy proceedings is not that complicated, creditors must be aware of the fact that it is not always the best way out for them. The bankrupt company, for example, may not be able to cover the litigation costs, so creditors will have to provide for those themselves,’ acting Deputy Head of Sverdlovsk Region Court of Arbitration Svetlana Tsvetkova says. ‘90% of claims we get come from the Russian Federation Federal Tax Service that largely have to do with insolvency and collections of all types.

‘Academic construction project currently implemented in Yekaterinburg will be applying for state backing,’ President of RENOVA Stroy Group Veniamin Golubitskiy reports. ‘All the papers have already been filed to meet the competition requirements; the same is true of the rest of our projects; Chelyabinsk-based Sun Valley, for instance, is to be based on state-private partnership. We are planning to complete five to seven such projects throughout Russia,’ Mr. Golubitskiy says. The Russian Federation Government published decree 242 regarding distribution of federal subsidies meant for building

‘All the recent bans on meat import are largely meant to protect Russian consumers from low-quality produce and have nothing to do with politics or economic pressure,’ Head of Sverdlovsk Region Meat Union Sergey Emelyanov said to UrBC. Most of the bans were brought about by salmonella found in the meat shipments, so, according to Mr. Emelyanov, as soon as the foreign companies get rid of the problem, they will be able to supply their meat to Russia again. ‘The main challenge, though, is that Russia had to assume certain responsibilities related to providing foreign food producers with access

Federal Antimonopoly Service took part in the drafting of a creditor’s code targeted at protecting the bank borrowers, Head of Federal Antimonopoly Service in Sverdlovsk Region Tatiana Kolotova announced at a press conference on May 14, 2007. ‘There have been no banks with a lot of customers’ complaints over the last two years in this region, since our banks have to compete fiercely and thus play by the rules; however, there are some in the rest of Russia. These are Russian Standard Bank and Home Credit and Finance Bank Ltd.,’ Ms Kolotova said. She explained that Russian banks sometimes made

Deputy Minister for Industry, Power Engineering, and Science of Sverdlovsk Region Yuri Zibarev announced at a recent regional government meeting that local machine building industry was still having a hard time. Its share in the total volume of the region’s industrial production is slightly over 17%; investments are scarce, the companies’ own finances are limited, and there is acute shortage of skilled workers. What is more, equipment they use is worn out by 50% to 70%, Mr. Zibarev said. The government decided to respond with a set of measures that could support local machine-building

According to the Central Bank of Russia, volume of loans given by SberInvestBank to natural persons for a term of 91 to 180 days went down 82% (from 241,000 RUR to 41,000 RUR) in January-March 2007.

United Company RUSAL had its 10,000th ton of aluminum produced at Ural Alumina Plant, the company’s spokesperson for the Urals Roman Lukichev said to UrBC. The experimental 300-kiloampere electrolytic sections, employing the most advanced Russian equipment and high-tech know-hows, were launched on April 1, 2005; its peculiarity lies in that the complex is suitable for both producing aluminum and carrying out scientific experiments. The sections are meant for 300-kiloampere electric current, but the successful research and testing resulted in the management’s decision to raise the figure to

URSA Bank is going to be one of the major supporters of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development forum in Kazan scheduled for May 20-21, 2007. The agenda of the upcoming forum provides for a wide range of events, including the opening discussion session devoted to the region’s future developmental strategy and the bank’s activity and its importance to global economy. Then, the participating countries will make presentations on the newest investment opportunities within countries where the bank is operating and provide for top executive meetings. There should also be plentiful

Ural Airlines resumed performing Yekaterinburg-Tashkent weekly flight on May 13, 2007. According to the carrier’s press officer, the cheapest tickets are available at ?170 plus the duties and fees; there is no fuel fee, though, if you acquire a ticket online. Unlike last summer, all Tashkent-bound flights will be performed using the modern and comfortable Airbus 320. ‘The re-introduction of the flight will make it possible for our customers to do the best planning when going on business or traveling; it will also ensure more transit flights with our interline partners who fly from Tashkent to

SKB-Bank has recently reduced the interest rates on mortgages provided for those willing to invest in having a dwelling built for them rather than for those buying existing homes. The annual interest rate went down 3%, so the top rate can now only amount to 16%; moreover, if you are able to provide some housing as the loan collateral for the construction period, the interest rate will be reduced to 15% a year. ‘The three-percent difference will definitely make a whole lot of difference to our customers. If you borrow 1.5 to 2 million RUR and have to pay 19% a year, it will be several thousand

Tyumen customs transferred 252.2 million RUR to federal budget in April 2007, Ural Customs Administration reports. This is 78.6% ahead of the target figures; 33,100 RUR were obtained through selling confiscated produce (231% better than the target figures), fines amounted to 140,900 RUR (8.4% ahead of the target figures). The customs managed to transfer 855.7 million RUR to the federal budget since the beginning of the year, which exceeds the initial plan imposed by Ural Customs Administration by 14.9%.