‘Our company’s pricing policy is normally determined by the market, namely, things like increases in oil and mineral oil prices that stimulate the export of these products from Russia and affect the home market opportunities; seasonal variations in demand (in the summer, oil consumption goes up by 15% on average, with demand for high-octane gasoline rising by 25%) is another influential factor. Given that Russian oil production output remains the same despite the increased seasonal demand, some shortage is usually felt and domestic wholesale markets start selling oil at higher prices,’ the

Governor of Sverdlovsk Region Eduard Rossel took part in Russian-Turkmen negotiations along with the other members of a delegation headed by Russian President Vladimir Putin on May 11, 2007. Mr. Rossel was able to present his report on Sverdlovsk Region’s socio-economic development, its major industries, and innovational potential, all of which makes the area a promising field for Russian-Turkmen cooperation. ‘Sverdlovsk Region could supply Turkmenistan with rolled metal, tubes and pipes, medical, construction, and housing maintenance equipment, pumps and machines of all kinds,’ the Governor

Academic construction project currently implemented in Yekaterinburg by RENOVA Stroy Group has been getting a lot of attention both at home and abroad (namely, in Western Europe). Following the presentation at the international exhibition MIPIM 2007 held in Cannes, the project was praised by Europe’s major newspapers. ‘Academic construction project is Europe’s largest at the moment. The future district of Yekaterinburg is to be very ‘green’ since it will be located between two 600-hectare woodlands and next to a great park beside a river. Each part of the district will be situated near some

The participants of the annual meeting of Sverdlovsk Region Union of Metallurgical Enterprises looked at their industry’s success in 2006. The share of this branch in the region’s foreign trade turnover came to 25% last year, with the share of export reaching 27% and the share of import amounting to 17%, the spokesperson for the Governor of Sverdlovsk Region reports. The export of (primarily) ferrous metals went down against a year earlier, whereas the average contractual prices increased, which led to a general rise in export revenues. The growth of prices as well as of the actual volume of

The 22nd meeting of the Association of Regional Banks of Russia (Association ‘Russia’) is going to take place at President Hotel in Moscow on May 22, 2007. Among the points on the agenda are the association’s main business activities in 2005-2008, ways of enhancing the efficiency and competitiveness of Russian banks on the threshold of Russia’s entrance to the World Trade Organization, and creating the best possible conditions for protecting the creditors’ and consumers’ interests. Besides, the attendees are planning to discuss issues related to improvements in the current banking legislation

Ural Turbine Plant (part of Renova Group) intends to spend nearly 11 million RUR on improvements in the employees’ working conditions and enhancing safety this year. This is twice the amount spent a year earlier; the sum has been agreed upon through some recent changes in the company’s collective agreement, the plant’s press officer says. ‘If you want the plant to develop, you need to upgrade the equipment and improve people’s working environment. We have only been able to deal with the primary challenges so far, but as soon as we have done this, we’ll move on to introduce more innovations,’

‘Bad world news has been affecting Russian stock market quite negatively,’ Alexander Sterkhov of SKB-Bank says. ‘Throughout last week, our stock market kept waiting to hear from the U.S. monetary authorities, which resulted in relatively small trading activity and RTS index fluctuations between 1,910 and 1,940 points. The index amounted to 1,892.3 points at the close of business on May 10, 2007 (which was 1.75% lower than a week earlier); MICEX index went down 1.86% and reached 3,299.6 points,’ he reports. May 10, 2007 was the last day for applying for VTB’s IPO; the number of applications is

Ural Airlines came up with a special offer for Children’s Day (June 1), available for passengers flying to Moscow or Saint Petersburg from Yekaterinburg or Chelyabinsk on June1-5, 2007. Any adult passenger can take along a child aged 2 to 18 for free. If the passenger is accompanied by three or more children, each child’s ticket will only cost 1,000 RUR (plus the fuel fee if you fly from Yekaterinburg-based Koltsovo airport). The offer is part of the carrier’s Affordable Tickets program aimed at making air travel affordable to people with different incomes, the airline’s press officer says.

BBDO Branding, URSA Bank’s re-branding partner, won in the ADCR Awards 2007 in the Graphic Design/Corporate Style & Re-Branding category. The assessing panel was to evaluate the bank’s logo, corporate style, printed materials and advertising leaflets. ‘It’s been a pleasure working with a client who you feel aspires to be a leader in both banking and design sector. On the one hand, the task was quite easy: two banks merging to become URSA Bank (a name suggested by Thomas Gad); the company’s new name implies certain allusions to the famous constellation (Ursa Major, or the Great Bear). On

Russian safety monitoring agencies found salmonella in a 25-ton shipment consisting of chicken backs from the U.S. and in 25 tons of Argentinean boneless beef. Rosselkhoznadzor (the state agricultural watchdog) said this was the reason why it decided to impose temporary bans on meat import from the U.S.-based Р-1257 and Argentinean FRIAR S/A 1970 beginning from May 15, 2007. The agency has already asked the American and Argentinean veterinary authorities to investigate the incident to make sure nothing of the kind happens again. In addition, a 19-ton shipment and a 5-ton shipment of ground

TGK-9, the local heat and power supplier, has been gradually lowering the temperature level in Yekaterinburg’s heat networks since May 10, 2007. The process will have been completed by May 20, 2007. 'These will be the non-residential premises like production facilities that will be cut out first, then it will be the city’s living quarters‘ turn, and finally, the heating season will be over in socially important buildings like schools, hospitals, and kindergartens. Mayor of Yekaterinburg Arkadiy Chernetskiy has already signed a provision regarding the end of the heating season and issued

Khortytsa’s (aka Hortiza) share of Ukrainian strong drinks market grew 10% over a year to make the company the country’s record-setting No.1, Khortytsa’s spokesman reports. MEMRB IRI (www.memrb.com), the major international research company, looked at the company’s success in the first months of 2007 and stated the consumers kept changing their preferences in favor of Khortytsa, whose market share has been rising all the time over the last 18 months. Khortytsa’s sales amounted to 28% of all the sales on the strong drinks market in March 2007, which made the distillery Ukraine’s top strong

A new federal cardiovascular surgery center will be started in Chelyabinsk in 2007; Head of Russian Federation Government Mikhail Fradkov has already signed a decree to this extent, acting Governor of Chelyabinsk Region Andrei Kosilov reports. Mr. Kosilov also says the new clinic is going to become Ural Federal District’s second high-tech medical center (there is one operating in Tyumen at the moment), with the number of such surgery hubs around the country expected to reach 15 units altogether. Chelyabinsk was chosen because of the outstanding preparation and lobbying by the region’s

Aviaprad’s Yak 40 flying from Moscow to Yekaterinburg had to opt for a crash landing at Koltsovo airport of Yekaterinburg, says the airport’s press officer. The plane was reported to be experiencing problems with the air conditioning system. The aircraft landed in Yekaterinburg at 2.25 PM, with firefighters and ambulance crew awaiting the passengers on the ground, but no damage had been done to the plane or the people on board.

Officers of Chelyabinsk customs withdrew about 230,000 RUR worth of undeclared goods at Bugristoye automobile customs check, Ural Customs Administration reports. A Kazakh citizen was trying to leave Russia with 11.3 tons of cut-up marble plates whose cost was estimated at 39,000 RUR. In addition, three trucks going to Russia from Kazakhstan were transporting 34.6 tons of potatoes worth 190,000 RUR altogether. The owner of the shipment never declared this produce, which is against the current legislation, so the cargo had to be withdrawn and stored at the customs warehouse; the customs

RENOVA Stroy Group is going to present its Academic Construction Project at Global City 2007, an international forum to be held in Lyon on May 14-16, 2007, the company's press officer reports. Global City is an international forum for business executives and members of city councils devoted to strategies, new methods and specific projects in the field of municipal improvement. The forum is a globally recognized place to present one’s large town planning projects and share one’s experience in dealing with construction challenges related to urban development. The agenda of the forum

Four-room apartments in Yekaterinburg experienced the greatest price growth in January-April 2007, says Ural Chamber of Real Estate. The price of one square meter of dwelling has gone up 10.96% since the beginning of the year and now comes to 66,119 RUR, whereas prices for three-, two-, and one-room apartments have only increased by 6.92%, 4.56%, and 3.45%, respectively, so prices now come to 65,332 RUR, 66,087 RUR, and 73,669 RUR per square meter of dwelling. Even though these are one-room apartments where prices are the highest, their price growth has been very slow; this was not the case

URSA Bank assessed its performance in April 2007. Its balance sheet total reached 151.9 billion RUR on May 1, 2007, which exceeds the figures for a year earlier by 3.7 times. The bank’s net wealth went up 3 times and reached 103.9 billion RUR. The bank’s resource base made up of investments by international financial bodies grew 5.1 times, coming to 41.9 billion RUR; this money is traditionally used to develop the company’s own lending schemes as well as programs supported by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. The overall volume of URSA Bank’s lending operations tripled,

Rostourism has recently published lists of travel agents who managed or failed to fill in their applications for United Federal Register correctly. There are 55 companies in the first category and 4 companies in the second one. Quite remarkably, there have been no Sverdlovsk Region-based operators among the applicants so far.

SKB-Bank was rated 16th among Russian factor companies in terms of transferred money last year. The rating was compiled by the Expert magazine; they believe the local factoring market doubled in 2006, reaching $11 billion, which is more impressive than in the case of its East European counterparts; moreover, provided the current growth rate remains the same, the market is expected to become comparable with the ones based in Western Europe. This success has so far remained unique to this country’s financial services markets. The Expert magazine says SKB-Bank’s factoring activity exceeded 1.131