The Best Annual Report contest has been organized in Yekaterinburg for the third time this year. There were two main categories: The Best Annual Report of a Bank and The Best Annual Report of a Company, Ural Treasures Bank’s press officer reports. The annual reports were assessed by a board of experts; prior to the contest, the bank’s Marketing Director Alexander Nistranskiy took part in a round table discussion devoted to the ends and means behind an annual report on a competitive market. The awarding ceremony took place on October 17, 2007. The Ural Bank for Reconstruction and Development

It was reported at the region’s public prosecution authorities’ meeting that over 15,500 reports on missing persons were made to the region’s militia in January-September 2007. The location of nearly 5,300 people is still unknown, and some serious problems with the organization of the search as well as grave violations of legitimacy are believed to be the reason for this. Prosecutors disclosed numerous instances of unnecessary bureaucracy, negligence, and beadledom among the militiamen and lack of proper control from their supervisors. Very often, officers would refuse to file a criminal suit

Some employees of Ural Turbine Plant participated in the 12th International EnergyExpo-2007 exhibition in Minsk on October 16-19, 2007. The plant presented its well-known steam turbine equipment as well as some new projects developed for combined-cycle plants, the spokesperson for the company said to UrBC. 'Gas-vapor technologies are considered to be the most efficient ones to date, and our plant, alongside with our Russian and foreign partners, is ready to offer our customers the most advanced equipment,’ says Ural Turbine Plant’s GD Vladimir Ermolaev. This year, the plant is expected

Central Bank of Russia reports volume of loans given by Uralprivatbank to natural persons for 31 to 90 days went down by 100% (from 759,000 RUR to zero) in January-September 2007.

'UralTransBank and a number of local insurers signed an agreement that appears to violate the competition protection law in the field of insurance services,’ Stepan Krasheninnikov from Sverdlovsk Region division of Federal Antimonopoly Service said to UrBC. 'The bank chose some trustworthy insurance companies and signed agreements with them, which means that the insurance services might grow somewhat more expensive. We are not talking about a very large sum of money here, but it will still affect the customers. In fact, the bank is limiting their choice by allowing them to use only

The Expert magazine summed up the results of Russian factoring market development in January-June 2007. SKB-Bank was rated Russia’s 12th largest factoring company in terms of the money yielded, the bank’s press officer reports. According to the results of the factoring market research, the total volume of money yielded to Russian actors reached $7.3bn. The share of large businesses dropped from 44.2% in 2006 to 40.9% in 2007, whereas the shares of small and medium-scale businesses went up and reached 16.1% and 43% respectively against 14.4% and 41.5% in 2006. The Expert magazine reports the

'The issue of dishonest business practices is becoming more and more acute and dishonesty is even sometimes seen as an entrepreneurial tool; so we thought of setting up an organization that could file all the instances of unfair play on the market,’ General Director of Intellect-C Evgeniy Shestakov announced at a press conference on October 23, 2007. 'A non-profit partnership will have been registered by the end of the year, and any firm willing to do so will be allowed to join. We are currently working on this organization’s charter. We feel it’s necessary to disclose the names of

'Our region’s travel organizations were awarded with the People’s Tourist Prizes on October 22, 2007. Not a single representative of Neva Yekaterinburg showed up at the ceremony, so the old rubber boot (a ‘prize’ given to the worst travel agent) will be sent to the company by post,’ President of Sverdlovsk Region Tourist Information Center Vadim Viner said to UrBC. In the meantime, Director of Neva Yekaterinburg Andrei Pidzhakov says he’s never heard of the People’s Tourist Prize and is not going to attend any events of such sort. 'Neva Yekaterinburg was declared the worst travel

According to the Central Bank of Russia, volume of self-regulatory financial organizations’ deposits in VUZ Bank valid for 91 to 180 days went down by 100% (from 1 million RUR to zero) in January-September 2007.

Rusipoteka.ru, the information and analytics portal on mortgage lending and securitization, published some data on the largest Russian banks’ activity on October 22, 2007. These banks have issued at least 750,000 mortgages to their customers by July 1, 2007. The state-run Sberbank is definitely the most powerful player in this field, as it is responsible for two-thirds of all mortgages offered to borrowers in this country. On the other hand, some smaller regional banks have been fairly successful as well. SKB-Bank, for instance, was rated Russia’s 25th largest mortgage-giver. 'The

Central Bank of Russia reports volume of loans given by UralTransBank to for-profit self-regulatory organizations for 181 days to 1 year went down by 79.87% (from 308,000 RUR to 62,000 RUR) in January-August 2007.

Ural Airlines has recently introduced five new ticket tariffs for its Yekaterinburg-Moscow-Yekaterinburg flights. The tariffs are shaped so as to meet the needs of five different types of customers. People living in Kurgan and Tyumen Regions can book and buy a ticket for Yekaterinburg-Moscow flight for 1,235 RUR. If any passenger books a ticket at least twenty-five and fourteen days in advance, it will cost 1,335 RUR or 3,435 RUR, respectively. Then, there is a special tariff for people with disabilities and those who accompany them during the flight. These people can buy a ticket for 2,800

Severnaya Kazna Insurance Company sold a portion of shares of Severnaya Kazna, thus reducing its share in the bank’s authorized capital from .953% to .2%, or by 79%. This information was published in compliance with the demand that any issuer and/or a joint stock investment fund must promptly reveal any essential information that could influence its stock price.

'Head of More Travel Company has been detained, and his case is now under investigation,’ President of Sverdlovsk Region Tourist Center Vadim Viner said to UrBC. 'According to the data I have, this company deceived 229 customers, with the total damage estimated at 4.5 million RUR,’ he added. Employees of More Travel Company, whose office was then located at 36 Malyshev St., signed agreements with customers who wanted to spend their holidays at the Black Sea (in the vicinity of Anapa) on July 7-30, 2007. The company promised to coordinate the stay as well as the trip to the seaside

According to a recent real estate market research, Yekaterinburg hotels are conventionally seen as a less attractive type of property compared with trade centers, offices, and warehouses. However, the hotel market has been on the rise thanks to the city’s status of both industrial and cultural center of the Urals. At the same time, there are currently very few nice quality rooms and premium class suites that the local hotels can offer, while most people who come to look for a room are the so-called business travelers. There are sixty-two hotels in Yekaterinburg altogether; 20% of them have

Olips paid 31,479,453 RUR worth of promissory notes on October 22, 2007. Overall, the company went through with a public offering of 389 million RUR worth of promissory notes. The spokesperson for the company reports this offering is part of their external financing project aimed at diversifying their resource base, improving on the amount of working assets, and creating a public credit record. Olips has been one of Yekaterinburg’s leading developers for over ten years now; it has so far put up and commissioned a total of 400,000 square meters of buildings, with another 650,000 square meters

According to the Central Bank of Russia, volume of for-profit self-regulatory organizations’ deposits in SberInvestBank valid for 1 to 3 years went down by 72.5% (from 20 million RUR to 5.5 million RUR) in January-September 2007.

According to a recent real estate market research, the supply of Yekaterinburg office space market amounts to 3,000 square meters; the share of available offices comes to less than 1%, the rent is $626 per square meter a year, and profitability reaches 9.5% to 10.5% a year. These are mainly foreign and large Russian companies that create a demand for good quality offices. In the meanwhile, there are very few available places, and it happens to be virtually impossible to rent a nice office in a building that has already been put up. Most offices are normally bought or rented as early as at the

In January-September 2007, seven fires occurred at Sverdlovsk Region Railways. The damage was estimated at 207,100 RUR. All the fires broke out in the building of a technological center in Druzhinino and on the premises of a ball-bearing plant in Bogdanovich. The fire safety inspectors examined 860 different objects, where 14,529 safety violations were revealed. As a result, 54 buildings had to stop operating and the use of 10 railway carriages, 49 Diesel locomotives, 24 electric locomotives, 78 electric trains, 40 special purpose cars and emergency vehicles, 59 lodging cars, and 14 passenger

According to a recent real estate market research, there are 18 trade centers in Yekaterinburg at the moment; their total area comes to 553,000 square meters. Two-thirds of malls can be classed as good quality ones. Corteo Fashion Mall, Pokrovskiy Passage, MEGA, Carnival Trade Center, Greenwich, Park House, and Hermes Plaza malls are generally regarded as the most professional shopping centers. The city now has more trade centers than Moscow and Saint Petersburg (224 square meters per 1,000 dwellers against 180 square meters in Moscow and 154 square meters in Saint Petersburg), while the