The value of net assets of Energy - Mixed Investments (the unit investment trust) managed by Eurogreen Management Company Ltd. went down by .75%% between November 14, 2007 and November 15, 2007. According to Eurogreen’s website, the company’s net assets decreased from 3,926,490.76 RUR on November 14, 2007 to 3,897,074.72 RUR on November 15, 2007.

Rostourism reports the number of all trips abroad Russian citizens made in January-September 2007 came to 26,363,435; this exceeds the figures for a year earlier by 18%. Russians’ holiday travel went up by 22%, with most people going to Thailand (75% more trips were made there compared to 2006), Israel (56% more trips), Austria (41% more trips), Italy (35% more trips), Tunisia (35% more trips), Switzerland (30% more trips), and China (24% trips).

SKB-Bank’s consumer loan portfolio exceeded 10.2 billion RUR on November 1, 2007, making the bank the Urals’ third largest retail crediting organization. In addition, SKB-Bank is No.1 in terms of consumer lending among all the Ural banks. The volume of SKB-Bank’s consumer loans has already doubled against the beginning of the year. At the same time, the bank was able to keep its credit risks low, while the share of bad or overdue debt only comes to 2%. Consumer loans have been enjoying great demand this year, even though number of loans the banks are willing to give tends to go down lately.

Central Bank of Russia reports volume of loans given by AGROPROMBANK Credit to for-profit self-regulatory organizations for 1 to 3 years went down by 23.21% (from 1,949,182,000 RUR to 1,496,792,000 RUR) in January-October 2007.

A division of Finnish-Russian Chamber of Commerce is to start operating in Yekaterinburg soon, the Minister for International and Foreign Economic Relations of Sverdlovsk Region Alexander Kharlov was officially notified by the Chamber’s GD. The introduction of an office in Yekaterinburg is believed to help the Finnish business enter the Ural market, establish partnerships, and set up offices in Yekaterinburg faster. In addition, the Chamber’s new division is planning on providing the local entrepreneurs with entry visas to Finland.

Overdue debt on UralTransBank’s consumer loans amounted to 116.4 million RUR on November 1, 2007, which exceeds the figures for January 1, 2007 by 3.7%. At the same time, the share of overdue debt in VUZ-Bank’s loan portfolio rose by 1,726,000 RUR compared to the beginning of the year and reached 2.6% in November 2007. This information is available from a report on the consumer loan portfolio growth among the banks based in Sverdlovsk, Chelyabinsk, and Tyumen Regions and Perm Territory in January-October 2007 featured by Bank Severnaya Kazna’s official website.

Central Bank of Russia reports volume of loans given by Ural Innovational Commercial Bank to profit-making organizations for 91 to 180 days went down by 42.11% (from 35.65 million RUR to 14.85 million RUR) in January-October 2007.

URSA Bank’s Yekaterinburg branch was put on the list of banks that are allowed to act as customs guarantors, Russia’s Federal Customs Service reports. This means the local subsidiary is now permitted to produce banker’s guarantees (such as the guarantee of paying customs charges or guarantee of using excise duty stamps) without having to involve URSA Bank’s head office first. 'This country’s legislation provides for several ways of ensuring performance of exporting/importing company’s obligations, namely, a deposit, some insurance, collateral, a surety commitment, and a banker’s

The value of net assets of Energy - Mixed Investments (the unit investment trust) managed by Eurogreen Management Company Ltd. went down by 2.88% between November 13, 2007 and November 14, 2007. According to Eurogreen’s website, the company’s net assets decreased from 4,042,794.4 RUR on November 13, 2007 to 3,926,490.76 RUR on November 14, 2007.

It appears that European investors are starting to pay more attention to Russia’s growing real estate market, as Russian projects invariably get a lot of attention at international exhibitions as well as more and more financing by international investors. Die Welt, Bayerische Staatszeitung, and Wirtschaftsblatt observed on October 10, 2007, October 5, 2007, and October 25, 2007, respectively, that Russia had never taken a more active part in EXPO REAL than in the fall of 2007 (there were about fifty Russian participants altogether, which is 25% more than a year earlier). Then, the media

According to the Central Bank of Russia, volume of loans given by Sverdlovsk Gubernskiy Bank to for-profit self-regulatory organizations for 91 to 180 days went down by 43.14% (from 142.84 million RUR to 81.218 million RUR) in January-October 2007.

Chelyabinsk Tube Rolling Plant and Pervouralsk New Pipe Plant (ChTPZ Group’s largest tube and pipe manufacturers) supplied their consumers with 1,625,000 tons of tubular goods in the nine months of 2007, which is 14% better than in January-October 2006. ChTPZ Group sold 888,500 tons of tubes and pipes in the nine months of the year, which exceeds the figures for a year earlier by 12%. These figures include a 17% increase in the amount of large-diameter pipes: it came to 492,000 tons. Chelyabinsk Tube Rolling Plant delivered 90,200 tons of tubular goods to consumers in October 2007 (which

Deputy Head of Sverdlovsk Region Government and the region’s Minister of Agriculture and Food Sergey Chemesov chaired a meeting devoted to the regional retail markets’ performance. Reports were made by members of a working team responsible for monitoring retail and wholesale food prices. The team members said that the prices had remained stable throughout the week and that their control of food prices in a number of certain stores was made much more systematic. The Minister suggested that the monitoring authorities pay attention to a complaint made by one of the visitors to Auchan’s

Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) held a conference devoted to its new e-trading floor; this can be found at This is part of the company’s development program based on the idea of being open and transparent. The e-trading floor means the enterprise has reached a new level of relationship with customers and suppliers. It took MMK, Cognitive Technologies, and Borlas eight months to launch the project in 2007. The program uses Oracle iStore, which makes it totally compatible with the entire Oracle E-Business Suite. When setting up this e-floor, MMK was trying to offer its customers a new

Central Bank of Russia reports volume of loans given by UralTransBank to for-profit self-regulatory organizations for up to 30 days went down by 57.79% (from 32.341 million RUR to 13.65 million RUR) in January-October 2007.

The value of net assets of Energy - Mixed Investments (the unit investment trust) managed by Eurogreen Management Company Ltd. went down by .92% between November 12, 2007 and November 13, 2007. According to Eurogreen’s website, the company’s net assets decreased from 4,080,372.86 RUR on November 12, 2007 to 4,042,794.4 RUR on November 13, 2007.

Ural Airlines and Vozrozhdeniye Yekaterinburg Ltd. are going to sign an agreement regarding the construction of a group of buildings for the carrier on November 16, 2007. The event is to be attended by Governor of Sverdlovsk Region Eduard Rossel, the airline’s press officer reports. The agenda of the agreement-signing ceremony provides for a presentation of a miniature model of the future building that is expected to become the airline’s headquarters, complete with rooms for aircraft personnel, flight attendants, and the in-flight medical board, a conference room, Sales and Finance

RusRating promoted the Ural Bank for Reconstruction and Development’s credit rating from B- to B; the Rating Outlook was said to be Stable. 'The rating was improved because of the bank’s efforts to offer more loans to private customers, expand their subsidiary network, and achieve overall growth. Besides, they’ve got a nice share of the Urals’ private deposit market; they also enjoy a nice reputation on the Russian interbank market,’ RusRating says. In addition, the Ural Bank for Reconstruction and Development’s long- and short-term credit ratings were also confirmed at B- and C

Ural Airlines’ customers can now pay for their tickets online through Yandex.Money. 'This is a great way of paying for people who don’t have their own bank cards but who would still enjoy saving a little money, since online customers don’t have to pay the fuel fee when booking tickets for certain domestic flights and flights around the CIS,’ the carrier’s press officer reports. In addition, Ural Airlines is offering some branded souvenirs and gifts to all customers who pay through Yandex, and members of the airline’s Wings club will get a 50% bonus for booking and buying online. The

Central Bank of Russia reports volume of loans given by SberInvestBank to sole traders for 181 days to 1 year went down by 98.74% (from 10.95 million RUR to 138,000 RUR) in January-October 2007.