UralTransBank’s own funds went down by .9% in January 2008 and reached 1,675,587,000 RUR on February 1, 2008. These data are available from a report on the performance of the largest banks in Sverdlovsk, Chelyabinsk, and Tyumen Regions and Perm Territory in January 2008 to be found on Bank Severnaya Kazna’s official website.

According to the National Managers’ League’s official website, the share price of Az-Capital (the unit mixed investment trust run by Management Company) went down by 9.57% (from 1.60085 RUR to 1.44764 RUR per share) between December 29, 2007 and January 31, 2008.

'All the construction work done within the framework of preparations for the upcoming Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit in Yekaterinburg meets all the town planning and land code requirements. All the projects are subject to very strict control and expert assessment by both the regional and federal authorities. Only after the project has been approved of by the officials and experts and the land has been officially allotted for it, can the city’s construction authorities allow the building process to start,’ the spokesperson for the Mayor Konstantin Pudov reports. According to Mr.

Central Bank of Russia reports volume of loans given by Uralfinprombank to sole traders for 91 to 180 days went down by 15.18% (from 32.42 million RUR to 27.5 million RUR) in December 2007-January 2008.

'On February 21, 2008, the shareholders of Nizhniy Tagil Boiler and Radiator Unit Plant will start considering which candidate could be appointed the enterprise’s general director. Even the BOD members haven’t got all the personal data on these candidates yet, which is why it’s very surprising that the BOD member Boris Dyakonov claims he’s got evidence of one of the candidate’s (whose name is Pavel Vasilyev) incompetence,’ the plant’s Legal Issues Director Irina Sytnik says. The BOD meeting on the upcoming elections of the company’s GD took place on February 15, 2008, whereupon some

Central Bank of Russia reports volume of loans given by Sverdlovsk Gubernskiy Bank to for-profit self-regulatory organizations despite overdraft went down by 56.22% (from 276.459 million RUR to 121.033 million RUR) in December 2007-January 2008.

Central Bank of Russia reports volume of loans given by Bank Uralsib to state-run for-profit organizations for 31 to 90 days went down by 95.12% (from 179 million RUR to 8.3 million RUR) in December 2007-January 2008.

According to Bankir.ru’s ranking of Russian banks as of January 1, 2008, SKB-Bank was one of the country’s largest banks in terms of deposits made by private individuals. In fact, the Bank achieved Russia’s 54th best result, as its natural person deposit portfolio reached 8.6 billion RUR on January 1, 2008, which is 10% better than in December 2007 and 40% better than a year earlier. These results allow SKB-Bank to be still featured in the Top 100 rating as well as remain one of Ural Federal District’s leaders in terms of natural person deposit portfolio. The bank raised the interest rates on

'There are currently eleven Auchan hypermarkets in Moscow that welcome the capital’s ten million dwellers as well as four or five million people from Moscow Region. This means there is one Auchan store for every 1.4 million people there. At the same time, there are only 1.3 million dwellers in Yekaterinburg, and 400,000 people from the nearby towns come to the city to do their shopping. In the meanwhile, the local population’s income is 1.5 times lower than in Moscow. All this boils down to the following: one Auchan store in Yekaterinburg is enough to maintain the optimal balance among

'We’ll have to keep investigating the case of Bank VTB 24 and a number of insurance companies related to violation of the competition protection law,’ the spokesperson for the Federal Antimonopoly Service said to UrBC. The Service took legal action against Bank VTB 24, Rosgosstrakh-Stolitsa, Ingosstrakh, Voenno-Strakhovaya Company, VTB Strakhovaniye Insurance Company, Rosgosstrakh-Siberia, Rosgosstrakh-Severo-Zapad, Rosgosstrakh-Povolzhye, Rosgosstrakh-Tatarstan, Rosgosstrakh-Yug, Rosgosstrakh-Ural, Rosgosstrakh-Dalniy Vostok, Rosgosstrakh-Center, Rosgosstrakh-Accord, Russkiy Mir

Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) raised its metal goods output to 12.2 million tons in 2007, the company’s BOD Chairman Viktor Rashnikov announced at a trade union meeting. The meeting took place in MMK’s Central Lab assembly hall, the main point on the agenda being Mr. Rashnikov’s report on the company’s production and investment activity in 2007 and the plans for the year 2008. Last year, the company produced 6.5% more steel and 7.6% more metal goods than in 2006. The 12.2 million tons of metal products were the company’s best-ever result. In addition, MMK sold 7.3 million tons of

Central Bank of Russia reports volume of loans given by Perviy Respublikanskiy Bank to for-profit self-regulatory organizations despite overdraft went down by 58.13% (from 42.239 million RUR to 17.687 million RUR) in December 2007-January 2008.

Central Bank of Russia reports volume of loans given by UniCreditBank to Russian Federation subjects and local governments’ financial bodies for 1 to 3 years went down by 10.38% (from 154.896 million RUR to 138.811 million RUR) in December 2007-January 2008.

Chelyabinsk Tube Rolling Plant and Pervouralsk New Pipe Plant (ChTPZ Group’s largest tube and pipe manufacturers) supplied their consumers with 107,900 tons of tubular goods in January 2008, which falls short of figures for January 2007 (148,400 tons) by 27%. ChTPZ Group sold 58,200 tons of tubes and pipes in the first month of the year, which fall short of the figures for a year earlier (that is, 81,800 tons) by 29%. These figures include 34,200 tons of large-diameter pipes, which is 34% less than in January 2007 (51,600 tons). Pervouralsk New Pipe Plant delivered 49,700 tons of tubular

Auchan is going to set up more hypermarkets in Yekaterinburg, Oleg Zemtsov, the spokesperson for Deputy Mayor Viktor Konteev, said to UrBC referring to a statement made by Auchan’s Development Executive in the Urals Ernest Elizarov. The French company is planning to introduce four more Auchan hypermarkets in Yekaterinburg within the next three years. One store is to be located next to the Central Stadium downtown, another one will be situated in one of the shopping centers in Kosmonavtov Ave., and more stores will appear in the northern and eastern parts of the city. In addition, an Auchan

Last year, Sberbank of Russia’s Ural branch extended the number of foreign currencies that one could freely exchange to eleven. Alongside with the traditional U.S. dollars and Euros, Sberbank’s Ural branch now deals with the UK pounds sterling, Canadian dollars, Swiss francs, Czech korunas, Swedish kronas, Ukrainian hryvnias, Chinese yuans, Japanese yens, and Kazakh tenges. The U.S. dollars and Euros are still the most popular currencies with the bank’s customers, although the demand for the pounds sterling keeps increasing as well. The bank now owns twenty-four ATMs that allow a customer to

Standard & Poor's put Uralsvyazinform, one of Russian landline communications operators, with its BB- long-term credit rating, on the CreditWatch list and gave it the Negative Rating Outlook due to the company’s inability to attract 1.5 billion RUR ($61m) worth of loans, which they needed to do in order to refinance their liabilities. This information is available from Standard & Poor's official website. 'The fact that we placed Uralsvyazinform on the CreditWatch list means their rating can either be affirmed at the current level or demoted, depending on how

Central Bank of Russia reports volume of loans given by SberInvestBank to for-profit self-regulatory organizations despite overdraft went down by 46.51% (from 16.234 million RUR to 8.683 million RUR) in December 2007-January 2008.

The Federal Antimonopoly Service refused to let Novolipetsk Integrated Metallurgical Complex (NLMK) acquire 100% of Maxi Group’s shares. NLMK is one of Russia’s major metallurgical enterprises whose share on the metal goods market comes to more than 35% for many types of products. Maxi Group controls a number of electro-metallurgical plants and companies dealing in production, recycling, and sales of ferrous and non-ferrous metals. NLMK was not allowed to buy the shares because some of the papers the enterprise provided contained inaccurate data on the company’s employees who already owned

The volume of Sberbank of Russia’s Ural branch’s nominal accounts used to invest in precious metals went up by 1.4 times compared to 2006 and reached over 6.4 tons. The bank had more than 14,500 nominal accounts of this kind on January 1, 2008, with 2.2 tons of gold kept in these accounts. The volume of retail sales of gold came to more than 106 kilograms of bullions and 312 kilograms of coins, whereas the sales of silver reached 1,396 kilograms in 2007. In addition, the bank offered its customers over 350 nominations of coins made from precious metals in thirty different countries as part of