RBC Daily’s analysts used Expert RA’s research data to compile the rating of Russia’s Top 100 Banks in 2007. According to the agency, the country’s banking system grew as dynamically as in 2006 despite the difficulties related to borrowing on foreign markets; the banks’ assets rose by 44.1% last year, which is quite comparable with 44.05% in 2006, while the market capitalization reached 57%, which is 6% better than in 2006. As for the rating, only three Yekaterinburg-based banks actually managed to hit it; the Ural Bank for Reconstruction and Development could boast the greatest asset volume

MOTIV, one of Sverdlovsk Region’s leading mobile operators, is currently operating in 510 cities and towns within the region, while the number only came to 453 as recently as six months ago; so, the company’s network has grown by 12.6% since September 2007. Most of the newly covered towns (twenty-three places) are located in the east of Sverdlovsk Region, particularly in Pyshminskiy and Talitskiy districts; the rest of the towns and villages are situated in the north-east of the region (Irbitskiy, Slobodo-Turinskiy, and Tavdinskiy districts), in the north (Verkhoturskiy, Gornouralskiy,

‘If the state, represented by Rosimuschestvo, decides to cancel its renting agreement with Koltsovo airport, it absolutely does not have to sign a new agreement with the airport rather than anyone else,’ Intellect-C’s Legal Safety Director Roman Rechkin said to UrBC. In the meantime, Rosimuschestvo filed a complaint with Sverdlovsk Region Court of Arbitration regarding the need to cancel its renting agreement with Koltsovo airport. The premises in question include the state-owned runways and other objects. Mr. Rechkin believes the airport has no priority rights whatsoever, as these rights are

‘There are plenty of locals, as well as dwellers of Moscow and Saint Petersburg (some high-ranking government officials among them), who’ve lost their money through the so-called Kalinichenko pyramid scheme,’ Director of NAUFOR’s (the National Association of Securities Market Participants) Ural branch Radik Akhmetshin announced in the course of a press conference on pyramid schemes and the state control over financial and investment institutions. ‘The last alleged location of Mr. Kalinichenko I’ve heard about was Cyprus or Italy; his mobile phone is turned off, his cottage in the vicinity of

Sberbank’s Ural branch keeps cooperating with more and more businesses and organizations whose services can be paid for through Sberbank’s ATMs and information stalls. To date, twenty-six organizations based in Sverdlovsk Region accept private individuals’ payments through Sberbank’s ATMs. This includes housing and phone bills, cable TV, natural gas supply, road police’s tickets, and much else besides. Moreover, the payment-maker can either use his or her international bank card or pay in cash using a self-service unit or a cash-accepting ATM. At the moment, Sberbank runs the region’s largest

Governor of Sverdlovsk Region Eduard Rossel chaired a meeting devoted to the region’s cooperation with Itera O&G Company. The meeting was attended by Itera’s Chairman Vladimir Makeev. One of the points on the meeting’s agenda was related to the local consumers’ three-billion-ruble debt. The housing maintenance and utilities services’ debt for natural gas consumption, for instance, has grown by over 1 billion RUR since last fall, the city of Nizhniy Tagil being Itera’s greatest debtor. The debt issue was initially considered at the Governor’s Social Security Council’s meeting in the fall

‘Frankly speaking, I wouldn’t publish an ad that promises a 195% increase in the share price in three years if I ran BrokerCreditService. This promise is partly true, but it is partly untrue as well. I’m not sure how the company did its calculations, but, in whichever case, any fund has both successful and less successful investors, all of whom invest in different things. BrokerCreditService could claim the figure denotes the profit the most successful investor would manage to make, while the less successful investors would make less or none,’ Director of NAUFOR’s (the National Association of

According to the National Managers’ League’s profitability ranking of unit investment trusts as of March 12, 2008, the share price of Alfa Capital Electroenergetica (Alfa Capital Management Company) has gone down by 10.64% since the beginning of 2008.

‘The fact that the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development bought our shareholding, an increase in the bank’s capital, and our actual growth dynamics have all contributed to SKB-Bank’s rating promotion,’ SKB-Bank’s Chairman Vladimir Pukhov said to UrBC. ‘For one, RusRating gave us BB- rather than the original B+, while Fitch Ratings affirmed our rating at B- (which is what most Moscow-based banks got as well) and Moody’s promoted us from B2, Stable Outlook to B2, Positive Outlook at the end of 2007,’ he added. ‘I believe our success is based on a few key factors. Firstly, we offer

‘It is possible after all that some of Yekaterinburg airport’s premises currently rented by Koltsovo airport will actually be transferred to some third party. The current state of events, with the airport run by a few parties that have no coordinated policy, dissatisfies the local authorities and the state, as well as the present owner. Yet, the likeliest thing to happen is that a new renting agreement will secure the rights of the present operator,’ says Aviaport Agency’s Analytics Director Oleg Panteleev. In the meantime, Rosimuschestvo filed a complaint with Sverdlovsk Region Court of

Central Bank of Russia reports volume of natural persons’ investments and deposits in Ural Innovational Commercial Bank valid for 181 days to 1 year went down by 6.52% (from 151.812 million RUR to 141.917 million RUR) in January-February 2008.

Yekaterinburg Municipal Duma Economic Development Committee members have recently been updated on how successfully the local strategic project on quality goods production was implemented in 2007, Duma’s press officer reports. For one, eighty-six furniture-making companies are currently operating in the city; these delivered to their customers nearly 2 billion RUR worth of products in January-September 2007, which is 1.5 times better than in January-September 2006. Besides, the businesses received more than 89 million RUR in terms of investments last year. ‘Even though the local producers were

Yekaterinburg Municipal Duma Economic Development Committee members have recently been updated on how successfully the local strategic project on quality foods production was implemented in 2007, Duma’s press officer reports. It was announced that Yekaterinburg’s 16 large food manufacturers and 70 small companies produced a total of over 17 billion RUR worth of foods in 2007, which exceeds the figures for a year earlier by 7.5%. At the same time, a number of manufacturers (the city’s flour milling and bakery plants, Confectionery Group SladCo, and Yekaterinburg Meatpacking Plant) experienced

The Federal Financial Market Service looked into the results of the scheduled field checks of FINAM Investment Company and Finam Management Company, decided to ban some of the companies’ operations, and insisted on eliminating the violations of the existing laws detected in the companies’ activity. According to the Service’s report, this decision is by no means a sign of the Service’s negative evaluation of the management and investment companies’ job. The limited bans on certain items related to the performance of unit investment trusts managed by any other company could occur in the future

‘We invested 1.4 billion RUR in our networks’ development last year, originally hoping to get all the money through link-up fees. However, the money failed to arrive in time, which is why we had to get a bonded loan of 1 billion RUR,’ Yekaterinburg Electrical Network Company’s Deputy Strategic Development Director Sergey Semerikov announced at a press conference on March 13, 2008. He said the company was planning to spend 2.6 billion RUR on development in 2008, so additional (i.e. banks’) resources would have to be used. In addition, the company set up a contracts department in order to

SKB-Bank was declared Sverdlovsk Region’s fastest-growing bank in terms of assets and the most successful one in 2007. According to Expert RA and RBC Daily’s Russia’s Top 100 largest banks rating (based on the banks’ asset volume), the average growth rate of banks’ assets came to 44.1%, while the capitalization reached 57% a year. Remarkably, SKB-Bank was the only Ural bank whose growth in 2007 (62%) exceeded the whole system’s average figures. Moreover, SKB-Bank’s capital growth reached 74% a year and the balance sheet profit rose by 72% compared with a year earlier. At the same time, other

‘In case Koltsovo airport of Yekaterinburg does have an increase in rent, the carriers aren’t likely to feel it. Airlines only use 30 or 40 square meters of the airport’s premises, so even if Rosimuschestvo does increase the interest rates for the airport, the latter won’t charge the carriers much more, and the plane tickets won’t grow much more expensive. And, anyway, the Federal Antimonopoly Service has already determined the airport’s prices for this year,’ says Vasiliy Kovalev, the director of Transaero’s Ural branch. In the meantime, Rosimuschestvo filed a complaint with Sverdlovsk

Central Bank of Russia reports volume of loans given by Perviy Respublikanskiy Bank to for-profit self-regulatory organizations for over 3 years dropped by 100% (from 170 million RUR to zero) in January-February 2008.

‘Ensuring a company is economically secured has always been and will always remain one of the key components in business management. A proprietor needs to feel safe knowing that their assets are protected by professionals,’ Oleg Borisov, the General Director of Europe-Asia, the information and consulting center, said to UrBC. ‘Current economic growth means even more attention has to be paid to security issues. Business development, entering the new markets in neighboring regions and other countries, and cooperating with the new partners and contractors all require high quality support. The

The value of net assets of Energy - Mixed Investments (the unit investment trust) managed by Eurogreen Management Company Ltd. went down by 1.68% between March 6, 2008 and March 7, 2008. According to Eurogreen’s website, the company’s net assets decreased from 2,945,195.54 RUR on March 6, 2008 to 2,895,774.44 RUR on March 7, 2008.