Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) decided to form a strategic alliance with Belon, a large coal mining company. This alliance was made possible after MMK bought 50% of Onarbay Enterprises Ltd’s shares (the latter owns 82.6% of Belon’s share capital). MMK was thus able to increase its indirect participation in Belon’s management by 41.3%. The sum of the transaction came to $230.4m. Belon is expected to raise its coal output by 2.3 times, or up to 10.8 million tons a year, by 2012 using some investments. Investing in Belon will provide MMK with 55% of all coke-coal concentrate and 60%

According to the National Managers’ League’s profitability ranking of unit investment trusts as of March 11, 2008, the share price of Raiffeisen Funds’ Fund (Raiffeisen Capital Management Company) has gone down by 10.24% since the beginning of 2008.

Dwellings located in Sredneuralsk, Sverdlovsk Region, are to be converted from central to individual heating, the town’s mayor Alexei Danilov said to the Governor of Sverdlovsk Region. According to the mayor, the town’s heating networks are very badly worn out and the heat losses therefore come to 60% sometimes, while the detached houses sector is fully provided for by the central heating system. The municipal authorities have already started converting the houses back to individual heating through supplying the dwellers with energy-saving gas boilers. 1,000 houses are expected to be

The Ural Bank for Reconstruction and Development was featured in MICEX’s Top 50 Trading Operators rating in February 2008. The fifty winners were picked out from 630 contestants; the Ural Bank for Reconstruction and Development was given the 37th position in terms of stock market trading and the 46th position in terms of bond market repurchase agreement trading. Tellingly, the bank’s share trading turnover rose to 6.4 billion RUR against 6.2 billion RUR in January 2008, while its bond repurchase agreement trading turnover went up from 1.6 billion RUR in January 2008 to 2.3 billion RUR in

‘A short while ago, Sunrise tour travel agency’s fifty-six customers who didn’t have any direct agreement with Ural Airlines were unable to pass the border control at Koltsovo airport of Yekaterinburg and thus missed their chartered flight SVR 3603 due to lack of papers, visas, and passports,’ the carrier’s press officer said to UrBC. Based on its agreement with PGS Charter, Ural Airlines is to operate a chartered flight from Yekaterinburg, Russia, to Goa, India, and back from December 9, 2007 to April 2, 2008. Apart from flights operated from Moscow, this is the only flight to Goa available

It was announced in the course of a meeting chaired by First Deputy Head of Sverdlovsk Region Government Vladimir Molchanov that a regional state-run air carrier dealing in local and regional flights is to be set up in Sverdlovsk Region. The issue was first brought into the limelight during the Russian Federation Minister of Transport Igor Levitin’s visit to Yekaterinburg. The future enterprise will probably be based on the currently operating state-run organization that uses seventeen runways and owns a number of aircraft and some premises. The new business is expected to start operating in

Central Bank of Russia reports volume of loans given by UralTransBank to state-run for-profit organizations despite overdraft plummeted by 100% (from 5.967 million RUR to zero) in January-February 2008.

Chelyabinsk Tube Rolling Plant and Pervouralsk New Pipe Plant (ChTPZ Group’s largest tube and pipe manufacturers) supplied their consumers with 256,800 tons of tubular goods in two months of 2008, which falls short of the figures for January-February 2007 (298,100 tons) by 14%, the Group’s press officer said to UrBC. ChTPZ Group sold 134,500 tons of tubes and pipes in two months of the year, which falls short of the figures for a year earlier (that is, 163,500 tons) by 18%. These figures include a 27% decrease in the amount of large-diameter pipes: his came to 70,800 tons compared with 96,800

Ural Airlines has recently come up with a new offer for its customers: a passenger buying a plane ticket to Moscow can make a hotel reservation at the Izmailovo Hotel and can get it confirmed right away. A passenger is thus offered a return ticket from Yekaterinburg to Moscow and back and one- to three-day stay at the hotel (breakfast included) at a lower price, the carrier’s press officer reports. If you stay at the hotel for one day, the price of the offer comes to 9,899 RUR per person in a double room and to 10,900 RUR in a single room; if you stay there for two days, the price will come

The Russian Federation Government assented to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ proposal that a trade department of the Kingdom of Denmark’s Embassy in Yekaterinburg could be set up in the city. The Governor of Sverdlovsk Region Eduard Rossel was informed of the news; the proposal had earlier been coordinated by the Russian Federation Ministry for Economic Development and a number of other federal executive authorities as well as the Danish parties involved.

Central Bank of Russia reports volume of loans given by Tagilbank to for-profit self-regulatory organizations for 181 days to 1 year went down by 31.37% (from 15.3 million RUR to 10.5 million RUR) in January-February 2008.

‘The gradual replacement of free fare privileges with monetary compensation is unavoidable. The federal authorities demand that we fully switch to monetary compensation of all social welfare benefits (including public transport fares and housing bills) before January 1, 2009,’ Head of Sverdlovsk Region Government Viktor Koksharov said at a briefing on March 11, 2008. ‘The issue is being hotly debated at the moment, with the region’s legislative assembly deputies contributing to the discussion. It isn’t clear yet whether the monetary compensations will have been introduced by July 1, 2008 or

Central Bank of Russia reports volume of loans given by Bank Uralsib to sole traders for up to 30 days went down by 23.2% (from 42.066 million RUR to 32.308 million RUR) in January-February 2008.

‘Sverdlovsk Region’s concert entertainment market is saturated with operators of all sorts, who have to compete with each other as well as with the performers’ Moscow agents and directors (who don’t feel they can rely on anyone to take care of their stars,’ Intershow’s press officer Yulia Filatova said to UrBC. Ms Filatova reports fifteen to twenty concerts are held in Yekaterinburg weekly during the high seasons (that is, end of January to mid-May and September-December), so even a real enthusiast can’t possibly go to them all; besides, sometimes a few similar-style concerts are organized on

Europe-Asia, the information and consulting center dealing in services related to a business’s economic security with headquarters in Yekaterinburg, set up subsidiaries in Moscow and Volgograd. ‘Making sure a business can be secure is a complex set of tasks like eliminating the legal, physical, and information security risks, coordinating the personnel, and cooperating with the state authorities and the security agencies. To protect a business successfully, one needs highly skilled workers, a lot of experience, and certain know-hows which our company takes pride in. This is why our services

Central Bank of Russia reports volume of loans given by Sverdovsk Gubernskiy Bank to for-profit self-regulatory organizations for up to 30 days went down by 56.69% (from 27.708 million RUR to 12 million RUR) in January-February 2008.

Central Bank of Russia reports volume of loans given by UralFinPromBank to for-profit self-regulatory organizations for 91 to 180 days went down by 25.16% (from 273.794 million RUR to 204.907 million RUR) in January-February 2008.

Sberbank of Russia’s Ural branch keeps raising the number of Yekaterinburg-based outlets where one can now buy or sell not only the traditional U.S. dollars and Euros but also the UK pounds sterling, Canadian dollars, Swiss francs, Czech korunas, Ukrainian hryvnias, Chinese Renminbi yuans, and Japanese yens. So far, these currencies are dealt with in eight of Sberbank’s Yekaterinburg offices at 11 Moskovskaya St., 1 Vainer St., 25 Verkh-Isetskiy Boulevard, 62 Tatischev St., 10 Belorechenskaya St., 4 Yasnaya St., 84 Repin St., and Mega Trade Center at 87 Metallurgi St. The latter can be found

According to the National Managers’ League’s profitability ranking of unit investment trusts as of March 5, 2008, the share price of BCS Consumer Sector Fund (BrokerCreditService Management Company) has gone down by 10.48% since the beginning of the year.

UralSib Management Company’s share price went down by .16%, dropping from 5,068.69 RUR on March 4, 2008 to 5,060.55 RUR on March 5, 2008. This information was published in compliance with the demand that any issuer and/or a joint stock company must promptly reveal any data related to their activity that might influence the company’s stock price.