Yekaterinburg’s Internet provider services market kept getting redistributed among a number of major players throughout last year. Companies that could offer their customers unlimited Internet access, high speed connection and good service keep getting increasingly more subscribers, partly at the expense of the ‘traditional’ providers who have been operating on the market for quite a while but found themselves unable to adjust to the new market opportunities in time. Besides, the number of customers who switch from one operator to another or use several Internet providers at once is on the

Uralskaya Stal’s AGM resulted in the decision to pass a dividend for the financial year 2007. 5.7 billion RUR worth of profit will be managed by the joint stock society.

‘Banks don’t slow down on trying to attract private individuals’ investments in the summertime. Their ad campaigns are just as proactive, new interest rates and deposit terms are offered all the time. At the same time, there is usually a certain seasonal standstill on the savings market in the summer, as people spend their money on vacations, on buying and building summerhouses, and on repairs and decoration,’ says Ural Treasures Bank’s Marketing Director Alexander Nistranskiy. Alexander Nistranskiy reports bank deposits are a traditional way of attracting people’s investments. ‘Banks tend to

Central Bank of Russia reports volume of loans given by VUZ Bank to sole traders for 91 to 180 days went down by 26.76% (from 13.141 million RUR to 9.624 million RUR) in January-May 2008.

URSA Bank set up seven new additional offices in the Urals, that is, in Perm, Ufa, Chelyabinsk, Surgut, and Yekaterinburg. This large-scale expansion is part of URSA Bank’s Ural branch’s subsidiary network development program. This year, twenty-five more offices will be introduced in the Urals, Western Siberia, and the Volga region. RBC.Rating reports URSA Bank was rated Russia’s 6th largest bank in terms of the number of cities (populated by at least 50,000 people) where the bank operated on January 1, 2008. ‘The new offices are mainly designed to service private customers; this is why we

Hydrospetsstroy, Noviy Grad’s former general contractor, is still going through bankruptcy proceedings. Olga Rushitskaya, their acting trustee in bankruptcy, says the region’s Court of Arbitration is still handling the claims laid against Noviy Grad and its partners; there are about twenty claims altogether. The Court of Arbitration declared Hydrospetsstroy insolvent; the company has to face claims, all related to reclamation of Hydrospetsstroy’s property and selling it by auction. This money will be used to pay the company’s creditors, as Hydrospetsstroy owes them more than 55 million RUR at

MegaFon’s MegaFon Modem and MegaFon Modem Plus tariff schemes acquired additional options (Packet Internet 250, Packet Internet 1500, Packet Internet Subscription 250 and Packet Internet Subscription 1500) on July 2, 2008. Packet Internet is an additional incidental service including 250 MB or 1,500 MB of incoming and outgoing traffic for GPRS connection. Packet Internet Subscription is an additional monthly service including 250 MB or 1500 MB of incoming and outgoing traffic for GPRS connection with number rounding value of 1 Kb. Thus buying Internet traffic wholesale saves you a lot of

Central Bank of Russia reports volume of loans given by SberInvestBank to nongovernmental financial organizations for 181 days to 1 year dropped by 59.71% (from 19.635 million RUR to 7.910 million RUR) in January-May 2008.

‘The prices of vacation trips went up by 25% to 30% compared with the year earlier due to jet fuel becoming more expensive. The price of the rest of a trip’s components (that is, a hotel stay, food, and so on) has remained practically the same,’ director of Ural Tourism Association Tagir Sultanov observed in the course of a press conference. ‘I believe that the latest increase in prices was actually the last one. The season only lasts for about four months on average, and its first half has nearly come to an end by now. We expect the second half to be more favorable for the travelers in terms

UralBusinessConsulting Agency of Information and Analytics has recently found out that passengers who bought Vladivostok Avia’s Yekaterinburg-Moscow tickets online now cannot return them and get their money back. It has been reported that people who called the airline’s Yekaterinburg office in order to return their tickets were explained that this could only be done through the company’s website. In the meantime, the website does not provide any information whatsoever as to the ticket return procedure. The air carrier suggested that the customers should place an official letter demanding the

SKB-Bank managed to go through with its SKB-1 bond issue offer successfully. The bondholders could sell their bonds at a price that comprised 100% of their face value and get the coupon yield (determined by the bank for the fifth coupon period at 12.6% a year). The volume of the bonds offered for retirement totaled to 238,312,000 RUR (based on their face value), which comes to less than a quarter of the issue. Most of these bonds were bought by the bank’s new investors. SKB-Bank launched its bond issue on June 21, 2007. The volume of the issue came to 1 billion RUR; the bonds are to be in

BINBANK apparently fails to provide its potential borrowers with full data on their consumer loan offers. The bank’s website does provide certain criteria for getting the loan: one has to be no younger or older than a certain age, have a registered place of residence and be employed in the city or region where one applies for a loan. However, only after a customer fills in and submits the application does the bank’s expert contact them; he or she answers the applicant’s questions and explains what papers the bank must get. At the same time, these experts are believed to miss out on some

According to the National Managers’ League’s profitability ranking of unit investment trusts as of June 30, 2008, the share price of BCS Consumer Sector Fund (BrokerCreditService Management Company) has gone down by 17.58% since the beginning of the year.

Kommersant came up with the results of a research done on Russia’s factoring market opportunities in 2007. The magazine’s analysts report the Ural Bank for Reconstruction and Development was featured in their Russia’s Top 30 factoring market players list. The magazine reports the total worth of debts yielded to the bank as a result of its factoring transactions amounted to 73,650,140,000 RUR last year, thus the bank got the 29th best position in the rating. The volume of finances provided by the Ural Bank for Reconstruction and Development to its customers reached 60 million RUR, which

To upgrade the machinery, one of the company’s production shops had to close down for the time being. The renovating process is expected to take fifteen days, in which the equipment of two rolling mills (850 and 650) will be improved upon. This will include the breakdown mill, the pinion stand, the spindle system that rotates the rollers, and the water-accumulator installation that supports the balance of the upper rollers. In addition, the roller conveyors, manipulating equipment, and six saws will be repaired. Rolling mill 850 will be fitted with the automated breakdown mill control system.

The Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland to Russia Sir Anthony Russell Brenton said at a press conference hosted by Interfax-Ural and Tyumenskaya Linia in Tyumen on July 2, 2008 that it was sad to hear TNK-BP’s Russian and British stockholders could not agree on certain points. He noted the embassy was willing to facilitate the conflict resolution. However, no direct interference in the stockholders’ affairs was deemed acceptable; nor should Russian state authorities step in. Anthony Brenton believes the shareholders must

Deputy Governor of Chelyabinsk Region Roman Panov met the heads of the region’s municipalities in the course of their monthly meeting to discuss the implementation of the state guarantees system within the regional healthcare network. The system is designed to work in two directions. Firstly, it aims to eliminate the waiting queues, as data on these are promptly collected by the health ministry on a daily basis. Things got better in most towns and cities, while the less successful municipalities were asked to use the summertime for improving upon their clinics’ patient service. Secondly, the

Central Bank of Russia reports volume of loans given by Sverdlovsk Gubernskiy Bank to for-profit self-regulatory organizations for 31 to 90 days went down by 93.54% (from 495.910 million RUR to 32.001 million RUR) in January-May 2008.

Governor of Khanty-Mansiyskiy Autonomous Region Alexander Filippenko spoke at a press briefing in the course of the Russia-EU summit and the 5th Congress of Finno-Ugric Peoples in Khanty-Mansiysk. He did admit that the project on the industrial development of the northern parts of the Urals (known as The Industrial Urals-The Polar Urals) might make a negative impact on the aborigines’ lifestyle and the local environment. To avoid this, the designers and the builders must use the most successful Russian and global experiences of northern lands development as best they can and definitely take

Central Bank of Russia reports volume of loans given by Uralprivatbank to for-profit self-regulatory organizations for 31 to 90 days dropped by 83.85% (from 7 million RUR to 1.13 million RUR) in January-May 2008.