Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) published a consolidated financial report on the enterprise’s activity in the first half of 2008. The report was drawn up in accordance with the US GAAP standards. The enterprise’s revenues rose by 41% in January-June 2008 compared with a year earlier and reached $5.653bn due to growing prices and greater production output. The company’s EBITDA grew by 25% and amounted to $1.511bn. The EBITDA margin came to 27% in the first half of 2008 and to 30% in the second quarter of the year. MMK’s net profit went up by 19% and came to $1.031bn. ‘We have once

Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works BOD Chairman Viktor Rashnikov has recently been interviewed by The Financial Times; the executive said MMK was intent on the realization of great strategic goals rather than mere money-making. Rashnikov believes the success of the Russian metallurgical enterprises largely depends on their controlling shareholders’ strategic vision. ‘The American and European companies are rather transparent to the public, they’ve got plenty of financial investors, and they mainly aim to buy and sell, whereas Russian businesses tend to be controlled by strategic investors

Central Bank of Russia reports volume of loans given by Perviy Respublikanskiy Bank to sole traders for 1 to 3 years went down by 61.99% (from 51.396 million RUR to 19.531 million RUR) in January-July 2008.

According to the Central Bank of Russia, volume of loans given by Sverdlovsk Gubernskiy Bank to sole traders for 1 to 3 years dropped by 32.48% (from 333.034 million RUR to 224.841 million RUR) in January-July 2008.

According to the Central Bank of Russia, volume of for-profit self-regulatory organizations’ demand deposits in VUZ-Bank plummeted by 100% (from 34.5 million RUR to zero) in January-July 2008.

MOTIV offers its customers voice mail for free between August 18, 2008 and October 1, 2008: no subscription fee will be charged. A voice mailbox is a kind of answering machine that allows one to leave (and listen to) voice messages up to sixty seconds long in cases the number is busy or the phone is out of the coverage area. Starting October 2, 2008, the subscription fee for voice mail will come to 100 RUR. ‘This is the second time we have offered our customers free voice mail subscription this summer,’ MOTIV’s PR Director Elena Vinogradova said to UrBC. ‘The first round of free subscriptions

Sverdlovsk Region’s coinage offense–fighting authorities report 921 counterfeiting attempts were registered in the region in January-June 2008 (compared with 984 attempts a year earlier). 889 cases involved the Bank of Russia’s banknotes, 32 cases involved U.S. dollars, and one case had to do with counterfeited euro bills. The authorities say the counterfeited bills are imported to Sverdlovsk Region by so-called ‘circuiteers’ or organized groups (sometimes ethnically homogeneous ones). Batches worth between 100,000 RUR and 500,000 RUR get transported from Chechnya, Dagestan, Stavropol

UC RUSAL’s Severouralsk bauxite mine (SUBR) keeps working on the Safe Mine project targeted at promoting the corporate culture of safe working mode and the principles of industrial security in mining business, UC RUSAL’s press officer in the Urals Roman Lukichev said to UrBC. The pilot version of Safe Mine project was launched at Kalinskaya mine in December 2007. The project provides for audio reminders that accompany workers on their way to work and as they go down the mine. The reminders consist of the following phrases: ‘Good morning! Dear miners, please follow the industrial safety rules.

Perm Territory’s divisions of Rosprirodnadzor and Rostechnnadzor carried out inspections of Sylvinite and Solikamsk magnesium plant and revealed a number of water code violations in their activity, the spokesperson for the Ministry of Natural Resources reports. Both companies turned out not to have any permission to use water bodies, which violates Article 11 (part 2) of the Russian Federation Water Code. Apart from that, Sylvinite lacks the permission to dump its manufacturing water in the River Chernaya, whereas in many cases both enterprises exceeded their maximum permissible discharge

In July 2008, the Ural Bank for Reconstruction and Development was promoted from the 38th to the 34th position in MICEX Top 50 share market players rating. 654 market operators competed for a position in the rating altogether, while the bank’s promotion was brought about by a turnover increase: this went up from 4.4 billion RUR in June 2008 to 6.5 billion RUR in July 2008. In addition, the volume of the bank’s REPO transactions at MICEX stock exchange rose from 3.8 billion RUR to 22.9 billion RUR, or by over six times in July 2008 compared to a month earlier. As a result, the bank was

Governor of Sverdlovsk Region Eduard Rossel started his two-week vacation on August 18, 2008. While the Governor is on vacation, things are to be run by Head of Sverdlovsk Region Government Viktor Koksharov. The spokesperson for the Governor reports Eduard Rossel is not going to leave Sverdlovsk Region while on vacation. In fact, the Governor has already taken a two-week leave in July 2008.

ROSNO keeps making insurance payments to Detour’s unlucky customers who place their claims with the company. Based on the federal insurance surveillance authorities’ explanations, the company decided to keep making the payments in the order in which in the claims appear. In the meantime, Detour has so far been unable to compensate the unfortunate travelers in full. The company had received 288 applications for compensation by August 11, 2008. The claims totaled to 24.4 million RUR worth of damage. ROSNO keeps making up for the damage in accordance with the existing legislation and the

People who leave their comments on the beer-lovers’ site don’t speak very highly of Baltika’s produce, complaining of some strange addle and a strong metallic after-taste. The online commentators believe Baltika is popular with low-income population groups; this is particularly true of Baltika No. 9, they say. ‘It’s all alcohol and you just can’t drink it. Even plain alcohol would be better than Baltika No.9,’ one regular user’s comment says. Some less strong beer kinds, like Baltika Lite, for instance, appear to leave customers disappointed as well: ‘It has no smell, it has no taste, it’s

Central Bank of Russia reports volume of loans given by Bank24.ru to private individuals for 1 to 3 years went down by 15.57% (from 314.232 million RUR to 265.295 million RUR) in January-July 2008.

Central Bank of Russia reports volume of loans given by UralTransBank to for-profit self-regulatory organizations for 1 to 3 years went down by 20.19% (from 10.013 million RUR to 7.991 million RUR) in January-July 2008.

According to the Central Bank of Russia, volume of loans given by Bank Uralfinance to private individuals for 31 to 90 days dropped by 62.52% (from 3.074 million RUR to 1.152 million RUR) in January-July 2008.

Central Bank of Russia reports volume of loans given by UralFinPromBank to private individuals for up to 30 days went down by 67.82% (from 38.85 million RUR to 12.5 million RUR) in January-July 2008.

SKB-Bank came up with the results of its activity over the seven months of 2008. All of the bank’s development indicators have shown impressive growth dynamics as usual. SKB-Bank’s net assets, for instance, went up by 13.5 billion RUR, or more than 53% and reached over 38.6 billion RUR on August 1, 2008 compared to a year earlier. SKB-Bank’s loan portfolio amounted to more than 25.8 billion RUR on August 1, 2008 against only 17 billion RUR on August 1, 2007. The bank managed to nearly double the amount of attracted investments in just one a year, with figures coming to 32.9 billion RUR. The

According to the Central Bank of Russia, volume of for-profit self-regulatory organizations’ deposits in UniCreditBank valid for up to 30 days dropped by 100% (from 80 million RUR to zero) in January-July 2008.

German Consul General in Yekaterinburg Tilo Klinner feels the consulate’s major achievement lies in the introduction of a visa section that is currently working on visas for all the applicants from Ural Federal District and Perm Territory. Before the end of this year, the consulate will also start issuing visas for applicants from the Republic of Bashkortostan and Orenburg Region. Over 4,000 visas in just one month (including more than 1,000 business type ones) have been issued for the first time this July. The consulate expects to issue over 35,000 visas altogether in 2008, which is to