MegaFon-Ural reports the company has introduced a number of additional options available through text messaging. If you use the company’s service number 000100, a single list of customer service options will become available, including information on how to subscribe to or unsubscribe to certain services, options, or packages, switch to a new tariff scheme, file for calls on credit, or unsubscribe to all the services for up to ninety days, the spokesperson for MegaFon-Ural says. Service number 000100 can be used for receiving information on one’s phone number and the bills left over from

Sberbank of Russia’s Ural branch’s net profit amounted to more than 6.3 billion RUR on September 1, 2008. The volume of the bank’s net assets has gone up by 30.3% since the beginning of the year and came to 366.6 billion RUR. The working assets’ increase reached 56.9 billion RUR, or 22.6% more than at the beginning of the year, the bank’s press officer reports. The Ural branch’s share in Sberbank’s total profit in January-July 2008 came to 6.6%. This secured the branch the fourth position in Sberbank’s divisions’ profitability rating.

‘The Ural licensed software market is a little behind Moscow’s one at the moment. Yekaterinburg has so far reached the level Moscow was at in the year 2006,’ General Director of Softkey (an online software-selling supermarket) Felix Muchnik said in the course of a press conference in Yekaterinburg. Softkey conducted its annual research on software users in July and August 2008 and came to the conclusion that the share of licensed software used in the Urals comes to 4% of the country’s market; that of Moscow comes to 40%. ‘Until quite recently, there was no software market to speak of in the

Rus-Bank-Ural had the first sign plate bearing the new name of Rus-Bank assembled and installed outside its Tatischev subdivision in Yekaterinburg. In the very near future, the interior of the bank’s offices will also be brought in compliance with Rus-Bank’s corporate style. ‘Getting the new sign plate was one of the re-branding campaign’s stages. These plates will replace the old ones in all of Rus-Bank-Ural’s offices very soon,’ the bank’s press officer reports. Ural Treasures Bank (as it then was) started using its new name of Rus-Bank-Ural for all customer agreements, advertisements, and

Alexander Golov, who’s got a PhD in Sciences and some twenty years’ working experience at Norilsk Nickel as well as a position of R&D Director at Gipronickel Institute, was appointed acting General Director of Karabashmed (part of Russian Copper Company). ‘Russian Copper Company invited a unique specialist because Karabashmed is an enterprise quite unique to Russia. This is a totally new type of production facility, and to run it successfully, one needs enormous metallurgical expertise and innovational thinking as well as an ability to accept and understand the new technological

‘AIC Inc. declared $5.36bn worth of losses in the second quarter of 2008, even though the group’s assets exceeded one trillion U.S. dollars over the same period of time. At the moment, the new CEO and BOD Chairman Robert Willumstad is working on the detailed analysis of the group and its business divisions’ performance in order to minimize risks, reduce the pressure exerted on the company’s capital, and reduce outgoings. The findings will be reported to the shareholders and published in the media in the nearest future,’ President of AIG Life Insurance Company Alexander Zaretskiy explained to

The world largest insurer’s stock plummeted by 50% at the opening of business at New York Stock Exchange recently. What is more, AIG’s market capitalization dropped down to $6.6bn. Kommersant reports the downfall was largely caused by the leading rating agencies decreasing AIG Inc.’s credit ratings, which made borrowing much more difficult for the insurer. Kommersant quotes some informed Wall Street Journal sources that report AIG is now trying to get up to $75bn worth of loans to go through with its liabilities and might actually file a petition for bankruptcy in case everything fails. The

A steel-smelting converter is now being restored at Nizhniy Tagil Iron & Steel Works (part of Evraz Group) LD plant,’ the PR Department of Ural Corporate Relations Center reports. This is the third out of the company’s four converters; the facility is to be renovated within the framework of a large-scale four-year program on the enterprise’s steel-smelting division’s modernization. The restoration will last sixty-five days, in which the converter, the oxygen-supplying unit, the waste heat boiler, the gas-cleaning facility, the power and electricity supply systems and the mechanical

‘Our company hasn’t ever used any of Uralsib’s mortgage offers and is not using them at the moment,’ director of Arbat Oxana Puts said to UrBC. She explained this had to do with the fact that their customers were not really interested in this company’s offers. ‘Our customers often come with a specific mortgage scheme in mind, but no one has mentioned Uralsib yet,’ she added. Ural Chamber of Real Estate reports Yekaterinburg’s real estate market is currently stagnating: the new and existing homes’ prices are not going down, while the number of purchasing transactions is on the decrease. At the

According to the Central Bank of Russia, volume of loans given by Bank Uralfinance to sole traders for 181 days to 1 year dropped by 23.64% (from 6.269 million RUR to 4.787 million RUR) in January-August 2008.

Utrade.ru, the broking firm, banned all marginal loans on September 16, 2008. This means the broker will no longer buy securities for the customers on credit. The company’s official explanation is that the decision was brought about by the Russian stock market’s liquidity crisis.

Central Bank of Russia reports volume of private individuals’ deposits and other investments in UralFinPromBank valid for 91 to 180 days went down by 37.92% (from 61.116 million RUR to 37.939 million RUR) in January-August 2008.

MegaFon recently acquired Incore, an RBT provider. To make the transaction possible, all of Incore’s non-RBT assets had to be united within a newly created IncoreMedia, whereupon MegaFon was able to buy Incore. MegaFon’s Non-Core Asset Management Director Anton Belenets is also going to be Incore’s new GD. Incore is expected to develop and improve the Ring Back Tone services, MegaFon’s press officer reports. ‘RBT enjoys increasing demand on the Russian market, which is why we decided to buy Incore to ensure the more efficient management and development of the service,’ says MegaFon’s Deputy

Sberbank of Russia is going to coordinate a special Coin Fair in 545 of its divisions, based in Sverdlovsk, Ghelyabinsk, and Kurgan Regions and in the Republic of Bashkortostan. The fair will last from September 15, 2008 to October 15, 2008 and will give the visitors a chance to look at and buy over two hundred kinds of coins at very appealing prices, the bank’s press officer reports. Sberbank’s Ural branch’s coin collection is ever-expanding and can even boast the newest coins dedicated to the European football championship 2008: a silver coin that weighs a kilogram and sixteen gold coins to

Sverdlovsk Region’s division of the Federal Antimonopoly Service took legal action against Russian Railways Public Company and Sverdlovsk Region Railways as its member, claiming the latter violated the federal bill on the protection of competition, the spokesperson for the Service reports. The inquiry began after a number of enterprises, including V.V. Vorovskiy Machine-Building Plant, Grani Holding Company, Russian Transport Alliance, Boomerang Trading Company, Fluor, Ural-Siberian Forwarder, Teploenergoservice-EC, Teploenergoservice, Uraltransexpeditsiya, Reilcontinent, Plodovo-Ovoschnaya

The sentence passed upon A.Galaktionov came into effect. The public prosecution authorities for Yamalo-Nenetskiy Autonomous Region report the man was found guilty of disseminating pirated copies of Microsoft and 1C software that he had copied from the Internet. This means Galaktionov violated the copyright regulations and did Microsoft and 1C 160,000 RUR and 600,000 RUR worth of damage, respectively. The pirated copies were destroyed, while Salekhard court’s ruling gave the offender year of suspended sentence and a 120,000-ruble fine.

Minn-Chem, the U.S.-based fertilizers manufacturer, accused Uralkaliy and Sylvinite of price collusion. Vedomosti reports Minn-Chem placed a claim with the district court of Minnesota, with the world’s top six potassium chloride producers as defendants. These are the Canadian Potash Corp., Mosaic, and Agrium, the Russian Uralkaliy and Sylvinite, and the Byelorussian Belaruskaliy, whose total share of the global market comes to 71%. The plaintiff insists the defendants have been pursuing a policy of price collusion aimed at supporting and increasing the price of their produce imported to the

RBC.Rating reports SKB-Bank has issued the greatest number of cards so far among all the mid-Urals’ banks. The figure reached 480,000 on July 1, 2008. RBC.Rating’s data indicate that most cards are normally issued by Russia’s largest banks within the framework of salary schemes. Most of them are either VISA (49%) or MasterCard (35%) ones. SKB-Bank is nearly at the top of Russia’s Top 30 Banks list in terms of the bank card growth dynamics, as the increase in the number of cards issued by the bank over last year came to more than 33%. The agency’s analysts believe the bank card market will

TEZ Tour appears to keep on violating the advertising legislation despite the earlier warnings and orders. The Federal Antimonopoly Service declared on September 1, 2008 that TEZ Tour, the major tour operator, violated Article 5 (parts 2 and 3) of the federal advertising legislation with ‘undue advertisements’. The inquiry into the case started after Rostourism and Intourist complained about TEZ Tour’s Channel 1 ad that said the company was ‘No.1 Tour Operator’. The Federal Antimonopoly Service found the advertisement improper and insisted on discontinuation of the offense. TEZ Tour, however,

Central Bank of Russia reports volume of loans given by Tagilbank to private individuals for 1 to 3 years went down by 22.98% (from 184.449 million RUR to 142.045 million RUR) in January-August 2008.