‘Our Academic construction project is primarily targeted at Yekaterinburg dwellers. We are also hoping that the city’s future district will appeal to people from some other regions, like the retired O&G industry workers and students,’ Renova-StroyGroup Akademicheskoye’s General Director Stanislav Pridvizhkin said in the course of November 4 Political Action Club’s Yekaterinburg and Chelyabinsk subsidiaries’ meeting. ‘Yekaterinburg’s Academic district will offer its dwellers a new quality environment. To make this happen, we use the best foreign and Russian resources and people. The whole

URSA Bank made 28.425 million RUR worth of coupon payments on its second bond issue, the spokesperson for the bank says. The coupon yield was determined at 7.6% a year, with the payments thus coming to 18.95 RUR per bond. URSA Bank went through with a 1.5-billion-ruble bond issue at MICEX on December 16, 2005; the issue was coordinated by Dresdner Bank. The bonds are to be in circulation for three years and will be fully retired on December 12, 2008.

According to the Central Bank of Russia, volume of loans given by URSA Bank to sole traders for 91 to 180 days dropped by 81.5% (from 13.141 million RUR to 2.431 million RUR) in January-August 2008.

Central Bank of Russia reports volume of loans given by Ural Innovational Commercial Bank to non-state for-profit organizations for 91 to 180 days went down by 61.15% (from 17.8 million RUR to 6.915 million RUR) in January-August 2008.

According to the Central Bank of Russia, volume of non-state for-profit organizations’ deposits in Pervouralsk Joint Stock Commercial Bank valid for 1 to 3 years dropped by 76% (from 10 million RUR to 2.4 million RUR) in January-August 2008.

The quality of service is an essential component of bank-customer communication: the only way a bank can build up on its share of the market is through meeting and foreseeing its customers’ needs to the fullest,’ says URSA Bank’s Ural branch’s Vice President Vadim Manin. ‘To make sure we can achieve these two goals, URSA Bank came up with a brand new product: our business packages are ‘tariff schemes’ of sorts for our business customers. They provide for a certain amount and volume of prepaid services, primarily those related to cash transactions and settlement procedures and e-banking.

Anyone living in Russia will be able to buy an iPhone without having to get involved with any particular mobile operator. Eolis, for instance, has recently launched a new advertising campaign that is expected to precede the iPhone’s independent sales. Eolis reports these will start as soon as October 2008. As a matter of fact, this will mean falling out of general practice around the world, as most other countries normally sell iPhones with a pre-set subscription to this or that mobile operator. Moreover, a number of Russian operators have also said this could be the way to be adopted for

SKB-Bank’s 01 series bonds were transferred from A2 to A1 MICEX quotation lists. This achievement was made possible due to the bank’s ongoing improvements of internal procedures and business processes. ‘Getting on A1 quotation list will mean many more potential investors for us and our shares’ enhanced liquidity,’ the bank’s press officer said to an UrBC reporter.

The dwellers of Kurgan Region are reported to have bough over $2m worth of Sberbank of Russia’s traveler’s checks in January-August 2008, which exceeds the figures for January-August 2007 by 20%. The bank’s experts report there are also plenty of workers who earn a living outside the region and prefer to turn the money they’ve made into TCs and cash them in Kurgan. This year, Sberbank’s Kurgan branch has paid over $70,000 worth of checks so far, which exceeded the figures for a year earlier by 92%. The experts explain that it’s wise to buy the TCs in cash that is normally used in the country

Russian Retail Growth Fund (managed by Svarog Capital Advisors) acquired a shareholding in Auto Plus Group, both companies report. Auto Plus Group’s GD Pavel Shestopalov says the fund has bought their additional share issue, while the former owners’ shares have gone down proportionally. Vedomosti reports RRGF paid $45m for the share issue, whose actual percentage in the company’s authorized capital has been kept confidential. Auto Plus Group comprises Toyota Center Yekaterinburg Zapad, Lexus Yekaterinburg, Auto Plus Sever (a used cars dealer), and Auto Plus Rent a Car. The first rumors

According to the Central Bank of Russia, volume of loans given by UralTransBank to non-state for-profit organizations for 181 days to 1 year dropped by 31.04% (from 469.712 million RUR to 323.911 million RUR) in January-August 2008.

Last weekend, Bank Severnaya Kazna stopped accepting the payments Beeline’s customers wanted to make to top up their cell phone account. The bank reports this was because of Beeline’s servers undergoing scheduled maintenance operations. Bank Severnaya Kazna explained the payments did not get handled from 9 PM on September 12, 2008 to 9 AM on September 13, 2008.

According to the Central Bank of Russia, volume of loans given by Sverdlovsk Gubernskiy Bank to sole traders for 181 days to 1 year plummeted by 63.96% (from 9.081 million RUR to 3.272 million RUR) in January-August 2008.

Following the Governor of Chelyabinsk Region Petr Sumin’s order, sixty-two local mothers of large families have been awarded with the Mother’s Glory decoration. 497 women with many children have been received the three-degree decoration since 2007. This award equals the Labor Veteran in importance and gives the bearer the same rights and privileges. The spokesperson for the Governor reports the decoration is given to excellent mothers of five or more children. The first-degree decoration and a 100,000-ruble premium will be given to four mothers of ten or more children. Nine mothers of seven,

‘In the short run, things will probably stay more or less the same in the iron-and-steel industry, but a new large player will eventually emerge on the market after all. This player can already boast a great resource base. As for Ural Mining and Metallurgical Company, its options of building up on their resource base will grow limited, since resources do tend to get used up,’ Unicom Partner Investment and Finance Company’s Deputy GD Dmitriy Zemerov said to an UrBC reporter. Rosnedra (the state subsoil resources watchdog) declared Mikhailovskiy Ore Mining and Processing Enterprise (part of

‘The two years Affordable Housing program has been running for have resulted in a range of problems that Sverdlovsk Region’s entire building community has to deal with somehow,’ the Union of Sverdlovsk Region Building Industry Enterprises’ CEO Yuri Chumerin said in the course of a round table discussion on Affordable Housing in Yekaterinburg. ‘First of all, the need for the prime cost of housing to go down is obvious. Secondly, we have to deal with the drawing up of new normative documents, since these haven’t been updated for a long time. Thirdly, they say the cost of housing increases due

The inspection carried out by Ural public prosecution authorities for transportation revealed that Stroicom, the developer who is currently working on Koltsovo Airport of Yekaterinburg’s new terminal, uses some foreign workers illegally. For one, the company allegedly violates the residence regulations provided for foreign workers by the Administrative Offense Code and illegitimately involves them in labor activity, which violates Articles 18.10 and 18.15 of the Administrative Offense Code. Upon detecting the offenses, the Federal Migration Service Administration took legal action related to

European-Asian Pathways (member of MOTIV Telecommunications Group) has recently completed the construction of a regional area network in Kurgan Region and is about to start using it. The network is based on NGN (new generation network) technology that provides for transmission of any data in IP packages. NGNs make it possible for a mobile operator to offer its customers a whole range of advanced telecommunications services, the spokesperson for MOTIV reports. ‘MOTIV Telecommunications Group is working on a multi-service network within Ural Federal District and Perm Territory in order to

Rus-Bank-Ural started to officially use its new name on September, 2008. This renaming was part of the bank’s major re-branding campaign. Rus-Bank-Ural is now the official name used in bank-customer agreements, advertisements, and the bank’s internal and external correspondence. ‘The renaming did not come as a surprise for our customers,’ the bank’s press officer reports. The news was actually announced via the Central Bank’s website on August 5, 2008; the information could be found under the Bank Updates rubric. The whole thing started when Rus-Bank acquired 98.42% of Ural Treasures Bank’s

Ural Airlines’ experts came up with a report on the results of the air carrier’s activity in the first eight months of the year. The company’s press officer reports their passenger turnover rose by 21% compared to January-August 2007 and reached 1.02 million people. The carrier flew 197,600 passengers in August 2008 alone, which was 14% better than a year earlier and set the year’s record so far. The increase was the greatest among international travelers. The passenger turnover at international flights grew by 59% against January-August 2007, that at domestic flights dropped by 1%, and that