URSA Bank’s portfolio of loans offered to small and medium-scale enterprises exceeded 12.1 billion RUR on November 1, 2008. All in all, over 8,000 entrepreneurs have been given a total of over 10.5 billion RUR worth of loans since the beginning of the year. The bank currently offers collateral loans of up to 30 million RUR to both legal entities and sole traders for a period of up to seven years as well as collateral-free loans of up to 600,000 RURto private individuals who run or own a business for a period of up to three years. ‘Loans to SMEs is one of URSA Bank’s top priority development

‘A round table discussion on the problems related to import and storage of radioactive and highly toxic uranium hexafluoride in Novouralsk, Sverdlovsk Region, was held in Yekaterinburg yesterday. The discussion was attended by the representatives of Sverdlovsk Region Railways, the Ministry of Nature, the Ministry of Emergencies, and the head of Ural Electro-chemical plant,’ Co-Chairman of Ecozaschita (the international environmental group) Vladimir Slivyak announced at a press conference in Yekaterinburg. ‘The head of the plant and the representatives of the other authorities claim the

Chelyabinsk Tube Rolling Plant (ChTPZ) and Pervouralsk New Pipe Plant (ChTPZ Group’s largest tube and pipe manufacturers) supplied their consumers with 1.39 million tons of tubular goods in January-October 2008, which falls short of the figures for a year earlier (that is, 1.624 million tons) by 14%. ChTPZ sold 737,500 tons of tubes and pipes in ten months of the year, which falls short of the figures for a year earlier (that is, 888,500 tons) by 17%. These figures include a 28% drop in the amount of large-diameter pipes: this came to 355,900 tons compared with 492,000 tons of LDPs in

Starting November 21, 2008, all of Ural Airlines’ passengers flying to Hurghada and Sharm El Sheikh from Yekaterinburg via the airline’s chartered flights won’t have to pay any fuel fees. Those why travel to Egypt from Perm will stop paying any fuel fees on November 27, 2008. At the moment, the fuel fee for passengers whose planes take off in Perm comes to $1, the airline’s press officer reports. The carrier first reduced the fuel fees for Egypt-bound flights on August 10, 2008 when the figure dropped from $63 to $51.

Chairman of Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) Viktor Rashnikov took part in Russian President Dmitriy Medvedev’s informal meeting with heads of Russia’s major enterprises. The meeting was also attended by Vladimir Potanin, Alisher Usmanov, Mikhail Fridman, Viktor Vekselberg, Mikhail Prokhorov, Oleg Deripaska, Alexei Mordashov, Alexei Miller, and Sergey Galitskiy. In the course of the meeting, they spoke about the way the global financial crisis has been affecting the economy’s real sector and how the state and business could cooperate under these trying circumstances. The business

Starting December 15, 2008, Mechel Bank’s new name – Monetniy Dom – is to be officially used in all the documents. The bank’s EGM on July 23, 2008 resulted in the decision to change the bank’s name into Bank Monetniy Dom (an open joint-stock company). Beginning from December 15, 2008, all kinds of documents the bank is to handle must bear its new name. As a matter of fact, the rest of the bank’s details have remained the same, that is, the bank’s C/A number, the tax payer number, the bank identification code, the tax inspectorate registration code (KPP), and the state registration number

The net profit of Betfor, the concrete goods manufacturer run by LSR Group, decreased by 2.3 times in January-September 2008, the company reports.

Bank Petrokommerz’s Board of Directors decided to close down the bank’s subsidiaries in Astrakhan, Novocherkassk, Kirov, and Murmansk. The bank explains the decision was taken because of the company’s upcoming plans to set up internal subdivisions rather than subsidiaries in the above-mentioned cities.

Uralfinprombank admitted that the bank had introduced some limits on cashing their customers’ deposits in before the end of the deposit period. In order for the customer to cancel their deposit agreement and get the money back, they have to have some very grave reasons for doing so. In the meantime, imposing any limitations on cashing one’s deposit before the end of the deposit period is actually illegal and is a violation of the country’s Civil Code which states customers must be able to get their money back within one day of the application. ‘Nevertheless, the hype generated among

Bank24.ru’s volume of money went down from 429 million RUR on September 1, 2008 to 238.7 million RUR on October 1, 2008 and to 125.7 million RUR on November 1, 2008. These data are available from the bank’s financial accounts. All in all, the volume of the bank’s money decreased by 300 million RUR, or 71%, in two months.

Sverdlovsk Region Court of Arbitration keeps looking into the claims laid against Bank24.ru by a number of local enterprises. For instance, the claim laid by STP Ural was officially registered with the court on November 5, 2008, the claims laid by Techstroyservice, Splav-MiS Insurance Company and Reltis, and Vektor-M and Spetsoborudovaniye were registered on November 7, 2008, November 13, 2008, and November 14, 2008, respectively.

Uralfinprombank’s customers have been reporting recently that they are unable to cash in their bank deposits before the end of the deposit period. According to one of the depositors, the bank has been refusing them the money for two months already, claiming that this is happening because of the financial crisis and the circumstances beyond their control. ‘When I came into the office, I heard the tellers rejecting everyone’s requests for money. They suggested writing an application and stating the reason why they needed the money after all. In case the bank decided to accept this application,

The number of international flights operated by Ural Airlines in January-October 2008 went up by 56% compared to a year earlier, the carrier’s press officer reports. 977 flights were operated by the company in October 2008 (which was 8% better than a year earlier), including 219 international flights, 572 domestic flights, and 114 flights within the CIS. This was, respectively, 21% more, 6% less, and 10% more than in October 2007. The carrier rendered its services to 109,926 passengers in October 2008 (which is 21% better than a year earlier) and 694 tons of cargo. The number of passengers

The construction of Royal Bridge and Nevada Business Centers in Yekaterinburg is to be halted for ninety days, Aston Group’s BOD Chairman Vyacheslav Trapeznikov officially declared. The company is the two projects’ general contractor and customer (in technical terms). Trapeznikov also admitted that the implementation of their town house suburbia project known as Turgenev Park might slow down as well.

The Director of Severnaya Kazna Insurance Company Alexander Merenkov actually admitted that Sistema Financial Corporation was now one of Bank Severnaya Kazna’s stockholders. ‘Given the current financial instability, the bank is naturally looking for an investor that would speak the same language we do, that would be good at employing high technologies, and whose arrival would allow the bank to build up its share of the market. At the moment, Sistema appears to be the most likely bidder who might become one of the bank’s shareholders,’ he said. Alexander Merenkov preferred not to declare

Governor of Chelyabinsk Region Petr Sumin approved of the action plan aimed at enhancing competition on the region’s food market in 2009-2011. The plan was developed in order to ensure the local dwellers are provided with the foods they need, to support the processing industry’s sustainable development, and to create a competitive environment for the trade firms and food manufacturers. The spokesperson for the Governor reports the agenda of the plan covers five areas: reduction of economic barriers for intraregional foods transfer, helping to create a food market saturated with the local

UralBusinessConsulting Agency of Information and Analytics is offering the visitors a day workshop on the financial crisis and the changes it brought to the public relations in the banking sphere. A thorough analysis of all the issues that surged throughout September to November 2008 will be provided. The workshop’s agenda provides for looking into the changing PR strategies and tactics under the current circumstances that imply financial markets’ great instability. The solutions will generally be based upon the analysis of Russian and Ural banks’ actions this fall; all the general trends,

‘We’ll officially declare what our intentions towards Bank Severnaya Kazna are as soon as the situation becomes more or less clear,’ Sistema Financial Corporation’s press secretary Yulia Belous said to an UrBC reporter. UrBC reported on November 12, 2008 that the Moscow Bank for Reconstruction and Development (owned by Sistema) might possibly acquire the bank’s majority shareholding. Bank Severnaya Kazna’s BOD Chairman Vladimir Frolov might have chosen this bank to offer it his own 22.5% shareholding, with a number of minority shareholders following suit. As a result, the Moscow Bank for

Reinhold Steiner has been appointed General Director of ChTPZ Group, Chelyabinsk Tube Rolling Plant Management Company, and Pervouralsk New Pipe Plant, replacing Pavel Pelyugin, who, in his turn, is going to get involved in a number of large-scale projects of the Group. The spokesperson for ChTPZ Group said to an UrBC reporter that Steiner had been employed in Voestalpine (one of Europe’s leading metallurgical enterprises) for fourteen years and had been running the company’s pipe production facilities in Austria and the United Arab Emirates for over a decade.

‘Bank24.ru is trying hard to attract a new investor that would be willing to deal in its financial recovery. According to the federal bill, the decision to this extent must be made by the Bank of Russia and it is to be carried out by the Deposit Insurance Agency; everything normally gets finalized within a fortnight. I believe the final decision will be taken this week, and I hope that the authorities do decide that Bank24.ru needs this financial recovery,’ Ural Banking Union’s Deputy Chairman Evgeniy Bolotin said to Ruble.ru’s reporters. The bank’s website featured the news related to