Moscow, 12 November 2008 – At its regular meeting yesterday, the Board of Directors of UC RUSAL, which owns a 25% plus two shares stake in Norilsk Nickel, discussed preparations for the Extraordinary General Meeting of Norilsk Nickel’s shareholders, which has been scheduled for 26 December 2008 to elect a new Board of Norilsk Nickel. UC RUSAL’s shareholders raised several concerns about the situation at Norilsk Nickel, notably in relation to Interros withdrawing cash from the company which has resulted in a worsening of the company’s financial situation set against the background of the fall

Starting November 13, 2008, Ural Airlines is going to react to the decreased jet fuel prices in Koltsovo Airport of Yekaterinburg by reducing the fuel fees for chartered flights to Hurghada and Sharm El Sheikh by 77%. Passengers flying to Egypt from Yekaterinburg via the carrier’s A320 aircraft will only have to pay $3 in terms of the fuel fee, the airline’s press officer reports. The company last introduced the fuel fee changes on November 10, 2008 when the fee was reduced down to $10.

Standard & Poor’s, the international rating agency, demoted the corporate governance rating of TGK-9, a large power supplier, from 4+ to 4 and called it off at the same time. The Russian scale rating was also reduced from 4.8 to 4.4 and called off upon the company’s request. ‘TGK-9 corporate governance rating was limited by a pronounced decrease in the efficiency of the checks and balances system within the company’s BOD after the organization went through a restructuring process in 2007 and 2008. The influence of the new majority shareholder (KES) is now not counterbalanced properly. In

Deposit Insurance Agency, the state corporation, reports that an agreement to merge Sverdlovsk Gubernskiy Bank, SKB-Bank, and Yekaterinburg-based Sinara Group on November 11, 2008. The agreement is to determine the order and the terms of the involved parties’ interaction while trying to prevent Sverdlovsk Gubernskiy Bank from going bust. The agreement is based on the Federal Bill 175 as of October 27, 2008 on the additional measures meant to support the Russian banking system’s stability until December 31, 2011. The federal bill provides for the Deposit Insurance Agency’s participation in the

According to Interfax-CEA’s ranking for January-September 2008, fourteen Ural Federal District-based banks happened to make it to the country’s Top 100. The ranking was based on the banks’ deposit volume, and, remarkably, all the Ural banks that made it to the ranking were able to improve on this indicator over the given period. SKB-Bank actually experienced the greatest increase in the private individuals’ deposit volume among these fourteen banks, with the rise coming to 56.9%, Interfax-CEA reports.

Central Bank of Russia reports volume of loans given by Bank Uralfinance to legal entities for 31 to 90 days plummeted by 95.16% (from 2.686 million RUR to 130,000 RUR) in September 2008.

The ski resorts of Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) are welcoming travelers in the new winter season. Thanks to the new system of covering the slopes with snow, new piste No. 9 has just been launched in Abzakovo ski resort. Piste No.8 will be launched and a regional student dual slalom championship will be held this weekend. What is more, the solemn opening ceremony of a small ski center took place in Metallurg-Magnitogorsk ski resort near Lake Bannoye on November 9, 2008, spokesperson for MMK reports.

Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) was able to negotiate for lower purchasing prices for certain kinds of raw stuffs after some strenuous talks had been held by the suppliers and MMK’s Vice President Sergey Krivoschekov and Commercial Director Nikolai Lyadov. Magnitogorskiy Metall reports the decrease in scrap metal and ferrous alloys purchasing prices will come to 70% and 30%, respectively, in October and November 2008. In addition, a 30% will be offered by certain suppliers on the coal concentrate. In the meantime, MMK is still negotiating with the iron ore suppliers for a discount.

Central Bank of Russia reports volume of loans given by UralFinPromBank to sole traders for 31 to 90 days went down by 94.13% (from 51.154 million RUR to 3 million RUR) in September 2008.

‘All the jobs related to our offices’ new exterior and interior remodeling will have been finished by the end of the year. We will have all the plates replaced, all the offices redecorated, and the new corporate style and work flow standards introduced soon. The re-branding process won’t stop there, though. Next, we will have our processing platform replaced. In addition, the range of products we offer will be made even more consistent with Rus-Bank’s standards. What is more, our bank cards are to acquire a new design,’ Rus-Bank-Ural’s Deputy CEO Olga Lipatnikova said to an UrBC reporter.

The Ural Bank for Reconstruction and Development came up with the preliminary data on the success of its latest offer: opening an account for the bank’s contractors free of charge. All in all, over 300 companies used their partners (the bank’s current customers)’ advice and opened a bank account in the Ural Bank for Reconstruction and Development in October 2008. ‘To make sure our customers have difficulty settling financial matters with their business partners who use some other banks, we give these partners an opportunity to set up an account with us for free. This means our customers can

The sales revenues of Uralsvyazinform, one of Sverdlovsk Region’s major telecommunications providers, went down by 18.3% in January-September 2008, while its net profit decreased by 15.4% in the nine months of the year compared with a year earlier. The company’s revenues amounted to 30.2 billion RUR in January-September 2008, which exceeds the figures for a year earlier by 4.5%. The company’s profits coming from rendering its subscribers the communication services came to 29.2 billion RUR, which is 6.3% better than in January-September 2007. The company made 1.2% less in terms of profits

Mini-Bank, URSA Bank’s newest business package, is targeted at the bank’s current customers with the minimum demand for settlement operations, cash services, and loans. The mini-package covers the services related to payment transactions and handling cash as well as access to four of the bank’s lending schemes. The beauty of the offer lies in the fact that in case you pay for a year of service, you will be provided with one of the e-banking systems free of charge. The price of the offer comes to between 900 RUR and 1,200 RUR a month, depending on the region. ‘The introduction of this new

Governor of Chelyabinsk Region Petr Sumin came up with a number of tasks for his deputies regarding the global financial crisis. The Finance Minister Victoria Golubtsova will have to draw up the changes to the regional budget’s project for 2009, cutting back on the expense items in proportion with the expected reduction in the amount of taxes to be paid next year. This is why the heads of the other ministries and departments, as well as heads of the region’s municipalities, were asked to think of the possible ways of reducing the budgetary expenditures. The Governor admitted that this cutting

‘The current financial crisis broke out in the USA and then Europe, Asia, Russia, and so on. The problem is, the U.S. Government was really reluctant at first to support their country’s banking sector but agreed to have these support programs developed at the end of the day. The British Government, for one, was prepared to take these steps much earlier than its American counterpart, while the German authorities took longer to come up with their rescue plans,’ UralTransBank’s BOD member and a representative of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development Juergen Schramm announced at a

‘In October 2008, 40% of companies who opened a settlement account in the Ural Bank for Reconstruction and Development used to use some other banks before but switched to ours. Given the current financial situation, plenty of businesses have to think of finding a truly dependable, well-reputed partner and not only about the terms and the quality of service,’ the bank’s press officer said to an UrBC reporter. ‘We fully understand a business’s needs; this is why we can offer our new customers some really convenient terms of subscribing to settlement operations and cash services. The companies

‘The fact that Bank UBS AG happens to own a portion of Concern Kalina’s stock probably means that this bank is a nominee shareholder, which is, by the way, typical of most western shareholders who have been with Kalina ever since the EBRD’s times. In case UBS AG really is a nominee shareholder, it can only benefit from the transaction by taking a commission on the services it renders to the company,’ says Accord Invest Investment and Finance Company’s Deputy GD Konstantin Selyanin. Bank UBS AG raised the share it has in Concern Kalina’s authorized capital from the earlier 5.05% to the present

Starting November 10, 2008, Ural Airlines is going to reduce the fuel fees for flights to Hurghada and Sharm El Sheikh once again. Passengers who use the company’s Egypt-bound flight with the A320 airplane taking off in Yekaterinburg will have to pay $13 in terms of fuel fee; those whose A320 planes take off in Perm will have to pay $9. Remarkably, this is the eighth time Ural Airlines has reduced the fuel fees for Egypt-bound flights this summer season. The fees actually went up in May and June because of the soaring global oil prices. Then, in August 2008, the prices grew stable and the

The net profit of Pipe Metallurgical Company (TMK) went down by over 45% in the first half of 2008 and came to $158.2m, the spokesperson for the company reports. The company reports the reason for this downfall was that a number of the company’s customers put off the deadlines for the completion of some previously developed projects until later. Then, some money had to be spent on production upgrades and pay more for the metal stuffs, as the prices had increased. In addition, Pipe Metallurgical Company has already announced that they were planning on cutting back on their investment program

The Ural Bank for Reconstruction and Development was promoted by nine positions in Russia’s Top 100 largest banks (in terms of asset volume) by Interfax-CEA. The center’s research based on the data available as of September 30, 2008 featured only six Ural Federal District-based banks in the final Top 100 ranking. The Ural Bank for Reconstruction and Development was the one with the fastest-growing assets against the other Ural banks. The bank’s asset volume increased by 31.5% in January-September 2008 and reached 49,995,200,000 RUR. ‘As a matter of fact, the net debt amounted to 32.5% of our