Sverdlovsk Region Court of Arbitration declared Bank VEFK Ural insolvent, so the bank is now to undergo bankruptcy proceedings. The claim against the bank was originally placed by the Bank of Russia’s Sverdlovsk Region division. Bank VEFK Ural’s license was revoked on February 19, 2009, so the customers started getting their deposit compensations on March 5, 2009.

URSA Bank has recently introduced the new interest rates on legal entities’ ruble deposits. The rates were increased by 3.5% on average. The bank’s Universal deposit, for instance, provides for 12.5% a year if you deposit your money for half a year, for 13.5% a year for a twelve-month period, and for 15% a year if you place your money with the bank for more than a year. All in all, URSA Bank’s deposit periods range from three days to several years. A business customer is required to deposit at least 500,000 RUR or the equivalent sum in foreign currency. ‘We understand how important it is for

Sinara Group’s Ural Railway Machine-Building Plant’s net profit plummeted by 29.363 million RUR, or 192% in the last quarter of 2008, that is, from 1.296 million RUR in the third quarter of the year to -14.067 million RUR in the last one. The enterprise reports this drop has to do with the increase in the outgoings (not sales-related ones) because of the growing U.S. dollar exchange rate and their foreign exchange loan thus becoming much costlier.

Bank Russkiy Standart’s Board of Directors decided in the course of a recent meeting that the bank’s Yekaterinburg representation (located at 50D Lenin Ave.) should be closed down. As a matter of fact, the bank has also had to do away with its representations in Alapayevsk, Kachkanar, and Pervouralsk since the beginning of the year.

The volume of non-state for-profit organizations’ deposits in UralTransBank valid for 91 days to 180 days had gone down by 40.83% (from 52.116 million RUR to 30.837 million RUR) by February 1, 2009.

‘Malev Airlines had to cancel its Yekaterinburg-Budapest flights scheduled for April 1-26, 2009 because not enough tickets had been sold. Initially, twelve flights were expected to have been operated,’ says Malev’s Yekaterinburg representative Marianna Galagura. ‘In the meantime, this flight used to be operated twice a week in the winter; now that we are to switch to the summer timetable on April 29, 2009, our Yekaterinburg-Budapest flight will be operated three times a week,’ she adds.

Ural Federal District’s division of the General Prosecutor’s office produced an official preliminary account of their investigation involving Bank Severnaya Kazna management’s alleged offenses. This is what the statement says: ‘Ural Federal District’s division of the General Prosecutor’s office has been informed about Bank Severnaya Kazna’s former top managers’ illegal practice attempts; therefore Sverdlovsk Region’s public prosecution authorities looked into the case in accordance with the Russian Federation Deputy General Prosecutor Yu. Zolotov’s request. The reports proved to be truthful.

VSMPO Avisma Corporation’s BOD member and Chairman of the Audit Committee Mikhail Voyevodin has recently been elected the company’s President. The decision to this extent was made by the corporation’s Board of Directors, Vedomosti reports. Former President Vladislav Tetyukhin announced he was willing to resign. Mikhail Voyevodin is thirty-three years old. He graduated from the G.V. Plekhanov Russian Economic Academy and from the Diplomatic Academy of the Ministry of. Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation.

Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) is currently implementing a project aimed at bringing the company’s corporate standards in accordance with those of Gazprom (series 9000). The enterprise’s PR Department reports the new standards are being introduced to improve on the current quality management system and to raise the metal goods sales to ChTPZ Group, United Metallurgical Company, and Pipe Metallurgical Company (Gazprom’s major suppliers). Gazprom’s corporate standards are based on ISO 9001 and ISO/TU 16949 ones, with modifications specific to the O&G industry, and they comprise

‘One must admit that the real estate sector is going through a very severe crisis at the moment, so the prices are bound to keep going down. The market players report the actual transaction prices tend to be at least 20% lower than what the sellers initially ask for. I personally feel the figure looks more like 35% or even 40% rather than 20%, since, as everyone knows, the real estate prices used to be a bit of a huge bubble over the last years,’ Accord Invest Investment Company’s Deputy GD Konstantin Selyanin says to UrBC. Meanwhile, Andrei Gavrilovskiy, the local entrepreneur, announced he

ChTPZ Group’s Chelyabinsk Tube Rolling Plant and Pervouralsk New Pipe Plant delivered 155,700 tons of tubular goods to their customers in January and February 2009, which falls short of the figures for a year earlier (that is, 256,800 tons) by 39%. Chelyabinsk Tube Rolling Plant shipped 86,700 tons of pipes and tubes to customers in the first two months of 2009, including 55,000 tons of large-diameter pipes. In February 2009, the plant delivered 48,300 tons of tubular goods to consumers, including 29,200 tons of LDPs. Pervouralsk New Pipe Plant sold 41,000 tons of goods in February 2009 and

Governor of Sverdlovsk Region Eduard Rossel, who is now on a business trip in London, suggested in the course of his meeting with the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development President that a EBRD stockholders’ meeting be held in Yekaterinburg. The bank’s President said the meeting locations had already been settled for the following three years, but the stockholders committee would still consider the Governor’s proposal.

Now that the heating season is coming to an end, Sverdlovsk Region-based enterprises, the public sector entities, management companies, tenants and real estate proprietors have come to owe Sverdlovsk Public Systems 1.00005 billion RUR. This company supplies heat, water (and water discharge services), and electricity to eight regional cities, that is, Kamensk Uralskiy, Pervouralsk, Kachkanar, Nizhnyaya Tura, Verkhnyaya Tura, Kamyshlov, Mikhailovsk, and Obukhovo. According to the company’s Commercial Director Alexander Koryukov, they are now forced to sue their debtors. 18,500 complaints worth

Sky Express Airlines flew 58,351 people in February 2009, which is 9% less than a year earlier, the spokesperson for the company says. The carrier’s passenger turnover came to 79,530,432 passenger-kilometers in February 2009, which falls short of the figures for February 2009 by 4%. The airline reports this decrease in the output figures has to do with the generally plummeting demand for air hauls. The airline flew 134,003 passengers in the two months of 2009 altogether.

Ural Federal District’s division of the Federal Financial Market Service looked into a number of cases involving various put-up affairs on the securities market. For one, Ural Civil Aviation Plant has been sentenced to a 30,000-ruble fine for this.

Unipromed’s net loss rose by 1.197 million RUR, or 25.86%, in the second quarter of 2008 (from 4.628 million RUR in the first quarter of the year to 5.825 million RUR in the second one). The company explains this has to do with lower production output and writing off overdue debts.

Concern Kalina Board of Directors’ advice to the annual general meeting attendees is not to declare the dividends for the second half of 2008. The stockholders meeting itself is to take place on May 14, 2009 in Yekaterinburg.

URSA Bank declared it was about to buy out its Eurobonds. The bonds in question are a ?400m issue to be retired in May 2010 (ISIN: XS0301291729) and a ?300m one to be retired in November 2011 (ISIN: XS0274663383), the bank reports. The first issue bonds with face value of ?1,000 will be bought for no more than ?900 apiece, the bonds from the second issue will be bought for no more than ?780 apiece. The final scale of the buyout and the prices are to be determined in the course of a Dutch auction. The total buyout volume is not expected to exceed ?60m for each issue and ?100m for two issues

The Central Bank of Russia reports volume of loans given by Sberinvestbank to non-state for-profit organizations for 181 days to 1 year had gone down by 39.21% (from 102 million RUR to 62 million RUR) by February 1, 2009.

The number of Bank Severnaya Kazna’s (Alfa-Bank’s asset at the moment) Supervisory Board members has been reduced to three; the decision to this extent was made by the bank’s Board of Directors. The Supervisory Board is therefore now comprised by Chairman Andrei Volchik and his Deputies Roman Vitkovskiy and Sergey Shevchenko.