The international rating agency decreased Uralsvyazinform’s long-term credit rating from ВВ- to В+ and took it off their CreditWatch list. The telecommunications provider’s rating was placed on the list with Negative Rating Outlook on March 2, 2009. Now the company’s Rating Outlook is Stable. ‘The rating demotion was caused by our concerns over the way the company’s liquid assets are managed: we find it aggressive and unfit for ВВ- rating category,’ says Standard & Poor’s analyst Alexander Gryaznov. ‘Then, Uralsvyazinform’s rating is threatened by the business’s low liquidity figures, the

The extraordinary general meeting of Yekaterinburg-based oil and mayonnaise producing company resulted in the decision to pass the dividend for 2008. In addition, the present stockholders elected the new Board of Directors, comprising seven members now.

The Federal Insurance Surveillance Service confirmed the fact that the license of Uveren.ru Insurance Company (the asset of Bank24.ru) was halted temporarily. The Service’s official website states that the insurer’s license С № 1396 66 as of March 31, 2008 was halted due to the company’s failing to meet the orders issued by Ural Federal District’s Insurance Surveillance Inspectorate in due time. Order 310 that halts the license was issued on June 10, 2009; it has already been signed and has come into effect. According to this order, the insurer has thirty days to eliminate the existing

‘From its very start, the Academic construction project had a lot of support from both the regional and federal state authorities. I believe the project’s special status is being even further fortified now,’ Unicom Partner Investment and Finance Company’ Deputy General Director Dmitriy Zemerov said to an UrBC reporter. In fact, Russian President Dmitriy Medvedev visited the construction site (maintained by Renova-StroyGroup) during the Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit in Yekaterinburg and spoke very highly of the project’s achievements. ‘Firstly, this means that the project will be

On June 27, 2009, Bank Severnaya Kazna (the asset of Alfa-Bank) will not be servicing customers in any of its subsidiaries or additional offices, the spokesperson for the bank reports. The bank claims they had to take this step due to production necessities.

The international rating agency has recently placed the ratings of five bonds issues coordinated by Alfa Diversified Payment Rights Finance Co. S.A. (Alfa-Bank’s trust company) on CreditWatch list, with Negative Rating Outlook. Standard & Poor's reports this was a follow-up on putting Alfa-Bank itself on the same list. ‘These ratings show how the agency feels about the issuer’s financial stability as well as about the existing overcollaterization (which actually ensures a better credit quality of the payment flow) and the other elements of the bond transaction that reduce the risk of

Governor of Chelyabinsk Region Petr Sumin visited Zlatoust Metallurgical Plant (ZMZ) to evaluate the efficiency of the actions taken by the management to bring the plant back to life. Sumin inspected the first and the third steel-smelting shops that resumed operation a week ago. At the moment, only four out of nine furnaces are operating. The plant’s GD Sergey Khomyanin also invited the Governor to check out the rolling shop. The GD explained the plant would deliver 2,500 tons of ready goods to customers by the end of the month. In July, the shop’s steel output is expected to reach 10,000

‘Severouralsk Bauxite Mine (SUBR) is struggling with a lot of problems at the moment, the major ones being the wages and the labor safety. The thing is, the workers’ wages have gone down by about 20% compared with May 2009. As for labor safety, the violations of the existing rules have resulted in a recent fatal accident in one of the mines,’ Chairman of UC RUSAL SUBR independent trade union Valeriy Zolotarev said to UrBC. ‘We were visited by two UC RUSAL representatives today, one of them being the HR Director. We explained everything about the problems SUBR has been faced with. At the end

The Arbitration Court keeps looking into the insolvency application laid by Leader Holding Company. Since the debtor must provide additional evidence of the company’s state, the court has had to put off the hearing in accordance with Article 158 of the Russian Federation Arbitration Code of Practice and Article 32 of the Federal Insolvency Act. Leader Holding Company placed its case with the arbitration court, asking to be declared bankrupt. The company’s application states that their creditors’ claims amount to 3,800,758,516.74 RUR (including 1,786,421,132.78 RUR worth of overdue debts). The

‘By introducing the new terms of paying off debts, AKB Absolut Bank is probably trying to reduce the amount of bad debts on the given loans, since the bank’s borrowers can now make these payments voluntarily. As a matter of fact, the new terms can be seen as a sort of peace settlement that provides for the debtor paying off one-tenth of the debt in exchange for cancellation of fines and sanctions,’ Unicom Partner Investment and Finance Company’s Deputy GD Dmitriy Zemerov said to an UrBC reporter. AKB Absolut Bank has recently announced that those of their customers who have delayed their loan

Standard & Poor's, the international rating agency, put Alfa-Bank’s ratings on CreditWatch list with Negative Rating Outlook, claiming this has to do with their general downgrading of the Russian banks’ asset quality estimates. According to the agency’s research findings, the great loan losses might make the Russian banks undergo re-capitalization. Standard & Poor's analysts believe that over the next three years, the total volume of these banks’ toxic assets (including restructured loans) might reach 38% of the overall total volume recorded at the end of 2008.

Uralvagonzavod Scientific and Production Association was given a four-billion-ruble state loan, Plenipotentiary Representative of Russian Federation President in Ural Federal District Nikolai Vinnichenko announced on June 18, 2009. This means that the enterprise’s total debt volume now comes to about 43 billion RUR. Meanwhile, Uralvagonzavod’s General Director Oleg Sienko said in his interview to RBC daily that the plant’s top executives were considering the idea of launching an additional four-billion-ruble share issue, with shares to be sold to the state.

URSA Bank’s customers located in Ural and Siberian Federal Districts can now use the advantage of the bank’s new mortgage offer: they can now use the so-called maternity capital (the sum of money a family upon having their second and consecutive child or children) to pay off their mortgages. This June, they have started using the money transferred by the Retirement Fund’s local divisions to pay off mortgages early, the bank’s press officer reports. ‘Our customers can choose the option that suits them best: they can either use the sum to pay off a portion of their debt in one installment or

The license of Uveren.ru Insurance Company (the asset of Bank24.ru) has recently been halted, PRIME TASS Insurance refers to the Federal Insurance Surveillance Service as reporting. The decision was taken by the Service after the company had failed to fulfill its orders. The decree to this extent was signed and came into force. In fact, the provision on license sanctions states that companies with temporarily invalid licenses have thirty days to eliminate the existing legal violations. The insurer’s official website says the company was founded by Bank24.ru, with its 4.99% shareholding,

Bashkirskaya Med (part of UMMC’s primary resource base) underwent the certification audit procedure: the company’s environmental management system was tested for compliance with ISO 14001:2004 international standards, while its labor and occupational safety management system was tested for compliance with OHSAS 18001:2007 requirements. The certification procedure was carried out by the experts from Saint Petersburg-based Russkiy Registr-Baltiyskaya Inspektsiya Certification Association. Bashkirskaya Med is expected to receive the certificates of compliance in August 2009; the papers will be

AKB Probusinessbank (Life Group) shareholders decided in the course of their extraordinary general meeting to pass the share dividend for 2008. The share profit (471,890,529.3 RUR) is expected to be used to cover up the bank’s losses. The stockholders also decided to get rid of the bank’s economic development and promotion funds. In addition, the bank’s new Board of Directors (consisting of nine members) was elected at the meeting.

URSA Bank and MDM-Bank united to take part in an auction where bidders competed for the available reserves of the Communal Housing Services Support Fund that could be placed onto their deposits. Both banks won the auction and signed the transactions providing for deposition of the resources within the set limits. The auction was coordinated by Saint Petersburg Currency Exchange, the spokesperson for URSA Bank reports. ‘This is the first time we’ve united with MDM-Bank for a bid, that is, we negotiated over the terms, the rates, and the tariffs. This successful cooperation experience has laid

Sverdlovsk Region’s division of the Federal Antimonopoly Service keeps looking into the claim laid by Sverdlovenergosbyt against MRSK Urala. The court’s meeting on June 17, 2009 resulted in the decision to postpone the hearing of case 35 related to MRSK Urala being accused of violating the law on the protection of competition (Article 10 (part 1) of the Federal Bill 135 enacted on July 26, 2006). The company had allegedly tried to impose on Sverdlovenergosbyt disadvantageous terms on the electricity supply agreement, the spokesperson for Sverdlovsk Region’s division of the Federal

‘Aviaprad has been going through the bankruptcy proceedings for a year now, but the company’s assets still haven’t been sold. The only things we did manage to sell were the furniture, office appliances and such like items. For one, we found it really hard to sell the spare parts for aircraft. Because of these difficulties, we undertook to apply to Arbitration Court for having the bankruptcy proceedings prolonged for another six months. The court is quite likely to consent, because there is no other way out,’ Aviaprad’s trustee in bankruptcy Olga Ruschitskaya said to an UrBC representative.

The Russian Federation Federal Antimonopoly Service approved of TM TRAST’s petition to buy 41% of Khanty-Mansiyskiy Bank’s shares, the Service reports. Prior to this, the Service approved of the petition placed by Standart, the Saint Petersburg-based investment company, and Roman Kichinov (Assistant to the bank’s President and head of the bank’s press service) then said to RIA Novosti that the Federal Antimonopoly Service’s decision did not mean the shares would be sold directly rather than by auction. The applications could be placed with the Service after Khanty-Mansiyskiy Autonomous