BOD Chairman of Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) Viktor Rashnikov took part in a business meeting organized for the Russian and U.S. business executives. The Russian-American business summit was made possible due to the U.S. President Barack Obama’s visiting Moscow early in July. The meeting was attended by heads of Russia and the United States’ leading companies, who spoke about the ways of raising their goods turnover and mutual investments as well as the issue of Russia’s entering the WTO and cooperation in the field of technological development and energy saving. ‘All these

The BOD meeting of VSMPO-Avisma Corporation has been scheduled for July 8, 2009. The main point on the agenda is electing the new General Director, the company’s President Mikhail Voyevodin announced at the opening ceremony of a new titanium articles-treating joint venture in Verkhnyaya Salda, Sverdlovsk Region. The company declared earlier that the corporation’s former GD Evgeniy Romanov had resigned before the end of his term. Romanov confirmed the news today, explaining that he is leaving the corporation for Rostechnologii State Corporation.

The net profit of UralFinPromBank went down by 79.5% (from 17.38 million RUR to 3.57 million RUR) in the second quarter of 2009 compared with the first quarter of the year. The bank explains this decrease in net profit has to do with the need to set up reserves that could make up for the possible bad debt losses as well as cover their loan debts; besides, the bank had to spend more on maintenance and pay greater interest on attracted resources.

According to Avtostat agency, Toyota Corolla and Daewoo Nexia are the Urals’ two top selling brands at the moment, followed by Ford Focus. Then, as far as foreign cars are concerned, Mitsubishi Lanser and Hyundai Accent are also quite popular. Then, the Toyota Group makes like Land Cruiser, Camry, Avensis, and Rav-4 sell rather nicely as well. Among the European models (which are delivered abundantly to the Urals), Volkswagen Passat and Renault Logan are definitely the best sellers. Then, the local customers tend to like the Korean models such as Kia Spectra, Daewoo Matiz, and Chevrolet

Sverdlovsk Region Arbitration Court is to resume the hearing of the claim laid by KAB Bank Société Générale Vostok against Pnevmostroymashina and PSM-Gidravlika on July 7, 2009. The plaintiff insists on the defendants paying the bank 105,601,411.2 RUR and on having the defendants’ mortgaged property arrested. The bank actually demanded an increase in the compensation up to 111,649,309.1 RUR at the last court hearing, with the court ruling in favor of this claim because increased compensation demands do not contradict the law or infringe upon the rights of other people.

KB Citibank is suspected of violating the Russian Federation advertising legislation. Sverdlovsk Region’s division of the Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS) intends to look into the lawsuit instituted against the bank, with charges based on Article 18 (part 1) of the Federal Advertising Bill. The thing is, the bank is believed to practice sending text messages to customers/subscribers without their permission. As a matter of fact, the regional division of FAS considered the similar case involving Bank24.ru as recently as last week. The division declared Bank24.ru’s mobile advertising

Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) keeps implementing its new social benefits scheme. Metallurg Charity Fund and Chelyabinsk Region’s division of Russian Children’s Fund expanded their children’s support program in 2008. So, the program now involves the children from specialized boarding schools and children without parents living in orphanages. The funds organized special events in the local water park, movies, the children’s club, Abzakovo sports center, and Berezki sanatorium for these children, spending over 900,000 RUR on these activities. According to MMK’s PR Department, the

2,106,359 of Uralfinprombank’s ordinary shares (a 5.85% shareholding) have been sold by the bank’s BOD member Valeriy Metelskiy, who is thus no longer the bank’s stockholder. The shares were apparently bought by Anna V. Metelskaya, whose shareholding thus rose from 4.15% to 10%. Meanwhile, Uralfinprombank’s representative explained to an UrBC reporter the transaction in question was the equity carve-out rather than an acquisition of any sort.

Starting July 6, 2009, Bank Severnaya Kazna’s Moscow-based office located at 2 Bolshaya Tulskaya St. is to have new working hours for private customers. According to the bank’s official website, private individuals are welcome from 9 AM to 8 PM on weekdays, with no services offered on weekends, even though the office used to work with private customers on Saturdays at the time.

‘Uralvagonzavod’s General Director Oleg Sienko did not keep his promise. The enterprise did not start operating normally on July 1, 2009, and the workers are still threatened with mass redundancies,’ Governor of Sverdlovsk Region Eduard Rossel said at the district’s crisis-defying committee meeting chaired by Plenipotentiary Representative of Russian Federation President in Ural Federal District Nikolai Vinnichenko. In the meantime, the plant’s trade union reported on July 2, 2009 that Uralvagonzavod’s management intended to lay off 15,000 workers, who would be paid two-thirds of their wages

Following the demand of Ural Federal District’s division of the General Prosecutor’s Office and the court’s ruling, Chair of Bank VEFK-Ural’s Supervisory Board Olga Chechushkova was arrested and installed in the detention facility, the spokesperson for Ural Federal District’s division of the General Prosecutor’s Office reports. The whole affair started out in March 2009 when an investigation carried out upon Deputy Prosecutor General Yuri Zolotov’s order revealed that 955.8 million RUR belonging to the Russian Federation Retirement Fund and deposited with the insolvent Bank VEFK-Ural had been

A solemn opening ceremony of Ural Airlines’ first Yekaterinburg-Beijing flight took place on July 5, 2009 in Koltsovo Airport’s airfield. The ceremony was attended by Governor of Sverdlovsk Region Eduard Rossel, Ural Airlines’ General Director Sergey Skuratov, and the People’s Republic of China Consul for Yekaterinburg Se Tzinyn. After the symbolic red ribbon had been cut, the first flight’s 115 passengers headed for the Chinese capital at 8:20 PM. ‘Ural Airlines and its partners expect to offer the customers plenty of connecting flights from Beijing to the south-eastern parts of China as

Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) won in the international Russia and the CIS Best Risk Management of the Year contest. The competition was coordinated by the Russian Risk Management Society, with the support of the Association of Regional Russian Banks, the Russian Union of Entrepreneurs and Employers, and the National Fund Association. This isn’t the first time MMK has taken part in such a contest. In fact, the enterprise’s risk management experts won prizes in 2006 and 2007. In 2006, the company also won in the Best Risk Management Project among Russian Companies contest in the

The international rating agency has recently changed AKB Absolut Bank’s D- financial stability rating’s Outlook from Stable to Negative. At the same time, the bank’s national and foreign currencies deposit rating and the Baa3/Prime-3 foreign currency debt rating’s Negative Outlooks were confirmed. So was the bank’s Aaa.ru long-term national scale rating. ‘These rating actions have to do with Moody’s concern over the potential impact Russia’s long-term economic downfall might have on Absolut Bank’s asset quality and financial development indicators, which, in its turn, will probably exert most

Rus-Rating Agency gave Moscow-based AFK Sistema BBB+ credit rating, with Stable Rating Outlook. This information is actually available via the agency’s website. Rus-Rating’s analysts believe the rating of the corporation (comprising MTS, MICEX, and other businesses) stems from its leading and stable positions on a number of markets as well as good asset quality, effective corporate management, and a lot of state support and the owner’s help. ‘On the other hand, the rating can’t grow further because of the losses some of the corporation’s members are sustaining. Besides, all of the holding’s

Uveren.ru Insurance Company (the asset of Bank24.ru) is still unable to sign any insurance contracts, the company’s press center reports. According to the call center, the insurer does not even know when the Federal Insurance Surveillance Service’s sanction is to be lifted. They do hope, however, that they will be able to function as usual as soon as next week. The company’s license was halted by the Service’s order on June 18, 2009. The decision was taken after the insurer had failed to fulfill the Service’s provisions. For one, Uveren.ru is reported to have failed to inform the Service of

Sverdlovsk Region’s division of the Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS) looked into case 49 involving accusations of Bank24.ru and ruled that the bank did violate Article 18 (part 1) of the federal advertising legislation, demanding that all the violations should be eliminated before October 10, 2009. The offense consisted in the bank’s advertising its services through text messages, which the bank’s customers never agreed to in writing. The existing law states that electronic means of communication like the telephone or mobile connections can only be used for advertising purposes if the

Rosgosstrakh-Ural, the insurance company, is to close down before January 1, 2010. The liquidation is a part of Rosgosstrakh Group’s consolidation and reorganization process, with nine regional companies (RGS-Accord, RGS-Far East, RGS-Povolzhie, RGS-North-West, RGS-Siberia, RGS-Tatarstan, RGS-Ural, RGS-Center, and RGS-South) merging with RGS-Stolitsa. Upon the completion of the merger, RGS-Stolitsa is to be called Rosgosstrakh. All of the local companies’ personnel will be re-employed by Rosgosstrakh. The process will probably have been completed by January 1, 2010.

Governor of Chelyabinsk Region Petr Sumin approved of the set of measures meant for preparing the region’s utilities and power supply facilities for the upcoming heating season, the spokesperson for the Governor reports. According to the existing plan, heads of local municipalities must place their heating period reports with the Ministry for Construction, Infrastructure, and Roads before September 15, 2009. The reports must contain the schedule of all the washing-out operations, hydraulic pressure testing, and repairs of the heating network as well as suggestions as to creating coal, liquid

Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) has recently got registered with InternationalMaterialDataSystem (IMDS). This automobile spare parts and materials database was set up in 2000 with the support and inspiration from Audi, BMW, Daimler, Ford, Opel, Porsche, Volkswagen, and Volvo, who wished to have the data from the entire supplier chain systematized and united. The system now provides car manufacturers and their partners with information about all kinds of materials that are used for spare parts and car units. The IMDS was based on the European countries’ directives that require full