‘Uralmashzavod is Russia’s heavy engineering giant, yet the drilling machinery production was closed down in 2002. It was rather fortunate that Gazprombank started cooperating with the enterprise last year when the recession forced nearly all the production shops to stay idle. The plant is now given a unique opportunity to come back on the market and rebuild its know-hows, namely, the production of drilling machinery, metallurgical equipment, carnage, and many other things,’ Governor of Sverdlovsk Region Alexander Misharin said in the course of his visit to Uralmashzavod. ‘The things I have

Sverdlovsk Region Arbitration Court is to resume the hearing of the claim laid by Maxi Group’s minority shareholder Nikolai Maksimov against Maxi Group and Nizhneserginskiy metal products plant on February 12, 2010, the spokesperson for the court informed UrBC. The plaintiff insists that two of Maxi Group’s sole executive body’s decisions be declared invalid. The decisions concern voting for Point 5 (the approval of the plant’s new Charter) at Nizhneserginskiy metal products plant’s AGM in 2008 and the resolution regarding Point 5 (the approval of the plant’s new Charter) taken at the plant’s

Evraz Group cut its steel production by 13.5% in 2009 compared to 2008, that is, down to 15.3 million tons, the company reports. On the other hand, the production of steel increased by .3% (up to 4.3 million tons) in the last quarter of 2009 compared to the third quarter.

The net profit of Gazprombank (calculated in accordance with the Russian Accounting Standards) plunged by 2.3 times down to 9 billion RUR in the year 2009, the bank’s report states. This significant drop in profit resulted from the need to pay a much greater income tax in 2009. What is more, the company received less impressive dividends from its daughter enterprise investments and foreign currency transactions.

Sverdlovsk Region’s division of the Federal Antimonopoly Service keeps looking into Case 120 involving OOO Alcor-C (L’Etoile cosmetics chain store). The company is suspected of violating Article 18 (part 1) of the Federal Advertising Act. Namely, the company is believed to be sending out text messages with advertisements without the phone number users’ written assent. ‘The ad hoc committee first discussed the case on January 12, 2010, but its proper handling had to be postponed because the defendant failed to produce the necessary papers,’ Sverdlovsk Region’s division of the Federal

The value of Petrokommerz Commercial Bank’s assets decreased by 11.66% in the year 2009. The bank reports this drop has to do with the need to pay back external loans and those obtained from the Bank of Russia). Also, the net debt owed to the company declined as well.

The financial performance of Bank Severnaya Kazna (Alfa-Bank’s asset) went from bad to worse throughout the year 2009. For one, the bank’s asset value declined by 53%, from 43,637,835,000 RUR on January 1, 2009 down to 20,417,266,000 RUR on January 1, 2010. The asset value decreased by 21.8% (or 5,691,177,000 RUR) in December 2009 alone. The bank reports its assets depreciated because of the need to meet its liabilities to both businesses and private individuals and to pay off interbank loans. Also, most of the bank’s loan recipients paid off their loans. Finally, the bank had to assign its

Sverdlovsk Region Arbitration Court keeps looking into the claim laid by Bank24.ru against Ural Transport Bank. The court session scheduled for January 14, 2010 is to be devoted to the bank’s demand that UralTransBank pay the plaintiff 50 million RUR. Marketinvest, OOO Estate, and OOO Specter are involved in the case as third parties. The sum in question is reported to stem from a number of promissory notes (096601, 096602, 096603, 096604, and 096605) issued by UralTransBank on July 21, 2009. The notes are to be paid on demand but no earlier than November 20, 2009. There are also notes

AdMe, an advertising online portal, announced recently that MTS (one of Russia’s Big Three mobile operators) and MTS’s advertising partner MindShare were trying to exert some pressure on it. AdMe representatives report the two-day harassment started when the company compared MTS logo to a ball. For one, MTS was unhappy with AdMe’s news headline that read, ‘MTS shows another ball.’ Meanwhile, the Russian federal TV channels are now broadcasting ads on MTS special winter offer called MTS Bonus. At some point, two logos (each of which has an ovoid shape) appear in these ads. The online

Subaru Motors LLC’s Yekaterinburg dealer still hasn’t come to full understanding with Evgeniy Rossol. ‘I have signed an agreement with the company’s management, and the terms suit me okay. As for the actual implementation of these terms, everything will become clear on February 1, 2010. So far, things are still pending,’ Rossol said to UrBC. The Yekaterinburg dweller bought a Subaru Forester at Subaru Yekaterinburg Nikko Motors show room on September 30, 2008. He then placed a billboard next to the show room entrance that listed all the shortcomings of this car and all the problems he’d had

It is reported that the difference between the interest Bank24.ru declares to charge on its loans-through-bank-cards and the interest the bank actually charges on this loan type comes to as much as 14.5%, UmnyeDengi.ru’s experts claim. This online project was set up by Pro-Credit, an e-broker; according to the website, Bank24.ru insists that the annual interest comes to 23% but in fact the loan maintenance costs the borrowing parties over 37.5% a year. The e-broker’s experts say this is the largest overcharge detected among Russian banks within the scope of their investigation. No other bank

‘DHL, the express delivery service, failed to bring a batch of personal passenger tickets meant for use in public transport to Yekaterinburg on time,’ Yekaterinburg council’s press service announced, referring to the claims made by the General Director of Information Network Pavel Vedernikov. ‘We’ve designed a schedule for transferring these Ye-Cards to the electronic ticket retail outlets. On Monday, January 11, over 7,000 cards were to have been transferred from Moscow to Yekaterinburg by DHL. The cards were to have arrived to our I-Set office by 10:30 AM on Tuesday. However, DHL sent me a

Bank24.ru now only handles online payment transactions until 8 PM, the bank’s website says. The organization explains they have to devote some time to the installation and launch of a new banking system and assures its customers these changes are only temporary. ‘We kindly request that you use the Money Back system to make up for the temporarily decreased quality of service,’ the bank’s official statement runs. In addition to this, Bank24.ru stopped accepting any payments made to OOO Olympus NSP (AKADO-Yekaterinburg) for the time being.

‘The results of the state environmental examination of Reftinskaya plant’s proposed upgrade might not be one hundred percent true from the start,’ the coordinator of Ecozashchita international environmental group Olga Podosenova said to UrBC. Reftinskaya state district power plant (Enel OGK-5) actually conducted public hearings on the plant’s proposed ash handling system upgrade in the village of Reftinskiy, Sverdlovsk Region this January. The plant claims the upgrade is actually expected to reduce the damage done by the ash dumps to nature. Environmentalists, however, are very skeptical

Reftinskaya state district power plant (Enel OGK-5) conducted public hearings on the plant’s proposed ash handling system upgrade in the village of Reftinskiy, Sverdlovsk Region this January. The hearings were organized in accordance with the Environmental Examination Act 174 and the Provision on the impact an enterprise’s activity makes on the Russian Federation environment. The plant claims the upgrade is actually expected to reduce the damage done by the ash dumps to nature. Environmentalists, however, are very skeptical about the project and insist that the introduction of a new system

Sverdlovsk Region Arbitration Court is currently considering the claim laid by Sverdlovsk Region Ministry for Natural Resources against a Kushva-based forming roll manufacturer. The plaintiff insists that the plant must pay money for using the local bodies of water. The Ministry has recently raised its financial claims to 2.06 million RUR, and the court ruled in favor of this decision. In the meantime, the plant has been undergoing bankruptcy proceedings since August 2009.

A meeting was held in Gazprom’s headquarters on the need to buy some large-diameter pipes from a Russian manufacturer in 2010-2012. The meeting was chaired by Gazprom Deputy Chairman of the Supervisory Board Alexander Ananenkov. Gazprom Supervisory Board members, department directors and a number of experts, as well as some representatives of Russian pipe-making and metallurgical enterprises (including an executive from Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works) were also present. The attendees spoke about how to plan and organize the delivery of Russian LDPs to Gazprom over the next three years.

Yekaterinburg’s entertainment centers are now busy eliminating their fire safety problems, all of which were detected in the course of recent inspections carried out by the public prosecution authorities and the Russian Ministry of Emergencies, the spokesperson for Sverdlovsk Region public prosecution authorities reports. Following the authorities’ demands, a number of local clubs and cinemas stopped operating for the time being, namely, the Salut movie theater, From Dusk till Dawn and Teleclub (two nightclubs), Dudki restaurant, Hooch Pub & Dancing café, and one of Em Sam (the Japanese

Sverdlovsk Region prosecution authorities for transportation looked into the way local businesses and organizations complied with the currency laws. It was revealed that some local companies dealing in foreign trade failed to go through the customs clearance using their cargo manifests and transaction passports when they had some foreign trade contracts with the firms based in China, Cyprus, and the United Arab Emirates. Still, in all these cases, the offenders’ foreign partners met their contractual obligations in full, the spokesperson for Ural prosecution authorities for transportation

‘I have numerous reports from environmental experts indicating that Reftinskaya state district power plant’s proposed hydraulic ash handling system upgrade will have a negative environmental impact and is therefore unacceptable. I intend to present these report findings at the public hearings today, and I hope this will result in an examination of the project by an independent board of experts,’ Chairman of the International Socio-Environmental Union’s Sverdlovsk Region division Vladimir Terekhov said to an UrBC reporter. The public hearings taking place in the town of Reftinskiy are devoted