The rating agency Expert RA rated Reserve Bank’s business solvency at B+, that is, Sufficient Business Solvency level. The agency reports that the bank’s rating was supported by the good instant and current liquidity indicators, a reasonably high level of the lending portfolio backup, and an impressive diversification of the business lending portfolio in terms of the borrowing companies’ activities. Then, the bank’s business solvency is also facilitated by the great level of off-balance debt liabilities backup: these are covered for by the highly liquid assets; besides, the bank only took

Former Head of BrokerCreditService Financial Group’s Ulan-Ude division Evgeniy Marchuk now came to run the company’s Yekaterinburg branch. Viktor Nemikhin, who was head of the local branch for over ten years, moved on to Otkrytiye Broker House in April 2011, taking a number of employees along. Our former top manager chose to pursue a new development and career path and left the company, taking his team with him. We could see clearly that in the last two years Chelyabinsk, for example, has outstripped Yekaterinburg in terms of sales profits. Perm is following suit,’ Marchuk told Echo Moskvy in

Alfa Invest reduced its share in Uralkhimmash from 21.6776% down to 0.3836%. According to the company’s data, OOO Brenta bought a 21.2940% stake in the business at the same time.

Yekaterinburg-based Koltsovo Airport is not going to declare any dividend for the year 2010. Such was the BOD’s recent recommendation for the annual general meeting. The issue of dividends has, in fact, been considered before. Fore on, the BOD was unable to make a final decision as early as the meeting on May 25, 2011.

The rating agency Moody's upped SKB-Bank’s international rating. The agency’s experts explain in their report that the promotion reflects the bank’s growing share of the market: this has gone up impressively over the last two years. According to a report compiled in accordance with the International Accounting Standards as of December 31, 2010, SKB-Bank’s consolidated assets amounted to $2.78bn, its own funds came to $198m, and its net profit reached $23.5m, the agency reports.

The foreign trade turnover within Nizhniy Tagil Customs area amounted to $1.2bn in the five months of 2011. About 85.8% of the total goods turnover came from or went to the countries of the far abroad, whereas 14.2% of goods came from or went to the CIS member states. In January-May 2011, the United States, the Netherlands, and Ukraine made up for the most of the foreign trade volume within Nizhniy Tagil Customs area: their shares in the total turnover volume came to 16.8%, 9.9%, and 9.6%, respectively. The shares of the Czech Republic, Germany, India, the Republic of Korea, Italy, China,

Ural Airlines started offering flight vouchers for sale recently. A voucher that covers a flight from Yekaterinburg to Moscow or from Moscow to Yekaterinburg comes at a price of 5,000 RUR (all fees included); a voucher for a flight from Yekaterinburg to Saint Petersburg or from Saint Petersburg to Yekaterinburg costs 6,500 RUR (all fees included). Vouchers are available from the flight attendants on board if you are flying from Yekaterinburg to Moscow or from Moscow to Yekaterinburg or from Yekaterinburg to Saint Petersburg or from Saint Petersburg to Yekaterinburg as well as via on online

We have no troubles with the vegetable deliveries from Europe. We actually buy arugula, cherry tomatoes, and lettuces from Metro, and this company has switched to the Israeli produce as soon as the ban on European vegetables was imposed,’ Director-General of Coffee House Yekaterinburg Oleg Schelkonogov told UrBC. Now Sverdlovsk Region division of Rospotrebnadzor (the state consumer rights watchdog) notified all the local catering companies of the ban imposed on the import or sale of nearly all kinds of vegetables grown in the European Union.

United Russia’s People’s Control group members keep inspecting the food stores of Kamensk-Uralsky, Sverdlovsk Region. The activists focused on eleven shops, including three retail outlets of the national chain store Pyaterochka. The first thing that strikes one upon entering a Pyaterochka supermarket is the lack of information regarding the phone numbers of Rospotrebnadzor experts that customers could call to complain about their rights, or the those of the Business Activity Promotion Department. Then, eggs were placed right on the floor instead of getting displayed on a refrigerated shelf,’

Head of the Federal Consumer Rights Protection and Human Well-Being Service (Rospotrebnadzor) Gennady Onischenko imposed a ban on importing to or selling in Russia any fresh or root vegetables (except for this year’s potatoes), tuber crops, or fresh berries that were produced within the EU. The ban will hold until a special provision on the official’s part. Sverdlovsk Region’s divisions of Rospotrebnadzor, as well as the customs bodies and the regional Ministry for Trade, Food, and Services have been notified of the limitations; so have the food manufacturers, supermarkets, and catering

Ural Airlines and Sberbank of Russia’s Ural branch are perhaps the first two companies in Russia to make bank cards acceptable on board, the airline’s press service reports. Ural Airlines’ passengers can now pay for their on-board purchase, tickets the Air Express train to Moscow airports, and flight certificates right in the air using their bankcard. Starting June 7, 2011, all of the airline’s flights operated from Yekaterinburg will have electronic Visa (Infinite, Platinum, Gold, Business, Classic, and Electron) and Master Card (World Signia, Platinum, Gold, Business, Standard, Electronic)

The shortage of castings is now keenly felt by both the manufacturers of new railway carriages and the carriage-repairing companies that handle the carriages of our company or of our daughter enterprises. Russian Railways Trading House was, in fact, set up to provide supplies for our daughter enterprises on the one hand and to sell what we have on offer on the other. So, this comes naturally to us in this respect. When we realized we were faced with some enormous shortage, I insisted on our people finding out where the castings could be bought. But we did not want the last year’s scenario

A month before the start of the exhibition INNOPROM 2011, Sverdlovsk Region Ministry for International and Foreign Economic Relations came up with the lists of the international participants in the event. So far, over twenty countries’ representatives have expressed their interest in taking part in the exhibition. For one, the companies and enterprises based in Austria, Canada, China, the Czech Republic, Germany, Italy, Kazakhstan, Poland, and the USA have applied as exponents. In addition, delegations from Germany, Great Britain, Iran, Moldova, South African countries, and Switzerland are

Builders have started working on the canopies that will protect the spectators’ stands at Yekaterinburg Central Stadium. The canopy will cover 30% of the seats in East and West Stands. The area of one canopy comes to 2,360 sq m. Builders are also busy with the finishing work in the sections below and outside the stands.

Uralelectrotyazhmash-Uralgidromash and Uraltyazhtrubstroy have been fined for violating the existing stock market regulations. Each company will have to pay a 500,000-ruble fine. This decision was made by the Ural Federal District division of Russia’s Federal Financial Markets Service.

Tyumen Region and Khanty-Mansiysky Autonomous Region-Yugra were featured among Russia’s Top3 most investor-attractive regions. The first place was given to Krasnodar Territory. Sverdlovsk Region was not among the Top20 regions in this respect. These data were provided by Russia’s Ministry for Regional Development in a report on the socioeconomic, financial, and banking situation in the Russian Federation constituencies in January-April 2011.

In the course of an upcoming annual general meeting, the shareholders of Yekaterinburg-based Koltsovo Airport are going to consider a deal regarding the property worth over 50% of the company assets’ book value. The announcement about the AGM taking place on June 30, 2011 has been published in Oblastnaya Gazeta. The company reports that the list of the stockholders who have the right to insist on the shares buyout gets compiled on the basis of the data available from the company’s stockholder register as of May 25, 2011. The buyout is handled at the price of 16,550 RUR per 1 (one) ordinary

Ten counterfeit Louis Vuitton bags were confiscated by Tyumen Customs and Tyumen Region division of the Internal Affairs Department’s consumer market offenses section in a single Tyumen store alone. All in all, over fifty fake Louis Vuitton items (dresses, belts, wallets, purses, jewellery and bags) have been confiscated by the authorities since the beginning of 2011. The genuine items come at between 18,000 RUR and 180,000 RUR on average, whereas on the street markets and in the shops of Tyumen Louis Vuitton fakes are available for between 1,000 RUR to 8,000 RUR,’ Tyumen Customs

This year, Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) is planning to direct over 1.6bn RUR on the environmental protection purposes. Among the most significant air protection initiatives are the ongoing reconstruction of the sulphur-collecting units in the sintering plant section, the completion of the reconstruction process involving the aspiration system of the areas located under the bunkers, with the installation of an electric filter at Blast Furnace 10, the completion of the aspiration systems at the metallurgical slime processing units, and the construction of air-protecting facilities

The Industrial Urals-The Polar Urals project cannot possibly be implemented without the Russian Government’s support,’ Sverdlovsk Region’s Economics Minister Evgeniy Sofrygin said at a press conference in Yekaterinburg recently. This is an important and a necessary project, but it’s also very complicated. The project requires a lot of investments that neither Yekaterinburg budget nor that of Sverdlovsk Region can possibly afford single-handedly. We need federal money,’ Mr. Sofrygin stressed.