In the first half of 2011, the revenues of Yekaterinburg-based Koltsovo Airport amounted to 2.15bn RUR, which is a little less than the figure for the first half of 2010. The airport explains the decrease in revenues has to do with the seasonal variations of the air travel market. The company’s net profit increased to 260.79m RUR against the 559m RUR loss in the first half of 2010.

Deputy of Sverdlovsk Region Duma Georgy Persky obtained some detailed information on how the 300m RUR allocated from the region’s budget to prepare Yekaterinburg’s application for hosting the World Universal Exhibition EXPO 2020 will be spent. Now the sum in question is to come from the redistribution of Mid-Urals’ Development Corporation’s budget. 11m is allocated for the official announcement of joining the application process. This figure covers professional advice and coordination on all the papers involved, the analysis of the earlier experience, and some events for the press. In plain

VUZ-Bank (a member of Life Financial Group) and MasterCard announce the start of their special offer called VUZ-Bank and Cirque du Soleil. Under the terms of this special offer, the bank’s customers and MasterCard holders who make at least 10,000 RUR worth of purchases on September 1-30, 2011, will join a lottery; the drawing will take place at the bank’s headquarters on October 7, 2011. The prizes are ten tickets (each valid for two people) for the performance of the legendary Cirque du Soleil that is to bring its show toYekaterinburg on October 15-23, 2011. There will be five tickets for

The issue of Sverdlovsk Region-based Ural Welding Materials Plant’s ordinary registered uncertified shares was halted by Order 62-11-1061/pz-I of Russia’s Federal Financial Market Service’s division in Ural Federal District on August 22, 2011.

The deputies of Sverdlovsk Region Duma approved of the changes in the region’s budget for 2011 relating to the allocation of 300m RUR to prepare an application for Yekaterinburg to take part in the exhibition EXPO 2020. The money will be obtained through reducing the outgoings of Mid-Urals Development Corporation.

Rosaviation will have to decide whether to renew Avianova’s aircraft operator certificate today, Kommersant reports. Head of the agency Alexander Neradko is to discuss the issue with the airline’s director Vladimir Gorbunov, Rosaviation states. Now Avianova’s current certificate (prolonged with ‘limitations’) will expire on August 29, 2011. The main certificate was valid through July 29, 2011 and had to be renewed until the year 2013, but Rosaviation only agreed to prolong this certificate by one month.

Russia’s Federal Antimonopoly Service signed an agreement with Total Razvedka Razrabotka Yamal (Total’s Russia-based daughter enterprise) in compliance with the law on foreign investment in strategic organizations, which allowed the service to give the company a preliminary approval of the transaction that involves the French company buying a 20.5% stake in Yamal-SPG, the FAS reports through its press service. Russia’s FAS and the French enterprise’s agreement ensures the latter party will meet the imposed obligations; this, and the requirements of the Federal Law 57-FZ, gave the antimonopoly

An autonomous non-profit organization is to be set up in Sverdlovsk Region to deal with the organization and submission of Yekaterinburg’s EXPO 2020 application. The organization will also work on setting up a coordination committee for the World Universal Exhibition. The company’s assets will probably comprise a voluntary donation of 10,000 RUR deducted from the region’s budget. Consequently, Yekaterinburg will be competing for EXPO 2020 through a company with only a token authorized capital. On the other hand, even the very first draft budgets for the application process strike one’s

Experts from Sverdlovsk Region division of Rospotrebnadzor (the state-run consumer rights watchdog) have examined 1,705,400 tons of meat products since the beginning of the year, and 6.6 tons, or 0.4% had to be discarded, the agency’s press service reports. The situation looked particularly unsatisfactory as far as poultry was concerned. Thirty-one samples of chicken meat (whole chickens and their parts) have been examined, and nine of these samples (29%) were declared not to meet the GOST Р52702-2006 standards for technical conditions of chicken meat (chickens, hens, broilers, and their

The net loss of Ufaleynickel (based in Chelyabinsk Region), calculated in accordance with the Russian accounting standards, reached 199.2m RUR in the first half of 2011 compared with 84.2m RUR in the first half of 2010, the company’s report states. The company’s gross profit decreased by 4.55 times and came to 65.86m RUR, its pre-tax loss came to 64.49m RUR. The enterprise explains its performance indicators stem from the dropping disposal price of nickel and growing prime cost.

Standard & Poor's Corporate Governance Rating Service reports that GAMMA (Governance, Accountability, Management, Metrics, and Analysis) rating of Enel OGK-5 was promoted from GAMMA-6 to GAMMA-6+ and called off at the same time. The company runs Sredneuralskaya and Reftinskaya heat and power stations in Sverdlovsk Region. Standard & Poor's says the company’s strong points in corporate governance are the vast international experience of the controlling shareholder Enel S.p.A. in the field of managing energy resources, and its support of Enel OGK-5 investment program. At the

Ural Airlines announces the start of domestic flights sale. Between August 15, 2011 and September 15, 2011, all the passengers can buy tickets for a whole range of destinations at the cheapest prices imaginable, the company’s press service reports. Special rates are offered on the following flights: Moscow-Irkutsk (6,700 RUR one way) Moscow-Krasnodar (2,700 RUR one way) Moscow-Sochi (2,500 RUR one way) Moscow-Simferopol (? RUR one way) Moscow-Novokuznetsk (6,800 RUR one way) Moscow-Novosibirsk (4,300 RUR one way) Moscow-Saint Petersburg (2,000 RUR one way) Moscow-Chita (8,000 RUR one way)

VSMPO-Avisma Corporation might give up on its plans to build a plant for the mechanical processing of stampings for the aviation industry in Titanium Valley, a special economic zone, in case the infrastructure in the area fails to appear quickly enough. The corporation’s Director-General Mikhail Voyevodin said in an interview to company newspaper Novator that so far, the company had only got the Titanium Valley Supervisory Board’s approval of a business plan for setting up a daughter enterprise (VSMPO-New Technologies) there. The enterprise would have a resident status. Given that the

Tyumen Region Property Fund is going to put up to auction 118 natural gas pipelines belonging to the region; the auction will take place on September 15, 2011, the Fund reports. The opening bid has been set at 545.8m RUR, and every next bid has to be at least 5.46m RUR bigger, MFD-InfoCenter says. Bidders can submit their applications until September 9.

A solemn opening ceremony will take place at Yekaterinburg Central Stadium at 6 o’clock today; this event is part of the City Day celebrations. The agenda of the celebrations covers an official ceremony, Ural-Khimki football match, some track-and-field competitions with Central Stadium trophies as prizes (male and female relay races, an 800-meter race, and a Generation Relay Race with Olympic prize winners participating), and an entertainment program with games and surprises, Sinara Group’s PR Center reports. For the first time in history, the FIFA anthem will be performed on the arena of the

The power supplier TGK-9 announced its Yekaterinburg subsidiary would go into liquidation. This decision was made by the company’s Board of Directors. The company will still run its Sverdlovsk subsidiary, a Yekaterinburg-based subsidiary responsible for priority investment projects, and Academic subsidiary for priority investment projects in Sverdlovsk Region. Sverdlovsk Heat-Supplying Company informed UrBC that the liquidated subsidiary had actually been a non-functioning, deadweight structure for a while before it closed.

Sverdlovsk Region Railways (the subsidiary of Russian Railways) claims that Gazpromneft-Ural has been unloading oil at its oil storage facilities in an unsatisfactory way, the portal RZhD-Partner reports. Now some shortage of AI-92 gasoline was observed at Yekaterinburg filling stations run by Gazpromneft-Ural and Lukoil-Permnefteprodukt this summer. Sverdlovsk Region Railways announced then that the problem was the poor logistics of the oil supplying companies. As the organization of the unloading process at the storage depots is unsatisfactory, cisterns are sitting there unloaded for hours

Sverdlovsk Region Arbitration Court keeps looking into the claim laid by Microsoft against Introtest; the plaintiff insists that the defendant pay 4.64m RUR, the court proceedings state. The plaintiff’s claim is mainly based on the alleged violation of the plaintiff’s author’s rights by Introtest. In fact, companies such as Autodesk Inc, Corel Corporation, Siemens Product Lifecycle Management Software Inc, and Dasso Systems SolidWorks are involved as co-defendants in the case. The defendant reports they are sure to win the case. Microsoft’s position is very weak. I believe the court will not

Ural Electrochemical Complex will make three thousand people redundant in 2011, President of Small & Medium Enterprises Union Anatoly Filippenkov announced at the union’s supervisory board meeting today. The electrochemical plant in Novouralsk will soon lay off three thousand people. This decision was made by the Moscow management. We can probably expect that a lot of them will turn to small business,’ Filippenkov said. The plant informed us of the upcoming three thousand redundancies as early as the beginning of this year. The reason for this is the restructuring of the business. For

Sverdlovsk Region Finance Ministry came up with the first figures regarding the cost of Sverdlovsk Region applying for hosting the World Universal Exhibition EXPO 2020. A candidate city has to get ready for an examination by inspection committees and prepare a detailed plan with all kinds of projects ranging from the architectural ones (a master plan of EXPO premises and the suggestions for its further use) to the transportation concept to the city’s sustainable development project for 2011-2020,’ the Ministry announced today. To elaborate such a grand application, one needs to use the