Radio Equipment Plant placed a claim against Bank Inteza with Sverdlovsk Region Arbitration Court. According to the materials of the case, the claim amounts to 1.28m RUR.

OOO Progress Universal won the tender aimed at selling a 3.5% stake in Ural Transport Bank (UralTransBank) that belonged to Russian Railways. This information is available from the website of TransCreditBank, the company that coordinated the tender. The asset was sold at the opening bid price of 36.8m RUR.

Pipe Metallurgical Company (TMK) reports its premium threaded connections TMK PF have been successfully tested for compliance with the ISO 13679 CAL IV standard in Oil States Industries, an international certification center based in Aberdeen, UK. The center tests the produce of the world’s largest oil and gas companies. The testing was carried out by TMK Premium Service. Subjected to a special qualification test program were threaded connections TMK PF with the diameter of 177.8mm, wall width 10.4mm, and strength grade L80. The testing was done at the order of one of the Middle East’s major

Acting Governor of Sverdlovsk Region Anatoly Gredin greeted the region’s most prominent benefactors and presented them with their awards. The committee responsible for coordinating the charity days declared the Managing Director of Serversky Pipe Plant (Pipe Metallurgical Company, TMK) Mikhail Zuyev the Benefactor of the Year. Since 2007, the enterprise has been donating money to Sinara Charity Fund that is the group’s united charity activity coordinator.

Unilever Rus informed Russia’s Federal Financial Markets Service of purchasing a 15.02% stake in Concern Kalina. The shareholding comprises 966,749 ordinary registered uncertified shares of the Russian cosmetics concern.

The agenda of the latest meeting chaired by Deputy Plenipotentiary Representative of Russian Federation President in Ural Federal District Alexander Sidorov covered issues related to the need to normalize things at Ufaleynickel and Rezhhnckel. The meeting was attended by Deputy Head of Sverdlovsk Region Governmentand Minister for Industry & Science Alexander Petrov. Petrov said that Rezhnickel’s problems would be solved in several stages. ‘First and foremost, the ministry will keep on cooperating with Russia’s Federal Tariff Service regarding discounts on the railway shipment of raw

Russia’s Federal Antimonopoly Service considered the application submitted by Siberian-Ural Aluminum Company (SUAL, located at 10 Zavodskaya St in Kamensk-Uralsky, Sverdlovsk Region 623406 and dealing in alumina production) regarding the acquisition of a 100% shareholding in the authorized capital of SUAL Holding Ural (located at 11 Proletarskaya St in Yekaterinburg 620075 and dealing in consultant services). The application was submitted in October 2011 in accordance with Article 28 of the Competition Act; the Federal Antimonopoly Service, guided by Article 33 (part 2, paragraph 1) of the

Issues related to improvements in the field of housing bill payment system were discussed at a recent meeting of Sverdlovsk Region Government chaired by acting Governor Anatoly Gredin. To ensure the further development of the system, a proposal to rely more heavily on the international payment systems Visa and MasterCard was made.

The special economic zone Titanium Valley was presented in Rome at the 1st international innovations forum called Italy-Russia. Sverdlovsk Region’s Investment & Development Ministry reports that scientists from the University of Rome and representatives of direct investment funds, financial organizations, and export agencies have all taken an interest in the project. They were informed about the potential of this Verkhyaya Salda-based special economic zone as a basis for cooperation between the Russian and the Italian companies. The next day, the project was presented in the course of a

Standard&Poor’s credit rating service reconsidered the ratings of fourteen Russian banks. Under the new methodology, the long- and short-term ratings of the Ural Bank for Reconstruction and Development were raised from B-/C to B/B; the bank’s national scale rating was also promoted from ruBBB+ to ruA-, with Stable rating outlook, the agency reports. ‘While upgrading the methodology, we also tried to take into account the results of our monitoring the banks’ activity in unfavorable banking market and economic conditions brought about by the recession of 2007-2009 and the issue of Europe’s

The Russian carrier MegaFon is now reducing the basic roaming rates for Egypt and Israel, including Palestine. The cost of both incoming calls and outgoing calls to Russia and around the host country is now 33 RUR per minute. The price of data transfer and text messaging has gone down as well, MegaFon’s press service reports. In fact, MegaFon already launched a dramatic rate drop on December 15 on the basic roaming rates for forty-four European countries, including the European part of the CIS and Turkey. The carrier introduced a single Eurorate for all the Russian subscribers to any rate

Sverdlovsk Region Arbitration Court accepted for processing the application submitted by Heavy Duty Gear-Cutting Machines; the company wants Uralvagonzavod Scientific & Production Corporation to be declared bankrupt, a court representative told Russian Agency for Legal & Court Information (RAPSI). The date for considering the application has not been set yet. Heavy Duty Gear-Cutting Machines deals in the production of a full set of machinery (gear-cutting, gear-broaching, gear-grinding, gear-lapping, controlled rolling, and hardening machines) needed to manufacture angular and hypoid

The Federal Air Transport Service (Rosaviation) annulled Dagestan Airlines’ aircraft operator license, the service reports. ‘The fact that Dagestan Airlines’ aircraft operator license has been annulled is not going to inconvenience the residents of and visitors to the Republic of Dagestan. Such companies as Kuban Airlines, Tatarstan Aviation Company, RusLine Aviation Company, and VIM-Avia Aviation Company are already operating or will very soon start operating flights to Makhachkala Airport. This will, in its turn, create additional preferences for the development of the airport itself,’

‘The volume of foreign investments made into Chelyabinsk Region in January-September 2011 rose by nearly 8% in comparison with January-September 2010 and reached about $2.7bn. In current prices, the fixed investments into the region’s large and medium enterprises came to 77.1bn RUR, which was 9.6% more than in January-September 2010. Over a half of these investments came from the enterprises’ own funds and were invested in large-scale projects, including the reconstruction of Mill 2500 at Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works, the construction of Mikheyevsky Ore Mining & Processing

As a member of Life Financial Group, VUZ-Bank came up with a special iPhone application called Life Banking. The bank made this gift of the new remote banking services to its customers as iPhone 4S is hitting the Russian market: on the night between December 15 and December 16, the official sales of Apple smartphones began in Russia. ‘We strive to offer our customers handy solutions and modern financial tools that make life easier, increase one’s confidence, and become a part of one’s image. Our experts, who were guided by the ‘fashionable/hi tech’ rule, created a clear and convenient

The rating agency’s press release states that Rosbank’s long- and short-term ratings for deposits in foreign and national currency (Baa2/Prime-2) and the bank’s priority unsecured debt in national currency rating (Baa2) are placed on the Rating Watch. Moody’s will also reconsider Rusfinance’s long- and short-term ratings for deposits in foreign and national currency (Baa3/Prime-3) and the bank’s priority unsecured debt in national currency rating (Baa3) as well as DeltaCredit’s long- and short-term ratings for deposits in foreign and national currency (Baa2/Prime-2).

Poland’s visa center will open in Yekaterinburg soon, the representatives of the Polish embassy in Russia told reporters in the course of their visit to Yekaterinburg. ‘We understand that there is no point in setting up a Polish consulate in Yekaterinburg at the moment, the city does not particularly need it. We have already got representations in Moscow, Saint Petersburg, Irkutsk, and Kaliningrad, and we are not planning on opening any more for the time being. However, we did decide to set up a visa center. This will make our job easier and reduce the waiting lines. This also means that

Chelyabinsk Region trilateral social and labor relations regulating committee met to declare the results of the contest called Collective Wage Agreement Is the Basis of Protecting the Workers’ Social & Labor Rights. The contest is held on a yearly basis in order to promote and improve on regulation of social and labor relations through collective agreements, to enhance the efficiency of the negotiating practices and to facilitate the making of mutually advantageous decisions in the social and labor field. The collective agreements are graded in accordance with the following basic

Sverdlovsk Region’s Minister for International and Foreign Economic Relations Alexander Kharlov reports that the region’s foreign trade turnover reached over $5bn in three quarters of 2011, which comes to 60% of all the foreign trade transactions in the region over the given period. The figures are expected to go up by the end of the year. Sverdlovsk Region keeps getting more and more foreign representations in the area. This year, the honorary consul of the Republic of Slovakia and the plenipotentiary representative of Kazakhstan’s Trade Representation in the Russian Federation were

The amount of fine imposed on Metro Cash & Carry for violating the Trade Law will be determined by Deputy Head of Russia’s Federal Antimonopoly Service Andrei Kashevarov at the beginning of 2012, RBC daily reports. The German chain store was found guilty of discriminating against its fish suppliers in November 2011.