The Federal Public Assets Management Agency (acting on behalf of the Russian Federation) became the owner of a 7.4% shareholding in E.S. Yalamov Ural Mechano-Optical Plant Production Association. Prior to the transaction, the Russian Technologies State Corporation used to hold a 100% stake in this Yekaterinburg-based plant. ‘An additional share issue was launched in May 2009. We went through with this issue this January, so now we have got a new shareholder, Rosimuschestvo,’ the plant’s Securities Director Yuri Bushmakin told UrBC.

Ural Airlines is launching a special offer on its Gyandzha-Saint Petersburg flights. Starting February 1, 2012, the price of a one-way ticket will only come to ?70, the air carrier’s press service reports. A 50% discount is also available on children’s tickets. What is more, a passenger can now check in bags weighing up to 40 kg altogether free of charge; this new regulation applies both to economy and business class passengers. Tickets are available via the company’s website www.uralairlines.com or in the booking offices. The flights are operated using Airbus A320 aircraft.

X5 Retail Group’s supermarket Karusel is closing down its Magic Card loyalty program in Yekaterinburg. The customer cardholders’ bonus points are now written off their cards when a purchase is processed at the till as the cashiers explain no points can be accumulated any longer. They do not give the reason for the program wrap-up, however. Karusel started selling its loyalty Magic Cards in Yekaterinburg slightly less than two years ago, on April 12, 2010. Shortly before the start of the sales (in late March) Karusel’s Yekaterinburg-based supermarkets in Park House and Alatyr Shopping Centers

UralSib Management Company and the Ural Bank for Reconstruction & Development announce they signed an agency agreement that will allow the bank’s customers to invest their funds in UralSib’s unit investment funds. UralSib Management Company is thus to offer the UBRD’s customers eight unit investment funds open to choose from: UralSib First Fund, UralSib Conservative Fund, UralSib Professional Fund, UralSib Russia’s Metals, UralSib Oil & Gas, UralSib Energy Prospect, UralSib Infrastructure & Telecommunications, and UralSib Russian Finances.

A land allotment where a Buddhist temple is being put up illegally by the believers’ community of Kachkanar pertains to Quarter 27 (Unit 11) of Kachkanar division of Kachkanar forestry fund (Verkhoturskoye ranger district) and is owned by the state, Sverdlovsk Region’s Natural Resources Minister Konstantin Kryuchkov explained to UrBC. Meanwhile, president of the Diamond Way Buddhist Center of the Karma Kagyu Lineage in Kachkanar Alexander Berezin appealed to the media on behalf of the local Buddhist community, who have been working on their Shadchupling Monastery on Mount Kachkanar,

Parts of Governor of Sverdlovsk Region Alexander Misharin’s staff car (a Mercedes) have been sent to Germany for an examination by a board of experts, head of Investigative Department of Russia’s Investigative Committee Sverdlovsk Region Division, Colonel of Justice Valery Zadorin announced at a press conference in Yekaterinburg. The Governor’s automobile and accompanying cars were involved in a bad accident on Yekaterinburg-Servo freeway on December 1, 2011. The Governor’s Mercedes collided with a Volga, whose driver was killed. Misharin and his chauffer were badly injured. ‘We haven’t got

In case Yekaterinburg gets selected as the city to host the EXPO 2020 exhibition, $20bn will be allocated from the federal budget to coordinate the event, Sverdlovsk Region’s Minister for Investments & Development Mikhail Maksimov said in the course of the recent Investment Safari Forum in Yekaterinburg. ‘We are not quite ready to host EXPO right now, but if we do manage to prepare and to convince the arriving committees that the project is feasible, we will be trusted to organize the exhibition,’ the official said. ‘The government said: we will provide you with the resources. If you win,

Ural Airlines came up with a special offer for business class passengers traveling from Moscow to Cologne. Starting February 3, 2012, customers can buy tickets for the flight for only ?199 (one-way) or ?389 (round trip), plus fees and charges. Starting April 2, 2012, flights from Cologne to Moscow’s Domodedovo Airport will be operated every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. All of Ural Airlines’ flights are operated using Airbus A320 planes with a full-scale business class section. Tickets can be booked via the air carrier’s official website www.uralairlines.com and in the booking offices.

Sverdlovsk Region Arbitration Court accepted the claim laid by AstanaEnergoPromStroy & Co against Beloyarskaya Nuclear Power Station (US BAES) for processing. The plaintiff insists on being paid 73.98m RUR. This is actually not the first claim AstanaEnergoPromStroy & Co lays against US BAES. In 2010, the Kazakh company appealed to an arbitration court, hoping to make the defendant provide the plaintiff with the copies of the as-built documentation, namely, acts of work completion, signed by the director and sealed with the company seal. AstanaEnergoPromStroy & Co was involved in

One of MDM Bank’s Yekaterinburg-based offices – the outlet at 4V Chebyshev St – is now offered for sale. The office has been estimated at 266m RUR. The bank reports they are already negotiating with the potential customers. For one, the representatives of B.N. Yeltsin Ural Federal University have shown an interest in the purchase, and so has Yava Corporation located nearby in Generalskaya St. According to the owner’s representative’s estimates, this is not an ordinary type of real estate: a twelve-storey building was designed specifically as a bank. MDM Bank admits that the negotiations are

Russia’s Federal Antimonopoly Service detected that NLMK Group’s entities, namely, Novolipetsk Iron & Steel Works (NLMK) and VIZ Stal, set unreasonably high electric transformer steel prices for Russian customers between August 2009 and December 2010. In fact, steel prices for domestic customers were in some cases 100% higher than those for foreign shipments. The FAS committee did not find any economic or technological grounds for this price difference and came to the conclusion that such a policy violated Article 10 (part 1, paragraph 1) of the Competition Protection Act. ‘As the global

The shareholders of Baltika Breweries are going to consider a decrease in the company’s authorized capital. To do this, the BOD decided to announce an extraordinary general meeting; ballots can be submitted through March 16, 2012.

Sverdlovsk Region Arbitration Court rejected the claim of IKEA MOS (Trade & Real Estate): the company was trying to get ownership rights over a number of advertising billboards in Yekaterinburg. Yekaterinburg Municipal Council and Sverdlovsk Region division of the Federal Service for State Registration, Cadastral Records and Cartography were involved in the case as defendants. IKEA MOS (Trade & Real Estate) demanded that the right of ownership be granted to the company regarding a 45-meter billboard with the area of 35.8 sq m and a 40-meter billboard with the area of 16.7 sq m. The

Chair of Sverdlovsk Region Legislative Assembly Lyudmila Babushkina held a meeting with the Consul-General of the Republic of Kyrgyzstan to Yekaterinburg Turdali Orozbayev. The official informed Ms Babushkina that his term and stay in the Mid-Urals were coming to an end. A new consul-general to Yekaterinburg will be appointed in the course of diplomatic cadre rotation. Lyudmila Babushkina thanked the consul for his fruitful work in the Urals and noted that the trade, economic, and cultural ties between Sverdlovsk Region and Kyrgyzstan grew much stronger during his work in Yekaterinburg. She

This January, 74,500 tons of ready goods were manufactured at Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) sheet-rolling department 9 (aka Mill 5000). In February and March 2012, the mill is expected to reach its full working capacity, MMK’s PR Department reports. Mill 5000 has mastered both hot- and cold-rolling technologies as well as the ways of making sheets varying in thickness and width, depending on the maximum requirements on the part of large-diameter pipe consumers. The department also manufactures steel sheets with strength grade X70. Among Mill 5000’s key customers are Chelyabinsk

Uralvagonzavod Scientific & Production Corporation was unable to coordinate an extraordinary general meeting at Motovilikhinskiye Zavody as the former never became the plant’s stockholder. Motovilikhinskiye Zavody published a report on the BOD meeting that took place on January 30, 2012. The BOD rejected the application placed by Uralvagonzavod’s daughter enterprise Ural Heavy Duty Vehicles UVZ regarding the organization of an EGM. The BOD’s decision was based on Article 55 of the Joint Stock Companies Act that states that the application for an EGM can be rejected if the stockholders

Sverdlovsk Region division of Russia’s Federal Antimonopoly Service received a complaint from Lider Chistoty regarding B.N. Yeltsin Ural Federal University, the coordinator of a tender for cleaning services (open auction 208А-2011) for the university and for the UFU Classical Education Center (open auction 211-А-2011). Ural Federal University is now involved in a lawsuit, with charges based on Article 17 of the Competition Protection Act: the university is suspected of favoritism towards one or several tender applicants, which was manifested in not providing the bidder with information

An emergency landing of UTair airplane flying from Tyumen to Noviy Urengoy had to be performed at Tyumen-based Roschino Airport, Interfax-Ural reports. ‘The chassis malfunction sensor went on during take-off, and even though the operation went through the second time around, the crew decided to go back to the airport,’ a representative of Tyumen public prosecution authorities for transportation informed Interfax-Ural. The representative also pointed out that none of the five crew members or forty passengers on board were hurt.

Head of Rostechnologii Sergey Chemezov believes that the state-run corporation’s civil assets, including VSMPO Avisma, might be put up to sale in 2014-2015, RIA Novosti reports. ‘I hope this will happen in 2014-2015,’ Chemezov said when asked by reporters about the deadlines for selling Rostechnologii’s civil assets. He added this included VSMPO Avisma, the world’s leading manufacturer of titanium-based goods. According to the official, the shareholdings won’t be sold in one big lump. ‘We mean to sell up to 25% at first, and then a 25% shareholding might be sold as well,’ he explained.

Koltsovo Airport is to invest over 2.86bn RUR in the authorized capital of the emerging Koltsovo Project; this comes to 37.7% of the airport’s assets’ worth. The decision to this respect was made by the company’s Board of Directors. According to the airport’s reports, the transaction is expected to take place in the first quarter of 2012.