November 28, 2013. The net assets of Russian banks exceeded 51 trillion RUR on October 1, 2013, which was 19.2% more than a year earlier. These data are available from the rating of Russia’s largest banks that was prepared by the analysts of RBC.Rating. The lending institutions were ranked in terms of asset volume, the loan book and the deposit portfolio volume, the volume of loans offered to private individuals and corporates, and other indicators, SKB-Bank reports. SKB-Bank was one of the country’s top 50 banks in terms of net asset volume and Sverdlovsk Region’s No.1 in terms of corporate

November 27, 2013. An old piano manufactured by the German company Offenbaher is going to be restored with support from Pervouralsk New Pipe Plant (a member of ChTPZ Group). The instrument was presented to the enterprise by one of the plant workers, the company's press service reports. The piano was produced in the late 19th-early 20th century. According to the experts' estimates, the instrument was hand-made from oak; most likely, this was designed to meet a specific order. The front panel is fitted with hand-made chandeliers, the bearing frame is gilded and has some colored

November 27, 2013. One of Uralvagonzavod Corporation's key enterprises, Yekaterinburg-based Uraltansmash, reports that, just like the corporation's head plant, it fulfilled the government defense order for 2013 ahead of schedule, Uralvagonzavod Corporation's press service reports. Thanks to the smooth, coordinated, and professional performance of all the production and technological facilities involved in the fulfillment of the defense order, the enterprise finishes the production year off with great success. It is already by the end of November that the company fulfilled its

November 27, 2013. Ural Airlines is going to double the number of flights offered from Yekaterinburg to the most popular destinations in the summer of 2014. For one, starting from March 31, 2014, Yekaterinburg-Tel Aviv flight will be operated twice a week, on Mondays and Wednesdays, the airline's press service reports. Starting from April 30, 2014, Yekaterinburg-Rome flight will be operated twice a week a well, on Wednesdays and Sundays. In addition to new time slots, the airline, which wants to make its customers happy, decided to operate the traditional winter time Yekaterinburg-Munich

November 27, 2013. In 2013, the number of job openings for the top management in the sales sector did not go up, but the number of job application actually rose by 13.8%, Superjob.ru's research findings indicate. Employers are looking to hire a person with great experience: in 61% of cases, three to six years' experience is a must, in 15% of cases, one needs to have over six years' experience to apply. Finding such a person is always a very trying task for the employer. There are often some additional job prerequisites such as fluent English, being ready to go on business

November 27, 2013. The Russian communal housing infrastructure's annual turnover is 4 trillion RUR, the Construction & Communal Housing Services Minister Mikhail Men said at the annual meeting of Chair of the Soviet of the Federation Valentina Matvienko with heads of ministries and departments, Prime reports. According to Men, this is nearly 7% of the Russian GDP. 'This means 140 million consumers, not counting the industrial sector,' the minister said. Men said that the infrastructure got over 60% worn out in the course of the last two decades. The minister pointed out

November 26, 2013. The 4th meeting of the Russia-Turkey Cooperation Council took place in Saint Petersburg on November 22. The Council was set up in 2010 to coordinate a number of important political, trade and economic, and cultural and humanitarian projects. The meeting was attended by President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin and Turkey's Prime Minister Recep Erdoğan, who arrived in Russia on business at Putin's invitation. The meeting included a business breakfast attended by Chairman of Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) Viktor Rashnikov. 'We keep building

November 26, 2013. The 4th meeting of the Russia-Turkey Cooperation Council took place in Saint Petersburg on November 22. The Council was set up in 2010 to coordinate a number of important political, trade and economic, and cultural and humanitarian projects. The meeting was attended by President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin and Turkey's Prime Minister Recep Erdoğan, who arrived in Russia on business at Putin's invitation. The meeting included a business breakfast attended by Chairman of Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) Viktor Rashnikov. 'We keep building

November 26, 2013. Sverdlovsk Region division of State Construction Surveillance Service conducted an on-site inspection of the developer UIT Uralstroy and detected violations of the federal legislation on the participatory lending construction of apartment buildings and other estate types, the division’s press service reports. At the time of the inspection, UIT Uralstroy is putting up two apartment buildings with non-residential space on the first and second floors and a half-built-in parking lot and a transformer substation in the place of another, half-finished building that is to be

November 26, 2013. Bank Koltso Urala was rated Sverdlovsk Region’s 3d and Russia’s 88th most profitable banks in the nine months of 2013. On Monday, November 25, Banki.ru’s experts carried a analytical report based on the financial performance data from 939 lending institutions, Bank Koltso Urala’s press service reports. Bank Koltso Urala made it to the local top three and the nation’s top 100 with the net profit of 504.556m RUR (as of October 2013). The bank’s financial performance improved by more than two times (101.23%) compared with a year earlier and let the bank move up by 48 positions

November 26, 2013. Uralmashzavod is going to hand over to Gazprombank Asset Management 5,000,000,023 RUR worth of shares, the issuer’s official statement goes. Under the terms of the agreement, Uralmashzavod will transfer 74,917,591 ordinary registered uncertified shares of the additional issue 1-01-00297-А-002D with face value of 0.5 RUR each to the daughter company of Gazprom (the plant’s majority shareholder) via close subscription. The offering price is 66.74 RUR. The deal is estimated to come to 27% of the issuer’s assets value.

November 26, 2013. Omsk-based airline ORENAIR is going to start operating direct flights to Germany during next year’s spring/summer season. The tickets for Yekaterinburg-Hannover-Yekaterinburg flights are already available for sale, the press officer of Yekaterinburg Koltsovo Airport reports. It was announced on November 8 that the German company Lufthansa that operates direct flights from Yekaterinburg to Frankfurt will no longer offer this flight starting from next year due to the need to cut costs. Koltsovo Airport said then that they were planning to keep offering this destination and

November 26, 2013. United Company RUSAL is planning to freeze aluminum production at the 6th section of Bogoslovsky smelter (BAZ) in Krasnoturyinsk, Kommersant refers to the company’s press service as saying. The electrolysis production is expected to be resumed ‘after the economic situation gets better’. At the moment, the high prime cost of metal production at BAZ ($2,100 per 1,000kg) makes aluminum production unprofitable, as the prime cost of aluminum is $1,700 per 1,000kg. RUSAL froze the aluminum production at Ural smelter in Kamensk-Uralsky earlier, as well as cut back on aluminum

November 25, 2013. Pipe Metallurgical Company (TMK) decided on the first students to receive the A.D. Deineko Scholarship that was established by the company in the summer of 2013. According to the company’s press service, three students of MISiS National Research Technological University were awarded the scholarship for their scientific and academic achievements in the metallurgical field. TMK’s A.D. Deineko Scholarship was set up to support, encourage, and invite to the company’s member enterprises the most gifted students. The scholarship was named in the honor of Alexander D. Deineko

November 25, 2013. A group of delegates from Uralvagonzavod Scientific & Production Corporation took part in the 4th international conference on armored vehicles in New Delhi, India, on November 19-20, 2013, the corporation’s press service says. The conference was dedicated to the current condition and development prospects of India’s armed forces’ fleet of tanks; it was coordinated by the country’s Defense Ministry. Representatives of the world’s leading producers of armaments and military vehicles for ground forces attended the conference, including such companies as OTO Melara and

November 25, 2013. The development of Yekaterinburg will speed up by 30 years in the course of EXPO 2020 preparations, Soviet of the Federation member and head of the EXPO 2020 Application Committee’s Supervisory Council Arkady Chernetsky said in his interview to Kommersant. ‘Over the six months preceding the EXPO event, Yekaterinburg is to receive a number of visitors that is dozens of times bigger than the city’s population. So the city needs to make every effort to make sure that the transportation and the road network are a supporting factor and not an obstacle to getting around the city

November 25, 2013. MegaFon implemented its multi-faceted program on improving the customer service for its corporates: this project required over 70m RUR in terms of investments. In addition to upgrading the traditional service channels, the mobile communication carrier built the Federal Corporate Customer Service Center, with one main function of processing the subscribers’ written queries, the company’s press service reports. The construction of the Center was yet another stage of the multi-faceted corporate customer service improvement program. The Center’s sites in Bryansk and Samara are

November 25, 2013. Both foreign and Russian subway experts pointed out that Yekaterinburg subway was highly developed technically and had good development potential. They believe it is exactly the subway that can best solve the city’s traffic problems. Yekaterinburg Administration’s press service reports this meeting of Metro International Association Council took place in Yekaterinburg on Thursday, November 21. Heads of Moscow, Saint Petersburg, Yekaterinburg, Samara, Nizhniy Novgorod, Novosibirsk, Tashkent, Kyiv, Kharkov, and Minsk subways talked about the performance and safety of subways

November 22, 2013. Chelyabinsk Tractor Plant (ChTZ, a member of Uralvagonzavod Scientific & Production Corporation), is about to fulfill its contract for the delivery of 43 swamp tractors and bulldozers to Geotech Holding, the corporation's press service reports. The 11 vehicles that still have to be delivered will be shipped in November; four of them will go to Vorkuta, two of them will go to Tyumen Region, and five of them will go to Tarkosale Station. 'The shipment includes two swamp bulldozers that Geotech decided to buy on top of the previously discussed order. These swamp

November 22, 2013. ChTPZ Group and Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) 13th Coordination Council was held at Chelyabinsk Tube Rolling Plant as part of the two companies' strategic cooperation project in the field of providing the fuel and energy sector enterprises with good quality pipes. Special attention was paid to joining Gazprom's South Stream Project, ChTPZ Group's press service reports. 'South Stream is a project with strict quality requirements and delivery deadlines. To join in, we, the pipe manufacturers, need the support of our partners from the