March 06, 2013. An extraordinary general meeting of Motovilikhinskiye Zavody shareholders will take place within the nearest 90 days. The main point on the agenda is re-electing the BOD. In fact, Perm Territory Arbitration Court satisfied the claim laid by UBT-Uralvagonzavod against Motovilikhinskiye Zavody in full, Uralvagonzavod Scientific & Production Corporation’s press service reports. Now UBT-Uralvagonzavod insisted on the defendant calling an EGM, which was a perfectly legal requirement, as UBT-Uralvagonzavod has a stake in the business and owns over 15% of its shares. Under the

March 06, 2013. Over 10% of loans issued by VUZ-Bank are actually offered within the framework of the preferential terms program. The bank has been running this special program for certain categories of private individuals for a few years now; the program allows these individuals to get a loan on better terms. More and more Urals residents benefit from the program every year, and there are statistical data to prove this, the bank’s press service reports. Starting from 2012, 6,500 borrowers have taken out a loan at VUZ-Bank so far; the loans amounted to about 621m RUR, out of which 80.8m RUR

March 05, 2013. Ural Airlines has fully switched to a new generation passenger service IT platform called Amadeus Altea. Migrating to the new platform occurred on March 3, 2013. Amadeus will allow the company’s passengers to obtain new services and enjoy new benefits when booking or using other options. Besides, the company’s loyalty scheme for frequent fliers will also offer some additional perks. The main idea behind the IT agreement with Amadeus is upgrading the services rendered to customers and boosting the carrier’s growth strategy. Altea’s decisions promote further development of the

March 05, 2013. Chelyabinsk Tube Rolling Plant (a member of Uralvagonzavod Scientific & Production Corporation) is getting ready to manufacture its new PK-55 front loader with the scoop capacity of 5.5 tons, the corporation’s press service reports. By the end of April, the tractor-makers are to assemble the first sample of the vehicle that was elaborated by the plant’s designers. The technical and manufacturing departments have already been presented with a task to this extent. It is reported that the novelty is based on the mass-produced PK-46 and is an addition to the family of ChTZ

March 05, 2013. VUZ-Bank set up two new branches recently. Trubny branch was opened in Chelyabinsk at 36 Mashinostroiteley St. The name (which means ‘Tube’) was not a random one: the branch is located right opposite Chelyabinsk Tube Rolling Plant. Severny branch was opened in Tyumen at 53/4 Gazovikov St Bldg A6, VUZ-Bank’s press service reports. This means that VUZ-Bank currently runs six branches in Chelyabinsk and five in Tyumen. Overall, there are over 60 branches in the Urals: 25 in Sverdlovsk Region, 16 in Chelyabinsk Region, 7 in Tyumen Region, 4 in Kurgan Region, 7 in Khanty-Mansiysky

March 05, 2013. Ural Airlines is now on the list of companies participating in the government-run program on making air travel affordable. Under this program, special rates are offered on flights from the Far East and the Polar North to the European part of Russia and back, the air carrier’s press service reports. Starting February 21, 2013, early booking of specially priced tickets was made available for destinations such as these: Chita-Moscow-Chita Yakutsk-Saint Petersburg-Yakutsk Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky – Vladivostok – Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky Saint Petersburg - Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky

March 05, 2013. 3 people were killed during a fire in Mendeleyev St in Yekaterinburg, Sverdlovsk Region division of the Emergencies Ministry reports. The firefighters were informed about a fire at 18 Mendeleyev St at 7:00 AM on March 3. The rescue team arrived at the scene at 7:10 to see two trailers on fire; the fire area was approximately 36 sq m. There were 3 victims whose identities are now being determined. According to some preliminary data available, they were all employed with a building organization. It took 4 vehicles and 16 firefighters to put the fire out. The open fire was

March 04, 2013. Some violations of the existing labor law were detected in the performance of AVS Avtotrans, Sverdlovsk Region division of State Labor Inspectorate reports. The company, as it turns out, did not carry out any workplace certification procedure and did not train its employees in the field of work safety, Sverdlovsk Region division of State Labor Inspectorate’s website states. It is also announced that at the time of their vacations, the employees were not promptly informed about the date the vacation started, and the vacation money was not paid in due time. What is more, AVS

March 04, 2013. Ural Airlines is introducing a new way of paying for the tickets via the company’s website www.uralairlines.com. The option is called Internet Banking and makes it possible for the user to purchase the tickets even more effortlessly. The new service allows one to carry out the purchase through any bank with which a user has an account. This means the payment can be made from anywhere in the world and from any computer with an Internet connection, the airline’s press service reports. The new service is highly secure and confidential. All the transactions are completed online.

March 04, 2013. Sverdlovsk Region division of the Federal Tax Service came up with a report on the actual number of foreign workers employed by companies that have quotas and foreign worker permits, the division’s press officer reports. In 2012, 226 employers that use foreign workers presented their cases at the taxation base legalization committee’s meetings. These employers offer wages below the average figure in their economic segment. As a result of the committee’s efforts, 130 employers (that is, over a half) raised their workers’ wages, and 41 employers (31.5%) increased the wages to

March 04, 2013. UrBC has been informed that Eolis, a mobile phone and services retail chine, might stop operating soon. The employees of the chain’s Yekateirnburg-based outlets were informed of the upcoming layoffs due to the company going out of business. Eolis told UrBC that only unprofitable outlets in the provincial parts of Sverdlovsk Region would actually close down. ‘At the moment, we are closing down the unprofitable retail outlets in the small towns. Not a single Yekaterinburg-based store is going to stop working,’ says Eolis Deputy Sales Manager Vasily Ivanov. According to the

March 04, 2013. Vympelcom, a telecommunications company, sold Yekaterinburg’s largest web portal e1.ru. The portal was purchased by Hearst Shkulev Media/Inter Media Group publishing house. The asset was put up to sale because this is not Vympelcom’s core business activity, the company’s Senior PR Manager in the Urals Svetlana Rychkova reports. No details of the transactions have been announced as of yet. ‘The sale has to do with the fact that this is only a secondary-activity asset for the company. I’m afraid I cannot give you any details just now, but it is already certain that the top

March 01, 2013. A new cafeteria fit for 160 people was re-launched at Uralvagonzavod Scientific & Production Corporation after a major overhaul today. This is the corporation’s head plant’s first canteen whose design is totally consistent with the company style, the corporation’s press service reports. Uralvagonzavod’s catering facility is currently the largest one in Nizhniy Tagil. It comprises 39 canteens, 3 cafeterias, 14 deli bars, and Metallurg grocery shop that is also located on the plant’s premises. Eight canteens are currently being repaired: the buildings are being

March 01, 2013. Focusing on the mass-market customer, that is, putting up more economy class apartment buildings, proved one of Yekaterinburg housing market’s most pronounced trends recently, the Ural Real Estate Chamber’s press service reports. A very small share of frozen projects is another noticeable tendency. This share only comes to 5% of all the construction jobs at the moment; this amounts to only 105,000 sq m out of nearly 2m sq m worth of housing that is currently under construction at this or that stage. In geographical terms, the building projects are distributed rather unevenly

March 01, 2013. ChTPZ Group’s educational project known as the Future of White Metallurgy won in an independent Russian HR Brand 2012 Prize in the Region category for its outstanding work on the company’s reputation as an employer. The pipe manufacturing company’s achievements in the field of improving the popularity of blue-collar jobs and its positive impact on the business results were also awarded a special Business Prospects Prize by the contest partner MTS. ‘Our professional community’s great estimate of our educational program is both pleasing and prestigious. This public-private

March 01, 2013. Svyaznoy Bank put a temporary halt on issuing its new premium World MasterCard and VISA Infinite cards, the company’s website states. In January 2013, the Central Bank also ordered Svyaznoy Bank to stop issuing multi-purpose cards. The regulatory authority was then worried about the bank’s speedy growth rate that was a few times ahead of the market’s average dynamics. Besides, this week the Central Bank prolonged the limitation imposed on the company in terms of deposit transactions; the ban was extended by three more months. The bank explains that the new sanctions had to do

March 01, 2013. A former employee of Home Credit & Finance Bank Tatiana Tkachenko was sentenced to three years in prison for loan fraud by Alapayevsk Municipal Court, Sverdlovsk Region’s public prosecution authorities report. The court detected that in June-September 2012, Tkachenko, then a loan officer at Home Credit & Finance Bank’s Alapayevsk subsidiary at Triline, used her access to the computer programs relating to issuing all kinds of loan agreements to deceive the customers who wanted to purchase something at the shop (Triline). She asked them to fill in a loan application form

February 28, 2013. Atomstroycomplex Corporation started the capital repairs of the main building of Yekaterinburg’s Children’s Theater. The company’s press officer informed UrBC that all the jobs should be finished in the last quarter of 2014. Within the next two months, the old interior and obsolete engineering infrastructure will be dismantled; then, in accordance with the schedule set out in the government contract, the building and assembly jobs and finishing jobs will start. The project on the overhaul of the theater was designed by Atomstroycomplex in cooperation with UralNIIProyekt

February 28, 2013. It was detected that UMC violates the existing labor protection legislation, Sverdlovsk Region division of State Labor Inspectorate reports. For one, the drilling machine was not fitted with any spindle-retracting mechanism, and the rough grinding machine had a clearing of more than 3 mm between the arm rest and the disc, while the eye-protecting screens and the block system were missing. ‘Due to the above facts, after the violations had been detected by the state labor inspector, a temporary ban was imposed on the operation of the said machines. No electric power is

February 28, 2013. Sverdlovsk Region’s Economic Development Ministry came up with a performance report on the local industrial segment in January 2013. According to their statistical data, the region’s industrial production index increased by 0.5% in January 2013 compared with January 2012, which is better than the country’s average (-0.8%). This included a 5.5% increase in the mineral resources output and a 0.6% increase in the processing industries’ production. At the same time, the index declined by 3.4% in terms of production and distribution of electric power, natural gas, and water. The