An Italian delegation is going to take part in the international exhibition and forum Innoprom 2011. The agreement to this extent was reached when a group of Yekaterinburg-based businesspeople visited Turin and Genoa. Vice President of Sverdlovsk Region’s division of the Union of Industrialists and Employers Mikhail Cherepanov joined the delegation to represent the union in Italy. The Russian delegates spoke to the representatives of Italian businesses than operate or have contacts in the mid-Urals (these businesses including ISCRA, SportlnGenova, WTC Genova, Bitron Industrie, Prima

Russia’s Federal Antimonopoly Service took legal action against UC RUSAL Trading House as the Service suspects the company has abused its dominant position on the silicon market. The FAS looked into an application placed by a non-commercial partnership called the Union of Secondary Non-Ferrous Metallurgical Enterprises and now claims UC RUSAL Trading House violated Article 10 (part 1, paragraphs 3 and 5) of the Federal Competition Protection Act, to wit: UC RUSAL Trading House infringes upon its contractor disadvantageous terms of agreement, or the terms unrelated to the agreement proper. The

Alexei Kalinichenko, who was extradited from Morocco, will only arrive in Yekaterinburg tomorrow, Ural Federal District’s division of the Internal Affairs Department informed UrBC. The detainee is currently staying in Moscow. In Russia, Alexei Kalinichenko is suspected of setting up a pyramid scheme called Global Gaming Expo and of appropriating over 1bn RUR worth of Russian citizens’ private savings. The suspect’s business had to do with trading on Forex through an offshore company Livingston Investment as well as through Yekaterinburg-based Bank24.ru (in fact, Alexei Kalinichenko was one of

Ural Airlines recently introduced a scheduled international flight from Yekaterinburg to Kyiv and back. The first flight took over a hundred passengers on board, with all of them receiving gifts like company-logo chocolates and diaries. The flights will be operated once a week, every Wednesday, using an A320 airplane. This is a direct flight, which saves a lot of time (the flight only takes three hours and twenty minutes). In addition, as far as the south-bound destinations are concerned, the company also offers its passengers flights from Yekaterinburg to Sochi, Baku, Yerevan, Tashkent,

The second pilot version of Granit, Russia’s only asynchronic traction drive locomotive (Series 2ES10) that was developed at Sinara Group’s Russian-German joint venture Ural Locomotives has been tested successfully at Sverdlovsk Region Railways. The five-thousand-kilometer drive was targeted at checking the electric locomotive’s performance in the real-world operations conditions. On its first trip, Granit 002 took a 7,000-ton train from Yekaterinburg to Pervouralsk.

The international rating agency Fitch Ratings promoted the credit rating of Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK). The company’s long-term Issuer Default Rating was increased from BB to BB+, whereas its long-term national scale rating went up from АА- (rus) to АА (rus), with Stable rating outlook. Fitch Ratings reports the improvement in the ratings indicates the completion of large-scale investment projects for the year 2011, namely, Mill 2000 and the metallurgical facility ММК-Аtakas in Turkey), which makes the company’s position of a value-added goods manufacturer significantly

An annual general meeting of Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) stockholders was held in Magnitogorsk recently. The shareholders decided to declare a dividend of 0.33 RUR per one ordinary share for the year 2010. They also decided that MMK Management Company should no longer be the sole executive body and that these powers should be relegated to MMK Director-General. The person elected for the position was Boris Dubrovsky, MMK press service reports. Boris A. Dubrovsky was born in Magnitogorsk, Chelyabinsk Region, on November 22, 1958. He graduated from Magnitogorsk Mining &

The first 3,000 tons of hot-rolled sheets have been produced at the steel-smelting facility of MMK-Atakas, an iron and steel works, MMK (Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works) reports. The facility is expected to reach its projected capacity by the end of the year, so as soon as in January 2012, MMK-Atakas will be producing 200,000 tons of hot-rolled stock every month. According to MMK forecasts, the works will have manufactured over 800,000 tons of goods by the end of 2011. The iron and steel works in Iskenderun is fitted with the most advanced and hi tech machinery available to the

Following numerous inquiries regarding the details of Governor of Sverdlovsk Region Alexander Misharin buying a Mercedes, the prosecution authorities of Sverdlovsk Region produced an official statement. All the materials regarding the incident have been placed with the regional division of Russia’s Federal Antimonopoly Service for further investigation in accordance with the order of the region’s prosecutor Yuri Ponomarev,’ the authorities report. In addition, the prosecution authorities have already conducted an investigation of their own, with the final verdict to be returned by the

Sverdlovsk Instrument-Making Plant reports its net profit dropped by 20%, that is, from 239m RUR down to 192m RUR. The company explains the profit declined because of the growing metal prices and the increase in the single social tax.

Commercial Bank Koltso Urala keeps improving on its remote and e-services. For one, any customer who opens a deposit in the bank, placing at least 30,000 RUR in the account, will be offered a VISA card. A customer will be offered a three-year VISA Electron free of charge in case between 30,000 RUR and 299,999 RUR is deposited, a one-year VISA Classic will be offered to those who deposit 300,000 RUR or more. Those who deposit over 1.5m RUR in the bank will get VISA Gold and VISA Platinum cards.

SKB-Bank’s financial reports for the year 2010 have recently undergone international audit procedures. The company’s consolidated reports for last year were assessed by PricewaterhouseCoopers Audit in accordance with the existing international standards. Now PwC is a world’s leading auditor and consultant. The company’s audit report confirms the bank and its daughter enterprise’s total asset volume at 82.89bn RUR, first- and second-level capital at 8.06bnRUR, and net profit at 712bn RUR (as of December 31, 2010). Over one year, the group’s assets (calculated in accordance with the IAS) went

The customers of the Ural Bank for Reconstruction and Development can now engage in stock trading using their Apple-made iPhone and iPad devices. To start the operations, a certified software program iQUIK (a free addition to pocketQUIK) can be used. In fact, two registered users can use the same identification data and access keys alternatively, the bank’s press service reports. To subscribe to iQUIK and pocketQUIK, or to ask any questions about stock trading, please call the bank’s investment consultants at +7 (343) 253-40-42, +7 (343) 216-58-37 in Yekaterinburg, +7 (351) 799-52-05 in

Svyatogor isn’t going to declare or pay any dividend for the year 2010; the decision to this extent was made by the shareholders in the course of the annual general meeting in Krasnouralsk, Sverdlovsk Region. The 1.05bn RUR worth of net profit in its entirety will be directed to capital investment.

The Bank of Russia’s PR Department reports that it has appointed its authorized representatives in twenty-one Russian banks. For one, the representatives will be present in Bank24.ru, Khanty-Mansiysky Bank, and Bank Severnaya Kazna.

Gazpromneft-Ural’s net profit (calculated in accordance with the Russian Accounting Standards) decreased by 24.3% in the first quarter of 2011 and came to 217.75m RUR, the company’s reports state. On the other hand, the enterprise’s revenues rose by 46.3%, up to 6.33bn RUR.

Moscow Arbitration Court declared that Capital Tour’s bankruptcy application was well-grounded, the Russian Agency for Legal and Court Information (RAPSI) reports. The company will now be undergoing bankruptcy proceedings. In Moscow, Capital Tour Company used to run under the brand of Capital Tour. This is actually the second legal entity belonging to the brand that has been declared as being on the verge of insolvency by the court. The company’s OOO Capital Tour had to undergo bankruptcy proceedings earlier on. Evgeny Shklyaev was appointed the trustee in bankruptcy for both cases, the

VIM Avia Airlines topped the list of companies that delayed most flights in April 2011. VIM Avia actually delayed 96 out of 395 flights, or 24%, Rosaviaton’s official website reports. Moscovia was the second top flight delayer, followed by Kogalymavia that delayed 25 flights out 150, or 17% of all the flights operated in April 2011. The top three down-letters are followed by Avianova that delayed 84 flights out of 684, or 12% of all its April flights. Orenburg Airlines delayed 108 flights out of 1,273, which comes to 8% of all its April flights. Rusline did a little better and only delayed 51

Ural Airlines’ performance indicators improved greatly in January-April 2011. The company operated 5,496 flights over the given period (which was 39% better than in January-April 2010), including 1,145 international flights (which, considering the chartered flights, was 39% better than a year earlier), 3, 156 domestic flights (against 2,324 flights in January-April 2020), and 1,195 flights around the Commonwealth of Independent States (compared with 817 flights in January-April 2010), the company’s press service reports. The company flew 503,693 people in the four months of 2011, which

All the necessary procedures relating to the transfer of Yekaterinburg-based Koltsovo Airport’s shares to Sverdlovsk Region have by now been completed, the Public Property Management Ministry’s press service reports. All in all, Sverdlovsk Region now owns a golden shareholding of 34.56% in Koltsovo Airport.