The revenues of VIZ-Stal dropped by 14% in the first quarter of 2011 compared with the first quarter of 2010 because of the dropping transformer steel sales, as the company’s export deliveries have not been accounted for yet. Another reason for the revenues to go down was the decrease in the average selling price, partially due to the improved ruble exchange rate, Novolipetsk Iron & Steel Works (NLMK) reports. The price of the semi-finished rolled stock NLMK delivers, combined with the factors above, determined the seasonal drop in profitability in terms of the gross profit from 26% down

Investbank admitted that there could have been some illegal meddling with its safety vaults recently. On May 4, 2011, the police reported that 13m RUR were allegedly stolen from one of the Moscow offices safety vaults during the early May recess. AKB Investbank admits that it did receive an application from its customers who rent a safety vault at the bank’s Moskovsky subsidiary at 32/2 Nakhimovsky Ave. in Moscow; the application concerns the fact that some illegal action was taken by some unidentified people against the customers’ property,’ RIA Novosti quotes the subsidiary’s director

The Bank of Russia’s PR Department reports that the financial recovery of Bank24.ru is now complete. Bank24.ru was confronted with a drastic cash outflow late in 2008 and was unable to sort out its liquidity problems on its own. The bank had to undergo financial recovery with Probusinessbank of Life Group as its new proprietor and the Deposit Insurance Agency as the cooperator in the process of helping this Yekaterinburg-based bank out of trouble.

Transaero, one of Russia’s leading air carriers, will have to raise the price of the tickets it offers to tour operators by an average of 8%, the airline’s press service reports. This has to be done because the jet fuel prices will be raised on June 1, 2011. When fuel prices change we act accordingly and either decrease or increase the price of the tickets, but the tour operators normally show a lot of understanding in this respect,’ the airline reports, adding that the increase in the ticket price only has to do with the growing jet fuel prices. Transaero also explained that the price

Russia’s Federal Financial Markets Service did not approve of Yekaterinburg Municipal Bank’s internal rules so as to counteract money laundering and financing of terrorist activity.

SKB-Bank keeps on expanding its subsidiary network throughout Russia. The company’s new office in Krasnodar started operating today. The outlet was named Festivalny after the part of the city it is located in. The new office can be found at 40 Atarbekov St., Prikubansky District. The outlet welcomes private customers from 9 AM to 7 PM on weekdays and from 10 AM to 4 PM on Saturdays, with no lunch break. Businesses and entrepreneurs can call in between 9 AM and 4 PM on weekdays. The new outlet is now SKB-Bank’s third representation in Krasnodar Territory and the second one in Krasnodar proper.

India has recently introduced some new taxes that are expected to make the price of trips to the country go up, the Association of Russian Tour Operators reports. The Indian Government adopted a new budget legislation for the years 2011-2012 that imposes new taxes on booking hotel rooms as well as on the hotel food and drink. Now one will have to pay 5.15% off the price of the accommodation and 3.09% off the price of catering when booking a hotel in India. The Indian tour operators are warning their Russian partners that all the reservations, even those made before the new laws come

MEDIMA Co has been declared a dishonest supplier; the decision was taken by Sverdlovsk Region of Russia’s Federal Antimonopoly Service. The reason for denouncing the company in such way was that MEDIMA backed out of signing a contract with Kamensk-Uralsky’s central district hospital for the delivery of a 209,000-ruble medical apparatus, even though the company had won the tender.

The former president of Bank of Moscow Andrei Borodin is now on the ‘wanted’ list, the Russian Agency for Legal and Court Information’s correspondent reports from Moscow’s Tverskoy Court. The judge who announced the petition to that extent placed with the court said that Andrei Borodin was on the international ‘wanted’ list, while the inquiry official reported in court that the businessman was on the federal ‘wanted’ list. The court hearing was put off for a few months upon the request of Borodin’s lawyer who asked for some time to look into the petition.

Koltsovo International Airport based in Yekaterinburg is now Russia’s first provincial airport to be allowed to host RRJ-95 planes and its modifications. The permission was granted by the Federal Air Transport Agency (Rosaviation), with the corresponding order signed recently. According to the airport’s press officer, the permission to service the new aircraft type opens up considerably more opportunities for the airport’s partner airlines.

TransCreditBank’s Board of Directors met recently to issue a recommendation to the bank’s shareholders: the directors suggest that the shareholders accept Bank VTB’s obligatory offer regarding the acquisition of TransCreditBank’s securities, the bank’s official release states. The securities in question are 1,299,222,305 shares of TransCreditBank worth 21 RUR apiece that Bank VTB wants to buy.

Russia’s Federal Antimonopoly Service approved of Ural Mining & Metallurgical Company’s petition for setting up a company called Ostenford Holdings Limited in Cyprus, Kommersant refers to its source in the company as saying. According to the source, who is apparently well aware of the situation, some of the company’s assets have allegedly been offshored to Cyprus – the source does not know what assets these are and what the purpose of the offshoring transaction was. The Managing Partner of Korelsky & Partners says this is usually done for tax reduction reasons. UMMC refused to provide

Standard & Poor's promoted Yamalo-Nenetsky Autonomous District’s long-term credit rating from BBB- to BBB and confirmed the region’s national scale rating at ruAAA, with Stable Rating Outlook. The agency reports an increase in the rating has to do with the measures the district’s administration has been taking to institutionalize its reserve fund that is crucial to the elimination of risks generated by the budget revenues’ great volatility. The region’s great dependence on its major taxpayer OAO Gazprom (ВВВ/Stable/А-2), as well as only a limited opportunity for profit prediction and

LUKOIL Permnefteprodukt raised the retail gasoline prices it offers at its Yekaterinburg-based filling stations by 1.1% to 1.8%, the company informed Interfax-Ural. At the moment, a liter of Normal-80 comes at 22.6 RUR (which is 0.4 RUR or 1.8% more than earlier), a liter of Regular Euro-92 costs 23.1 RUR (which is 0.4 RUR or 1.8% more than earlier), Ecto Plus 95 costs 25.5 RUR per liter (which 0.3 RUR or 1.2% more than earlier), and a liter of Super Euro 98 comes at 26.9 RUR per liter (which is 0.3 RUR or 1.1% more than earlier). These prices were introduced on April 29, 2011. The news

Chelyabinsk Tube Rolling Plant came up with a performance report for the first quarter of 2011. The enterprise’s steel pipe sales came to 488,000 tons, which is 45% better than in the first quarter of 2010. The sales of large-diameter pipes rose by 94%, OCTG sales went up by 26%, and the industrial pipe sales increased by 33%. We launched a new, hi tech LDP department called Vysota 239 last year. This March, the department reached its full production capacity and manufactured 52,000 tons of goods. I am very proud of our plant team that managed so rapidly to complete the project as well as

Avianova Airlines and Surgut Airport cannot seem to agree on the time slots, which results in the company being unable to operate its flights from Krasnodar to Surgut since April 30, 2011, Avianova told RIA Novosti. Over 4,000 tickets have already been sold for these flights. The airport and the air carrier reached an agreement on operating the flights from Surgut to Krasnodar on March 11, 2011. but Avianova still hasn’t received any slot confirmation, the airline explained. To the best of the company’s knowledge, the time slots it is asking for are available.

Russia’s Federal Antimonopoly Service took legal action against METRO Cash & Carry; the company is suspected of violating Article 13 (part 1, paragraph 1) of the Federal Act on the Regulation of Trade by the State in the Russian Federation. It is believed that METRO Cash & Carry has been discriminating against its foods suppliers. The FAS feels the discrimination consists in the company making the prices dependent on the foods supply turnover volume. Russia’s Federal Antimonopoly Service also believes the law is violated in that METRO charges all its suppliers of one and the same

Ural Airlines keeps renovating its fleet of vehicles. On April 29, 2011, a new 220-seat Airbus A321 landed in Koltsovo Airport of Yekaterinburg. The seats are actually made of genuine leather, the company’s press officer reports. This means Ural Airlines now own seventeen Airbus planes, that is, a dozen A320 ones an five A321 ones. Like the two A321 aircraft the company has bought earlier this year, the new plane was acquired on leasing terms and used to belong to an Irish airline before. Ural Airlines need ever more planes, which is why renovating its fleet of vehicles is essential to the

Alfa-Bank and Ural Airlines launched a special offer dubbed Get a Visa and Fly! Every customer who gets a special Ural Airlines-Visa-Alfa-Bank card between May 1, 2011 and June 30, 2011 is going to receive extra welcome bonuses – thrice the usual amount, the air carrier’s press officer reports. Customers can get a debit or a credit card Ural Airlines-Visa-Alfa-Bank at any of Alfa-Bank’s offices. A customer with such a visa is automatically included in the airline’s loyalty scheme also known as Wings Club and gets some bonus rubles in his or her account. Upon the issuance of the card, the

Rospotrebnadzor (the state consumer rights watchdog) competed its all-round scheduled field inspection of Eye Microsurgery, a Yekaterinburg-based ophthalmologic center that runs on several premises in Sverdlovsk Region. When inspecting the premises, the officers of Sverdlovsk Region Division of Rospotrebnadzor’s Yekaterinburg Department found a number of sanitary legislation and consumer rights legislation offenses, the spokesperson for the agency reports. The company and the company’s management therefore had to face administrative liability, with legal action taken by the officers of