Russia’s Federal Financial Markets Service annulled the license of Tyumen-based OOO Forum Holding Plus allowing it to deal in brokerage operations and the license of Tyumen-based OAO Zapsibcombank allowing it to deal in securities management. The decisions were made on the basis of the two companies’ applications as well as proofs of the organizations having no unmet liabilities as regards their professional activity, the Service reports.

Eight new business centers, totaling 285,600 sq m in area, will be introduced in Yekaterinburg this year. Four of them are going to be Class A centers with the total area of 221,600 sq m and two Class B centers with the total area of 64,000 sq m, the city council’s press service reports. In the meantime, only one business center, Voznesensky, was launched in Yekaterinburg last year, despite much more optimistic expectations. . The centers that will probably get commissioned in the second and third quarters of 2011 are Vysotsky at 8 Krasnoarmeyskaya St, AVS at 99 Mamin-Sibiryak St, Carneol at

A delegation of officials from Sverdlovsk Region headed by Governor Alexander Misharin visited a number of Zurich-based enterprises in the course of its official stay in Switzerland. For one, the Governor met the management of Schindler, one of the leading manufacturers of economy class elevators. Alexander Misharin suggested that the company should consider setting up a joint venture in Sverdlovsk Region with RENOVA StroyGroup as a potential partner. The latter is now implementing Russia’s largest developing project Academic. The elevators will enjoy great demand within the Mid-Urals’ public

MWC2011, the international mobile communication congress in Barcelona, saw the agreement-signing process between the Russian telecommunications provider MegaFon and the international telecommunications alliance FreeMove. The alliance comprises Europe’s four major operators: Deutsche Telekom Group, Orange, TeliaSonera, and TIM (Telecom Italia Group). Joining the alliance means MegaFon turns into a more appealing partner for international companies that operate on the Russian market. First of all, the operator’s customers will be able to enjoy the special payment rates on the calls made within

Novolipetsk Iron & Steel Works (NLMK) placed an application with International Commercial Arbitrations Court under Russia’s Chamber of Commerce and Industry, asking to halt the claim laid by NLMK against founder of Maxi Group Nikolai Maksimov. The plaintiff initially wanted the defendant to pay off 5.9bn RUR worth of debt. The plaintiff reports the decision was taken because new hearings were scheduled at Moscow Arbitration Court for February 19, 2011: NLMK now insists that Maxi Group be declared bankrupt. Now the sticking point of the whole case was Maxi Group’s share price. NLMK bough

Moscow Arbitration Court did not find any evidence of bankruptcy in the documents provided by Capital Tour and therefore made the company provide some more convincing proof. The hearing has been put off until March 9, 2011, Russian Agency for Legal & Court Information reports. Now the debtor claims its debts run up to 1.59bn RUR, including 552.1m RUR worth of the bulk sum and 1.5bn RUR worth of accounts receivable. A Capital Tour representative announced the company’s assets were insufficient to pay all the creditors back, which was why they applied for bankruptcy.

Kempinski hotel chain signed an agreement with the investment & construction holding Ruzog-Invest for the management of three five-star hotels in Yekaterinburg, Yerevan, and Marienbad, frontdesk.ru reports. Although the construction of the building has not started yet, it has been reported that the Yekaterinburg hotel, complete with 200 rooms, will be opened in 2013. This is expected to be a four-storey building occupying 1,468 sq m in Gogol St. The hotel will offer its guests four restaurants and bars. According to the online portal, the hotel will also host Russia’s first 1,000 sq m big

Yet another court hearing on the case involving copyright infringement on the Net will start in Perm on February 16, 2011. The defendant is the Yekaterinburg-based web portal Weburg that specializes in offering culture and entertainment content. OOO Eurasia Cinema Production filed a claim of over a million roubles against OOO Weburg for using six poster shots on their webpage that were designed exclusively as DVD skins. The posters promote the following films: The Grifters, True Crime, The Colt, The Governor's Wife / Deadly suspicion, Nightmare at the End of the Hall, and Der

Omega Opt Trading, the asset of Omega Group strong drinks chain, was recently declared bankrupt. Sverdlovsk Region Arbitration Court ruled on February 3, 2011 that the company should undergo bankruptcy proceedings. Pavel Klementiev of Razvitiye, a self-regulatory organization of trustees in bankruptcy, was appointed the company’s trustee in bankruptcy. Now Omega Group’s representatives announced in December that their leaving the market results from court trials on claims laid against them by Sberbank of Russia. Sverdlovsk Region Arbitration Court and Yekaterinburg Oktyabrsky district court

Yekaterinburg Chkalovsky District court rejected the prosecution’s demand that founder of Maxi Group Nikolai Maksimov be detained. The entrepreneur was released on a 50-million-rouble bail. Maksimov will now have to stay in Yekaterinburg to help complete the investigation by law-enforcement authorities. This done, he’ll take off for Moscow, where his official residence is. The businessman promised to come to Yekaterinburg any time the court or the investigative authorities ask him to do so. Maksimov explained why he came to Russia from abroad where he had been staying. ‘I came for justice,’

Experts from Ural Federal District’s division of Rosprirodnadzor (the state environmental watchdog) took part in the inspection of Russian Chrome 1915 undertaken by Sverdlovsk Region’s public prosecution authorities for the environment. The inspections revealed that Russian Chrome 1915 polluted the River Chusovaya with toxic substances and has been dumping insufficiently purified waste water from its neutralizing station into the River Pakhotka. The enterprise thus crossly violated the existing water use regulations, exceeding the maximum permissible discharge limits; moreover, its water

The Central Bank of Russia appointed its authorized representatives in twenty-one Russian banks, its press service reports. The bank’s representatives are still operating at Bank24.ru, Bank Severnaya Kazna, and such major banks as Bank VTB, Alfa-Bank, Sberbank of Russia, Bank of Moscow, and some others.

Russia’s Federal Financial Markets Service Ural Federal District’s division ruled on February 3, 2011 (decree 62-11-102/pz-i) that the emission of Sverdlovsk Region-based AVS Group’s ordinary registered paperless shares should be halted.

The international rating agency demoted the long-term credit rating of X5 Retail Group N.V. – the proprietor of a major retail grocery chain – and its daughter enterprises from BB- down to B+. the rating outlook is Stable. The rating of the company’s priority unsecured ruble bonds (issued by the daughter enterprise X5 Finance) was reduced from BB- to B+ and placed on CreditWatch with Negative outlook. What’s more, the ratings of X5 Finance and Agrotorg were called off altogether.

Moscow Region Arbitration court declared Technosila, the company managing Technosila electronic goods and household appliances chain store, bankrupt, Russian Agency for Legal & Court Information reports. The court made the company undergo bankruptcy proceedings for six months and appointed the company’s acting CEO Sergey Petrov the trustee in bankruptcy. The trustee announced in the course of the hearing that no evidence of the company going deliberately bankrupt was found. Technosila now has eleven creditors, whose claims total to 11.25bn RUR.

UrBC, Magnitogorsk, Chelyabinsk Region, February 11, 2011. Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) delivered 2,376,600 tons of rolled metal goods to the pipe industries last year, which was 48% better than a year earlier (1,603,000 tons). In fact, the share of metal goods meant for pipe manufacturing and delivered onto the home market came to 34% in 2010 compared with 33% in 2009. MMK’s main customers among pipe plants are Chelyabinsk Tube Rolling Plant, Volzhsky Tube Rolling Plant, and Seversky Pipe Plant that are all members of Pipe Metallurgical Company; Vyksunsky Metallurgical Plant and

The loss sustained by ZAO AKB Absolut Bank in the year 2010 amounted (in accordance with the IAS) to ?5m, which was 22.4 times less than a year earlier, KBC Group report for the fourth quarter of 2010 says, Prime TASS reports. The bank’s NPL came to 16.8% in the last quarter of 2010 against 18.3% in the third quarter. At the beginning of the year, the NPL came to 14%. KBC Group is currently Absolut Bank’s principal shareholder with a 95% holding in the business. 5% of shares belongs to IFC. It was earlier announced that KBC Group intended to leave the bank’s capital.

The preliminary findings of the census were announced in the course of a round table discussion on Novosibirsk’s socioeconomic development in 2010. Novosibirsk city council reports a little over 1.47 million questionnaires were filled in during the census, which was 4.6% more than the current population figures state. This means Novosibirsk is still Russia’s third biggest city in terms of population. Yekaterinburg numbers 80,000 fewer people.

The detention process itself is a purely formal procedure, this is why no procedural claims can be made in this respect. That we disagree with the grounds for arrest is another matter. The reason given in the detention warrant is that Nikolai Maksimov is hiding from the law-enforcement authorities even though it’s obvious he never thought of hiding,’ businessman Nikolai Maksimov’s lawyer Leonid Matveev told UrBC. OAO Maxi Group’s minority shareholder Nikolai Maksimov was detained in Moscow the other day by the officers of Sverdlovsk Region’s Internal Affairs Department. ‘Nikolai Maksimov was

Moscow Arbitration Court rejected the claim E.S. Alamov Ural Mechano-optical Plant wanted to place against Russia’s Federal Antimonopoly Service. The plaintiff demanded that the FAS’s ruling be declared invalid. According to the files of the case, the plant applied for a tender that would give the best bidder a state contract for the delivery of equipment used to stock, process, store, and secure donated blood and its components. However, the plant’s application was rejected as the bidder failed to state the specific delivery date. As a result the tender was given to the only participant: