MRSK Urala came up with a financial and economic performance report for the first half of 2009. The report was drawn up in accordance with the Russian Accounting Standards. According to the official data provided by the company, their pre-tax profit nosedived by 85.6% compared with the first half of 2008, whereas their net profit declined by 67.2%. At the same time, the company’s sales revenues rose by 15.7% and their avails soared by 208.2%, even though the product’s prime cost went up by 8.3%.

Accord-Invest Investment Company’s Ural branch and the branch’s Yekaterinburg HQ are to close down soon. The decision was taken by URALSIB Financial Corporation, the proprietor, the branch’s Director Konstantin Selyanin informed UrBC. ‘The investment company’s sole owner decided a little while ago to do away with some of the regional subsidiaries and their offices, including the Ural branch. URALSIB was legally qualified to make such a decision regardless of the subsidiaries’ actual performance, so the company’s Ural branch has been gradually diminishing since July 1, 2009,’ Selyanin

The regional communal housing services sector’s debts to Sverdlovenergosbyt had exceeded 970 million RUR by August 1, 2009. Nizhniy Tagil, with its 67 million RUR worth of debts, Pervouralsk, with its 50 million RUR worth of debts, Artemovskiy (owing the energy supplier over 49 million RUR), Tavda (whose debt comes to nearly 47 million RUR), and Kamensk-Uralskiy, with its 37 million RUR worth of debts, are the supplier’s most worrying debtors. The company explains most communal housing services organizations fail to pay due to badly balanced housing fees: over the last few years, the fees

Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) launched its Sosnovskiy mine in the course of a solemn opening ceremony last Friday. The enterprise received the license allowing the company to develop this Chelyabinsk Region-based black iron ore deposit in October 2003. In February 2007, MMK bought a 51% shareholding in Bakalskoye Mine Group, the Urals’ oldest iron ore mining enterprise. MMK BOD Chairman Viktor Rashnikov says this transaction was part of the company’s raw-material base building strategy, since MMK intended to build one through developing the local iron ore deposits. In September

Koltsovo Airport’s extraordinary general meeting resulted in the stockholders re-electing their Board of Directors. The BOD now comprises the Russian Federation Ministry for Economic Development’s Department Director Pavel Kalmayev, Property Department Counselor of Rosimuschestvo’s Private Energy Sector Administration Dmitriy Logunov, Koltsovo-Invest’s General Director Ekaterina Lyakhova, Renova State Corporation Deputy Chairman of the Board Evgeniy Olkhovik, Rosaviation Head of Airport Administration Anatoly Pchelin, General Director of Civil Airports Administration Federal State Unitary

VSMPO-AVISMA Corporation’s sales revenues went down by 14.2% in the first half of 2009 compared with the first half of 2008, reaching 12.8 billion RUR. The company’s press service reports this mainly has to do with the fact that they have been selling less in physical terms due to the global recession. The corporation’s working assets have also gone down: the raw stuff reserves with in-stock materials and accounts receivable have plunged by 12% and 11%, respectively, since January 2009.

Koltsovo Airport’s shareholders approved of the recent mortgage deal the airport signed with Vneshekonombank (Foreign Trade Bank) State Corporation. Among the mortgaged objects are the international air terminal’s third extension E, with its area of 43,287.3 square meters, the roofed railway platform 1A, covering the area of 1,898.4 square meters, the air terminal building A, covering the area of 2,211.4 square meters, and the 48,497-square-meter square in front of the airport building. The deal also provides for the right to rent a 415,516-square-meter land allotment in the airport’s APO

The Federal Antimonopoly Service’s Moscow Region division instituted legal proceedings against Auchan supermarket chain, claiming the latter has violated the Federal Advertising Act. The FAS’s division found out that some posters were displayed on the chain store’s premises that portrayed and advertised Auchan branded goods (namely, some food items and three bottles of Krepost vodka) as the ‘best value for the money option’. The Service’s Moscow Region division insists that the violation of the law consists in advertising spirits without a proper health warning. They also report that the

Following the law on the banks and banking activity, Bank Severnaya Kazna (now the asset of Alfa-Bank) published its semiannual report in Khimmash-Gazeta, a newspaper with the circulation of 10,000 copies that is distributed only in Yekaterinburg’s Khimmash district. It is not entirely improbable that this extravagant choice of a paper was brought about by the bank’s actual performance in the first half of 2009. In late 2008, Bank Severnaya Kazna had to undergo a financial recovery procedure after a major cash outflow. Since the beginning of 2009, the bank has been in the management of

Governor of Chelyabinsk Region Petr Sumin decided to have the agricultural assets of Kundravy village (Chebarkulskiy district) nationalized with the help of Food Corporation Regional State Unitary Enterprise. Following the Governor’s order, 63 million RUR has already been allocated from the region’s budget. Deputy Governor Andrei Kosilov commented on Sumin’s decision in the course of a briefing. According to Kosilov, Kundravy’s agricultural business has not been a success over the last few years because new proprietors kept coming in all the time. Deputy Governor believes nationalizing the

‘Our company is using two registered trademarks at the moment. One of them has belonged to us since 1998, the other one since the year 2000. These trademarks are present on the bottles containing our manufacturer’s mineral water, that is, Obukhovskaya-11. However, Isadora Ltd marketed an Obukhovskaya mineral water in February 2009 whose labels bear some trademarks that are so similar to ours that they can be very easily confused,’ Obukhovskiye Mineral Waters lawyer Vera Zakirko said to UrBC. Meanwhile, Sverdlovsk Region Arbitration Court keeps looking into the claim laid by Obukhovskiye

‘We had to make twelve people redundant in our bank’s Sverdlovsk Region branch. These were mainly additional office workers employed in the mortgage lending departments,’ the spokesperson for VTB24 said to an UrBC reporter. According to the bank’s official statement, the Group’s staff was reduced by 1.3% (or 565 people) in the first quarter of 2009, so they currently employ 41,427 workers. VTB24, a retail bank and the Group’s largest employer, cut its personnel by 2.2 % (or 394 people), so there are now 17,487 employees there. ‘VTB24 hasn’t closed down any of its regional offices this year.

Sverdlovsk Region Arbitration Court is currently considering a claim laid by the City of Yekaterinburg against Torgoviy Dvor. The city council insists on the defendant giving away a certain land allotment. Now Torgoviy Dvor is a legal entity representing a downtown Mytnyi Dvor shopping mall housing brands such as Mexx, Calvin Klein Jeans, Carlo Pazolini, and Shopping Mania as well as a number of restaurants (Planeta Sushi, IL Patio, and Rostick’s KFC). Mytnyi Dvor’s management has so far been unable to provide any comments.

Koltsovo Airport of Yekaterinburg still has to collect over 100 million RUR worth of debt from various airlines, with another 60 million counted as bad debt coming from AirUnion Alliance’s insolvent carriers. This information has been provided by the airport itself. As of August 5, 2009, among the airport’s debtors were GTK Rossiya, Aeroflot-Nord, Aeroflot-Don, Siberia, UTair, KD-Avia, and Zapolyarie. Koltsovo Airport’s press officer reports these carriers’ debts keep growing, whereas the airport’s profits fell by 20% due to a decreased passenger turnover. These were the driving forces behind

The Court of Florence, Italy refused to extradite Alexei Kalinichenko to Russia, despite the fact that this country’s investigative authorities believe the former Bank24.ru executive had stolen over a billion RUR from customers in Moscow, Saint Petersburg, and other Russian cities. The court looked into the entries made by Kalinichenko’s former customers on his websites and came to the conclusion that the suspect’s life and safety would be seriously jeopardized if he was handed over to the Russian authorities, Kommersant reported on August 6, 2009. ‘Alexei Kalinichenko was first heard of in

The Italian court rejected Russia’s claims regarding the extradition of Bank24.ru’s former BOD member Alexei Kalinichenko recently. ‘In the course of a preliminary hearing, the court ruled that Alexei Kalinichenko’s extradition must be rejected to the Russian party. None of our officers were present at the hearing, so we cannot say what exactly was the ground behind this decision,’ the spokesperson for Ural Federal District’s division of the Russian Federation Ministry of Internal Affairs informed UrBC. The extradition request was placed with the Italian authorities by the Russian Federation

The independent rating agency affirmed the Ural Bank for Reconstruction and Development’s Credit Rating at BB-, with Stable rating outlook, the bank’s press officer reports. Rus-Rating’s comments make it clear that they see the business as a universal retail bank with good shares on the Urals’ private deposit and brokerage operations markets. The bank is also reported to develop dynamically its loan offers to private individuals and SMEs as well as to build up on the regional office network.

According to VIZ-Stal’s financial report (compiled in accordance with the Russian Accounting Standards), the steel manufacturer’s net profit decreased by 58% in the second quarter of 2009. The sales reached 17,700 tons of goods in April-May 2009, with sales revenues amounting to 1.9 billion RUR and gross profit coming to .9 billion RUR. ‘Our net profit nosedived because of the changing foreign currency exchange rates, which affected our foreign currency transactions,’ VIZ-Stal reports.

A forming roll plant based in Kushva, Sverdlovsk Region, is to undergo bankruptcy proceedings, Sverdlovsk Region Arbitration Court ruled on August 4, 2009. The demand to declare the plant insolvent was actually placed with the court by Sverdlovenergosbyt on June 26, 2009.

The independent rating agency affirmed SKB-Bank’s Credit Rating at BB+, with Stable rating outlook on August 4, 2009. Rus-Rating’s analysts say SKB-Bank is doing well thanks to good chances of getting state support and having strong proprietors (who are also likely to help SKB-Bank get through). They also praise the bank’s existing market shares and having a stable business customer base (consisting of Sverdlovsk Region’s large, solvent enterprises). What is more, SKB-Bank does not depend on international funding and can boast sufficient capital adequacy.