The last meeting of the governmental committee for support of Sverdlovsk Region’s enterprises was devoted to the problems of Egorshinskiy radio plant. It was detected that the company’s wage arrears amounted to 61.7 million RUR on July 1, 2009. In addition, the plant owes its creditors 1.41 billion RUR (including bank loans and interest) and has 85.4 million RUR worth of accounts receivable. Then, the plant’s debts to the region’s budget and the non-budgetary funds have recently exceeded 75.7 million RUR. Most experts declared that it was impossible for the enterprise to avoid bankruptcy

‘We know that Yekaterinburg’s airport increased the price of some services rendered to the carriers, but this increase had been coordinated with the Federal Tariff Service, so the Federal Antimonopoly Service committee has nothing to complain about here,’ head of FAS’s Sverdlovsk Region division Tatiana Kolotova said at a recent press conference in Yekaterinburg. Koltsovo Airport of Yekaterinburg raised its fees on July 21, 2009. This involved the fees charged for taking off and landing, for aviation safety, and for using the airport terminal. The price increase came to 18% to 29% on average.

The last meeting of the governmental committee for support of Sverdlovsk Region’s enterprises was devoted to the situation at AMUR car factory. It was reported that the factory’s wage arrears reached 55.9 million RUR on July 1, 2009, which comes to about 30% of all such debts within Sverdlovsk Region. ‘Even though the enterprise is functional and has every chance to reach a good production level, its socioeconomic status is actually on the verge of collapse. The company’s manufacturing production output was reduced to one-quarter of its original volume in the first half of the year, whereas

Mosgorsud (Moscow Municipal Court) ruled that Bank VEFK former BOD Chairman should stay in custody until October 26, 2009, ITAR-TASS reports. The bank’s former BOD Chairman A. Gitelson, the bank’s Chairman of the Supervisory Board Vitaliy Ryabov, and Ryabov’s deputy Ivan Bibinov are accused of two instances of large-scale embezzlement committed by an organized group. The charges are based on the corresponding article of the Russian Federation Criminal Code. The investigative team believes the accused embezzled Bank VEFK’s funds twice over the years 2007 and 2008, stealing over one billion

The Ural Bank for Reconstruction and Development announced the launch of a new service for their Business Club members. The new service consists in access to a special forum located on the bank’s corporate website. ‘Thanks to online communication, every club member will be able to solve all the banking service- related problems much faster, as well as to find various counteragents that suit them best,’ the bank reports. ‘Special purchasing offers and contacts with numerous enterprises are the Club’s chief advantages. Another important benefit is that the Club offers its members a chance to

‘We have been faced with a number of problems in our attempts to cooperate with Sverdlovsk Region’s suppliers. They seem rather reluctant and set very high prices for their produce. For one, the local food manufacturers just don’t offer any nice prices on chicken and meat: the price of Khoroshiy Vkus starts at 280 RUR per kilo, the ex-factory price of Reftinskaya poultry plant is 102 RUR per kilo,’ the director of X5 Retail Group’s Pyaterochka chain store Ural branch Alexei Vaganov said at a meeting chaired by Deputy Mayor of Yekaterinburg Viktor Konteev. The meeting was dedicated to the

Head of Sverdlovsk Region Government Viktor Koksharov visited the town of Pervouralsk to look at the state of affairs at Russian Chrome 1915. It was detected that the plant was unable to break even because a lot of money was spent on keeping their slurry fields and cesspools (full of 6.8 million tons of environmentally hazardous compounds) in environmentally safe condition. The enterprise has to spend 70 million RUR a year on renting the land allotment, paying emission fees, and maintaining the cleaning facilities. So, the plant decided to ask the regional government for help. One of the ways

Sverdlovsk Region public prosecution authorities for transportation carried out an inspection of Koltsovo Airport customs. The inspection was aimed at checking the customs’ compliance with the anti-bribery legislation. As a result of this check, numerous violations of the Federal Act on the State Civil Service of the Russian Federation were detected. For instance, a number of civil servants violated the existing regulations on income and property declarations when submitting their declarations for 2008. Some of them failed to indicate that they owned some real estate and vehicles as well as

VIZ-Stal (part of NLMK Group) looked into the results of its performance in the second quarter of 2009. According to the official data provided by the company, the enterprise produced 22,000 tons of goods (including 21,700 tons of transformer steel and 200 tons of dynamo steel) over this period of time. The reason for increased transformer steel output is the greater order portfolio. Now the orders rose in number partially because of the stoppage at Novolipetsk Iron & Steel Works (NLMK) transformer steel production unit for the time of repairs.

‘MRSK Holding chose the Chinese equipment suppliers purely on the basis of prices. What this actually means is that the holding refused to support the domestic manufacturers and decided to save some money,’ the spokesperson for Ural Turbine Plant Elena Venediktova said to an UrBC reporter. MRSK Holding and their Chinese partner signed a memorandum on economic and trade cooperation. The memorandum states that the Chinese power machinery manufacturers are going to take part in the restoration of the Russian energy complex. The project is expected to take about a decade and is worth some $100bn.

Sverdlovsk Region Arbitration Court is to consider STKS-Nedvizhimost’s bankruptcy application on July 21, 2009. The bankruptcy commissioner will be selected among the members of Self-Regulatory Bankruptcy Commissioners Organization of the North-West, a non-commercial partnership.

Sverdlovsk Region’s division of the Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS) is to resume the investigation of the case involving Delta Credit Commercial Bank this week. The bank is suspected of violating Article 11 (part 3) of the Federal Competition Protection Act. FAS’s local division believes the violation could consist in the banks colluding to coordinate their economic activity related to their mortgage lending practices. For one, Delta Credit is reported to impose special standards on the customers that need to be complied with for the mortgage retirement.

Uralvagonzavod Scientific Production Corporation is not going to pay the share dividend for 2008. The decision to this extent was taken by the enterprise’s shareholders. The stockholders explain that the absence of dividends has to do with the business’s numerous losses. According to Uralvagonzavod’s annual report, the company’s net loss exceeded 6.11 billion RUR in 2008.

Uralkabel applied to Sverdlovsk Region Arbitration Court asking to declare Egorshinskiy radio plant insolvent. The spokesperson for the court said to an UrBC reporter that the date for the preliminary hearing has not been set yet. According to the official data available, the plant owes its creditors and partners over 1.5 billion RUR, in addition to about 61 million RUR worth of wage arrears. As a matter of fact, Mayor of Artemovskiy district (the plant’s location) Yuri Manyakin and Sverdlovsk Region Government have already suggested introducing bankruptcy proceedings there.

Starting August 12, 2009, Ural Airlines is going to operate two rather than just one flight a week from Yekaterinburg to Beijing. ‘Beijing is going to become Ural Airlines’ key airport for destinations like Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, Indonesia, Bali, the Maldives, Malaysia, Japan, and Australia. Our partners, like the giant Europort, are offering some rather exciting summer tours around China, including unique individual tours,’ the company reports. Under the new timetable, the flights will be operated on an Airbus A320 aircraft on Wednesdays and Sundays; the plane takes off in Koltsovo

Sverdlovsk Region public prosecution authorities investigated the issue of several Yekaterinburg-based banks’ compliance with consumer rights legislation. They have detected numerous violations at a number of banks. It has been revealed that some banks do not provide their potential borrowers with full details and terms of their loan offers; sometimes the information is also inaccurate. Then, some of the banks’ lending agreements have terms that infringe upon the customers’ rights or impose on them some additional (and unwanted) services). For one, UralTransBank and Bank24.ru’s advertisements

The net assets of URSA Bank reached 155.3 billion RUR in the first half of 2009. The bank’s own funds were estimated at 24.1 billion RUR, with the capital adequacy reaching 17.3%. This figure is actually 1.7 times greater than the limits set by the Central Bank of Russia’s requirements. URSA Bank’s lending portfolio amounted to 114.6 billion RUR on July 1, 2009. The structure of the portfolio is well-balanced, as the volumes of loans to private customers and to business customers come to 54.3 billion RUR and 60.3 billion RUR, respectively. According to the data provided by the bank, the

The net profit of Yekaterinburg’s oil and mayonnaise producing company decreased by 40.373 million RUR, or 15.15% (from 266.552 million RUR to 226.179 million RUR) over the accounting business period. The enterprise reports the drop in profits has been brought about by rising raw stuff prices.

UC RUSAL’s bauxite output dropped by 35.5% in the first half of 2009 compared with the first half of 2008, reaching 5.8 million tons, the company’s press officer reports. The general decrease in the company’s bauxite output is expected to come to 5.6 million tons by the end of the year 2009. At the same time, the enterprise’s alumina output fell by 34% compared with January-June 2008, only amounting to 3.7 million tons. By the end of the year, the decrease might reach 3.9 million tons. Then, the company’s aluminum production decreased by 10% and came to 1.98 million tons. By December 2009,

Autoland has recently sold one of its show rooms, namely, Autoland Sever located at 6 Kosmonavtov Ave. in Yekaterinburg. This car show used to be the official dealer of Mitsubishi Motors and Ford. The company explains this was a measure taken to help them cope with the current economic downfall and to improve on their main business processes as well as increase profits. It was decided that Mitsubishi Motors and Ford would now use the show rooms at 50 Blyukher St. These are already used by Jaguar, Land Rover, and Volvo. Mazda’s show room that used to be based in the same quarters has been