URSA Bank fully retired its third three-million-ruble bond issue on June 4, 2009 and made 143.61 million RUR worth of coupon payments on the issue, with interest rate determined at 9.6% a year (which thus amounted to 47.87 RUR per bond), the bank’s press service reports. URSA Bank launched this three-million-ruble bond issue on June 8, 2006; the bonds were to be in circulation for three years. The issue was coordinated by Gazprombank and Citibank.

‘On May 18, 2009, we were informed that Ramada Hotel had been fully completed, so our experts carried out the final inspection of the building three days later. Some grave violations were detected in the course of this inspection; these were related to hygienic regulations, fire safety, and construction standards. Our experts thus declared that the building was actually not ready to be commissioned,’ Sverdlovsk Region’s Administration for State Construction Surveillance representatives said to UrBC. According to the Administration, the finishing work of the interior was also not complete; nor

Ural Airlines started offering its customers the tickets for its new scheduled Yekaterinburg-Beijing flight on June 5, 2009. The first flight to the Chinese capital is to be operated on July 1, 2009. The non-stop flight will be performed on an A 320 airplane two times a week. The Yekaterinburg-Beijing flight’s departure time is 8.20 PM every Wednesday and Sunday; the arrival time is 4 AM on Thursday and Monday, respectively. The plane operating the Beijing-Yekaterinburg flight takes off at 5.15 AM on Thursdays and Mondays and lands in Yekaterinburg at 9.25 AM. The departure and arrival times

Bank VEFK-Ural’s trustee in bankruptcy has been faced with 1264.1 million RUR worth of claims laid by 489 creditors. The claims of 379 creditors (worth 1182.3 million RUR altogether) have been acknowledged; this figure includes the claims of 86 top-priority creditors (whose claims amount to 9.9 million RUR). The trustee in bankruptcy is currently considering the papers presented by 109 creditors (with claims amounting to 68.8 million RUR); 13 million RUR worth of claims has already been rejected. The information as to Bank VEFK-Ural’s bankruptcy proceedings is carried by Oblastnaya Gazeta.

The shaft man killed at UC RUSAL’s Severouralsk bauxite mine (SUBR) Cheremukhovskaya mine actually died of asphyxia, the investigative authorities reported recently. ‘Evgeniy Provalniy was killed by the mined rock collapsing right upon the victim while he was busy scaling. The man died of mechanic asphyxia, as his neck and chest were strangulated by the rock,’ the authorities’ press release states.

Sverdlovsk Region’s division of the Federal Migration Service is not going to accept any foreign passport applications during the Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit in Yekaterinburg, the spokesperson for the Service reports. The spokesperson explains this has to do with the possible difficulties the city dwellers might have getting around Yekaterinburg on June 15-17, 2009. Nevertheless, the applications for the new-generation passports will be accepted on June 12-14, 2009; those who’ve placed their applications earlier will also be able to obtain their passports at the office.

‘A fatal accident occurred at Severouralsk bauxite mine (SUBR) last night, the victim being a thirty-nine-year-old highly skilled miner. The tragedy was probably caused by the fact that RUSAL is currently trying to cut down on all kinds of expenses, including those associated with labor safety. There were only four rather than six bolt clamps on the site of the accident, which resulted in the mined rock collapsing right upon the miner,’ SUBR Chairman of Independent Trade Union Valeriy Zolotarev said to an UrBC reporter. ‘RUSAL has been treating its workers harshly lately. The performance

Uralsvyazinform, the Urals’ major telecommunications provider, held its AGM in Perm recently. The points on the meeting’s agenda included the approval of the annual report for 2008 and the annual accounting report (including the profit and loss statement) as well as the issue of profit anf loss distribution, including the share dividend. According to the reports made at the meeting, the company’s sales revenues dropped by 17.6% last year, while its pre-tax profit and net profit decreased by 25.2% and 27.3%, respectively. In addition, the average number of people employed by the company went

UC RUSAL Severouralsk bauxite mine (SUBR) Independent Trade Union is planning to organize a picket in Severouralsk. The workers are going to protest against their cancelled meal subsidies. The picket starts at 10 AM next to the administration building, with 200 to 300 workers likely to show up. This is going to be a silent event, with only banners to make the point. UC RUSAL representatives, in their turn, have accused the trade union of bringing instability into the already difficult social situation. The company claims they had to stop subsidizing their workers’ meals in order to save money

The Russian Federation Federal Insurance Surveillance Service made several insurers’ licenses void temporarily and annulled the licenses of eight insurance companies, including Uralros Insurance Company that used to deal in obligatory car insurance packages. The decrees to this extent were signed on May 28, 2009 and are to come into effect on June 4, 2009, the Insurance News Agency reports. The other companies to lose their licenses are: Sochi-based Altair, Moscow-based First National Insurance Society, Moscow Region-based Universal Reinsurance Society, Moscow Region-based Avis+, Saint

Ural Airlines is going to decrease the prices for Europe-bound flights this summer. A ticket for return Yekaterinburg-Prague-Paris, Yekaterinburg-Prague-Milan, Yekaterinburg-Prague-Venice, Yekaterinburg-Prague-Rome, Yekaterinburg-Prague-Budapest, and Yekaterinburg-Prague- Ljubljana flights will only cost ?299 (excluding the fuel fee) on June 9 2009 through July 28, 2009 every Tuesday. The flights will be operated via a connection in Prague; the tickets from Prague to Paris, Milan, Venice, Rome, Ljubljana, and Budapest are offered by the carrier’s interline partners. ‘Given that plane tickets

Sverdlovsk Region Arbitration Court sustained the claim laid by the city of Novouralsk against AMUR car factory; the plaintiff insisted on the defendant paying them over 15 million RUR for violating the terms of paying off the loan offered to the factory from the city’s budgetary funds. Novouralsk Municipal Duma decided to offer the company 15 million RUR to be paid off by March 12, 2009 and another 50 million RUR to be paid off by August 13, 2009. On June 4, 2009, Sverdlovsk Region Arbitration Court is going to look into another claim laid by the city of Novouralsk against AMUR car factory

Sverdlovsk Region Arbitration Court started investigating the claim laid by Bank Severnaya Kazna against Mayak Corporation regarding the 122,032,096.43-RUR debt; the plaintiff also insists on having the corporation’s mortgaged property arrested. The preliminary hearing has been scheduled for June 3, 2009. Mayak Corporation’s President Marina Konkova said earlier that they had been trying to negotiate for debt refinancing. In fact, the bank has already placed several claims with the court, with Mayak Corporation announcing they were about to leave the housing construction market.

‘The supply for the salary-through-a-bank-card schemes exceeds the demand at the moment, since most banks are rather interested in commission-based services with a guaranteed income and zero risks,’ URSA Bank’s Vice President Alexei Sannikov said to an UrBC reporter. ‘So it happens quite often that a customer can consider the offers from a number of banks and choose the scheme that suits them best. This means the competition goes up and the service and the products improve,’ he explained.

‘The peace settlement regarding the existing debt that Sinara Pipe Plant and Kamensk Communal Housing Services Company have come to actually infringes upon the interests of other local energy suppliers,’ Sverdlovteplosbyt (subsidiary of TGK-9) says. The company promised to pay off its 174-million-ruble debt to Sinara Pipe Plant by July 1, 2009. At the same time, Kamensk Communal Housing Services Company and Sverdlovteplosbyt signed another agreement in May 2009 that was made invalid because of the changes in Kamensk Communal Housing Services Company’s ownership scheme. The company currently

This June, Rostechnadzor’s Ural Federal District’s division is going to carry out security inspections at UC RUSAL’s Bogoslovskiy smelter, UAZ smelter, Kremniy-Ural, Severouralsk Bauxite Mine, Polevskoy Cryolith Plant, SUBR-Stroy, and RUS Engineering. The safety watchdog is also planning on checking the industrial safety at a number of mining enterprises such as Zoloto Severnogo Urala, Uralasbest, Novo-Kalyinskaya Mine, and SUBR, Rostechnadzor’s press officer reports. The inspections schedule has been approved of by the head of Rostechnadzor’s Ural Federal District’s division Anatoly

‘We do not expect the automobile supplies to drop because of General Motors’ recent bankruptcy. Quite on the contrary, the supply will probably go up because Sberbank intends to offer its customers the special preferential terms loans to buy Opels. This is why we presume the demand for the cars will increase in the summer,’ says Avtoban’s Sales Manager Alexei Khorkov. ‘Our show room gets the automobiles from Moscow, where there are still a lot of last year’s cars in store. This will be enough to cover our needs for a year,’ he added. Meanwhile, General Motors is going through bankruptcy

‘Nearly all of large enterprises are cooperating with the banks in terms of salary-through-a-bank-card schemes at the moment, but the market is still far from being saturated. There is still some development potential, but this involves small and medium enterprises rather than business giants (which might only be enticed into a new bank, at best),’ URSA Bank’s Vice President Alexei Sannikov said to an UrBC reporter. ‘Speaking of SMEs, these are companies with not too many employees, such as sole traders, little limited liability companies, and public sector establishments. A lot of them are

Chelyabinsk Tube Rolling Plant and Pervouralsk New Pipe Plant (members of ChTPZ Group) as well as Uraltrubostal Trading Firm and Rimera (ChTPZ Group’s O&G maintenance division) are going to take part in the 16th international Caspian Oil & Gas 2009 exhibition in Baku, Azerbaijan on June 2-5, 2009. ChTPZ Group’s experts will be presenting their new technical solutions for the energy sector as well as displaying the potential of Pervouralsk New Pipe Plant’s finishing center for oil and gas pipelines. Once the finishing center has been launched this May, the company started manufacturing

The machine-building giant now owes 39 billion RUR to its creditors and is currently negotiating for having its debts restructured for several years, the plant’s General Director Oleg Sienko said to RBC daily. Meanwhile, Uralvagonzavod’s former GD Nikolai Malykh said at a meeting with Governor of Sverdlovsk Region Eduard Rossel and Plenipotentiary Representative of Russian Federation President in Ural Federal District Nikolai Vinnichenko in March 2009 that the plant needed about 10 billion RUR worth of loans to pay off its debts and keep up with the existing outputs. ‘Our debts are not too