Uralsvyazinform (Sverdlovsk Region’s major telecommunications provider) recently came up with a performance report for the first quarter of 2009. According to the company’s official statement, their investments amounted to 288.1 million RUR in January-March 2009 (which falls short of the figures for a year earlier by 62.8%), 57% of which sum was directed to the development of their mobile network and new services; 12.1% of this amount was invested in the development of data communications network and infrastructure, and 10.6% and 7.7% were directed to landline network development and

AKB Probusinessbank’s BOD suggested that the bank’s stockholders vote for passing the registered ordinary share dividend for 2008 at the AGM on June 16, 2009 in Moscow. The Board also placed the issue of closing down the bank’s economic incentive fund on the upcoming meeting’s agenda. Probusinessbank runs Bank24.ru and VUZ-Bank in Sverdlovsk Region.

In order to get the funds necessary to eliminate the wage arrears, eleven buildings owned by Baranchinskiy Electromechanical Plant have been arrested. After this property has been assessed by the experts, the assets are to be sold out and the money used to pay off the enterprise’s debt (the wages first of all), the spokesperson for Sverdlovsk Region’s division of the Federal Court Officers Service reports. What is more, the company’s assets deposited at the banks and other financial organizations have been limited in that the plant cannot spend any of it at will, so these funds will be used

MRSK Urala Board of Directors decided to terminate the authority of two Supervisory Board members: Alexei Sedykh and Vladimir Kalsin. In addition to this, the BOD scheduled the company AGM for June 19, 2009. The meeting is to be held in Yekaterinburg. The stockholders have been recommended to pass the common stock dividend for 2008.

Governor of Chelyabinsk Region Petr Sumin sent a wire to the leading manager of Russia’s national hockey team Vyacheslav Bykov and invited him to visit his native region. The wire says, ‘All of Chelyabinsk Region rejoiced with you. The local people are proud of the team’s victory as well as of the fact that it happened thanks to your management – the management of someone raised by Chelyabinsk hockey school.’ According to the spokesperson for the Governor, there is going to be a big sports event at the local ice palace upon Bykov’s arrival. The children from all of the region’s hockey school

‘Things are rather hard at VIZ-Stal, Uralmashzavod, Pnevmostroymachina, Concern Kalina, and Yekaterinburg’s other backbone enterprises. The only two companies that managed to raise their shipping output in the first quarter of the year were Uralmashzavod and Ural Civil Aviation Plant, with outputs rising by 29% and 14%, respectively. At the same time, Uralkhimmash, Ural Turbine Plant, and VIZ-Stal’s outputs dropped by 3%, 20%, and 75%, respectively, compared to a year earlier. Pnevmostroymachina is experiencing the greatest difficulties, with output plummeting by 96% compared to the first

‘The country’s cultural heritage (that is, historic buildings) are now being haggled over. These buildings are simply used as a trump card in all sorts of economic games. Paris, for instance, has got about a hundred such buildings, whereas in Sverdlovsk Region, there are 1,200 of them. One can’t help wondering if these buildings are really this important to our culture,’ the owner of Antey Business Center Andrey Gavrilovskiy said at a recent press conference. The whole debate started out when a two-storey Yarutin house that dates back to 1890 was pulled down in the middle of the night in late

Klyuchevsk Ferrous Alloys Works’ stockholders decided in the course of their annual general meeting at Dvurechensk, Sverdlovsk Region, that the dividend for 2008 shouldn’t be declared. The shareholders also settled the number of the plant’s BOD members (namely, five people) and chose UGTM Audit as their independent auditor.

Rostechnadzor (the state technological safety watchdog) keeps looking into a fatal accident at Novolipetsk Iron & Steel Works (NLMK) converter shop. It was detected that the pourer (the victim) got smashed and killed between the steel-tapping unit and the protective rails of the casting platform during the installation of a steel ladle. The investigation is being carried out by Rostechnadzor Lipetsk Division’s Committee.

Alisher Usmanov’s Metalloinvest Holding must pay the full sum for the license entitling the company to the development of Russia’s largest Udokanskoye copper deposit in Zabaikalskiy Territory by June 2009, RIA Novosti quoted Anatoly Ledovskikh (head of the Federal Subsoil Resources Agency) as saying. ‘The deadline for the payment is the month of June,’ he said. According to Ledovskikh, the company has already promised to pay the sum in full. ‘In case they fail to do so, they will lose the five billion RUR one has to pay as the down installment for the license,’ RIA Novosti quotes.

The Russian Federation Minister of Defense Anatoly Serdyukov arrived at Shagol military airfield last night, to be greeted by Governor of Chelyabinsk Region Petr Sumin and head of the Urals and Volga Military District Arkadiy Bakhin. The officials then went to Chebarkul and Miass to take a look at Chebarkul division, Ural car factory, and GRTs. According to the spokesperson for the Governor, Petr Sumin and Anatoly Serdyukov also spoke about the state defense contracts, financing of Chelyabinsk Region-based defense enterprises, and providing the military with the housing they need.

Following the order issued by Governor of Sverdlovsk Region Eduard Rossel, the region’s Deputy Minister for International and Foreign Economic Relations Boris Shipitsin is no longer in office, the spokesperson for the Ministry reports. Boris Shipitsin resigned of his own accord because he wished to retire. The official’s length of state service comes to thirty-eight years.

Sverdlovsk Region is an industrially developed region focused on metallurgy and machine-building, 60% of which happen to be export-oriented. Unfortunately, the demand for the region’s produce has dropped, so have the prices, all of which has resulted in trouble for this area,’ Director of the State Employment Service’s Sverdlovsk Region Department Vyacheslav Krivel admitted at a press conference. ‘I just don’t like to scare the people off by enumerating all the enterprises that have had to make their workers redundant. I do know, however, that things are hard at Uralmashzavod at the moment.

‘A customer used to receive a car they had bought within five days of the purchase, but now the dealers are beginning to take their time, sometimes making the wait period last up to a month. This is the case with Autoland, for instance,’ Europlan’s Business Development Director Alexander Mikhailov was reported as saying to Vedomosti. ‘The company has extended the official wait for the paid-for cars to thirty days,’ says Autoland-Siberia’s Konstantin Kudryavtsev. ‘This particular dealer is having some difficulty servicing its own debts, as Baltiyskiy Bank laid a claim against them in March.

URSA Bank’s shareholders gathered at the annual general meeting on May 8, 2009 to vote for the bank’s merger with MDM-Bank and MDM Banking Holding. This proposal received 99.64% of votes. In addition to taking this decision, the stockholders also approved of raising URSA Bank’s authorized capital through an issue of ordinary shares and the eighth-type preference shares that are to be converted from MDM-Bank and MDM Banking Holding’s ones. According to the bank’s press officer, the new, enlarged bank’s next challenge will be to get the company registered by the Bank of Russia. ‘The new bank is

Governor of Sverdlovsk Region Eduard Rossel met the General Director of Uralvagonzavod (the Nizhniy Tagil-based industrial giant) Oleg Sienko. The business executive explained that the global financial crisis had hit the enterprise really hard, with the company now owing about 39 billion RUR to its creditors (including .65 billion RUR worth of unpaid heating and electricity bills). At the same time, Uralvagonzavod did manage to pay all of its taxes, Sienko proudly noted. Head of Sverdlovsk Region Government Viktor Koksharov and his first deputy and Minister for Industry and Science Anatoly

Some of Gazpromneft-Ural’s shareholders have increased their existing holdings through the issuer’s additional share issue. As a result, Richard Enterprises S.A. raised its share from 14.5% to 15% of Gazpromneft-Ural’s common stock, while Gregory Trading S.A’s shareholding rose from 14.8% to 15.3%.

Fitch Ratings, the international rating agency, put Evraz Group SA’s long-term Issuer Default Rating (BB) and its priority unsecured rating (BB) on the Negative Rating Watch recently. At the same time, Mastercroft Limited's long-term Issuer Default Rating (BB) has also been placed on this list. As it happens, Mastercroft is Evraz’s daughter enterprise. Both companies’ short-term Issuer Default Ratings have been affirmed at B. The Negative Rating Watch indicates that Fitch is rather worried about the company’s overall debt/EBITDA and net debt/EBITDA ratios not keeping up with the level

The Federal Financial Marker Service decided to annul the license of Neva Financial & Industrial Group. The license used to entitle the company to performing brokerage and dealing operations as well as security transactions. The decision had to be taken because of Neva’s numerous violations of the Russian securities legislation throughout one year. These offenses involved violations of the Federal Financial Marker Service’s regulations. What is more, the Service has also canceled the qualification certificates issued to the company’s General Director Vitaliy Davidovitch and General

The value of Bank Severnaya Kazna’s assets dropped by 10.3% in April 2009, that is, from 240,440,238,000 RUR on April 1, 2009 to 236,283,721,000 RUR on May 1, 2009. The company reports this decrease has been brought about by the shrinking customer accounts and cutting back on their lending portfolio.