Ural Federal District’s division of the General Prosecutor’s office produced an official preliminary account of their investigation involving Bank Severnaya Kazna management’s alleged offenses. This is what the statement says: ‘Ural Federal District’s division of the General Prosecutor’s office has been informed about Bank Severnaya Kazna’s former top managers’ illegal practice attempts; therefore Sverdlovsk Region’s public prosecution authorities looked into the case in accordance with the Russian Federation Deputy General Prosecutor Yu. Zolotov’s request. The reports proved to be truthful.

VSMPO Avisma Corporation’s BOD member and Chairman of the Audit Committee Mikhail Voyevodin has recently been elected the company’s President. The decision to this extent was made by the corporation’s Board of Directors, Vedomosti reports. Former President Vladislav Tetyukhin announced he was willing to resign. Mikhail Voyevodin is thirty-three years old. He graduated from the G.V. Plekhanov Russian Economic Academy and from the Diplomatic Academy of the Ministry of. Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation.

Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) is currently implementing a project aimed at bringing the company’s corporate standards in accordance with those of Gazprom (series 9000). The enterprise’s PR Department reports the new standards are being introduced to improve on the current quality management system and to raise the metal goods sales to ChTPZ Group, United Metallurgical Company, and Pipe Metallurgical Company (Gazprom’s major suppliers). Gazprom’s corporate standards are based on ISO 9001 and ISO/TU 16949 ones, with modifications specific to the O&G industry, and they comprise

‘One must admit that the real estate sector is going through a very severe crisis at the moment, so the prices are bound to keep going down. The market players report the actual transaction prices tend to be at least 20% lower than what the sellers initially ask for. I personally feel the figure looks more like 35% or even 40% rather than 20%, since, as everyone knows, the real estate prices used to be a bit of a huge bubble over the last years,’ Accord Invest Investment Company’s Deputy GD Konstantin Selyanin says to UrBC. Meanwhile, Andrei Gavrilovskiy, the local entrepreneur, announced he

ChTPZ Group’s Chelyabinsk Tube Rolling Plant and Pervouralsk New Pipe Plant delivered 155,700 tons of tubular goods to their customers in January and February 2009, which falls short of the figures for a year earlier (that is, 256,800 tons) by 39%. Chelyabinsk Tube Rolling Plant shipped 86,700 tons of pipes and tubes to customers in the first two months of 2009, including 55,000 tons of large-diameter pipes. In February 2009, the plant delivered 48,300 tons of tubular goods to consumers, including 29,200 tons of LDPs. Pervouralsk New Pipe Plant sold 41,000 tons of goods in February 2009 and

Governor of Sverdlovsk Region Eduard Rossel, who is now on a business trip in London, suggested in the course of his meeting with the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development President that a EBRD stockholders’ meeting be held in Yekaterinburg. The bank’s President said the meeting locations had already been settled for the following three years, but the stockholders committee would still consider the Governor’s proposal.

Now that the heating season is coming to an end, Sverdlovsk Region-based enterprises, the public sector entities, management companies, tenants and real estate proprietors have come to owe Sverdlovsk Public Systems 1.00005 billion RUR. This company supplies heat, water (and water discharge services), and electricity to eight regional cities, that is, Kamensk Uralskiy, Pervouralsk, Kachkanar, Nizhnyaya Tura, Verkhnyaya Tura, Kamyshlov, Mikhailovsk, and Obukhovo. According to the company’s Commercial Director Alexander Koryukov, they are now forced to sue their debtors. 18,500 complaints worth

Sky Express Airlines flew 58,351 people in February 2009, which is 9% less than a year earlier, the spokesperson for the company says. The carrier’s passenger turnover came to 79,530,432 passenger-kilometers in February 2009, which falls short of the figures for February 2009 by 4%. The airline reports this decrease in the output figures has to do with the generally plummeting demand for air hauls. The airline flew 134,003 passengers in the two months of 2009 altogether.

Ural Federal District’s division of the Federal Financial Market Service looked into a number of cases involving various put-up affairs on the securities market. For one, Ural Civil Aviation Plant has been sentenced to a 30,000-ruble fine for this.

Unipromed’s net loss rose by 1.197 million RUR, or 25.86%, in the second quarter of 2008 (from 4.628 million RUR in the first quarter of the year to 5.825 million RUR in the second one). The company explains this has to do with lower production output and writing off overdue debts.

Concern Kalina Board of Directors’ advice to the annual general meeting attendees is not to declare the dividends for the second half of 2008. The stockholders meeting itself is to take place on May 14, 2009 in Yekaterinburg.

URSA Bank declared it was about to buy out its Eurobonds. The bonds in question are a ?400m issue to be retired in May 2010 (ISIN: XS0301291729) and a ?300m one to be retired in November 2011 (ISIN: XS0274663383), the bank reports. The first issue bonds with face value of ?1,000 will be bought for no more than ?900 apiece, the bonds from the second issue will be bought for no more than ?780 apiece. The final scale of the buyout and the prices are to be determined in the course of a Dutch auction. The total buyout volume is not expected to exceed ?60m for each issue and ?100m for two issues

The Central Bank of Russia reports volume of loans given by Sberinvestbank to non-state for-profit organizations for 181 days to 1 year had gone down by 39.21% (from 102 million RUR to 62 million RUR) by February 1, 2009.

The number of Bank Severnaya Kazna’s (Alfa-Bank’s asset at the moment) Supervisory Board members has been reduced to three; the decision to this extent was made by the bank’s Board of Directors. The Supervisory Board is therefore now comprised by Chairman Andrei Volchik and his Deputies Roman Vitkovskiy and Sergey Shevchenko.

Governor of Chelyabinsk Region Petr Sumin met Head of Chelyabinsk Region’s division of the Federal Antimonopoly Service Anna Kozlova to look into the Service’s local performance. Ms Kozlova reported on the ongoing monitoring of the antimonopoly and advertising legislation in the region as well on the fines imposed on the detected offenders and the current lawsuits. The major point on the meeting’s agenda, however, had to do with the possible measures that could help sustain food, medication, gasoline, and fuel gas prices. Kozlova suggested that an interdepartmental committee (set up two years

The Central Bank of Russia reports volume of loans given by Sberinvestbank to non-state for-profit organizations for up to 30 days had dropped by 100% (from 45 million RUR to zero) by February 1, 2009.

Ural Airlines lowered the ticket prices for its Yekaterinburg-Dushanbe and Yekaterinburg-Khudzhant prices on March 17, 2009. The special price now comes to ?200, and there is no fuel fee. The only extra payment is the commission charged for the paper slip of the ticket (which does not have to be printed out but can be if the customer wants it to). What is more, there duration of this special offer is unlimited. Tickets can be booked and bought via the company’s website www.uralairlines.com. In addition to the special ticket prices on flights bound for the CIS members, Ural Airlines has also

Ural Airlines is going to switch to its summer timetable early on March 29, 2009. This season, there will be more domestic flights and some new flights bound for the CIS will be launched into the bargain. For one, a Saint Petersburg-Gyandzha (Azerbaijan), a Perm-Dushanbe (Tajikistan) and an Irkutsk-Dushanbe flight will be introduced this summer. In addition, the carrier will be operating additional Yekaterinburg-Krasnoyarsk, Krasnoyarsk-Novosibirsk, and Norilsk-Sochi flights as well as the Novosibirsk-Moscow one. During the summer period, the company will offer its Yekaterinburg-based

UniCreditBank’s only shareholder made the decision not to pay the dividends on common and preferred stock this year. The decision was taken in Vienna, Austria, on March 16, 2009.

The net profit of Petrokommerz Commercial Bank reached 1,103,016,000 in 2008 against 1,524,545,000 RUR a year earlier. The decrease in the net profit has to do with the build-up on the net accrued interest and the foreign currency transactions income, the drop in the net profits coming from securities transactions, and having to invest more in the possible loss reserves, the bank reports.