RBC.Rating reports SKB-Bank was one of Russia’s Top 100 most profitable banks on October 1, 2008. The bank scored the 60th position in the rating. According to RBC.Rating, SKB-Bank’s profits amounted to 538.1 million RUR in January through September 2008, which exceeded the figures for a year earlier by 36.5% and thus secured the bank’s promotion in the rating by as many as twenty-two positions up.

Pipe Metallurgical Company (TMK) shipped 3,227,000 tons of steel pipes to its customers last year, which was 5% better than the year before. Excluding the contribution made by TMK IPSCO, TMK shipped 2,738,000 tons of produce to its customers, which falls short of the figures for 2007 by 11%. The company explains this had to do with a decrease in the seamless pipe production at Taganrog Metallurgical Plant in January-September 2008 because of having to stop using some obsolete machinery and installing the new PQF mill. ‘Besides, our large-diameter pipe shipments dropped by 38.6% because some

VUZ-Bank’s net profit plummeted by 286.657 million RUR, or 295.43% in the last quarter of 2008. In the third quarter of the year, for instance, the bank made 97.03 million RUR worth of net profit, while its net loss came to 189.627 million RUR in the fourth quarter of 2008. The bank reports this decrease in the net profit has been brought about by the 233.78-million-ruble increase in debt reserves.

URSA Bank reports the company came up with a special buy-out program for its own debt obligations. According to this program, the bank intends to buy its Eurobonds issued by URSA Finance Plc (formerly known as Sibacademfinance Plc.). This issue’s nominal volume comes to ?400m; the bank went through with the bond issue in May 2007, and these are to be retired in May 2010; the coupon interest rate was determined at 7% a year. URSA Bank is planning to buy its bonds on the market or through a number of private transactions. URSA Bank’s Managing Director John McNaughton notes the bank’s earlier

Having acquired the business, Probusinessbank now has to meet the claims laid by Bank24.ru’s customers. The latter, in its turn, used to handle the payment transactions of a pyramid scheme that collapsed about two years ago, Kommersant reports. For one, Moscow Arbitration Court accepted the claim laid by a Yekaterinburg dweller Sergey Khlopov against Global Gaming Expo (GGE), its founder Alexei Kalinichenko, and Bank24.ru. Khlopov insists on declaring invalid the agreements he signed with the defendants because of GGE’s proclaimed insolvency. In the meantime, financially, Khlopov’s claim will

‘The current tourist demand is extremely low. The dramatic market downfall is obvious, both Moscow and Yekaterinburg keep canceling more and more flights. The majority of cancelled flights were those bound for some warm, beach destinations. What is more, people simply stopped booking in advance; most agents haven’t even sold the tours offered for the end of February. Even special ‘hot’ offers are not selling very well. The reason for this is both the growing euro and dollar exchange rates and the financial crisis,’ Inna Tour Travel Agency’s Director Inna Averyanova said to an UrBC reporter.

400 billion RUR entered the Russian banking system in the form of deposits in December 2008, Chairman of the Central Bank of Russia Sergey Ignatiev reported at a special meeting on economic issues chaired by the President. Ignatiev feels things got back to normal in December. ‘The private customers’ deposits dropped by about 360 billion RUR in October; then, the amount remained practically the same in November and rose by 400 billion RUR in December. Given the troubles in the fall, we got a very positive result at the beginning of winter,’ he said. Andrei Melnikov, the Deposit Insurance

Sverdlovsk Region Court of Arbitration started hearing case А60-40279/08 regarding Alfa Ural Trading House’s possible insolvency on January 16, 2009. According to the court files, the company placed its application with the court on December 19, 2008, asking to declare their bankruptcy. Alfa Ural claimed they were unable to meet their liabilities in full since the amount of debt exceeded the cost of the company’s property and assets. The accounts payable indicated in the application came to over 81.957 million RUR. The company is undergoing bankruptcy proceedings at the moment, with the

Mayor of Yekaterinburg Arkadiy Chernetskiy met with the committee responsible for the organization of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit this June to discuss the preparation process, the spokesperson for the city council reports. It was explained in the course of the meeting that global economic and financial problems made the summit coordinators reduce the number of construction projects meant for the event. These were Demidovskiy Business Center, Central Stadium, Antey Business Center’s third section, Europe Trade & Business Center, Greenwich Trade Center’s third section,

Ural Airlines came up with a performance report for 2008. In December 2008, the carrier serviced 77,834 passengers, which was 5% better than a year earlier. 18,338 people used the airline’s international flights (10% more than in December 2007), 45,437 people used domestic flights (9% less than a year earlier), and 14,059 people used the flights within the CIS (84% more than in December 2007). The airline operated 798 flights in December 2008 altogether, which exceeded the figures for a year earlier by 2%. The figures include 170 international flights (11% more than in December 2007), 480

‘It’s true that the car prices have gone up since the beginning of this year. For one, a Chevrolet is now 9% to 10% more expensive, Opel makes have gone up by 9%, and Saab cars now cost 8% more. Hummer and Cadillac car prices have remained the same for the time being. I feel this price increase may have to do with the increased custom duties. Then, the price could have been affected by the growing foreign currency exchange rates,’ says Petr Lapin, Ok-Trans (Glazurit Car Center) Sales Manager. According to the official data available, the number of cars sold in Russia in the last quarter of

SKB-Bank recently set up three more ATMs within the region; one new machine is located in Chelyabinsk at 16 Komsomolsky Ave. (Galaxy Entertainment Center), another one in Aramil, Sverdlovsk Region (Zarya Mall at 10 Pervoye Maya St. Then, the third ATM was launched in Volzhskiy, Volgograd Region (Nadezhda department store at the intersection of Lenin St and Fontannaya St. This means SKB-Bank’s ATM network now comprises 340 machines altogether, with 15 of them based in Chelyabinsk Region and 134 based in Sverdlovsk Region. All of these three new ATMs operate 24/7 and offer their users a wide

Yekaterinburg municipal council denied the upcoming introduction of a Bentley representation and show room in town. ‘The opening of a show room has been postponed because of the current financial crisis. In case the trouble isn’t long-lasting, the representation will start operating in Yekaterinburg in 2010 or 2011,’ Deputy Mayor Viktor Konteev’s press officer Ilona Starodubtseva said to an UrBC reporter. Meanwhile, Stuart McCullough, Bentley's Board Member for Sales and Marketing, announced earlier that their office would appear in Yekaterinburg very soon. ‘We keep on breaking onto the

Bank Severnaya Kazna’s (now the asset of Alfa Bank) additional office at 64 Vostochnaya St. closed down in Yekaterinburg. According to the bank’s official statement, the outlet is to welcome its customers for the last time on January 15, 2009.

The value of Bank Severnaya Kazna’s (now the asset of Alfa Bank) assets has gone down by 14.3%. The bank itself was acquired by Alfa Bank in December 2008. The bank’s assets were estimated at 50,065,192,000 RUR on December 1, 2008 and at 50,922,245,000 RUR on October 1, 2008. This means the figure dropped by 6,427,357,000 RUR, or 12.8% in absolute figures and by 7,284,410,000 RUR, or 14.3% percentage-wise. The bank reports the decrease in the asset value has been brought about by the shrinking lending portfolio and selling their securities.

Sberbank’s Ural branch recently made more options available via its ATMs and self-service devices located within Sverdlovsk Region. For one, the bank’s private borrowers can now make their loan payments using an ATM or an information & transaction terminal in any city in the region, regardless of where the loan was obtained. This is naturally much more convenient than having to use the ATMs of only the same subsidiary where the sum was originally borrowed, as the case had been before (Yekaterinburg used to be the only exception to this rule.). ‘The new service means the bank’s customers

‘Our top priority at the moment is maintaining operational stability and rendering top quality service to our customers. This comprises cash and settlement services and all the other products offered to entities,’ Bank Monetniy Dom’s Deputy Chair of the Board Galina Maltseva said to an UrBC reporter. ‘As the currently troubled economy gradually gets back to normal, we are planning on expanding the range of our products, mainly through more extensive lending, and reaching the ante-crisis level,’ she added. ‘Strange as it may seem, a crisis is a good time for finding new customers. A lot of

Standard & Poor's, the international rating agency, had to demote the Russian Gazprombank’s counterparty’s long-term and short-term credit ratings from BBB-/A-3 to ВВ+/В; the Rating Outlook dropped to Negative. At the same time, Gazprombank’s national scale rating was affirmed at ruAA+. ‘This rating demotion has to do with the bank’s weakened solvency through lower capitalization and a dramatic decrease in profits after a recent massive loss on trading transactions. What is more, the Russian economy on the whole has slowed down recently. Then, the risk level was enhanced by the

The income taxation mechanism for ruble deposits was changed on January 1, 2009. Most of the interest rates offered on ruble deposits won’t be liable to taxation any longer and the income tax would only be charged if the annual interest rate on the deposit exceeds the Bank of Russia’s refinancing rate by 5%. As for the refinancing rate, this comes to 13% at the moment, so any ruble deposit with annual interest rate of less than 18% isn’t to be taxed at all. ‘At the same time, the income taxation mechanisms for foreign currency deposits will remain the same. As for the ruble ones, the

The district’s public prosecution authorities for transport issues looked into the results of their performance in 2008. ‘In case of revealed arrears of wages, our officials took steps to make sure the money is paid. A lot of claims (totaling to 1.61 million RUR) were placed with the local courts, and we managed to win all of these cases,’ the spokesperson for the public prosecution authorities for transport issues says. ‘Last October, we checked the compliance of Sverdlovsk Region Railways and South Ural Railways with the security regulations related to transportation of hazardous freight.