Sverdlovsk Region’s Arbitration Court prohibited any transactions UIT Uralstroy might want to carry out regarding the debatable land allotment in Kosmonavtov St. and Voikov St. in Yekaterinburg. The claim to this extent was laid by the region’s public prosecution authorities which insist that the renting agreement was invalid and prohibited any state registration of property rights over the estate located in the above-mentioned area. The court considered the prosecution authorities’ argument as to the fact that an attempt to register one’s property rights might be made in the course of the

Probusinessbank is the most likely customer of Bank24.ru’s controlling shareholding at the moment, Novosti Advertising & Information Agency claims. ‘The agreement might be signed as soon as this week,’ the agency says referring to their source (someone in the know of negotiations’ proceedings). Bank24.ru has been experiencing liquidity problems lately and even had to stop all external payments last week until an investor could be found. In November 2008, Bank24.ru applied for financial aid from the Central Bank of Russia and the Deposit Insurance Agency. Quite recently, the bank had to

Eurogreen Investment & Finance Company and Saxo Bank are going to hold a videoconference in Yekaterinburg on December 4, 2008. The agenda of the conference covers issues related to working with Saxo Trader platform. Saxo Trader is a globally recognized trading platform for shares, futures, CFDs, various types of currency and currency options at Europe, America, and Japan’s major exchanges. The videoconference starts at 7PM in Eurogreen’s office at 39 Gorkiy St. To apply, call +7(343) 3-101-104 or send your application at tarlinskaya@eurogreen.ru.

‘Bank Severnaya Kazna is now a part of Alfa Bank. In fact, we have never excluded the opportunity of business expansion through acquiring provincial banks,’ Alfa Bank’s Chairman Rushan Khvesyuk announced at a press conference in Yekaterinburg. ‘We are not going to disclose the sum of the transaction. The thing is, we’ve bought enough shares to be able to make decisions, that is, over 75%,’ he said. ‘The quantity and the quality of the bank’s assets were the important factors that motivated us to go through with the transaction. We were satisfied with the quality of the bank’s business and

Sverdlovsk Region’s division of the Federal Antimonopoly Service keeps looking into the case involving Koltsovo Airport of Yekaterinburg, TNK BP Holding, and Ural Oil Company. These are suspected of violating Article 11 (part 1) of the law on the protection of competition through jet fuel wholesale price collusion. Because of their alleged actions, the prices are maintained at a certain level in Sverdlovsk Region and the assortment of RT and TS 1 fuel as well as the range of sellers to choose from remains the same. The original hearing of the case was interrupted in September 2008.

Vladimir Frolov, the Chairman of Bank Severnaya Kazna, announced in the course of a press conference in Yekaterinburg that he was no longer going to be in the banking business. ‘I’m planning on taking some rest this month and deciding on what I want to do in the future,’ he said. Meanwhile, Bank Severnaya Kazna’s controlling shareholding has recently been bought by Alfa Bank. Vladimir Frolov is reported to have had 22.49% of the bank’s shares. ‘We intend to make our product range consistent with that of Alfa Bank in the nearest future. Bank Severnaya Kazna will no longer operate

‘Our company has already started making the human resources more efficient, and we are planning on making about 10% of our staff redundant. Then, we’ll also have to switch to a one-shift mode, which is expected to eliminate all the additional expenses caused by having to pay for working extra hours,’ LSR Group’s General Director Igor Levit said in the course of his interview to Bloomberg and Reuters. ‘We are already cutting down on managerial and administrative expenses,’ he added. LSR Group runs enterprises and offices in several Russian Federation’s constituencies, including Sverdlovsk

The Ural Bank for Reconstruction and Development holds a special offer for its bank card holders between December 1, 2008, and January 31, 2009. The offer is available in all the ten Russian regions and cities where the bank’s offices operate, that is, Sverdlovsk and Chelyabinsk Regions, Bashkortostan, Perm, Kirov, Saratov, Voronezh, Izhevsk, Orenburg, and Moscow. ‘Our bank cards are both a convenient way of making payments and a chance to get a nice gift. When one has a bank card issued by our bank, one gets a guaranteed 3,000-ruble money bonus transferred in one’s bank account (in case a

Central Bank of Russia reports volume of private individuals’ deposits and other investments in VUZ-Bank valid for 1 to 3 years dropped by 272 million RUR, or 11,77% (from 2,312,029,000 RUR to 2,039,797,000 RUR) in October 2008.

Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) is planning to buy less electric power from its suppliers and support its own electricity production within the framework of its anti-crisis package, the enterprise’s BOD Chairman Viktor Rashnikov said. MMK’s PR Department reports the company used to be able to fully provide for its electricity needs as recently as a few years ago, but, after a series of new production facilities were launched (including an arc-furnace shop), about 200 megawatts had to be purchased from outside suppliers. Now that the general production output has gone down, MMK’s

Central Bank of Russia reports volume of private individuals’ deposits and other investments in Perviy Respublikanskiy Bank valid for 1 to 3 years went down by 368 million RUR, or 14.75% (from 2,498,898,000 RUR to 2,130,191,000 RUR) in October 2008.

‘Bank Severnaya Kazna’s acquisition by Alfa Bank can be considered a good buy. The latter has been trying to attract some investment resources for business development for several years now. They did this trough bonded loans, but the sums thus obtained were not too impressive, whereas the interest rate was high enough,’ says Unicom Partner Investment & Finance Company’s Deputy GD for Corporate Consulting Dmitriy Zemerov. Bank Severnaya Kazna sold its controlling shareholding to Alfa Bank, Alfa Bank’s official statement featured via Bank Severnaya Kazna’s website reports. ‘One can say that

Starting October 8, 2008, Ural Airlines is to operate more Yekaterinburg-Khabarovsk flights. These will now be available two times a week and are to be operated using an A 320 airplane, the company’s press officer reports. The plane leaves Yekaterinburg at 9.20 PM every Monday and Friday and arrives in Khabarovsk at 10.40 AM on Tuesdays and Saturdays, respectively. Then, the plane tales off in Khabarovsk at 12.40 AM on Tuesdays and Saturdays and lands in Yekaterinburg at 5.20 PM. There is a stop in Novosibirsk on the way.

‘This isn’t the first time we’re going through a crisis, and so we more or less know what to do. We actually take the standard steps like reviewing our operational and capital expenses and cutting back on or canceling out the unnecessary ones, as well as making our managerial teams more efficient,’ Pipe Metallurgical Company’s General Director Alexander Shiryaev said in the course of his interview to Vedomosti. ‘For one, we will have to give up the idea of putting up a steel-smelting complex at Tagmet in Taganrog and the FQM continuous mill at Severskiy plant in 2009. Instead, the better part

‘The opening ceremony of the five-star hotel has been scheduled for the second half of December 2008 when al the necessary documents hopefully get processed by the state board of experts,’ the spokesperson for Hyatt Regency Ekaterinburg explained to an UrBC reporter. However, the hotel management reported earlier that the opening would take place on December 1, 2008.

According to the Central Bank of Russia, volume of non-state financial organizations’ deposits in Kreditniy Agroprombank valid for 181 days to 1 year dropped by 26.9%m or 82 million RUR (from 221.95 million RUR to 139.82 million RUR) in October 2008.

‘It’s been four weeks since our special New Year’s Tale project was launched, and increasingly more customers keep winning the prizes awarded by the bank. This means the happy holiday spirit brings the winter holiday season even closer,’ the bank’s press officer reports. ‘People normally exchange gifts and come up with all sorts of surprises for their nearest and dearest at New Year. However, getting a present before the holiday comes is even nicer, as it makes the wait itself so much more exciting. This is why we are giving out our presents now, and we get more and more winners every day,’

Sberbank of Russia’s Ural branch’s A Million-Dollar Success Story project that was started in October 2008 is now coming to an end. Over fifty Yekaterinburg dwellers contributed to the project with their success stories, with seven finalists featured in Channel 4’s Morning Express show. The winners are to be determined by an open online voting. The first prize is a 30,000-ruble deposit in Sberbank and a chance to win a million rubles, the spokesperson for the bank reports. The finalists’ stories are available through the bank’s website, where one can also vote for the chosen candidate. The

Central Bank of Russia reports volume of private individuals’ deposits and other investments in Bank Severnaya Kazna valid for 1 to 3 years went down by over 2.6 billion RUR (from 11,946,481,000 RUR to 9,283,507,000 RUR) in October 2008.

‘Because we are experiencing some order shortage at the moment, we have to take steps to be able to keep our skilled workers employed,’ Severskiy Pipe Plant’s (Pipe Metallurgical Company) HR Director Tatiana Korobeinikova said in the course of Sverdlovsk Region’s trilateral employer-employee relationship committee’s meeting. ‘Firstly, we’ve stopped hiring new workers for the time being. Secondly, 33% of our staff have had to switch to a short day mode. Thirdly, a portion of workers with varied skills have been transferred to some other departments and shops. Then, all those willing to do so