‘Bank24.ru is trying hard to attract a new investor that would be willing to deal in its financial recovery. According to the federal bill, the decision to this extent must be made by the Bank of Russia and it is to be carried out by the Deposit Insurance Agency; everything normally gets finalized within a fortnight. I believe the final decision will be taken this week, and I hope that the authorities do decide that Bank24.ru needs this financial recovery,’ Ural Banking Union’s Deputy Chairman Evgeniy Bolotin said to Ruble.ru’s reporters. The bank’s website featured the news related to

Pnevmostroymachine (involved in the construction industry) is planning on making even more people redundant. It has been reported that over two hundred people will have to leave,’ says Yekaterinburg Employment Center’s Deputy Director Anatoly Kudryashov. In the meantime, the enterprise has announced earlier that only 145 people would be made redundant altogether. ‘All in all, 710 people will have to quit their jobs in Yekaterinburg at the moment. These are mainly employees from the banking business, the building industry, and metallurgical enterprises,’ Kudryashov explained.

Strength Test, the documentary about the Ural metallurgical sector workers that was made by order of ChTPZ Group, won the first prize in Metal-Vision 2008 (a contest on the best videos devoted to Russia and the CIS’s metallurgical enterprises held within the framework of Metall Expo). To provide the necessary setting for the film, ChTPZ’s BOD Chairman Alexander Fedorov was replaced with a young headman for one day; what is more, the premises of the plant were visited by Governor of Chelyabinsk Region Petr Sumin. The film’s opening night coincided with the Metallurgist’s Day when the

URSA Bank made ?24.9m worth of coupon payments on its Eurobonds issue on November 17, 2008. The annual coupon interest rate comes to 8.3% a year. The bank went through with the 300-million-euro issue in November 2006; the bonds are to be in circulation for five years, with yearly coupon payments. The issue was carried out by Sibacademfinance Plc (now known as URSA Finance PLС) and coordinated by Deutsche Bank and UBS.

‘The interest rate a bank offers on a loan is an important customer demand indicator. Even though the rates GE Money Bank is offering may seem way overpriced at the moment, a number of potential borrowers who have no other way of covering their pressing payments might already find this offer somewhat realistic,’ Management Company’s Investment Director Alexander Metzger said to an UrBC reporter. GE Money Bank is now offering customers loans ranging between 30,000 RUR and 300,000 RUR, with interest rate coming to anything between 49.9% and 59.9% a year. In addition, there is an incidental

Ural Airlines is now offering its customers tickets for the additional Yekaterinburg- Salzburg-Yekaterinburg flight. The flight will be operated on January 3, 2009 and January 10, 2009. Flight U63537 will take off in Yekaterinburg at 6.45AM and will arrive in Salzburg at 7.35 AM; flight U63538 will leave Salzburg at 5.15 PM and will arrive in Yekaterinburg at 1.45 AM. Both flights will be operated on Airbus 320. Tickets for the flights to Salzburg are already available in all the booking offices.

Central Bank of Russia reports volume of private individuals’ deposits and other investments in Ural Innovational Commercial Bank valid for 181 days to 1 year went down by 11.91% (from 101.758 million RUR to 89.635 million RUR) in September 2008.

Central Bank of Russia reports volume of call loans given by VUZ-Bank to private individuals dropped by 32.63% (from 3.021 million RUR to 2.035 million RUR) in September 2008.

According to the Central Bank of Russia, volume of loans given by UralTransBank to non-state for-profit organizations for up to 30 days went down by 28.67% (from 55.465 million RUR to 39.55 million RUR) in September 2008.

According to the enterprise’s report (compiled in accordance with the Russian Accounting Standards), Maxi Group’s consolidated revenues resulting from sales came to 39.6 billion RUR in January-September 2008, which is 80.6% better than a year earlier. The company’s net profit reached 3.9 billion RUR, which exceeds the figures for a year earlier by 6.4%. At the same time, because the enterprise started producing more high value-added goods and due to the market’s changing needs, Maxi Group sold only 464,000 tons of steel feed and 113,000 tons of metalware, which falls short of the figures for

‘The financial recovery of Sverdlovsk Gubernskiy Bank is being carried out within the framework of the state-run banking system support program and is already proving a success,’ says the spokesperson for SKB-Bank. ‘The efficiency of the recovery measures became evident when the lion’s share of the whole bulk of problems was solved on the very first day within singing the four-party agreement among Deposit Insurance Agency, Sinara Group, SKB-Bank, and Sverdlovsk Gubernskiy Bank,’ the press officer added. ‘The bank cards are serviced without any impediments. The ATMs are full of enough cash to

Governor of Chelyabinsk Region Petr Sumin met up with his deputies to discuss the measures aimed at fighting the economic crisis. The spokesperson for the Governor reports the meeting was also attended by the Minister for Economic Development Elena Murzina and the Minister for Industry and Natural Resources Evgeniy Teftelev. Upon the Governor’s request, these ministers chair the working teams on anti-crisis action plans for small and large enterprises. The performance of all the regional governmental departments related to support of the local economy is being coordinated by Deputy Governor

‘The complete closing down of all the investment projects is unlikely, but most of them will probably either be frozen or reconsidered for the time of the crisis,’ director of Severo-Zapad strategic projects fund Vladimir Knyaginin announced at the 3d interregional conference on the investment projects in the Greater Urals. ‘Projects like the one on the industrial development of the northern parts of the Urals (known as The Industrial Urals-The Polar Urals) were naturally targeted at the metallurgical sector. These enterprises, however, intend to freeze their investment projects for the time

The public prosecution authorities of Yekaterinburg’s Verkh-Isetskiy district carried out an inspection of two Yekaterinburg-based Auchan stores in Metallurgov St. and Khalturin St. The inspection was made on behalf of the regional public prosecution authorities and was targeted at checking the enterprise’s compliance with the consumer rights legislation after an application was made by a representative of Plenipotentiary Representatioon of Russian Federation President in Ural Federal District. It was detected in the course of the inspection that the supermarket chain could be accused of

UniCredit Bank’s customers withdrew 4.07 billion RUR, or 13.4% of their total deposit volume in the bank in October 2008. The data were provided by Kommersant on the basis of Moscow-based and provincial banks’ turnover balance sheets.

Raiffeisen-Bank’s customers withdrew 13.64 billion RUR, or 12.6% of their total deposit volume in the bank in October 2008. The data were provided by Kommersant on the basis of Moscow-based and provincial banks’ turnover balance sheets.

Moscow, 13 November 2008 – UC RUSAL, the world’s largest aluminium and alumina producer, is pleased to announce the appointment of Sergey Belsky as its Director of Sales. Sergey Belsky will be responsible for the marketing and sales of the company’s wide product mix including aluminium, alumina, silicon, and foil to the international markets in Asia, America, Europe, and the CIS. He will also develop long-term relationships with existing clients, whilst searching for new sales opportunities and strengthening UC RUSAL’s ties with domestic and international end-users of its products. Sergey

UralBusinessConsulting Agency of Information and Analytics’ own sources report that a customer might have been found for Bank Severnaya Kazna’s controlling shareholding. This could actually turn out to be the Moscow Bank for Reconstruction and Development, to which the bank’s BOD Chairman Vladimir Frolov might sell his 22.5% shareholding. In addition, a number of the bank’s minor stockholders might offer their shares to the Moscow Bank for Reconstruction and Development. As a result, the latter is expected to acquire control over Bank Severnaya Kazna. According to the source, the

The net profit of Concern Kalina, the major beauty products and household chemicals manufacturer, dropped by 70%, or 3.3 times, over nine months of 2008. The calculations were made in accordance with the Russian Accounting Standards, and the figure came to 100.737 million RUR compared with 336.093 million RUR a year earlier, the company reports. The company’s sales figures reached 6,404,500,000 RUR in January-September 2008, which is 14% better than a year earlier, its gross profit amounted to 3,487,900,000 RUR, which exceeded the figures for a year earlier by 19%.

URSA Bank made $15.6m million worth of coupon payments on its Eurobonds issue; the annual coupon interest rate came to 9%. The bank went through with the $351m bonds issue in May 2006; the bonds are to be in circulation for three years; the issue was carried out by Sibacademfinance Plc (now known as URSA Finance PLС) and coordinated by ABN Amro and Citigroup. The buy-back was launched in September 2008, and over $100m worth of bonds had already been bought back by November.