Central Bank of Russia reports volume of loans given by UralTransBank to state-run for-profit organizations for 181 days to 1 year plummeted by 100% (from 1.466 million RUR to zero) in January-September 2008.

According to the Central Bank of Russia, volume of loans given by Uralprivatbank to sole traders despite overdraft dropped by 62.32% (from 8.391 million RUR to 3.161 million RUR) in January-September 2008.

Association of Regional Banks of Russia thanked SKB-Bank’s management for their support and help with the coordination of the 6th international banking forum called Russian Banks 21st Century. The forum was held in Sochi in September 2008, the bank’s press officer reports. The event coordinators said ‘SKB-Bank’s participation ensured the best quality forum both content– and logistics-wise.’ Based on the forum’s outcomes, SKB-Bank was awarded with an honorary diploma, while President of the Association of Regional Banks of Russia and the State Duma Deputy Anatoly Aksakov spoke about the

URSA Bank was given the 183d position on the Finance magazine’s Russia’s Top 500 companies list in terms of revenue volume in 2007. What is more, the bank proved the country’s fourth fastest-growing business, thus getting promoted by 144 positions compared to a year earlier. According to the magazine’s rating, URSA Bank’s profits reached 24.07 billion RUR in 2007, which was 144% better than in 2006. The bank’s net profit rose by 163% and came to 3.77 billion RUR. URSA Bank was rated the country’s 14th most successful bank in terms of revenue last year against the 20th position in 2006.

RBC.Rating reports Perviy Respublikanskiy Bank invested 2.47 million RUR in securities in January-June 2008, which exceeds the figures for the first half of 2007 by 421.94%. These data are available from the agency’s Top500 Banks rating in terms of securities investments in the first half of 2008. Meanwhile, the Russian stock market’s crisis has already led to a major downfall in many issuers’ stock prices.

Raiffeisenbank denied any rumors related to alleged introduction of limits on cashing of deposits. ‘We never had any limits on giving back our private customers the money they had deposited,’ the bank’s BOD member and Private Customer Service Director Roman Vorobiev said to an UrBC reporter. In the meantime, a number of banks actually do have some problems with interbank lending and cash at the time of the country’s economic crisis and the financial market’s problems.

The latest re-certification audit at MSA a.s. (part of Rimera and one of the leading Czech pipeline fittings manufacturers) proved that the plant’s produce met all of the American Petroleum Institute’s requirements. MSA a.s. has already got the API’s license that guarantees their produce’s great quality. Each manufactured item gets stamped with a special API monogram that proves its compliance with the institute’s quality standards. The re-certification audit procedure is carried out on an annual basis and is the obligatory proviso for any enterprise willing to be able to use the API monogram

Central Bank of Russia reports volume of loans given by Bank Uralfinance to financial bodies and local governments for 91 to 180 days went down by 66.82% (from 5 million RUR to 1.659 million RUR) in January-August 2008.

According to the Central Bank of Russia, volume of loans given by UralFinPromBank to non-state financial organizations for 1 to 3 years went down by 15.38% (from 7.022 million RUR to 5.942 million RUR) in January-August 2008.

Utel (aka Uralsvyazinform), one the region’s major telecommunications provider, has recently been featured in an online video clip called The Immaculate Connection. In terms of the plot, the clip shows a conversation between a young man and a young woman wearing a kimono. The man apparently does not want any children and says he is not willing to provide for the baby, whereupon the woman kicks him several times. In the end, they quarrel bitterly using quite a bit of strong language, and the final slogan reads,’ Utel’s Immaculate Connection. So much for the conversation.’ The spokesperson for

Ural Airlines launched its Special Purpose Passenger project on October 7, 2008 and now needs volunteers among their frequent fliers who would be willing to take part in the crew’s evaluation while on board. The passengers who agree to cooperate will be sent an electronic questionnaire with detailed filling instructions. The questionnaire will give the evaluators a chance to do a written assessment of the flight attendants’ performance during a particular flight. The questions are related to the quality of passenger service on board the plane, with a special section devoted to amiability and

RBC.Rating reports Bank24.ru invested 1.881 million RUR in securities in January-June 2008, which exceeds the figures for the first half of 2007 by 41.37%. These data are available from the agency’s Top500 Banks rating in terms of securities investments in the first half of 2008. Meanwhile, the Russian stock market’s crisis has already led to a major downfall in many issuers’ stock prices.

‘The stock market’s collapse primarily hit the stock price-sensitive investment tools,’ METCOMBANK’s CFO Vadim Bambozov said to an UrBC reporter. ‘Given the fact that the inflation rate reached 9.7% on September 1, 2008, some 89% of the country’s unit investment trusts turned out to be loss-making. Some of them experienced the non-profitability of as much as 50%. To make matters worse, people are less interested in investing in trusts now because of the real estate market’s unpredictability and the difficulties of getting there. Investing in precious metals is losing popularity as well

‘The construction of Yekaterinburg’s future Academic district will first and foremost have an impact on the potential customers’ idea of what a quality home is. We haven’t seen such carefully planned and detailed housing projects in Yekaterinburg yet, so Academic will improve on both the quality of and the supply of modern housing in the city,’ says Ural Chamber of Real Estate’s CEO Rustem Galeev. In the meantime, Russian President Dmitriy Medvedev spoke rather favorably of the pace and the quality of the construction during his recent meeting with Renova Group’s Chairman Viktor Vekselberg.

Central Bank of Russia reports volume of loans given by Pervouralsk Joint Stock Commercial Bank to sole traders for 1 t o3 years went down by 25.98% (from 29.424 million RUR to 21.779 million RUR) in January-August 2008.

ChTPZ Group and Rimera are going to participate in KIOGE 2008, the international oil and gas exhibition in Almaty, Kazakhstan, on October 7-10, 2008. ChTPZ Group is planning to present a wide range of full-set delivery options for the fuel and energy sector to its potential customers. These options include Chelyabinsk Tube Rolling Plant and Pervouralsk New Pipe Plant’s produce, the services Rimera can render to the O&G enterprises, and the Group’s new potential in the field of tubing strings, O&G pipelines, casings, and upset tubing production at Pervouralsk New Pipe Plant’s finishing

‘The financial crisis is only starting to gather pace at the moment, so its consequences are hard to predict,’ UMMC Holding’s GD Andrei Kozitsin announced in the course of a press conference in Interfax-Ural’s press center in Yekaterinburg on October 6, 2008. During the regional government’s meeting a week earlier, Kozitsin explained that the global demand for metallurgical industry’s produce tended to go down; so did the nonferrous metals prices, all of which could affect Sverdlovsk Region’s economy quite badly.

Moscow, 7 October 2008 – UC RUSAL, which owns 25% plus two shares of Norilsk Nickel, believes that it is necessary to issue the following clarification in light of the abrupt drop in Norilsk Nickel’s shares: Yesterday’s fall in Norilsk Nickel’s share price on the Russian and international markets has no connection with the stake owned by UC RUSAL. UC RUSAL considers its investment in Norilsk Nickel to be a strategic stake and has no intention of selling its stake.

‘The city council is doing their best to facilitate the construction of Yekaterinburg’s future Academic district,’ the spokesperson for Yekaterinburg municipal council Konstantin Pudov said to an UrBC reporter. Renova Group’s Chairman Viktor Vekselberg recently reported to Russian President Dmitriy Medvedev on how the implementation of the project went along. ‘Our goal is to put up a city of the twenty-first century. This is an ambitious endeavor, but we have been able to face the challenge so far, despite the financing difficulties and the stock market problems. The project requires 11

RTS stock exchange stopped dealing in Uralsvyazinform’s common and preferred stock for one hour at 11 AM Moscow time. This had to do with the mobile operator’s shares dropping in price by over 10% at the opening of business. At the same time, the company’s common stock fell by 18.16% at MICEX stock exchange by 11 AM on Monday, thus coming to only 17.5 RUR per share.