The assembling of a finishing center meant for OCTG production is nearly complete at Pervouralsk New Pipe Plant (part of ChTPZ Group) by now. Over 50% of the machinery got assembled already, while the startup and commissioning have been scheduled for the first quarter of 2009. The plant has been working on its Finishing Center since March 2007; the project is expected to result in a new OCTG facility capable of producing tubing strings, casings, and O&G pipelines. The center will comprise a coupling unit, a thermal treatment unit, a pipe-end upset unit, a pipe control unit, and a

Bank24.ru’s BOD Chairman Sergey Lapshin coordinated a press conference dedicated to setting up of the bank’s first 24/7 office in Saint Petersburg. He announced that Olga Lysukho was chosen to run the office there. In the meantime, FinNews.ru reports the bank is apparently not planning to expand its ATM network in Saint Petersburg.

The Ural Bank for Reconstruction and Development has recently raised the interest rate the company offers on its special Holiday deposit up to 13.9% a year (provided the deposit period comes to 100 to 130 days). In case you want to withdraw your money before the deposit period comes to an end, the interest rates will still be generally higher than the usual ones. According to the terms of the bank’s other deposits, the interest is either paid on a monthly basis or at the end of the deposit period; as a matter of fact, improved interest is offered for these deposit types as well: in case you

The 3d Russian Promissory Notes Congress was held in Yekaterinburg on October 3, 2008. The event was coordinated by SKB-Bank. ‘The choice of the location was brought about by such factors as Yekaterinburg’s impressive economic growth and its developed financial infrastructure as well as the upcoming Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit next year,’ the bank’s press officer reports. ‘The congress was a great success in Kazan in 2006 and in Samara in 2007, which means the country’s financial community is quite interested in this kind of securities,’ says Cbonds Marketing Director Olga

MOTIV Communications Group looked into the outcomes of its special summer offer known as Roaming Non Stop. The company reports their customers’ use of the mobile services abroad doubled in 2008 compared to a year earlier. At the same time, the use of the National Roaming service went up by 75% as well. Turkey was definitely the summer’s roaming leader, followed by Egypt, Spain, Italy, Greece, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Germany, Ukraine, and Kazakhstan. MOTIV was able to significantly expand its roaming geographically in May through September, adding more than twenty new countries to its

Uralsvyazinform, the telecommunications provider, admitted that the company had violated the existing legislation on consumer rights protection, reports Egor Tomilov of Sverdlovsk Region’s division of Rospotrebnadzor (the state consumer rights watchdog). Rospotrebnadzor’s regional division received a complaint from Sverdlovsk Region’s division of the Federal Antimonopoly Service. The latter claimed Uralsvyazinform was forcing some of its customers to use certain tariff schemes. The antimonopoly agency found no antimonopoly law violations there but saw this as a violation of consumer rights

UralFinPromBank raised the interest rates on the consumer loans it offers by 1% to 1.5%. The interest rates thus now come to 21% to 22% a year, depending on the terms of the contract.

RSG Commercial Estate and Castorama, the French chain store, agreed that the latter’s hypermarket was going to become Retail Park’s anchor tenant in the near future. Retail Park is to be located in Yekaterinburg’s future Academic district and will probably be launched in 2011. The new district’s trade and business node will boast the area of 45,000 square meters where all kinds of goods and services meant for making one’s home a better and cozier place can be found. RSG and Castorama’s agreement states that the French company is to rent 12,200 square meters worth of shopping space for its

The Ural Bank for Reconstruction and Development Finance (fully owned by its parent enterprise, the Ural Bank for Reconstruction and Development) made 25.24 million RUR worth of coupon payments on their second bond issue’s ninth coupon. Each 1,000-ruble bond thus yielded its owner 31.16 RUR of profit, the spokesperson for the bank reports. The issuer determined the interest rates for the ninth, tenth, eleventh, and twelfth coupons at 12.5% a year, or 31.16 RUR per each 1,000-ruble bond. The coupon payments for the tenth, eleventh, and twelfth coupon periods will be made on January 1, 2009,

MegaFon, one of Russia’s major mobile operators, started selling iPhone 3G in Russia on October 3, 2008. The operator’s tariff schemes that are part of the iPhone 3G package include a certain amount of prepaid traffic (ranging between 500 MB and 5 GB). Customers willing to make a preliminary purchase application may do so via the company’s website (http://www.iphone.megafon.ru/). After you fill in the electronic form online, you are given a personal order number. The tariff schemes description is also available via MegaFon Ural’s website www.megafonural.ru or over the phone (the service

According to the Central Bank of Russia, volume of loans given by VUZ Bank to non-state for-profit organizations for up to 30 days went down by 64.64% (from 20.15 million RUR to 7.125 million RUR) in January-August 2008.

Central Bank of Russia reports volume of loans given by Sverdlovsk Gubernskiy Bank to non-state financial organizations for over 3 years dropped by 14.16% (from 464.310 million RUR to 398.538 million RUR) in January-August 2008.

‘One must admit that investing in unit investment trusts is not a very good idea at the moment. This market is currently not growing at all and is very volatile at the same time, so the trusts’ quotations have recently gone down,’ Otkrytiye Finance Corporation’s CEO Evgeniy Dankevitch said at a press conference devoted to setting up of the company’s office in Yekaterinburg. Otkrytiye actually comprises Otkrytiye Management Company that runs its own unit investment trusts; incidentally, these trusts’ profitability is currently below the inflation rate and some of them are even bringing nothing

Starting October 12, 2008, British Midland Airways will no longer operate any Yekaterinburg-London flights because of their economic inexpediency, the spokesperson for the company explained to an UrBC reporter. The company first introduced its London-Yekaterinburg-London flight on May 10, 2004. The launch of the flights was greatly facilitated by Governor of Sverdlovsk Region Eduard Rossel. Both the Governor and the airline’s general director then said the flight was a very promising one and were even considering launching the daily flights for the destination.

‘Having looked into this project, bearing in mind the existing social limits and the responsibility we have regarding the protection of historic buildings, and given the current financial situation, we would like our hotel construction project to be taken off your special list,’ Marriott Hotel project investor’s representative Alexei Kurbanayev said in the course of a monthly meeting devoted to the buildings that are under Governor of Sverdlovsk Region Eduard Rossel’s special control. In August 2008, Alexei Kurbanayev explained at a similar meeting that putting up Marriott Hotel was

CIT Capital’s Board of Directors decided to terminate the authority of the company’s current General Director on September 30, 2008 and to cancel his labor contract on the same date. Starting October 1, 2008, the company’s CFO Alexei Averkiev will be acting GD until the new director has been elected.

Rosgosstrakh and Eldorado chain store selling consumer electronics have recently announced that they would try to persuade the people who bought Apple iPhone communicator to acquire an insurance to go along with it. The cost of an insurance package will come to 999 RUR for Eldorado’s customers, with the insurance agreement valid through one year. The insurance is believed to enable an iPhone owner to get compensation in case the device gets stolen or damaged. At the same time, the insurance plan raises the price of an iPhone by 3.7% to 4.3%. Apple iPhone 3G will officially hit the Russian

URSA Bank has recently been accredited by the Deposit Insurance Agency, the state corporation. This means the bank’s new status allows it to take part in the tenders where banks compete for the right to be the agency’s mediators when it comes to insurance payments and paying off top-priority creditors. URSA Bank joined the obligatory deposit insurance system on September 21, 2004. The Deposit Insurance Agency currently cooperates with twenty-three banks in terms of compensation payments.

Central Bank of Russia reports volume of non-state for-profit organizations’ deposits in Sverdlovsk Gubernskiy Bank valid for 91 to 180 days plummeted by 87.49% (from 60.002 million RUR to 7.501 million RUR) in January-August 2008.

Nizhniy Tagil Customs processed 17,800 cargo manifests in January-August 2008; some 190 legal entities dealt in foreign trade altogether, while the total cargo turnover amounted to 3.1 million tons, with 55.1% of goods shipped to or from the far abroad and 44.9% shipped to or from the CIS. The external trade turnover in the area came to $3.1bn, which exceeded the figures for January-August 2007 by 33.7%. The export/import ratio came to 81%/19%. 80.7% of the total trade turnover involved the countries of the far abroad, while 19.3% of the total turnover had to do with the CIS. The latter rose