TGK-9, one of Sverdlovsk Region’s major power suppliers, refused to meet its contractual obligations imposed by the multilateral joint liability agreements it signed with Sverdlovenergo and Permenergo. The company’s report for the second quarter of 2008 states TGK-9 and Permenergo signed a multilateral joint liability agreement in November 2006. In 2007, a similar agreement was signed with Sverdlovenergo. According to the report, the company’s share of responsibility came to 66.51% and 60.76% in the agreements with Permenergo and Sverdlovenergo, respectively. Later on, both Permenergo and

The Ural Bank for Reconstruction and Development was given the leading positions on Delovoy Kvartal magazine’s list of professional securities market participants, the bank’s press officer reports. The Ural Bank for Reconstruction and Development, with its total securities market turnover of 409.7 billion RUR, was Sverdlovsk Region’s No.1 in the first half of 2008. The better part of the bank’s turnover resulted from the company’s dealership and brokerage operations. ‘Despite the market’s instability, our customers grow more and more interested in independent investment, which is why the

‘We’ve been faced with a number of tasks that we are dealing with quite successfully now. Some of them have to do with some rather abstract notions like the ‘taste’ and the ‘scent’ of the area, and this is where our efforts are concentrated. This task is a bit hard to put into words, but the idea behind all this is to make Yekaterinburg’s future district unique, to make sure it has an original and individual image and a special atmosphere,’ says Renova-StroyGroup-Akademicheskoye’s General Director Stanislav Pridvizhkin. ‘We have already devised a kind of the district’s special ‘philosophy’,

Interfax-Center for Economic Analysis (Interfax-CEA) came up with the ranking of Russia’s top 100 largest banks in terms of asset volume as of June 30, 2008. Seven banks based in Ural Federal District, including SKB-Bank, were featured in the ranking for the first half of 2008. Three of them are located in Sverdlovsk Region, another three are located in Tyumen Region, and one bank is based in Chelyabinsk Region. The Center’s research has shown that all the seven banks managed to raise the volume of their assets over the first six months of 2008. Interfax-CEA analysts report SKB-Bank’s assets

Ural Airlines came up with a performance report for January-July 2008 and for the seventh month of the year. The airline’s aircraft operated 7,091 flights between January 1, 2008 and July 31, 2008, which was 16% better than a year earlier; the figures include 2,286 international flights (57% more than in January-July 2007), 4,115 domestic flights (1% more than in January-July 2007), and 616 flights within the CIS (27% more than in January-July 2007). 1,352 flights were operated by the company in July 2008 (which was 9% better than a year earlier), including 551 international flights, 676

‘Ural Treasures Bank has been working with various businesses in the field of salary schemes for several years now. The schemes were primarily designed in such a way as to be affordable for businesses (that is, the employers) and convenient and advantageous for the bank card users (that is, the employees who’d get their salaries transferred into these bank card accounts),’ Ural Treasures Bank’s department director Maria Eremeeva said to UrBC. The executive reports the commission the bank takes for transferring people’s salaries into the bank card accounts is only a third of what is charged

According to the Central Bank of Russia, volume of loans given by Tagilbank to borrowers despite overdraft dropped by 26.75% (from 2.628 million RUR to 1.925 million RUR) in January-July 2008.

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 23.12% (from 151.812 million RUR to 116.712 million RUR) in January-July 2008.

Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) published a consolidated financial report on the enterprise’s activity in the first half of 2008. The report was drawn up in accordance with the US GAAP standards. The enterprise’s revenues rose by 41% in January-June 2008 compared with a year earlier and reached $5.653bn due to growing prices and greater production output. The company’s EBITDA grew by 25% and amounted to $1.511bn. The EBITDA margin came to 27% in the first half of 2008 and to 30% in the second quarter of the year. MMK’s net profit went up by 19% and came to $1.031bn. ‘We have once

Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works BOD Chairman Viktor Rashnikov has recently been interviewed by The Financial Times; the executive said MMK was intent on the realization of great strategic goals rather than mere money-making. Rashnikov believes the success of the Russian metallurgical enterprises largely depends on their controlling shareholders’ strategic vision. ‘The American and European companies are rather transparent to the public, they’ve got plenty of financial investors, and they mainly aim to buy and sell, whereas Russian businesses tend to be controlled by strategic investors

Central Bank of Russia reports volume of loans given by Perviy Respublikanskiy Bank to sole traders for 1 to 3 years went down by 61.99% (from 51.396 million RUR to 19.531 million RUR) in January-July 2008.

According to the Central Bank of Russia, volume of loans given by Sverdlovsk Gubernskiy Bank to sole traders for 1 to 3 years dropped by 32.48% (from 333.034 million RUR to 224.841 million RUR) in January-July 2008.

According to the Central Bank of Russia, volume of for-profit self-regulatory organizations’ demand deposits in VUZ-Bank plummeted by 100% (from 34.5 million RUR to zero) in January-July 2008.

MOTIV offers its customers voice mail for free between August 18, 2008 and October 1, 2008: no subscription fee will be charged. A voice mailbox is a kind of answering machine that allows one to leave (and listen to) voice messages up to sixty seconds long in cases the number is busy or the phone is out of the coverage area. Starting October 2, 2008, the subscription fee for voice mail will come to 100 RUR. ‘This is the second time we have offered our customers free voice mail subscription this summer,’ MOTIV’s PR Director Elena Vinogradova said to UrBC. ‘The first round of free subscriptions

Sverdlovsk Region’s coinage offense–fighting authorities report 921 counterfeiting attempts were registered in the region in January-June 2008 (compared with 984 attempts a year earlier). 889 cases involved the Bank of Russia’s banknotes, 32 cases involved U.S. dollars, and one case had to do with counterfeited euro bills. The authorities say the counterfeited bills are imported to Sverdlovsk Region by so-called ‘circuiteers’ or organized groups (sometimes ethnically homogeneous ones). Batches worth between 100,000 RUR and 500,000 RUR get transported from Chechnya, Dagestan, Stavropol

UC RUSAL’s Severouralsk bauxite mine (SUBR) keeps working on the Safe Mine project targeted at promoting the corporate culture of safe working mode and the principles of industrial security in mining business, UC RUSAL’s press officer in the Urals Roman Lukichev said to UrBC. The pilot version of Safe Mine project was launched at Kalinskaya mine in December 2007. The project provides for audio reminders that accompany workers on their way to work and as they go down the mine. The reminders consist of the following phrases: ‘Good morning! Dear miners, please follow the industrial safety rules.

Perm Territory’s divisions of Rosprirodnadzor and Rostechnnadzor carried out inspections of Sylvinite and Solikamsk magnesium plant and revealed a number of water code violations in their activity, the spokesperson for the Ministry of Natural Resources reports. Both companies turned out not to have any permission to use water bodies, which violates Article 11 (part 2) of the Russian Federation Water Code. Apart from that, Sylvinite lacks the permission to dump its manufacturing water in the River Chernaya, whereas in many cases both enterprises exceeded their maximum permissible discharge

In July 2008, the Ural Bank for Reconstruction and Development was promoted from the 38th to the 34th position in MICEX Top 50 share market players rating. 654 market operators competed for a position in the rating altogether, while the bank’s promotion was brought about by a turnover increase: this went up from 4.4 billion RUR in June 2008 to 6.5 billion RUR in July 2008. In addition, the volume of the bank’s REPO transactions at MICEX stock exchange rose from 3.8 billion RUR to 22.9 billion RUR, or by over six times in July 2008 compared to a month earlier. As a result, the bank was

Governor of Sverdlovsk Region Eduard Rossel started his two-week vacation on August 18, 2008. While the Governor is on vacation, things are to be run by Head of Sverdlovsk Region Government Viktor Koksharov. The spokesperson for the Governor reports Eduard Rossel is not going to leave Sverdlovsk Region while on vacation. In fact, the Governor has already taken a two-week leave in July 2008.

ROSNO keeps making insurance payments to Detour’s unlucky customers who place their claims with the company. Based on the federal insurance surveillance authorities’ explanations, the company decided to keep making the payments in the order in which in the claims appear. In the meantime, Detour has so far been unable to compensate the unfortunate travelers in full. The company had received 288 applications for compensation by August 11, 2008. The claims totaled to 24.4 million RUR worth of damage. ROSNO keeps making up for the damage in accordance with the existing legislation and the