Central Bank of Russia reports volume of loans given by Uralprivatbank to for-profit self-regulatory organizations for 31 to 90 days dropped by 83.85% (from 7 million RUR to 1.13 million RUR) in January-May 2008.

‘Speaking of the Turkish tourist market, I’d say there are some full-fledged operators who book flights and make direct hotel reservations and thus come up with a ready package; also, there are some operators who don’t have any direct contact with the hotels or air carriers or don’t operate on a large enough scale to do massive booking, so these operators borrow some of the packages from other companies. For one, Vasco, a Turkish-Austrian operator with a daughter enterprise in Russia (known as Detour) borrowed our reservations for Yekaterinburg-Antalya and Chelyabinsk-Antalya flights but

LSR Group’s Board of Directors approved of the company’s two recent transactions targeted at geographical diversification and building up their position on Yekaterinburg’s construction and building materials market, the Group’s official website reports. One transaction involved acquiring 100% of Uralscheben’s shares. The sum of the transaction has remained unknown. Uralscheben is reported to be one of Yekaterinburg’s major macadam market players that supplied 5% of all the macadam used by Yekaterinburg’s builders last year. Uralscheben owns 100% of Rezhevskoy DCZ and Gagarskiy granite mine’s

Sverdlovsk Region’s division of Rostechnadzor (the state environmental, technological, and nuclear safety watchdog) intends to inspect a number of regional enterprises, their press officer reports. The agency is going to examine the premises and papers of Sinara Pipe Plant, Severskiy Pipe Plant (members of Pipe Metallurgical Company), Volchanskiy Ugol, and Severouralskiy brewery. In addition, Sverdlovsk current transformer plant, Polevskoy machine-building plant, Serov mechanical plant, Serov metallurgical plant, Gazpromtransgaz Yugorsk, Pervouralskaya poultry plant, and Pervouralsk New Pipe

Kommersant-Tema came up with the results of a research done on Russia’s factoring market opportunities in 2007. The magazine’s analysts report the share of provincial banks keeps going up. Last year, for instance, this share came to 46.4% of the market against 43.3% in 2006. The magazine also rated Russian companies that did best in terms of factoring earnings in 2007. SKB-Bank, for one, has received over 120 million RUR by January 1, 2008, which was 828% better than a year earlier and thus secured the bank the 11th best position among all Russian factoring market players. According to Expert

The Ural Bank for Reconstruction and Development is going to run a special offer for its customers on July 4-14, 2008. Customers can take advantage of the special discount and get a business development loan with the annual interest rate that is 1% lower than usual. In order to use this offer, one has to apply for a loan quickly in any of the bank’s offices where the SME Lending Program is available. These are the terms of the offer, known as ‘SME Lending Program’s Birthday’: 1. The offer is available between July 4, 2008 and July 14, 2008 in all of the bank’s offices where the SME Lending

Yekaterinburg Consumer Rights Committee keeps getting complaints regarding Noviy Grad, the local developer. ‘In fact, we get claims related to nearly all the local builders, including Noviy Grad, a number of companies whose names include the word Mayak, and many others,’ says the Committee’s Chairman Andrei Artemiev. Andrei Artemiev reports there is a whole range of financial pyramids on the city’s housing market into the bargain. ‘Such builders put up dwellings for one group of customers using the money invested by some other customers; as a result, the number of the so-called deceived

An official representative of American University in Cairo did not support the claim made by Viktor V. Solkin, a prominent Russian Egyptologist, head of MAAT (the Association for Ancient Egypt Studies), that he had defended his PhD in the History of Egypt there. In June 2008, Viktor Solkin took part in The School for Scandal, a popular NTV show hosted by Tatiana Tolstaya and Avdotya Smirnova. He said he decided not to defend his thesis in Russia because of some unfavorable reviews and comments and went through with the procedure at American University in Cairo. This claim was met with a bit

An official representative of American University in Cairo did not support the claim made by Viktor V. Solkin, a prominent Russian Egyptologist, that he had defended his PhD in the History of Egypt there. In June 2008, Viktor Solkin took part in The School for Scandal, a popular NTV show hosted by Tatiana Tolstaya and Avdotya Smirnova. He said he decided not to defend his thesis in Russia because of some unfavorable reviews and comments and went through with the procedure at American University in Cairo. This claim was met with a bit of disbelief by a number of Russian Egyptologists, and

According to the Central Bank of Russia, volume of for-profit self-regulatory organizations’ deposits in Sverdlovsk Gubersnkiy Bank valid for 91 to 180 days went down by 35.37% (from 60.002 million RUR to 38.777 million RUR) in January-May 2008.

SKB-Bank’s office started operating in Krasnodar’s Zapadniy district and can now be found at 141 Kirov St/327/3 Kalinin St. The office is located in downtown, next to a big square and Academic drama theater. The bank’s outlet welcomes small and medium enterprises’ representatives from 8.30 AM to 5.30 PM on weekdays. SKB-Bank runs over eighty offices in twenty Russian regions at the moment and is planning to introduce new offices in Khabarovsk, Yakutsk, Kazan, Izhevsk, Yugorsk, and Tarko-Sale.

Okami-Vostok, one of Yekaterinburg’s car centers, has been unable to fix the problem one of the cars they’d sold had for ten days now, the owner of the car reports. The unfortunate customer was told by the center’s experts that the part needed to fix the faulty air conditioner had been sent off Taganrog car factory and was located in Moscow for the time being. The part would take another ten days to arrive in Yekaterinburg. Okami-Vostok initially told the customer that the delivery of the car part could take between 14 and 45 days within the day of application.

Central Bank of Russia reports volume of loans given by UralTransBank to private individuals for 181 days to 1 year went down by 17.33% (from 198.943 million RUR to 164.454 million RUR) in January-May 2008.

SKB-Bank has offered over 5 billion RUR worth of loans to small and medium enterprises so far. The number of loans came to more than 10,000. RBC.Rating reports SKB-Bank is one of Russia’s top ten banks in terms of loans given to small and medium-scale businesses. SKB-Bank keeps working on the development of its lending practices, as growth of small and medium-scale business is an important catalyst of Russian economy and these companies actively cooperate with the banks. Experts believe only 20% to 25% of Russian small businesses’ demand for loans has been satisfied so far. ‘Our Spin Up

Sberbank’s Ural branch signed a government contract with Sverdlovsk Region’s Youth Affairs Department regarding the bank’s participation in the federal housing program in 2007, the bank’s press officer reports. According to the contract, the state offers young families a subsidy they can use to buy themselves a place and transfers the money into an account that has to be opened in Sberbank of Russia. The particular sum depends on the number of family members and comes to 35% to 40% of the dwelling’s cost. After a family has found a suitable apartment and provides the bank with the purchase

A report was made by Academic construction project’s manager Stanislav Pridvizhkin in the course of a monthly meeting on the socially important construction in Sverdlovsk Region. The meeting was chaired by Governor Eduard Rossel. ‘We manage to stick with the construction schedule. Eight cranes are currently employed at the site, and all the engineering infrastructure is to be commissioned in the third quarter of this year. The water conduit will be commissioned in the very near future,’ Stanislav Pridvizhkin said. The Governor and the region’s Minister of Construction and Housing Maintenance

According to the Central Bank of Russia, volume of for-profit self-regulatory organizations’ deposits in UralFinPromBank valid for 181 days to 1 year plummeted by 100% (from 19.5 million RUR to zero) in January-May 2008.

The public prosecution authorities’ investigation that followed the accident at Demidov Business Center’s construction site (based in Boris Yeltsin St. in Yekaterinburg) in February 2008 resulted in a criminal lawsuit. The charge is based on Article 2 (part 143) of Russian Criminal Code and involves violations of labor safety regulations that resulted in involuntary manslaughter. On February 29, 2008, two employees of Iset Construction Company were working on the wall forms of the elevator shaft when due to violations of safety rules they fell down on the bottom of the shaft. One of them was

The participants of the project known as the School of Managing Director supported by Nizhniy Tagil Iron & Steel Works (part of Evraz Group) have recently come back from a professional training workshop in Germany. Looking into the organization of production processes at German enterprises was the final stage of the company’s young managers’ training. The company’s middle level managers first went through internship under Nizhniy Tagil Iron & Steel Works’ leading experts and experts from a number of other Russian enterprises. Their training abroad was focused on prospects and

Central Bank of Russia reports volume of nongovernmental financial organizations’ deposits in UniCreditBank valid for 91 to 180 days dropped by 93.41% (from 355.967 million RUR to 23.445 million RUR) in January-May 2008.