According to the National Managers’ League’s profitability ranking of unit investment trusts as of April 7, 2008, the share price of BCS Fund Index MICEX (BrokerCreditService Management Company) has gone down by 12.24% since the beginning of the year.

Based on the International Accounting Standards, URSA Bank’s assets reached 165.8 billion RUR last year, which was 1.5 times better than at the beginning of 2007. The bank’s own funds rose by 1.9 times and came to 28.7 billion RUR, while its profits amounted to 3.77 billion RUR, which exceeds the figures for a year earlier by 2.6 times. URSA Bank’s loan portfolio grew by 1.9 times in 2007, with the share of bad debt (with payments delayed for over ninety days) coming to 4.2% of the total portfolio value. At the same time, the bank’s reserves are capable of making up for this bad debt by 107%.

Sverdlovsk Region’s Court of Arbitration is to hear case А60-1122/08 Rosimuschestvo vs. Koltsovo airport (the regional division of the former being the plaintiff, the latter the defendant) on April 9, 2008. Rosimuschestvo is planning to cancel the rental agreement it has with the airport regarding its premises. The court’s press officer reports this agreement involves the renting of state-run property such as the airport apron, the runways, the aircraft parking areas and so on; the whole set’s balance sheet value has been estimated to come to 397,285,629 RUR.

The Ural Bank for Reconstruction and Development and Visa completed the bank’s certification procedure aimed at making the business a principal member of the payment system. The decision to thus promote the bank was taken by Visa International BOD based on the analysis of the Ural Bank for Reconstruction and Development’s activity, development, and achievements. In addition, the bank’s financial success was confirmed by PriceWaterHouseCoopers’s audit procedure and many leading agencies’ impressive ratings. The bank was declared financially stable and prepared technology-wise to become a

Central Bank of Russia reports volume of loans given by UralTransBank to state-run for-profit organizations for up to 30 days dropped by 100% (from 20 million RUR to zero) in January-March 2008.

‘The repair jobs at Novokoltsovskaya highway will resume on April 15, 2008 and will probably last till July 15, 2008 as far as the left-hand part of the road in concerned, and till September 15, 2008 for the right-hand part of the road. This means the driving regulations will have to change for this period until the highway is re-launched in October 2008,’ the spokesperson for Sverdlovsk Region Highway Administration Sergey Ibragimov says. ‘Heavy-duty trucks will have to detour through Starokoltsovskiy and Tyumenskiy highways; in fact, these bulky vehicles might be banned from

Three Portuguese cities and a town located in Israel joined Contact in March 2008; in addition, the system users can now handle money orders to Vietnam and the Czech Republic. ‘SKB-Bank has been supporting this money order system for over two years now; our customers say this is the best value for the money. Contact’s recent expansion proves that this system is one of this country’s most mobile and dynamic ones at the moment. Moreover, Contact offers its customers a wide range of services in addition to the money orders proper, like mobile payments to banks, businesses, and organizations,’

According to the National Managers’ League’s profitability ranking of unit investment trusts as of April 4, 2008, the share price of BCS Prospective Shares Fund has gone down by 12.72% since the beginning of the year.

Olips, one of Yekaterinburg’s developers, won the gold medal at a real estate fair held on April 4-6, 2008. The fair’s coordinators thought very highly of the developers’ original stand and the interesting housing projects presented. In fact, the company’s stand was a total look-alike of a trendy living room. The idea behind this was offering customers not a mere place to live but a real cozy home. The visitors were duly impressed and took great interest in the developer’s projects, particularly in Parkoviy and Sozvesdiye apartment blocks. People commented on these blocks’ convenient location

Elected President Dmitriy Medvedev met some representatives of Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs on April 8, 2008. Chairman of Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) and President of the Union’s Chelyabinsk Region division Viktor Rashnikov was one of the group’s representatives. This was one of several meetings Dmitriy Medvedev has held with the business executives recently. The meeting was aimed at consulting them on what their vision of Russia’s further development is, looking into the country’s socioeconomic development in 2008-2020, and discussing the issues related to

Ural Airlines is to operate four flights to Saint Petersburg daily beginning from April 8, 2008. In addition to offering more flights, the carrier is also going to make them less costly for passengers by introducing special tariffs. If you buy a return ticket, for example, it will only cost you 9,800 RUR, all fees included, regardless of how early you book. If you buy a single ticket at least ten days before the flight, you’ll only pay 4,700 RUR, all fees included. ‘These special price offers and the increased frequency of flights are part of our spring offer that started a week ago. We hope

A videoconference featuring reports by Evraz Group’s Senior Vice President Pavel Tatianin and Vice President for Metallurgical Assets Management Maxim Kuznetsov was coordinated in Nizhnity Tagil. The conference attendees looked into the results of the group’s activity in 2007. ‘In terms of production, the year 2007 was a rather good one. As for our premises in the Urals, all the target figures were achieved and even exceeded in some cases. Besides, there was not a single accident throughout the whole year, and we intend to keep working on our production quality and safety enhancement,’ Pavel

Central Bank of Russia reports volume of loans given by Khanty-Mansiyskiy Bank to state-run for-profit organizations despite overdraft went down by 63.38% (from 54.608 million RUR to 19.996 million RUR) in January-March 2008.

According to the Central Bank of Russia, volume of loans given by Sverdlovsk Gubernskiy Bank to state-run for-profit organizations for 1 to 3 years went down by 28.57% (from 2.916 million RUR to 2.083 million RUR) in January-March 2008.

Central Bank of Russia reports volume of loans given by Pervouralsk Joint Stock Commercial Bank to state-run for-profit organizations for 181 days to 1 year went down by 13.2% (from 213.644 million RUR to 185.439 million RUR) in January-March 2008.

Sverdlovsk Region’s division of Rosprirodnadzor (the state environmental watchdog) carried out a scheduled inspection of VIZ Stal on March 17-31, 2008. The inspection was targeted at checking the enterprise’s compliance with the existing water code, the spokesperson for Rosprirodnadzor says. The inspection revealed that VIZ Stal was using the water from Verkh-Isetskiy water reservoir and was dumping manufacturing water in the River Iset without any permission to do so. Sverdlovsk Region’s division of Rosprirodnadzor therefore initiated an administrative lawsuit against the offender. The

Ural Airlines came up with the preliminary report on the results of its activity in the first quarter of the year. The company’s press officer reports their passenger turnover rose by 8% compared to January-March 2008 and reached 215,567 people. The increase was the greatest among international travelers, as the passenger turnover at international flights grew by 54%, that at domestic flights grew by 2%, and that at the flights operated within the CIS grew by 29%. All in all, 140,342 passengers used the carrier’s domestic flights, 56,915 people used international flights, and 18,310

Central Bank of Russia reports volume of loans given by Tagilbank to for-profit self-regulatory organizations for 31 to 90 days went down by 52.87% (from 43.5 million RUR to 20.5 million RUR) in January-March 2008.

Ural Airlines is to start operating an additional Moscow-Yekaterinburg flight on April 9, 2008. The plane leaves Domodedovo airport at 11.50 PM and arrives at Koltsovo airport in Yekaterinburg at 4 AM every Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. The airline operates six flights bound for Moscow and back daily. Special tariffs (with cheapest single tickets available for only 2,200 RUR, excluding the fuel fee) were offered to customers beginning from March 25, 2008, even though the number of seats is limited. U6-264, the Yekaterinburg-Moscow flight, leaves Koltsovo at 6.50 AM and arrives at

Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) won in the 4th All-Russian IPO Olympus 2007 contest, getting the prize in the Best Corporate Management Practice category. The contest was part of the 4th All-Russian IPO Congress, Russia’s major forum dedicated to the investment issues. The congress can be useful for all the Russian issuers as well as professionals dealing in public offers. The congress was divided into panels on preparing for a public offer and going through with it. Experts from the state bodies like the Federal Financial Market Service, the Central Bank, and the Ministry of