According to the National Managers’ League’s profitability ranking of unit investment trusts as of March 12, 2008, the share price of Alfa Capital Electroenergetica (Alfa Capital Management Company) has gone down by 10.64% since the beginning of 2008.

‘The fact that the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development bought our shareholding, an increase in the bank’s capital, and our actual growth dynamics have all contributed to SKB-Bank’s rating promotion,’ SKB-Bank’s Chairman Vladimir Pukhov said to UrBC. ‘For one, RusRating gave us BB- rather than the original B+, while Fitch Ratings affirmed our rating at B- (which is what most Moscow-based banks got as well) and Moody’s promoted us from B2, Stable Outlook to B2, Positive Outlook at the end of 2007,’ he added. ‘I believe our success is based on a few key factors. Firstly, we offer

‘It is possible after all that some of Yekaterinburg airport’s premises currently rented by Koltsovo airport will actually be transferred to some third party. The current state of events, with the airport run by a few parties that have no coordinated policy, dissatisfies the local authorities and the state, as well as the present owner. Yet, the likeliest thing to happen is that a new renting agreement will secure the rights of the present operator,’ says Aviaport Agency’s Analytics Director Oleg Panteleev. In the meantime, Rosimuschestvo filed a complaint with Sverdlovsk Region Court of

Central Bank of Russia reports volume of natural persons’ investments and deposits in Ural Innovational Commercial Bank valid for 181 days to 1 year went down by 6.52% (from 151.812 million RUR to 141.917 million RUR) in January-February 2008.

Yekaterinburg Municipal Duma Economic Development Committee members have recently been updated on how successfully the local strategic project on quality goods production was implemented in 2007, Duma’s press officer reports. For one, eighty-six furniture-making companies are currently operating in the city; these delivered to their customers nearly 2 billion RUR worth of products in January-September 2007, which is 1.5 times better than in January-September 2006. Besides, the businesses received more than 89 million RUR in terms of investments last year. ‘Even though the local producers were

Yekaterinburg Municipal Duma Economic Development Committee members have recently been updated on how successfully the local strategic project on quality foods production was implemented in 2007, Duma’s press officer reports. It was announced that Yekaterinburg’s 16 large food manufacturers and 70 small companies produced a total of over 17 billion RUR worth of foods in 2007, which exceeds the figures for a year earlier by 7.5%. At the same time, a number of manufacturers (the city’s flour milling and bakery plants, Confectionery Group SladCo, and Yekaterinburg Meatpacking Plant) experienced

The Federal Financial Market Service looked into the results of the scheduled field checks of FINAM Investment Company and Finam Management Company, decided to ban some of the companies’ operations, and insisted on eliminating the violations of the existing laws detected in the companies’ activity. According to the Service’s report, this decision is by no means a sign of the Service’s negative evaluation of the management and investment companies’ job. The limited bans on certain items related to the performance of unit investment trusts managed by any other company could occur in the future

‘We invested 1.4 billion RUR in our networks’ development last year, originally hoping to get all the money through link-up fees. However, the money failed to arrive in time, which is why we had to get a bonded loan of 1 billion RUR,’ Yekaterinburg Electrical Network Company’s Deputy Strategic Development Director Sergey Semerikov announced at a press conference on March 13, 2008. He said the company was planning to spend 2.6 billion RUR on development in 2008, so additional (i.e. banks’) resources would have to be used. In addition, the company set up a contracts department in order to

SKB-Bank was declared Sverdlovsk Region’s fastest-growing bank in terms of assets and the most successful one in 2007. According to Expert RA and RBC Daily’s Russia’s Top 100 largest banks rating (based on the banks’ asset volume), the average growth rate of banks’ assets came to 44.1%, while the capitalization reached 57% a year. Remarkably, SKB-Bank was the only Ural bank whose growth in 2007 (62%) exceeded the whole system’s average figures. Moreover, SKB-Bank’s capital growth reached 74% a year and the balance sheet profit rose by 72% compared with a year earlier. At the same time, other

‘In case Koltsovo airport of Yekaterinburg does have an increase in rent, the carriers aren’t likely to feel it. Airlines only use 30 or 40 square meters of the airport’s premises, so even if Rosimuschestvo does increase the interest rates for the airport, the latter won’t charge the carriers much more, and the plane tickets won’t grow much more expensive. And, anyway, the Federal Antimonopoly Service has already determined the airport’s prices for this year,’ says Vasiliy Kovalev, the director of Transaero’s Ural branch. In the meantime, Rosimuschestvo filed a complaint with Sverdlovsk

Central Bank of Russia reports volume of loans given by Perviy Respublikanskiy Bank to for-profit self-regulatory organizations for over 3 years dropped by 100% (from 170 million RUR to zero) in January-February 2008.

‘Ensuring a company is economically secured has always been and will always remain one of the key components in business management. A proprietor needs to feel safe knowing that their assets are protected by professionals,’ Oleg Borisov, the General Director of Europe-Asia, the information and consulting center, said to UrBC. ‘Current economic growth means even more attention has to be paid to security issues. Business development, entering the new markets in neighboring regions and other countries, and cooperating with the new partners and contractors all require high quality support. The

The value of net assets of Energy - Mixed Investments (the unit investment trust) managed by Eurogreen Management Company Ltd. went down by 1.68% between March 6, 2008 and March 7, 2008. According to Eurogreen’s website, the company’s net assets decreased from 2,945,195.54 RUR on March 6, 2008 to 2,895,774.44 RUR on March 7, 2008.

Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) decided to form a strategic alliance with Belon, a large coal mining company. This alliance was made possible after MMK bought 50% of Onarbay Enterprises Ltd’s shares (the latter owns 82.6% of Belon’s share capital). MMK was thus able to increase its indirect participation in Belon’s management by 41.3%. The sum of the transaction came to $230.4m. Belon is expected to raise its coal output by 2.3 times, or up to 10.8 million tons a year, by 2012 using some investments. Investing in Belon will provide MMK with 55% of all coke-coal concentrate and 60%

According to the National Managers’ League’s profitability ranking of unit investment trusts as of March 11, 2008, the share price of Raiffeisen Funds’ Fund (Raiffeisen Capital Management Company) has gone down by 10.24% since the beginning of 2008.

Dwellings located in Sredneuralsk, Sverdlovsk Region, are to be converted from central to individual heating, the town’s mayor Alexei Danilov said to the Governor of Sverdlovsk Region. According to the mayor, the town’s heating networks are very badly worn out and the heat losses therefore come to 60% sometimes, while the detached houses sector is fully provided for by the central heating system. The municipal authorities have already started converting the houses back to individual heating through supplying the dwellers with energy-saving gas boilers. 1,000 houses are expected to be

The Ural Bank for Reconstruction and Development was featured in MICEX’s Top 50 Trading Operators rating in February 2008. The fifty winners were picked out from 630 contestants; the Ural Bank for Reconstruction and Development was given the 37th position in terms of stock market trading and the 46th position in terms of bond market repurchase agreement trading. Tellingly, the bank’s share trading turnover rose to 6.4 billion RUR against 6.2 billion RUR in January 2008, while its bond repurchase agreement trading turnover went up from 1.6 billion RUR in January 2008 to 2.3 billion RUR in

‘A short while ago, Sunrise tour travel agency’s fifty-six customers who didn’t have any direct agreement with Ural Airlines were unable to pass the border control at Koltsovo airport of Yekaterinburg and thus missed their chartered flight SVR 3603 due to lack of papers, visas, and passports,’ the carrier’s press officer said to UrBC. Based on its agreement with PGS Charter, Ural Airlines is to operate a chartered flight from Yekaterinburg, Russia, to Goa, India, and back from December 9, 2007 to April 2, 2008. Apart from flights operated from Moscow, this is the only flight to Goa available

It was announced in the course of a meeting chaired by First Deputy Head of Sverdlovsk Region Government Vladimir Molchanov that a regional state-run air carrier dealing in local and regional flights is to be set up in Sverdlovsk Region. The issue was first brought into the limelight during the Russian Federation Minister of Transport Igor Levitin’s visit to Yekaterinburg. The future enterprise will probably be based on the currently operating state-run organization that uses seventeen runways and owns a number of aircraft and some premises. The new business is expected to start operating in

Central Bank of Russia reports volume of loans given by UralTransBank to state-run for-profit organizations despite overdraft plummeted by 100% (from 5.967 million RUR to zero) in January-February 2008.