The Ural Bank for Reconstruction and Development has once again proved that its impressive share of the region’s market is well-deserved: according to Interfax-CEA’s rating, the bank is Sverdlovsk Region’s largest and Russia’s 65th largest crediting organization in terms of assets (these came to 38,028.1 million RUR in 2007, which is 44.4% better than the year earlier). 'We feel positive about the bank’s asset growth rate which is better than the market average (although these figures were actually expected). Our achievements prove that we chose both the right development strategy and

Ural Turbine Plant (part of RENOVA Group) is going to participate in Gazprom’s investment program, RENOVA’s press officer reports. 'It’s definitely good that Gazprom decided to centralize all its purchases as well as make its tenders more transparent and efficient. Previously, a great number of intermediaries prevented the suppliers from building long-term partnerships with their customers or planning effectively in terms of expansion or new equipment for Gazprom,’ says the plant’s GD Vladimir Ermolayev. According to GKI-Gazprom’s GD Alexander Karagodov, Gazprom is currently using its

The value of net assets of Energy - Mixed Investments (the unit investment trust) managed by Eurogreen Management Company Ltd. went down by .24% between February 6, 2008 and February 7, 2008. According to Eurogreen’s website, the company’s net assets decreased from 2,994,898.54 RUR on February 6, 2008 to 2,987,600.68 RUR on February 7, 2008.

Neftegasvzryvpromstroy Trust, based in Ufa, looked at its success in 2007. The company’s sales reached 300 million RUR last year, and this figure is expected to rise by at least 120 million RUR in 2008. Neftegasvzryvpromstroy Trust, the open joint-stock company, was set up in 1986 as the Ministry for O&G Construction’s only mobile division meant for drilling-and-blasting operations in the course of constructing transfer pipelines and developing oil and gas deposits. The company has a 10% share of the drilling-and-blasting operations market that has been estimated at some 2 billion RUR a

Central Bank of Russia reports volume of loans given by Sverdlovsk Gubernskiy Bank to self-regulatory financial organizations for 181 days to 1 year went down by 40.53% (from 223.927 million RUR to 133.172 million RUR) in December 2007-January 2008.

This year, Nizhniy Tagil Iron & Steel Works (part of Evraz Group) is planning to upgrade all of its production facilities related to large-shapes production in order to enhance production efficiency, minimize stoppages and make the enterprise’s general performance smoother, the spokesperson for Evraz Group said to UrBC. Besides, these timely upgrades are sure to make the company’s heating facilities more reliable, so the heating systems department will hopefully experience no contingencies. Apart from that, the enterprise has nearly completed its chemical water cleaning unit meant for

Central Bank of Russia reports volume of loans given by UralFinPromBank to for-profit self-regulatory organizations for up to 30 days went down by 100% (from 58 million RUR to zero) in December 2007-January 2008.

Chelyabinsk-based AGROPROMPROEKT doubled the volume of its design and exploration work in 2007 compared with 2006, the company’s BOD Chairman Yakov Nevelev said to UrBC. AGROPROMPROEKT was set up in 1958 and has remained one of the strong players on the design and engineering services market ever since. The organization deals in town-planning, reconstruction of buildings, engineering infrastructure design, and technical measurements and examination of existing buildings. AGROPROMPROEKT won a number of medals for settlement layouts, a diploma in the Best Designing Organization category in

Sberbank of Russia’s Ural branch is to introduce the Urals’ first automated safety vault in Yekaterinburg on February 13, 2008. The vault is to be located at Sberbank’s office No.11 at 27 Vosmoye Marta St. The new self-service safe deposit will be available 24/7. One can use a special identification card (provided by the bank when a customer rents an individual vault) to get into the room, whereupon one’s individual vault is delivered into the terminal from the armored storage facility. One can take care of all one’s valuables inside the terminal, and then the vault is automatically

According to the Central Bank of Russia, volume of loans given by Bank URALSIB to state-run for-profit organizations for 181 days to 1 year went down by 60% (from 50 million RUR to 20 million RUR) in December 2007-January 2008.

According to the National Managers’ League’s ranking of unit investment trusts as of February 6, 2008, the share price of Raiffeisen Telecommunications (Raiffeisen Capital Management Company) has dropped by 18.90% since the beginning of the year.

According to the Central Bank of Russia, volume of loans given by Sverdlovsk Gubernskiy Bank to for-profit self-regulatory organizations for 181 days to 1 year went down by 40.53% (from 223.927 million RUR to 133.172 million RUR) in December 2007-January 2008.

The weekly Finance magazine looked into Russia’s mortgage-lending market in 2007 and picked out fifty largest banks (excluding Sberbank) that offered their customers some 170,000 mortgages last year, with the average loan coming to about 2.5 million RUR (figures differ greatly for capital and provincial banks, however). As for Yekaterinburg-based SKB-Bank, the company offered a borrower an average of 1.3 million RUR in the form of mortgages. SKB-Bank was featured in the magazine’s rating of Top 30 Mortgage-Giving Banks; in 2007, the bank built up its mortgage portfolio by 57% against the year

The value of net assets of Energy - Mixed Investments (the unit investment trust) managed by Eurogreen Management Company Ltd. went down by 2.04% between February 5, 2008 and February 6, 2008. According to Eurogreen’s website, the company’s net assets decreased from 3,057,375.77 RUR on February 5, 2008 to 2,994,898.54 RUR on February 6, 2008.

Central Bank of Russia reports volume of loans given by Universal Bank to for-profit self-regulatory organizations for 1 to 3 years went down by 100% (from 8.028 million RUR to zero) in December 2007-January 2008.

Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) looked at the results of its activity in January 2008. The company produced 120,600 tons of ore (which falls short of the previous January’s figures by 22.3%), 932,800 tons of agglomerate (which exceeds the figures for January 2007 by 5.1%), 496,500 tons of coke (which is 9% better than a year earlier), and 874,500 tons of cast iron (which is 7.2% better than a year earlier) in the first month of 2008. The company was able to produce more than 1.2 million tons of steel a month for the first time over the last fifteen years, MMK’s PR Department

SKB-Bank lowered the interest rates on mortgages it offers to those who’d like to buy an apartment currently under construction rather than on the existing home market. Depending on the type of the collateral and the size of the down payment, the interest rate now varies between 15% and 16% a year. Besides, one can now get a loan without any collateral when one’s future dwelling is still being built. All the details regarding the conditions of this mortgage are available from the bank’s website as well as over the phone (you may call up SKB-Bank’s Contact Center or any of its offices). These

Central Bank of Russia reports volume of loans given by Pervouralsk Joint Stock Commercial Bank to for-profit self-regulatory organizations despite overdraft went down by 100% (from 5.653 million RUR to zero) in December 2007-January 2008.

The value of net assets of Energy - Mixed Investments (the unit investment trust) managed by Eurogreen Management Company Ltd. went down by .17% between February 4, 2008 and February 5, 2008. According to Eurogreen’s website, the company’s net assets decreased from 3,062,562.43RUR on February 4, 2008 to 3,057,375.77 RUR on February 5, 2008.

'We do not intend to take over Aviaprad. This would not be an advantageous deal for us, so this has nothing to do with our policies, but a lot to do with the economic issues,’ Ural Airlines’ General Director Sergey Skuratov announced at a recent press conference in Yekaterinburg. However, Ural Airlines and Aviaprad did sign an agreement, according to which Aviaprad closes down while Ural Airlines takes on the responsibilities related to servicing most of Aviaprad’s passengers who bought tickets for the flights to be operated between February 11, 2008 and December 31, 2008. Mr. Skuratov