UralBusinessConsulting Agency of Information and Analytics is now co-operating with Factiva, the global information system that is run by American Dow Jones. The agreement to this extent was signed on August 20, 2007. The online newswire produced by UralBusinessConsulting Agency of Information and Analytics (both the Russian and the English versions) are now going to be available to Factiva subscribers. Factiva is the world’s leading supplier of business news and information as well as the supplier of services needed to broadcast or otherwise spread these news. Factiva is available in 22

VSMPO AVISMA’s revenues went down by 5% and thus amounted to 14.127 billion RUR in January-June 2007 (compared with 14.918 billion RUR a year earlier), the company’s mid-year report states. Their gross profit dropped by .4 billion RUR and reached 5.9 billion RUR, their sales profit decreased by .547 billion RUR and thus came to 4.393 billion RUR. The corporation’s net profit decreased from 3.654 billion RUR in January-June 2006 to 2.688 billion RUR in January-July 2007.

RBC-Rating analysts did a research on Russia’s plastic card market in the first half of 2007, with data provided by 109 Russian banks. Five banks on the Top 25 card-issuing banks list are actually based in Sverdlovsk Region. SKB-Bank was rated 25th in the All-Russian ranking and 1st in the Mid-Urals one. The number of cards issued by the bank amounted to 350,640 by July 1, 2007. Central Bank of Russia reports 727 banks that deal in issuance and acquiring have been registered in Russia by July 2007; these figures cover 679 issuers and 646 acquirers. In the meantime, Moscow (including Moscow

According to the Central Bank of Russia, volume of loans given by Plato Bank to sole traders for 1 to 3 years went down by 61.4% (from 1.66 million RUR to 640,000 RUR) in January-July 2007.

Rospotrebnadzor (the state consumer rights watchdog) declared it was going to inspect companies that sell American toys with excessive content of lead. The issue has been brought about by Mattel being reported to have some metal in a shipment consisting of Barbie dolls and Sergeant cars, which is why the toy-maker announced it was going to withdraw 436,000 toys (including the magnet ones) that had been produced between January 2002 and January 2007. Rospotrebnadzor says there are no data on whether any of these toys have been imported to Russia. 'We do sell Mattel toys, but we haven’t

According to the Central Bank of Russia, volume of loans given by VUZ Bank to sole traders despite overdraft account went down by 58.9% (from 4.589 million RUR to 1.886 million RUR) in January-July 2007.

Central Bank of Russia reports volume of profit-making self-regulatory organizations’ deposits in Uralfinance Bank valid for 181 days to 1 year went down by 11.8% (from 8.5 million RUR to 7.5 million RUR) in January-July 2007.

A flight operated by Aviaprad was delayed once again; a plane coming to Yekaterinburg from Nyagan was supposed to have arrived in Yekaterinburg at 1.55 PM yet the interactive timetable used in Koltsovo airport read that Aviaprad’s flight would only land at 3.05 PM. On top of that, an Aviaprad’s plane arriving from Norilsk would only arrive in Yekaterinburg at 3.05 PM rather than the scheduled 2 PM on August 17, 2007.

Sverdlovsk Region Anti-Terrorist Committee members met in order to elaborate some extra measures that could enhance the anti-terrorist protection of railway transport. In the absence of the Governor the meeting was chaired by the head of the regional security services Boris Kozinenko. The spokesperson for the Governor reports the meeting was summoned after an act of terror performed at Oktyabrskiy Railways that caused derailing of a passenger train going from Moscow to Saint Petersburg on August 13, 2007. The meeting attendees said their most pressing problem at the moment was the stealing of

The Ural branch of URSA Bank launched the URSA Bank Money Order campaign, which means that any customer who uses the bank’s system to have at least 20,000 RUR, $700, or ?700 transferred for them between August 13, 2007 and October 31, 2007 can take part in a prize-winning lottery; the drawing is scheduled for November 2, 2007, and the prize is a communicator phone. ‘URSA Bank’s money orders are a quick and dynamic way of having your money reach the person who needs it most. Our customers use the service not only to help their nearest and dearest, pay their tuition fees, or make a loan

'The most wide-spread adulterated goods that are imported to Russia on the whole and the Urals in particular this year are vegetables, fruit, meat, and strong drinks. Most of these goods come from Central Asia. The customs officers from the Ural Customs Administration say they find faults with goods from China particularly frequently; this usually pertains to clothes, footwear, and toys. As regards Kazakhstan, problems are normally related to meat and fruit,’ Deputy Head of Ural Customs Administration Vadim Myasnikov announced at a press conference on August 17, 2007. 'Russia also

According to the Central Bank of Russia, volume of loans given by UralTransBank to state-owned profit-making organizations for 1 to 3 years went down by 35.3% (from 912,000 RUR to 590,000 RUR) in January-July 2007.

Central Bank of Russia reports volume of loans given by SberInvestBank to sole traders despite overdraft account went down by 100% (from 1.622 million RUR to zero) in January-July 2007.

Rossiyskaya Gazeta came up with a rating of Russia’s largest banks in terms of consumer loans in the first half of 2007. According to the data the newspaper provided, Russian banks offered their customers a total of 583 billion RUR worth of loans in January-June 2007. Uniastrum Bank, for instance, provided its borrowers with 346.7 million RUR worth of non-collateral loans in the first half of the year, which falls short of the figures for January-June 2006 by 13.5%.

The division of the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs in Ural Federal District reports the local militiamen conducted 1,745 inspections aimed at protecting finances allocated for the implementation of top priority national projects in January-July 2007. These inspections revealed 113 offenses that have already resulted in 99 criminal lawsuits, including 31 cases related to the National Health Project, 24 cases related to the National Education Project, 43 cases related to the National Housing Project, and 15 cases related to the National Agriculture Project. 43 cases have been classed as

'The construction of the third part of ANTEY Shopping Center had to be stopped for the time being, at least this is true of the visible part of the process. The decision to stop it was made because, as it turned out, we don’t have a construction permit and could be faced with a large fine if we ventured to go on building,’ founder of ANTEY Business Center Andrei Gavrilovskiy said to UrBC. The third part of the center was supposed to have been commissioned in 2008, the company’s official website reports. The total area of the new extension was expected to come to 108,470 square meters and

According to the Central Bank of Russia, volume of loans given by Ural Interregional Bank to profit-making self-regulatory organizations for up to 30 days went down by 40.7% (from 23.6 million RUR to 14 million RUR) in January-July 2007.

Rossiyskaya Gazeta came up with a rating of Russia’s largest banks in terms of consumer loans in the first half of 2007. According to the data the newspaper provided, Russian banks offered their customers a total of 583 billion RUR worth of loans in January-June 2007. Agroprombank Credit, for instance, provided its borrowers with 385.3 million RUR worth of non-collateral loans in the first half of the year, which falls short of the figures for January-June 2006 by 22.47%.

According to the Central Bank of Russia, volume of loans given by UIC Bank to natural persons for 1 to 3 years went down by 53.9% (from 27.811 million RUR to 12.828 million RUR) in January-July 2007.

Ural Airlines and Yekaterinburg branch of Vympelcom (aka Beeline) looked at the success of their joint project known as Cell Retail aboard Ural Airlines that was first launched about a year ago and is available on all of the carrier’s flights. The airline’s press officer repots the project is mainly targeted at offering extra services to Beeline subscribers who choose to use Ural Airlines as well. While in flight, passengers can purchase 100-, 250-, and 500-ruble phone cards and Beeline subscription packages. ‘We keep updating the range of passenger services on regular basis; some of these