ABN AMRO Bank N.V. based in the Netherlands offered URSA Bank an 836,000-euro loan for up to three years. This money has been used to finance the delivery of JUNTTAN — PM-20 (a pile driver) to Moscow, which is part of a contract signed by SKM Leasing Ltd. on behalf of URSA Bank’s Moscow branch’s customer with the Finnish Junttan Oy. The new equipment is expected to help this customer’s enterprise raise its production output as well as profitability, the bank’s press officer reports.

The Central Bank of Russia reports volume of loans given by GRAN Bank to profit-making self-regulatory organizations for a term of 1 to 3 years went down by 22.7% (from 363.304 million RUR to 280.556 million RUR) in January-June 2007.

According to the Central Bank of Russia, volume of loans given by METCOMBANK to state-owned profit-making organizations for 1 to 3 years went down by 62.5% (from 80 million RUR to 30 million RUR) in January-July 2007.

According to the Central Bank of Russia, volume of self-regulatory financial institutions’ deposits in AGROPROMBANK Credit Ltd. valid for 1 to 3 years went down by 34.6% (from 888.55 million RUR to 581.403 million RUR) in January-June 2007.

Based on the Prosecutor–General’s order, Sverdlovsk Region public prosecution authorities annulled an earlier decision to dismiss the case of NOVA Group chairman Oleg Cherepanov and reopened it, press officer Rimma Bobina said to a UrBC reporter. The case of Mr. Cherepanov has been placed with the authorities of Ordzhonikidzevskiy district of Yekaterinburg. Mr. Cherepanov was initially arrested on January 18, 2007; he was charged with illegal confinement and domestic burglary.

The Bank of Russia registered SKB-Bank’s report on the results of its 1,000,000,000-ruble issue of certified interest-bearing inconvertible and irredeemable bonds (series 01). These bonds will have to be circulated and retired in compliance with the terms declared at the moment of the bond issue. The issue itself took place on June 21, 2007; the bonds are to remain in circulation for three years, with the first coupon annual interest rate coming to 9.75%, SKB-Bank’s press officer reports.

United Company RUSAL’s aluminum output went up by 3.8% (from 1,962,637 tons to 2,037,236 tons) in January-June 2007, whereas the high-value-added production rose by 14%. This was brought about by the ongoing expansion, equipment upgrades, and improving on the aluminum plants’ technical and economic characteristics. The share of high-value-added production came to 52% of all the aluminum produced by United Company RUSAL, their press officer reports. Since the beginning of the year, the enterprise has mainly focused on developing new types of products for the car industry by launching special

Ural Turbine Plant (part of RENOVA Group) has successfully undergone an inspection for compliance of its production with Encertico power industry certification standards, the plant’s press officer reports. ‘The certifying procedure is voluntary, yet it is one of the major requirements RAO UES of Russia (our major customer) imposes on us. Besides, having a certificate can really help if you compete for a tender both at home and in the CIS,’ Ural Turbine Plant’s General Director Vladimir Ermolaev says. Encertico was designed specifically for power engineering industry, so the company willing to

Vice Chairman of Sverdlovsk Region Government Vladimir Vlasov held the Tourism Development Committee’s first meeting at Uralochka (one of Yekaterinburg’s largest sports facilities). The meeting was attended by heads of ministries, departments, and municipalities as well as travel agents, recreational facilities’ owners and top executives, some scientists, and practicing experts, the spokesperson for Governor of Sverdlovsk Region reports. The attendants decided to set up ten work teams that would concentrate on the development of sanatorium-and-spa facilities, environmental traveling,

Ural Airlines might consider acquiring a few super-modern Russian airplanes; the company’s top executives have already held some talks with Grazhdanskiye Samolyoty Sukhogo (Sukhoi Civil Aircraft) regarding the possible purchase of five Superjet 100 planes. ‘We’ve looked into the technical characteristics of the aircraft and gave our future business partners all the data on the potential travel routes so that they could calculate the economic characteristics as well. The planes will probably be supplied in 2009-2011; given that this company will only produce its first planes in 2008, we are

Yekaterinburg Customs (part of Ural Customs Administration) evaluated the results of their performance in the first half of 2007; their freight turnover went up by 17.5%, amounting to 1.8 million tons. The commodity turnover rose by 20% and reached nearly $3.4 billion, Ural Customs Administration’s press officer reports. The number of freight declarations increased by 13% and came to 30,000, with about 98.6% of them processed within a day and 99.9% related to export of goods. Yekaterinburg Customs managed to collect 4.6% more fees and duties than the authorities had planned for them in

The Central Bank of Russia reports volume of profit-making self-regulatory organizations’ deposits in TagilBank valid for 181 days to 1 year went down by 32.9% (from 15.36 million RUR to 10.3 million RUR) in January-June 2007.

President Vladimir Putin signed a decree regarding the state awards to be given to a number of Chelyabinsk Tube Rolling Plant employees. The company’s Chairman Alexander Fedorov and metallurgist Nikolai Samyshkin were awarded with the Medals of Honor for their significant contribution to metallurgical industry development and longstanding great quality performance. The company’s press officer reports Alexander Fedorov has been working at Chelyabinsk Tube Rolling Plant since 1975; he was declared Russia’s Honored Metallurgist and was entitled to membership in the International Union of

'In my opinion, the return of Moldavian wines on the Russian market is definitely going to affect the current players. I believe Moldavian strong drinks will gradually win back their share of the market; their former devotees have switched to alcohol produced in Krasnodar Territory for now, but once Moldavian wines and cognac come back, sales of Russian alcohol might go down,’ Kupets supermarket chain goods manager Gulnas Kamalova reports. 'Moldavian strong drinks will definitely grow more expensive, but we haven’t got any specific figures so far,’ she says.

The spokesperson for Yekaterinburg Electrical Network Company Irina Perenchevich reports another major power outage occurred in Yekaterinburg on July 19, 2007 when a 110-kilovolt power line that supplies electricity to Sortirovochnaya substation (part of Sverdlovsk Region Railways) failed to function; as a result, two substations belonging to Yekaterinburg Electrical Networks Company (namely, Uzlovaya and Dalnyaya ones) experienced a major blackout and were unable to provide any electricity to Sortirovochnaya railway station and part of Yekaterinburg’s Zheleznodorozhniy district. The

The Ural Bank for Reconstruction and Development raised its assets up to 30,294,492,000 RUR, or by 14.2%, in the first half of 2007. Its loan portfolio amounted to 20,927,056,000 RUR on July 1, 2007, which exceeds the figures for January 1, 2007 by 29.6%. The customers’ accounts balance went up by 14.6% compared to the beginning of the year and reached 24,002,073,000 RUR, with the volume of natural persons’ deposits growing by 16%, or up to 16,416,146,000 RUR. The bank’s net profit amounted to 614,172,000 RUR in the first half of 2007, which is 6.3 times better than in January-June 2006, the

Evraz Group produced 4,139,000 tons of steel, 3,188,000 tons of cast iron, 3,828,000 tons of rolled metal, 904,000 tons of semi-products (slabs, blooms, pipe shells, etc.), 597,000 tons of rails, wheels, and binding bands (which is 51.6% better than a year earlier), 569,000 tons of flat-rolled products, and 126,000 tons of tubular goods (LDPs, delivery pipes, weldless pipes, and casing pipes) in April-June 2007, the spokesperson for Evraz Group reports. Evraz Group enterprises in Russia made 3,559,000 tons of steel, 3,059,000 tons of cast iron, 3,130,000 tons of rolled metal (excluding

A BOD meeting at Nizhneserginskiy Hardware Plant resulted in the decision to terminate the powers of the company’s General Director Vladimir Butenko on July 22, 2007. Mr. Butenko is going to be succeeded by Sergey Ivanitsa on July 23, 2007.

Vice Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev arrived in Kaliningrad to chair a meeting on the implementation of national projects in Russia on July 16, 2007. Prior to this meeting, he attended a press briefing and answered the reporters’ questions, most of which had to do with the National Affordable Housing Project. Some of his answers could be characterized as rather unexpected. Mr. Medvedev said, for instance, that housing certainly had to be made affordable in terms of the incomes Russian citizens actually have, but there could be different affordability criteria. ‘Housing simply can’t grow

'Despite all the good things the National Affordable Housing Project has to offer, it has also got a lot of problems. Firstly, the purchasing capacity of Russian citizens has generally remained quite limited; secondly, the housing prices keep going up. Thirdly, there still exists acute dwelling shortage as our construction industry is rather weak. This business appears to have been nearly destroyed over the last ten to fifteen years, so it needs to be supported and restored,’ Vice Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev announced at a press briefing in Kaliningrad.