Ore Mining and Processing Enterprise of Kachkanar (aka Vanadium, part of Evraz Group) acquired some new railway engineering equipment: two industrial electrics meant for open-pit working were launched on June 26, 2007. These are already transferring ore from the company’s Main, Northern, and Western mines to the breaking plant as well as taking the mining waste to the dump. One electric with 11 dumpcars attached is capable of transporting about 10,000 tons of stuffs, the spokesperson for Evraz Group reports. 'These electrics were designed for the company by experts of a

Sverdlovsk Hotel is going to be sold by auction; the decision was taken by Yekaterinburg Municipal Duma on June 26, 2007. Shares of Sverdlovsk Hotel are to be put up to auction in September or October 2007.

According to the Central Bank of Russia, volume of loans given by Sverdlovsk Gubernskiy Bank to natural persons for 31 days to 90 days went down by 96% (from 745,000 RUR to 198,000 RUR) in January-May 2007.

Governor of Sverdlovsk Region Eduard Rossel met United Company RUSAL BOD member Oleg Deripaska and Chairmen Viktor Vekselberg and Alexander Bulygin, who arrived from Moscow, at Koltsovo airport of Yekaterinburg on June 26, 2007. Special helicopters took the delegation to Krasnoturinsk, where a presentation on the developmental strategy of RUSAL-owned enterprises based in Sverdlovsk Region was made for them. The managers are expected to pay a visit to Bogoslovskiy Aluminum Plant as well.

DSG International (formerly known as Dixons) Board of Directors decided to waive the option they had of buying a share in Eldorado, a retail chain dealing in consumer electronics and home appliances. 'We’ve learned a lot about the company and the market it’s operating on. Our Board came to a conclusion that it’s not truly expedient to invest in it at the moment,’ DSG International General Director John Clare said. DSG International reports abandoning the option is not going to affect them financially; however, the company’s stock price dropped by nearly 5% on the very day of abandonment.

Finam analysts looked into the accounts and reports for the year 2006 drawn up by UralSvyazInform (one of Sverdlovsk Region’s major cell phone operators) in compliance with the International Accounting Standards. They believe the company showed some bad trends last year, for example, it grew less profitable in terms of OIBDA and net profit because of increasing revenue growth juxtaposed with a rising market. They still say it would be reasonable to sell both the ordinary and preference shares of UralSvyazInform with the target price going down, Finam.Ru reports.

Alpha-Bank’s Chief Analyst Natalia Orlova and Analyst Olga Naidenova commented on the accounts and reports for the year 2006 drawn up by URALSIB in compliance with the International Accounting Standards. 'The bank’s performance seems to have been quite poor last year; its net profit, for instance, decreased by 61%. The report also indicates that the bank now owns fewer shares of LUKOIL, whereas having a share holding in this company used to be viewed as their great advantage. URALSIB only had $534m worth of LUKOIL’s shares at the beginning of 2007 against $776m in 2005. Trying to create

The rate of officially registered unemployment in Sverdlovsk Region amounted to 1.22% on June 1, 2007, with the number of the unemployed filed into job centers’ databases coming to 29,461. In the meantime, regional companies and organizations applied for 47,048 workers, Sverdlovsk Region Ministry for Economics and Labor reports. 15,300 people were born in Sverdlovsk Region in January-April 2007, which equals to figures for a year earlier; 22,100 people died, which falls short of figures for January-April 2006 by 5.2%. The natural population loss was 15% lower than that recorded in

'We’ve completed all the procedures related to taking inventory of HydroSpetsStroy’s property needed for going through with the bankruptcy proceedings,’ Olga Rushitskaya, the trustee in bankruptcy of HydroSpetsStroy Ltd. (general contractor of Noviy Grad, the local builder), said to UrBC. 'We are currently preparing a report and getting ready to sell the company’s property,’ she said. Sverdlovsk Region Court of Arbitration declared the company had to undergo bankruptcy proceedings as it owns over 55 million RUR to its creditors.

Alexander Frolov was appointed Evraz Group CEO/President after the corresponding decision had been taken at the general annual meeting. The company’s Board of Directors reassured the press that Mr. Frolov was also going to stay BOD Chairman; in addition, Dmitriy Menshikov was appointed the company’s Secretary, Evraz Group’s press officer reports.

A group of Chelyabinsk Region officials took part in the Russian National Exhibition in Bratislava, Slovakia, on June 20-23, 2007. The exhibition was attended by executives from Chelyabinsk Region Ministries of Economic Development, Industry, and Natural Resources, as well as by top managers of Chelyabinsk Electro-Technical Enterprise, ChelyabMetroStroy, ChelyabGiproMez, and Mir Kamnya Ltd. The delegation made a presentation on Chelyabinsk Region’s potential and met some prospective business partners at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Ministry of Economics of the Slovak Republic and at

'Nemiroff (a strong Ukrainian drink) has been selling a bit worse lately as far as our supermarket is concerned; it looks like this brand is losing its share of the market. I tend to think that this stems from the fact that Russian consumers are now able to choose among greater variety of strong drinks, including those imported from the Ukraine,’ Director of Kirovskiy supermarket located at 30 Zavodskaya St. (aka Market Ltd.) Valentina Kozina said to UrBC.

CBR Group has recently confirmed that it now owns Vo-Vo lounge café and means to open Light Café downtown (that is, in the building known as Rubin right in the center of Yekaterinburg). These places used to belong to Malachite restaurant chain and were reported to be meant for new types of restaurants. However, CBR Group Development Director Alexander Fedenev was unable to explain the fact that a number of other objects appear to have been sold to the company as well. Malachite, in its turn, cannot seem to provide any information on what the newly sold places are to be used for. 'We used

Sverdlovsk Region Government considered a set of measures meant for improving the medical supervision of the region’s workers in 2004-2015. According to Health Minister Mikhail Sklyar, 311,316 people who operate in harmful and dangerous working conditions were examined last year; 2,044 people were diagnosed with professional illnesses. 8,844 people with different kinds of illnesses (including nearly 3,000 women) had to undergo regular checkups in health centers, with the patients being about 53 years old on average. At the end of the session, Head of Sverdlovsk Region Government Viktor

UralElectroMed is going to pass a dividend for 2006; the decision was taken at the annual general meeting in Verkhnyaya Pyshma, Sverdlovsk Region, on June 15, 2007. This information was published in compliance with the demand that an issuer, a joint stock fund or a management company of an investment fund must reveal any data that can influence their stock price.

Bank24.ru set up a new office in the center of Yekaterinburg. The office is located opposite a watch shop at 29 Malyshev St. 'The new office offers a full range of services to individuals, that is, customers can deposit their money, get a loan, have their currency exchanged, and make money orders. To celebrate the introduction of a new office, the bank came up with a special offer for its first clients: all those willing to do so can have Visa Electron or Visa Classic cards issued for them free of charge and get a Visa Gold with a 60% discount between June 25 and July 31, 2007. What is

Most of Russia’s power engineering equipment has already become over-aged. 31.8% of Russian turbines, for example, were made in 1971-1980, 23.8% were produced in 1961-1970, 8.7% have been operating since shortly after the Second World War, and only 2.4% are actually new machines. Even though home industry keeps reducing the proportion of obsolete equipment in general, power engineering is still doing badly. In 2000, 12% of operating equipment had to be used despite the fact that it was by no means suitable any longer; the figure reached 25% by 2005 and, should nothing change about the current

Sverdlovsk Region’s foreign trade turnover came to $3.2 billion in January-April 2007, which is 26.3% better than in four months of 2006. These figures include $2.5bn worth of export (which exceeds the figures for January-April 2006 by 24%) and $.7bn worth of import (which exceeds the figures for a year earlier by 36.3%), regional statisticians report. The volume of all investments in the region’s economy reached 39.8 billion RUR in January-May 2007, which is 26.4% greater than a year earlier in terms of current prices and 10% better in terms of comparable prices. The region’s large and

SKB-Bank went for its first issue of ruble bonds on June 21, 2007. The total face value of the issue comes to 1 billion RUR; the bonds are expected to be circulating for three years, and the first coupon annual interest rate amounts to 9.75%. The 2nd to 4th coupons’ interest rates are equal to that of the first coupon. The effective annual yield has been estimated at 10.11% in one year’s time. SKB-Bank’s press officer says this issue was characterized by more favorable terms than the issues coordinated by other large banks of Sverdlovsk Region in the second half of 2006.

Following the order of the Russian Federation President Administration, Vladimir Krupkin, former Assistant to Plenipotentiary Representative of Russian Federation President in Ural Federal District Petr Latyshev, was appointed Mr. Latyshev’s deputy. As Deputy Plenipotentiary Representative of Russian Federation President in Ural Federal District, Mr. Krupkin will keep supervising the performance of the Control Department and of the Law-Enforcement Agencies Cooperation Department.