Governor of Sverdlovsk Region Eduard Rossel met General Director of Uralmashzavod Nazim Efendiev. The spokesperson for the Governor reports the agenda of the meeting covered the company’s developmental plan originally presented to First Deputy Head of Russian Federation Government Sergey Ivanov (and fully accepted) in April 2007. Mr. Efendiev announced the enterprise had been working hard to restore all the traditional metallurgical, boring, and oil and gas equipment and open-mine excavator production. Besides, they were trying to consolidate their assets and make their design and engineering

‘After the housing prices soared last year, a lot of apartments (like those located in low quality 40- to 60-year-old buildings) became unfairly overpriced, which is why certain leveling off that is going on at the moment is quite justified,’ Guran Tukhashvili of Ural Chamber of Real Estate said to UrBC. ‘According to our estimates, prices are not likely to go up much in terms of either existing homes or those under construction until this fall; some growth is possible in the fall and winter. I don’t think any drastic price changes are to be expected, though,’ Mr. Tukhashvili said.

Evraz Group announced it would like to acquire a share holding of Highveld Steel and Vanadium Corp. for $11.4 per share; the group currently owns approximately 51.4% of Highveld’s shares, and is willing to buy more until July 4, 2007 (the deadline might be extended). Besides, Evraz Group possesses a call option (24.9% of Highveld’s shares belonging to Credit Suisse), Evraz Group’s press officer reports. ‘We believe the price we offer is quite fair and appealing; it actually reflects Highveld’s business potential and is about 31% higher than the price Evraz had to pay Anglo American for a

The 1st International Transport Forum and Russian Transport Exhibition 2007 took place in Yekaterinburg on June 2-4, 2007. The events were coordinated by the Russian Federation Ministry of Transport; their agendas covered issues related to Russia’s transport development strategy in 2007-2020 and modernization of the transport system in 2002-2010. There were also quite a few round table discussions, conferences, and meetings devoted to the socio-economic and geopolitical importance of Russian transport in terms of the country’s development; ways and methods of reforming and improving the

The Ural Bank for Reconstruction and Development is going to have a Loan-Giving Day at 91 Lunacharskiy St. on June 7, 2007. Customers will be able to get acquainted with the loan schemes for individual borrowers and retail loan services, get professional advice from the bank’s experts, and take part in a lottery (and win a low-interest loan as a prize). ‘The loan market supply is simply enormous at the moment; it is obvious, however, that different kinds of loans are meant for solving different financial problems. Express loan, for instance, is best for borrowers who only want a relatively

URSA Bank was ranked 3d in the Most Dynamically Developing Banks (2003-2007) rating. The assessment was based on net wealth growth and increases in profits, deposit portfolios, and loan portfolios. URSA Bank was 8th in terms of net wealth, 6th in terms of profit growth, 7th in terms of deposit portfolio growth, and 9th in terms of loan portfolio growth, the bank’s press officer reports.

BrokerCreditService Consulting Ltd. reports Olips paid 33,175,704 RUR worth of bills in May 2007 and kept working on its 4th promissory notes tranche. These promissory notes are valid for three months and are expected to yield 14.3% a year; they are to be paid by Commercial Bank Accept in Novosibirsk, SKB-Bank in Yekaterinburg, and Probusinessbank in Moscow. There is currently 93,333,632 RUR worth of promissory notes available altogether. According to BrokerCreditService Consulting Ltd., Olips is dealing in promissory notes in order to attract external resources so that it can get more

Bank24.ru came up with a new offer known as Get Practical and Use Your Visa for its Visa-possessing customers. In order to use the offer, you simply have to use the bank’s Visa card to pay at least a 300-ruble bill in any shop or café in Russia and sign the receipt. The offer is valid between June 1, 2007 and July 31, 2007 and provides for a super prize (a family trip to Shopping Festival in Dubai in January 2008) and 1,000 3,000-ruble gift certificates that you can use to buy home appliances and consumer electronics in Eldorado chain stores.

Chairman of Severnaya Kazna and BoD member Andrei Volchik reduced his share in the bank’s authorized capital from 7.995% to 7.044%, or by .951%. BoD member Vladimir Volman raised his share from 1.303% to 1.637%, or by .334%; BoD member Vladimir Rodionov increased his share holding from 1.303% to 1.637%, or by .334%. This is the second time Andrei Volchik redistributes his shares, since he reduced his share from 10.024% to 7.995% on April 25, 2007. This information was released in compliance with the regulation that a joint stock investment company should report all the changes that can

Aviaprad’s Boeing-737 flying from Moscow had to perform an emergency landing in Koltsovo airport of Yekaterinburg at 12.40 AM on June 3, 2007. The windshield in the cockpit got broken, the airport’s press officer says. Both the passengers and the crew arrived in Yekaterinburg safe and sound.

According to the Central Bank of Russia, volume of loans given by Sverdlovsk Gubernskiy Bank to profit-making NGOs despite overdraft account went down by 33.8% (from 160.364 million RUR to 106.047 million RUR) in January-May 2007.

Governor of Chelyabinsk Region Petr Sumin chaired an administration meeting on June 4, 2007 and evaluated the report presented by Minister for Radiation and Environmental Safety Gennady Podtesov regarding the state of events in the region’s mining area where a number of emergencies took place on June 1, 2007. Two people were killed by a hurricane, with two more currently located in the hospital’s intensive care unit. The electricity and water supplies have been almost fully restored by now, which took over 400 people and all the emergency headquarters’ work to do. The damage is estimated at

The Central Bank of Russia reports that volume of loans given by AGROPROMBANK to profit-making NGOs for 1 to 3 years went down 8.4% (from 1,949,182,000 RUR to 1,784,328,000 RUR) in January-April 2007

According to Sverdlovsk Region Ministry of Finances, regional budget expenditures came to 27.275 million RUR, or 24.2% of the estimated annual figures in January-April 2007. Healthcare and sports spending received 25.3% of the yearly sum, social welfare programs have been financed by 21.8%. Some finances meant for 2007 have been invested in education (23.7%), culture and media (25.4%), national security and law enforcement (24.7%), national economy (24.2%), housing maintenance and utilities (27.7%).

Interfax CEA has recently come up with its new Interfax 100 Russian Banks ranking that states that the Ural Bank for Reconstruction and Development is Ural Federal District’s most lucrative bank. Its pre-tax profit amounted to 316.5 million RUR in the first quarter of 2007, making the bank Russia’s No.41 among 100 largest banks in the country. ‘The Ural Bank for Reconstruction and Development is one of the major retail banks in the Urals and thus always does great in terms of natural persons’ deposits; it hits 29th among Russia’s 1,015 banks. Research has shown that the bank manages to meet

ROSNO-MS acquired 100% of shares of Tagil Medservice Ltd., a local insurer. ROSNO-MS reports the newly bought company will keep operating under the original brand, whereas its activity is going to be brought in compliance with the international customer service standards.

Law-enforcement officers of Ural Federal District have been trying hard to fight offences in the field of fuel and energy complex; according to the public prosecution authorities of Ural Federal District, complex inspections and surveillance measures have already resulted in prevention of 500 crimes, including 1,873 cases of theft, more than 80 cases of illegal entrepreneurial activity, 140 attempts of large-scale tax evasion, 35 cases of money-laundering, and 54 environmental offenses related to poaching of mineral resources. Most cases have already been processed in local courts, with

A tender was held for completing the construction of the local TV tower in Yekaterinburg after the following requests had been made by the President and the Russian Federation Government. The procedure was coordinated by representatives of Russian TV and Radio Network, Rosimuschestvo (the federal property monitoring agency), Rospechat (the state press agency), Yekaterinburg’s chief architect Mikhail Vyatkin, and Pavel Nikanorov of Sverdlovsk Region Ministry of State Property Management. SelTechCom, the winner, was allowed to finish the TV tower provided that 2,350 square meters of the tower

According to the Central Bank of Russia, volume of loans given by GRAN Bank to natural persons for 181 days to 1 year went down 42% (from 5.415 million RUR to 3.115 million RUR) in January-April 2007.

According to the Central Bank of Russia, volume of nonresident legal entities’ deposits in Uralfinpormbank valid for 181 days to 1 year went down 100% (from 11.905 million RUR to zero) in January-April 2007.