The subsidiary of Uralvneshtorgbank in Ufa celebrated its first anniversary n December 16, 2006. The subsidiary was preceded by a point-of–sale terminal that also dealt in loans; this terminal had been operating for six months when this experience made it possible to set up a subsidiary and develop the business in Bashkortostan. The bank managed to set up three more offices in Ufa as well as offices in Neftekamsk and Oktyabrskiy in 2006. It is also going to introduce an office in Salavat in the nearest future.

The experts of Metcombank observed that they had a new wave of increased demand for mortgage loans in December. They believe this has to do with both stable real estate prices and the introduction of the new crediting schemes. The bank gave 40m RUR worth of loans last week alone, with the most popular loans being the ones obtained in order to have a flat constructed. ‘The regional banks appreciate every client they’ve got, so they have to be very flexible in terms of changing demand. Metcombank was the first to introduce a few innovative offers in Sverdlovsk Region, which led to many more

‘Amendments to Tourist Business in the Russian Federation Act are likely to reduce the number of operating travel agents, Director of Yekaterinburg Travel Ltd. Alexander Korzhev said to UrBC representative. ‘The small agents will not be able to find the money needed to provide them with the required financial guarantees,’ Mr Korzhev believes. The State Duma of the Russian Federation adopted the amendments to Tourist Business in the Russian Federation Act after the second reading. This new version requires that all travel agents provide financial guarantees; the sum comes to 10m RUR for agents

SKB-Bank assessed the results of its activity as of December 1, 2006. Most figures have gone up, thus indicating the company’s growth. The bank’s net wealth, for example, rose significantly and amounted to over 17.689bn RUR on December 1, 2006, with over 1bn RUR received in the last month. SKB-Bank managed to attract 16.061bn RUR worth of investments, with over 1bn RUR received in the last month. The volume of investments placed by natural persons reached the point of over 5,710bn RUR. The bank’s loan portfolio went up to 10.071bn RUR and proved to be well balanced and pose minimal risks. All

‘Getting all the papers needed for a trip to Germany is ever-hard in Yekaterinburg, this is why almost no local travel agents offer trips there,’ Fond Mira Travel Company said to UrBC representative. ‘The thing is, the German Consulate in Moscow is very reluctant to offer visas to Yekaterinburg companies as, theoretically, we have our own consulate; however, in practice, this consulate does not issue any visas. This has been going on for over two years now, which makes the performance of the local market player difficult,’ the company’s spokesperson said. The German Consulate introduced some

The average existing home prices (per square meter of dwelling) in the center of Yekaterinburg (i.e. in Moskovskaya St., Chelyuskintsy St., Vostochnaya St., Dekabristy St., Belinskiy St., and Bolshakov St.) went up by 6.61% on December 12, 2006, compared with November 14, 2006, reports the Analytical Department of the Ural Chamber of Real Estate. The figure rose by 4.10% in Yekaterinburg’s most expensive residential area (Avtovokzal, Yugo-Zapadniy, Parkoviy, Botanicheskiy, Vtuzgorodok, Shartashskiy, ZhBI – downtown and the south-west and the south-east of the city), by 5.48% in the city’s

Moody’s Interfax, the international rating agency, raised the rating of Chelyabinsk Region-based issuer from Aa1.ru to Aa2.ru based on the assessment of credit risk (11 points), the Russian Federation Baa2 rating, assessment of the probability of support (20%), and the assessment of the probability of default (70%).

The regional authorities introduced 727,500 square meters of new housing in Sverdlovsk Region in eleven months of 2006, of which 43.7% (317,900 square meters of dwellings) pertain to private houses (which exceeds the figures for 2005 by 17.4%) and 48.3% pertain to the city of Yekaterinburg. The total figure exceeds that for January-November 2005 by 11.7%, reports the regional division of the federal statistics agency. 37 regional cities managed to increase their construction rates compared to 2005: Nizhniy Tagil introduced 40,500 square meters of housing (an increase by 1.7 times), Revda

Former Deputy Chairman of Board Alexander Kudryavtsev was appointed First Deputy Chairman of Board of SKB-Bank. ‘These personnel reshuffle has to do with the ongoing work in the field of improving the bank’s operation and business activities as well as with SKB expanding its business and infrastructure. Over the last twelve months, the bank’s assets have increased by over 70%, the number of its offices and subsidiaries has risen by 75%. SKB-Bank’s range of services for both individual clients and businesses has been developing dynamically; the bank is constantly introducing some new products

‘The criminal suit proceedings that involve Noviy Grad, a construction holding, are still in progress,’ Maxim Kasatkin, the Director of Economic Offenses Department of Yekaterinburg Internal Affairs Administration, said to UrBC representative. ‘The offices and apartments of the executives of the holding and its general contractor (HydroSpetsStroy) have been searched recently in order to withdraw all the accounting records and place them with the committee of experts,’ Mr Kasatkin said. Former head of the holding Yuri Repeta is now under investigation and is involved in a criminal suit after

Based on the report on the state of the environment and the way environmental factors affected the health of Sverdlovsk Region population in 2005, Svyatogor, a joint-stock company, polluted the atmosphere more than any other non-ferrous metallurgical enterprise. The company emitted 71,413,000 tons of pollutants, which made up 35.4% of all emissions produced by non-ferrous metallurgical enterprises of the region.

‘The office building currently put up by Mayak Corporation Ltd. in Radischev-Moskovskaya St. is actually being constructed without permission,’ the employee of Town Planning Surveillance Inspectorate Irina Snegireva said to UrBC representative. The Inspectorate has already amerced the project in the past since the needed papers were only obtained for the construction of seven floors, even though seventeen have been put up so far. The construction has been postponed for the time being, and the developer was ordered to collect all the permissions.

Panasonic has been negotiating with the retail chains selling consumer electronics and home appliances, reports RBC daily. Last week, Eldorado retail chain resumed buying Panasonic goods after the Russian representation of the Japanese company paid the store a $50,000 compensation for the price difference of plasma screens in MediaMarkt and Eldorado. The other retailers appear to be reluctant to buy Panasonic produce in the nearest future, yet they do say their negotiations are in full progress. On December 6, 2006, the top executives of Russia’s leading retail chains (EuroSet, Svyaznoy,

‘BusinessManCenter office center has no building permission,’ the employee of Town Planning Surveillance Inspectorate Irina Snegireva said to UrBC representative. ‘The construction of this building is totally unauthorized, since BusinessManCenter only was allowed to do the building and assembly jobs, and not put up the whole building – this permission requires a separate set of documents,’ Ms Snigireva said. UrBC’s sources report that apart from having no permission, the launch of the project has already been delayed by a year. Besides, the owners of the would-be offices were asked to pay

Now that the holiday season is almost there, MegaFon Ural, the mobile operator, has come up with the special offer for those who would like to greet their loved ones using their USSD service. This offer includes some interesting compliments, wishes, and toasts that can be easily edited, completed with names and sent as text messages to relatives and friends.

The Russian Federation Federal Financial Market Service annulled the licenses of the professional player on the securities market issued to Ural Transport Bank and Variant Invest Broker Financial Company entitling them to performing depositary operations and brokerage and dealership, respectively.

‘The current state of events at Yekaterinburg Meatpacking Plant Ltd. is really not good for its creditors. Should the plant abandon its financial liabilities, UralTransBank will certainly get its money back in the end, but this is not going to be the money they need here and now. Cases like this are becoming more and more common nowadays, when a client chooses the bank rather than a bank chooses a client,’ says Director of Bic Link Vladimir Alyabiev Following the attempted introduction of the new management team at Yekaterinburg Meatpacking Plant Ltd., its creditors now find themselves in a

‘We need to develop and implement the mechanism for paying the regional small businesses some compensation to partly cover their trademark and service designation registering expenses and expenses occasioned by undergoing pre-certification procedures. This is very important now that Russia is about to enter the WTO,’ says First Deputy Minister for Economic Development of Chelyabinsk Region Elena Mursina. ‘Next year, we’ll carry on developing the micro-credit schemes. In addition, there will be introduced a business ‘incubator’ that will become part of the innovational activity network in

According to the data provided by UralLeague Commercial Bank and available at the website of the Central Bank of Russia, the volume of loans given by the bank to nongovernmental commercial organizations for a term of over three years went down by 13.23% (from 14.550m RUR to 12.625m RUR) in January-October 2006. Citation and other forms of public usage of presented information are permitted only if accompanied by a clear reference to UralBusinessConsulting.

‘Pulling down some old buildings (like the one at 22 Khokhryakov St. ) is one of the most common ways of destroying historic artefacts in Yekaterinburg,’ the inspector of the All-Russian Society for Protection of Cultural Heritage in Sverdlovsk Region Anna Dementieva said to UrBC representative about the recent demolition of the building by Noviy Grad, the local developer. ‘This house was on the regional scheduled monuments list, even though it actually hadn’t existed for a few years already,’ Ms Dementieva said. ‘Yet it was illegal to put up any buildings in the vicinity of the monument,