According to the Bank of Russia, the doubtful consumer debt to Snezhinksiy Bank JSC has gone up by 60.6% (from 3,505,000 RUR on January 1, 2006 to 5,630,000 on June 1, 2006) in the first six months of 2006.

Some personnel changes have taken place in MegaFon/Ural GSM, the local division of one of major Russian mobile operators. Denis Malyshev was appointed General Director; former GD Alexander Arnautov decided to retire. Mr Malyshev was earlier employed in the capacity of Regional Development Director by Delta Telecom (Skylink) CJSC and then as GD of Mobicom Center CJSC (MegaFon) He will be succeeded in the latter position by Andrey Eremkin, former Deputy GD of Mobicom Center.

Having conducted a fundamental analysis of the bank’s accounting reports up to June 1, 2006, the independent experts from Bankir.Ru stated that ChelIndBank JSC had a low credit risk rate as well as great financial stability and paying capacity. According to the experts, the bank’s resources are quite diversified in terms of attracting investments and in terms of currencies; there are no arrears of payments so far as attracted investments are concerned, and the sources of capital are found altogether reliable. The assets were classed as good quality ones and the profitability of operations as

‘The current condition of workers taken to hospitals from the construction site can be characterized as stable. We are going to have the results of the microbial flora test ready tonight, and, if these results don not alarm the doctors, all of IKEA employees will be allowed to leave the clinic,’ the spokesperson for municipal clinic № 40 Marina Ruvinskaya said to UrBC representative. ‘There are 126 patients out of 155 workers with food poisoning in the hospital at the moment. The rest of them took unauthorized leave without waiting for the results,’ Ms Ruvinskaya added.

Russian Expo Arms 2006, the international arms exhibition, was closed up on July 15, 2006. It was attended by over 200 enterprises from 34 Russian regions and 14 foreign countries. This has been the fifth exhibition so far, with the event taking place every two years at the range of Nizhniy Tagil Institute of Metal Testing. Among the exhibits were military equipment, arms, ammunition, maintenance facilities, different kinds of cloth, armor, and special accessories.

RusRating agency raised the short-term credit rating of Ural Bank for Reconstruction and Development and classed it as stable. ‘The increase in rating indicators is due to the bank expansion resulting from a merger with Sverdlsotsbank, building up its share of the market as well as reducing the number of trusted affiliated companies and diversification of the bank’s liabilities,’ explains RusRating analyst Larissa Makarenko. Among the growth-restraining factors is a high share of related party loans in the bank’s assets accompanied with a meager contribution of the related parties to the bank

‘Last Wednesday (July 12, 2006), some builders employed by Korai, a Turkish company, to work at the construction site of IKEA store and MEGA shopping center in Yekaterinburg, went down with food poisoning. Korai is an independent enterprise that is not part or division of IKEA,’ reports the spokesperson for the Swedish company. ‘Korai had arranged the catering with an outsource company and now has to look into the causes of the poisoning. The results of lab tests carried out by the laboratory of municipal clinic № 40 and the epidemiologic services revealed no signs of bacteriological

According to the Central Bank of Russia, the doubtful consumer debt to Ural Treasures Bank CJSC has gone up by 34% (from 104.908 million RUR to 140.601 million) within the six months of 2006. As for the period of January to May 2006, the consumer debt experienced the growth of 22% (from 104.908 million to 127.655 million RUR).

According to the Central Bank of Russia, arrears of credit payments by individual entrepreneurs to UralTransBank have gone up by 11.7% (from 7.554 million RUR to 8.440 million) within the six months of 2006. As for the period of January to May 2006, the arrears of payments went up by 7% (from 7.554 million to 8.118 million RUR).

Russian market of shares appears to be rather flattened at the moment. Most of the blue chips grew 1.3% to 3.9% cheaper at 12.30 PM Moscow time; RTS average went down by 1.3% and comprised 1,465.7 points, MICEX average decreased by 2.5% and reached 1,280.4 points. The shares of RAO UES of Russia (RTS: EESR) went 1.6% cheaper at MICEX, the shares of LUKOIL (RTS: LKOH) went 2.3% cheaper, the shares of Rostelecom (RTS: RTKM) – 1.8%, the shares of SberBank of Russia (RTS: SBER) – 2.8%, the shares of Tatneft (RTS: TATN) – 1.3%, the shares of Norilsk Nickel (RTS: GMKN_ - 3.2%, the shares of

‘The shortage of legally produced vodka caused by the changes to the production accounting standards and import and trading regulations is more likely to be felt by the wholesalers rather than retail outlets. According to the data I have, the retailer may be affected some time around the New Year’s Eve,’ said the director of UKM Supermarket Ltd. Valentina Rudakova. Yet Novie Izvestia newspaper reports that vodka shortage will emerge in many Russian regions as early as the second half of August, which will lead to a dramatic increase in the cases of poisoning caused by drinking various alcohol

‘Even though the charter flights to Egypt come within Israeli-Lebanese war zone, our company has been performing them on regular basis. We do not even have to take extra safety steps as the measures we have already taken meet the safety requirements on a flight like this,’ PR Director of TransAero Airline Sergey Bykhal said to UrBC representative. ‘We’ve transferred our passengers through war zones before; thus, we’ve been taking people to Israel since 1993, and we kept performing flights even when the war was at its height. We naturally had to change the routes sometimes, but, altogether,

‘The aircraft of S7/Siberia JSC is going to be examined by the Federal Transport Surveillance Administration; this is expected to take seven to ten days,’ the spokesperson for Department of Transportation Konstantin Rubakhin said to UrBC representative. Igor Levitin, Minister for Transportation, announced that such check-ups would take place at the Government sitting yesterday.

SUAL Group has recently looked at the results of its activity in the first six months of 2006. Its output of primary aluminum reached the point of 525,900 tons, which exceeds the figures for the first six months of 2005 by 1.6%, reports the company’s spokesperson. This increase is due to completing all the upgrading projects in the electrolysis production at all of the aluminum plants of the Group

Zinc Plant of Chelyabinsk JSC finalized all the procedures connected with the integrated management certification audit. The audit was carried out by BVQI, a reputable international body that confirmed that the plant meets all the requirements needed to get ISO 9001-2000 certificate in quality management and ISO 14001-2004 in environmental management, the company’s spokesperson said to UrBC representative. The company’s General Director Vsevolod Geihmann observed, ‘The plant possesses a multi-layered environmental monitoring system, and within the last seven years, we have managed to decrease

In June 2006, the company took 236,200 tons of clean coal, which makes up 74.6% of all the coal produced in June 2005. The overburden operations at Korkinksiy mine resulted in 541,000 cubic meters of ground. The company advanced 11 meters farther in terms of development working than had previously been planned. Their technicians worked through 461 meters altogether. Coal Company of Chelyabinsk JSC shipped 193,700 tons of solid fuel in June 2006, most of which went to South Ural State District Power Plant, the spokesperson for the company’s economic department said to UrBC representative.

Governor Eduard Rossel met a group of executives from Itera Oil and Gas Company Ltd. headed by Igor Makarov, the company’s President. Mr Makarov introduced their new General Director and Chairman Vladimir Makeev to Mr Rossel. Mr Makeev assured the Governor that Itera would definitely keep cooperating with Sverdlovsk Region businesses and go on participating in other projects. Mr Rossel noted that the company was also known to take part in construction programs of socially important buildings as well as for doing charity, so he expressed his gratitude to the company’s representatives for their

Since the beginning of the year, damage caused to Yekaterinburg Electrical Networks Ltd. by businesses or private individuals has come to 500,000 RUR, yet only 77,000 RUR have so far been compensated, the company’s spokesperson said to UrBC representative.

SUAL Group has looked at its success in the first six months of 2006. Its pgrading of production facilities and efficient marketing policy have resulted in a steady increase in production, the company’s spokesperson said to UrBC representative. Thus, the Group has produced 26.5% more rolled metal and intermediate products in the first six months of 2006 than in the corresponding period of 2005. The output of foils and aluminum tape went up by 5.9%. In addition, the company produced 4.2% more of consumer goods compared to a year earlier.

According to the Central Bank of Russia, the volume of loans given by Ural Treasures Bank CJSC to natural persons for a term of 91 to 180 days has gone down by 53% (from 25.046 million RUR to 11.820 million) throughout January to June 2006. As for the period of January to May 2006, the volume of loans given by the Bank to natural persons for a term of 91 to 180 days dropped by 45% (from 25.046 million to 13.767 million).