Siberia Airlines summed up its entrepreneurial achievements in 2005. According to the company’s spokesperson, the carrier performed 32,672 flights in 2005, with the total number of passengers being 4,204 000 people. 63.6% of the passengers were carried on internal flights and 36.4% traveled internationally. The annual passenger turnover comprised 10,949 million passenger/kilometers, while the turnover of goods and mail reached a point of 25,788 tons. The company also took some foreign aircrafts on lease last year, namely, eight Boeing 737-500 models and four Airbus A310 ones.

According to the data presented by Sverdlovsk Region Ministry of Agriculture and Food Industry, the output of vodka and liquors produced by Tagilvodka JSC comprised 341400 decalitres in 2005, which makes up 89% of the previous year’s output (38,3600 decalitres). The winery produced 55,060 decalitres of vodka and liquors in December 2005, which signifies a 14.9% percent increase compared to the previous December (47,900 decalitres), of which 18,510 decalitres had not been sold by January 1, 2006.

The extremely cold weather in Tyumen Region, and Autonomous Regions of Yamalo-Nenetsk and Khanty-Mansiysk makes power plants work at the maximum load, reports the spokesperson for Tyumenenergo JSC. The frost has already caused a 200-megawatt increase in power consumption in Tyumen Region (compared to December 2005), which brought the figures to a record of 10,068 megawatt on January 11, 2006, given that there weren’t any limits set as to how much consumers could actually use. The current temperatures make it somewhat difficult to make sure the equipment is functioning properly and thus impose

Chelyabenergosbyt JSC has been shopping at the wholesale market since January 1. 2006. As the company’s spokesperson said to UrBC representative, the distributor had up to then been buying electricity in equal parts at the electricity wholesale market and from the generating company of Chelyabinsk and Yuzhnouralskaya water power plant. It has been decided, however, that the regional dealers should first deliver electricity onto the market, with distributors consequently acquiring the needed amount there. The data presented by ATS non-profit partnership indicate that 54 new players joined the

11 hotels fit for 647 people were introduced in Yekaterinburg in 2005 within the framework of Hotels of Yekaterinburg project and 10 more are to start operating in 2006, reports the Yekaterinburg Public Administration Commodities Market Committee. According to Deputy Mayor Viktor Konteev, the city is currently facing a real hotel boom. Yekaterinburg was the fourth city to be given the international Park Inn hotel chain in 2005. 7 hotels, including Bolshoy Ural, Iset, Zelenaya Rosha and Uktus Hotels were renovated and some of them (Grand Avenue Hotel, to name only one) are going to welcome

‘The primary intent of selling our 26% share holding in Uralagrotorg plc to Agrostar (Pyaterochka Holding) is to increase profits,’ claimed shareholder of Pyaterochka-Chelyabinsk Yelena Krasnikova while commenting for UrBC upon signing of the share purchase agreement. ‘Our efforts to enter into an alliance with the biggest Russian retailer are determined by hopes to increase not only profits but also our market share’ Ms Krasnikova says. While commenting on the Agrostar expectations to increase its share in Pyaterochka-Ural up to 100%, Ms Krasnikova indicated that this is not to affect the

Procurement sugar prices went up by 7% at the beginning of 2006, the spokesperson for Kupets Shopping Center said to UrBC representative. ‘The prime costs have been rising even though the store charge has remained the same; we’ve already run out of the supplies so the new ones will have to be bought at these new prices,’ the company’s spokesperson explained. It appears that the further rise is going to depend on the global raw prices.

Talitskiy Spirtoviy Zavod (Distillery of Talitsa) PLC produced 452600 decalitres of rectified alcohol, which makes up 90.6% of the previous year’s output (499700 decalitres). According to the data presented by Sverdlovsk Region Ministry of Agriculture and Food Industry, the distillery produced 81,400 decalitres of alcohol in December 2005, which signifies a 17.8% increase compared to December 2004, of which 6,280 decalitres had not been sold by January 1, 2006.

DCC Depository Clearing Company withdrew 19.66% of the shares it had of Kalina Concern JSC (thus going down from 13.19% to 32.85% of its piece of t he company’s pie). Three other nominee shareholders, namely, Deutsche Bank, ING Bank and Citibank increased their portion of corporate shares to the total of 73.38%, which is a 18.958% increase compared to the former 54.422%. According to the company’s spokesperson, Deutsche Bank now owns 8.992% of shares as opposed to the former 11.12%, ING possesses 51.78% compared to the former 36.85%, Citibank holds 10.48% compared to the former 8.58%.

‘We received 1563 employer applications asking to register their foreign workers in 2005, most of these applications concerning the continuation of existing agreements. Over 20,000 foreign workers were given jobs,’ reported Head of Yekaterinburg Employment Agency Job Allocation Department Margarita Vilesova. ‘The majority of foreign workers are involved in construction industry, namely, 8,641 people. Most of them come from Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Armenia, Azerbaijan and China,’ Ms Vilesova said.

Regional energy-managing company Sverdlovskaya Energeticheskaya Upravlyaushaya Kompaniya JSC announced an extraordinary general meeting in absentia. The agenda include approving of interim liquidation balance sheet and of the liquidation balance sheet proper. The deadline for submitting filled-in ballots is February 13, 2006.

The consulate of Vietnam is going to be introduced in Yekaterinburg, reports the Governor’s Information Department. The consulate will provide for Sverdlovsk Region, Republic of Altai, Republic of Bashkortostan, Republic of Tatarstan, Republic of Udmurtia, Krasnoyarsk and Perm Territories as well as for Kemerov, Novosibirsk, Omsk, Ohrenburg, Samara, Tomsk, Tyumen, Ulyanovsk and Chelyabinsk Regions.

Governor of Sverdlovsk Region Eduard Rossel met senior managers of Wimm-Bill-Dann OJSC (one of Russia’s largest dairy enterprises) yesterday. The company bought a dairy in Pervouralsk in 2005, so Chair of the Board Sergei Plastinin shared some of the reconstruction plans and projects concerning new technologies with the Governor. Wimm-Bill-Dann OJSC sees its future as more than simply processing milk to produce dairy products; they are also thinking of setting up their own dairy farm network with supporting fodder facilities. Governor Eduard Rossel suggested possible acquisition of a number

According to the data presented by Sverdlovsk Region Ministry of Agriculture and Food Industry, the output of vodka and liquors produced by Ekaterinburgskiy Likerovodochniy Zavod (Winery of Yekaterinburg) PLC comprised 385280 decalitres in 2005, which exceeds the figures for 2004 by 74%. The winery produced 33060 decalitres of vodka and liquors in December 2005 (as opposed to previous December’s 36100 decalitres, of which 3,000 decalitres had not been sold by January 1, 2006.

IGN Rt, a Hungarian enterprise, is about to set up a joint venture for assembling oil-electrical engines and gas plants with 0.5 to 1 megawatt capacity with Energan-Ural Ltd. As Energan-Ural GD Alexei Morosov explains, these will be Russian power units that will be used in the assembling process, including the units produced by Ural Diesel Engine Works, with generators and automated machinery supplied by the leading foreign makers. It is, however, in the company’s plans to replace all the foreign accessories by their locally made counterparts. IGN Rt GD Robert haraika says that the decision

‘The wholesale combustive-lubricating supplies prices have been artificially increased by the producers,’ says Director of Combustive-Lubricating Supplies Department of Computer Ltd. (part of Tatneft filling stations network) Evgeniy Yanenko. ‘The prices went up after more fuel had come to be used due to the cold weather. Refineries normally do this to increase their profits, but if one discards the cold-weather factor, the retail prices are not supposed to go up until February,’ Mr Yanenko reports. The data presented by courtesy of Kortes information agency indicate that Russian wholesale

The wholesale oil prices have gone up by 3% to 4% since the beginning f January, reports the spokesperson for Sverdlovsknefteproduct JSC (part of Sibneft JSC). The price of AI-80 petrol, for instance, had gone up by 6.7%, or 820 RUR per ton, the price of AI-92 is now 670 RUR per ton, or 4.6% higher, AI-96 and diesel oil are now being sold 70 RUR per ton/0.4% and 180 RUR per ton/1% more expensively. As Marketing Director of Sverdlovsknefteproduct JSC Pavel Sotulenko says, the company isn’t going to announce any other price increases in January: ‘We’ve already been buying oil at new wholesale

The annual natural gas import in the region has been going up steadily from 15.3 billion cubic meters in 1999 to 18.1 billion cubic meters in 2005, and 120 to 150 new natural gas consumers requiring 600 to 800 million cubic meters a year are likely to emerge in the Mid-Urals within the next two years. The agreement between Sverdlovsk Region Government and ITERA Holding PLC states that the regional consumers should receive 71 billion cubic meters of natural gas in the years 2005-2008. Yet the consumption forecast indicates that people are going to need 4.8 billion cubic meters more than this

11,877 flights departed from Koltsovo airport in Yekaterinburg; this exceeds the figures for 2004 by 0.5%. 9,161 flights (an increase of 3.8% compared to 2004) were bound for various Russian cities, 801 flights (a decrease of 17.8%) left for the cities of NIS, and 1,915 (a 5.4% decrease) were long-distance international ones. According to Koltsovo spokesperson, the airport served over 1.5 million clients (1,566 792 people), which means a slight increase of 0.8% compared to 2004. Koltsovo airport also transferred 11,544 900 tons of goods and mail, which signifies a 44.6% decrease compared to

‘Yekaterinburg is on the threshold of an office building boom’ Member of Ural Chamber of Real Estate Board and Managing Shareholder of BK-Nedvizhimost PLC Pavel Kusnetsov says. According to the data announced by Mr Kusnetsov, Yekaterinburg has nearly 50 operating office centers, and about 15 are under construction. Mr Kusnetsov claimed that at the moment, the main trends of the local office realty market were growth of supply mainly due to construction of new office centers, demand redistribution in favor of specialized office apartments, improvement of existing and projected office centers.