UrBC, Yekaterinburg, December 11, 2017. Metcombank came second in the rating of Russia’s most efficient banks in the three quarters of 2017 according to Kommersant, the bank’s press service reports. The rating was based on the ratio of profits in the first three quarters of the year to the average asset volume in the same year; the rating only touched upon the banks that were among the country’s top hundred as of July 1, 2017. Metcombank actually came 11th in the rating last year. The bank also came 25th in the rating of Russia’s Top 30 most profitable banks, based on its ratio of profits in

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, December 11, 2017. Members of Yekaterinburg Civic Chamber went on a tour of Central Stadium which is currently being reconstructed in time for the World Cup 2018 by Sinara Development, Sinara Group’s PR Center reports. Head of the stadium reconstruction project Sergey Grekhov told the visitors about their progress and the peculiar parameters of the building. Yekaterinburg Arena is now 98% complete, with workers busy finishing the rooms under the spectator stands and introducing navigation signs. All the jobs that are part of the developer’s state contract will have been

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, December 11, 2017. ChTPZ Group’s Future of White Metallurgy Corporate Training Program won the first prize in the National Professional Qualifications Development Agency’s Best Blue-Collar Job Training Practices 2017 Contest (category: We Are Partners). According to the company press service, the awarding ceremony took place during the 3d All-Russian National Professional Qualifications System Forum in Moscow; the forum is coordinated with support from the Presidential National Council for Professional Qualifications. ‘ChTPZ Group created the public-private cadre training

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, December 8, 2017. New homes are now offer (prices start from RUR 1.5m) in an apartment building on the river embankment in Yekaterinburg’s Akademicheskiy District, RSG-Akademicheskoye’s press service reports. ‘Even a modestly sized home that is your own, an apartment at a reasonable price is, given the current economic situation, a chance to secure a place to live. The new apartment building has plenty of housing options to choose from, including studio apartments and medium-sized homes, and both traditional and European-style layouts,’ the company’s Sales & Marketing

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, December 8, 2017. 7,436,013 people flew with Ural Airlines in January-November 2017, which exceeded the figures for one year earlier by 24%. According to the airline’s press service, they operated 51,360 flights between January 1 and November 30, including 30,577 domestic flights, 9,632 flights to and from the CIS member states, and 11,151 international flights. The overall number rose by 18% compared with one year earlier. 576,918 passengers traveled with the airline in November alone, which was 25% more than in November 2016. Ural Airlines operated 4,263 flights last

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, December 8, 2017. A solemn opening ceremony of a new Children’s Art School took place in Karabash, Chelyabinsk Oblast, on December 6, 2017. Russian Copper Company presented the school with a professional musical instrument as a housewarming gift, the company press service reports. Governor of Chelyabinsk Oblast Boris Dubrovsky congratulated the young art students on the school opening; over RUR 48m were directed from the constituency’s budget to put up a new, three-level building for a school with a sixty years’ history. The new building is big enough for two hundred

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, December 8, 2017. EVRAZ Holding’s West-Siberian Integrated Metallurgical Works (ZSMK) got its 54E4 and 49Е5 rail profiles certified for compliance with the TSI standards. The certificate means the plant can now supply these rail types to Europe for use at high-speed and regular railroads, EVRAZ Holding Siberia’s corporate relations center reports. 54Е4 and 49Е5 rail profiles are meant for jointed and continuous welded rail tracks as well as for making rail switches. These are lightweight profiles that are also used on public transport, undergrounds, and driveways. ‘We

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, December 8, 2017. Starting December 4, 2017, Ural Airlines offer their passengers a new flight from Ordos to Novosibirsk and back, the air carrier’s press service reports. U6 899 departs from Novosibirsk at 9:45 AM every Monday; U6 900 departs from Ordos at 3:25 AM on Tuesdays; the times quoted are local times for both respective airports. This timetable will remain unchanged through March 19, 2018. All flights are operated on Airbus A320 liners with both Economy and Business options available. ‘Ordos is a city in Inner Mongolia in the north of the People’s Republic of

UrBC, Chelyabinsk, December 7, 2017. A solemn stone-laying ceremony for the would-be shopping mall/entertainment venue took place in Karabash, Russian Copper Company’s press service reports. The event was attended by Governor of Chelyabinsk Oblast Boris Dubrovsky and Russian Copper Company Chair of the BOD Igor Altushkin. The mall will be built as part Karabash’s strategic development program for 2017-2021. The agreement on the program was signed by President of Russian Copper Company Vsevolod Levin, Governor of Chelyabinsk Oblast Boris Dubrovsky, and Mayor of Karabash Oleg Budanov at Sochi

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, December 7, 2017. The Association of American Railroads (AAR) allowed EVRAZ Holding’s Nizhniy Tagil Integrated Metallurgical Works (NTMK) to supply any amount of H36 wheels to North America, EVRAZ Holding Ural’s corporate relations center reports. The wheels will have to undergo additional testing after the first 100,000 miles. ‘These H36 wheels were first used experimentally at the United States’ largest railroad BNSF Railway and served for 300,000 miles (some 500,000 km) trouble-free. The wheels were then tested at North American labs and depots, with the latter

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, December 7, 2017. Markswebb Rank & Report recently carried a rating of mobile banking apps targeted at small enterprises; SKB-Bank’s mobile services were among the top five in this rating, the bank’s press service reports. Experts looked at both iOS and Android-based banking apps for smartphones; SKB-Bank came fourth in both platforms as the Best Mobile Bank for Top Managers; the bank also came fourth among Android-friendly apps and fifth among iOS-friendly ones as the Best Sole Trader App. The rating research touched upon all the things relating to management of

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, December 7, 2017. Ural Airlines are now offering tickets for their Moscow-Ufa-Moscow flight at a special price, the air carrier’s press service reports. Prices start from RUR 3,050 (one way) for Promo tickets and from RUR 4,000 for Economy tones. A round trip can cost as little as RUR 4,400 for Promo tickets and RUR 5,500 for Economy ones. The price covers all fees, cabin luggage, regular luggage, and a meal; in-flight time comes to two hours. ‘Ufa is an interesting offer for both those going there on business and tourists. The city is famous throughout all of Russia for

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, December 7, 2017. The telecommunications provider MegaFon looked into its traffic downloaded/uploaded through base stations near Sverdlovsk Oblast’s ski resorts, MegaFon Ural’s press service reports. ‘Skiers and snowboarders now use their smartphone Internet connection five times more extensively than before. Users located in Uktus and Pilnaya proved the most active online searchers in the last month. The amount of data downloaded in each of the two locations compares with around 40,000 online streaming sessions on social networks. Skiers in Listvennaya and Volchikha are

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, December 6, 2017. Passengers flying to Europe between December 31, 2017 and May 31, 2018 with Ural Airlines can enjoy a 10% discount at McArthurGlen outlets, the air carrier’s press service reports. What is more, Salzburg Designer Outlet will offer the airline’s customers a 10% discount and a €2.50 coffee voucher on January 1-March 31, 2018. To get your discount certificate (aka Fashion Passport), you need to produce your Ural Airlines boarding card, your plastic/virtual Wings Club membership card, or a photo of McArthurGlen’s ad in Ural Airlines UAM in-flight magazine’s

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, December 6, 2017. The telecommunications provider MegaFon’s subscribers set a traffic download record on December 2, 2017 when they watched the World Cup 2018 draw's live broadcast and talked about its outcome afterwards, MegaFon Ural’s press service reports. The users generated enough traffic every hour to equal watching 15,000 games of football. Among the big-city dwellers, the biggest fans watching the draw online happened to be located in Yekaterinburg, Perm, and Tyumen, where the traffic rose by 33%. VKontakte proved to be the most preferred social network for

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, December 6, 2017. Holders of Visa cards issued by the Ural Bank for Reconstruction & Development (UBRD) can now use Apple Pay, the bank’s press service reports. ‘Apple Pay centers on security and confidentiality. When you add your credit/debit card to the system, the card number doesn’t get stored on either your Apple device or Apple servers. Instead, you get a unique device account number that gets encrypted and safely stored within a chip inside your device. Every transaction is authorized through a unique, one-time, automatically generated security code,’ the press

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, December 6, 2017. Yekaterinburg road authorities imposed a temporary parking ban along 179 streets on December 1, 2017-April 15, 2018, the city council’s website states. The parking limitations are necessary to make sure snow can get shoveled with no delays and no problems. Special road signs will get installed in their respective locations. In case some cars do remain parked in the no-parking areas and thus obstruct the snow-shoveling vehicles, these automobiles will get towed to an impound by road police.

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, December 6, 2017. Sverdlovsk Oblast Legislative Assembly adopted the budget bill for the year 2018 and the draft bills for the years 2019 and 2020 in the second and third readings. Following all the changes in the original draft, and taking into account the expected federal budget transfers, the budget revenues went up by another RUR 3.9bn against the original figures and the budget expenses rose by RUR 4.1bn; the budget deficit will thus amount to RUR 11.5bn. It follows from the budget bill that the overall amount of budget revenues is expected to come to RUR 213.7bn

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, December 5, 2017. Two-thirds of mobile Internet connection users search for info on goods they would like to buy using their smartphones, the telecommunications provider MegaFon’s press service says. MegaFon Ural’s subscribers mostly use their smartphones to look up information on clothes, footwear, and household appliances. Online cosmetics shops are particularly popular in Tyumen and Kurgan, furniture stores have the greatest number of online customers in Yekaterinburg and Syktyvkar, while the most popular items bought online in Chelyabinsk/Izhevsk and Surgut are sports

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, December 5, 2017. The Ural Bank for Reconstruction & Development’s Saint Petersburg subsidiary signed a 350-million-ruble credit line agreement with Nevsky Mazut. According to the bank’s press service, the CL will be there for two years. The borrowed funds will be used to back up the company’s pre-export financing needs. Head of the UBRD Saint Petersburg subsidiary Alexander Kazanskiy says Nevsky Mazut is one of Saint Petersburg’s largest businesses in the fuel supply sector. ‘Supplying fuel, including furnace oil, is a big part of the national exports. Our exporters