October 3, 2014. MegaFon carried a performance report on the development of its fourth-generation network from the moment the advanced technology was introduced in Yekaterinburg a year ago. Over these twelve months, MegaFon’s 4G coverage network expanded by 2.5 times in the Urals’ capital, so more than 90% of Yekaterinburg residents can now enjoy the high-speed mobile Internet access, the company’s press service reports. ‘MegaFon was the first to launch the 4G network in Yekaterinburg early last October, and over the course of one year, the coverage area increased considerably and gave the

October 2, 2014. Tech study clubs are now welcoming all the schoolchildren at ChTPZ Group’s Training Center in Pervouralsk, the company’s press service reports. ‘Any school student can now attend one of our seven clubs – technical drawing, computer graphics, robotics, mechatronics, chemistry, numerical control machine programming, simulation, electric engineering, and electronics – free of charge. The main idea is to revive the students’ interest in engineering disciplines. Lessons will be given by the Training Center’s qualified teachers,’ the company says. ‘This technical creativity for

October 2, 2014. The second amateur youth Olympics took place on the premises of Yekaterinburg Suvorovskoye Military School in celebration of the Plant’s Day; the event was organized for the workers of Uraltransmash (a member enterprise of Uralvagonzavod Corporation). ‘Uraltransmash coordinates sports contests every year, with workers competing in football and basketball games, track-and-field relays, table tennis and chess matches, bowling, and target shooting. This is the second year we have been organizing amateur Olympics: our workers always take a great interest in sports events, and

October 2, 2014. ChTPZ Group is taking part in the 22nd International Oil & Gas Exhibition/KIOGE in Almaty, Kazakhstan, on September 30-October 3. The company’s stand is located at Pavilion 11 (Atakent, Stand 234), the Group’s press service reports. ChTPZ Group works in close cooperation with Kazakh industrial enterprises and takes part in the exhibition every year. This year, ChTPZ Group is featuring the produce of its pipe manufacturing member enterprises and the products and services of Rimera, its oilfield services division. The Group is also presenting the potential customers its

October 2, 2014. The increase in the volume of merchant acquiring transactions at the Ural Bank for Reconstruction & Development went up by 68% between January 1 and September 1, 2014, the bank’s press service reports. The number of POS terminals increased by 84% over the same period and came to almost 4,000 units. According to the UBRD SME Director Elena Sorvina, the rise in the number of terminals and transactions volume primarily has to do with the branch network expansion as well as with a noticeable increase in the demand for this service on the part of tertiary sector companies. ‘We

October 2, 2014. VUZ Bank is offering new terms on its Savings Deposit. This deposit type can now be opened for three or six months or for one or two years: prior to this change, the deposit could only be opened for two years, with 10.5% annual interest rate. The maximum interest rate now comes to 11%, the bank’s press service says. This change was brought about by customer feedback: customers prefer simple and clear short-term schemes that make it easier to save up for a short-term goal. Depending on how long the money stays in the deposit, the interest rate will vary from 9.5% to 11% (9.5%

October 1, 2014. The Ural Bank for Reconstruction & Development keeps meeting its obligations towards its bondholders in full accordance with the agreements. On September 30, the bank made the payments on the fourth coupon in the BO 1 bond issue. Investors were paid 102.22m RUR all in all, 51.11 RUR per bond. There are 2 million BO 1 bonds currently in circulation, with consolidated face value of 2bn RUR, the bank’s press service reports. According to the offering memorandum, October 6 is the buy-back offer date (the bonds can be bought out from the BO 1 bondholders if the latter are

October 1, 2014. In the first half of 2014, ChTPZ Group’s net profit (calculated in accordance with the IAS) reached 189m RUR, with net margin rising to 0.3%, the Group reports. Revenues declined by 3% in the six months of 2014 compared with the first half of 2013 and came to 53,964m RUR. The Group’s gross profit increased by 17% and its EBITDA went up by 8%, reaching 10,393m RUR. The EBITDA margin rose by 2% and stood at 19.3%. ‘Despite the gloomy economic and industrial factors at play, ChTPZ Group still made 189m RUR worth of profits in the six months of 2014 against 311m RUR worth of

October 1, 2014. Electromachine Scientific & Production Association (a member enterprise of Uralvagonzavod Corporation) coordinated a cycling quest in Chelyabinsk on Machine-Builders’ Day. According to the corporation’s press service, the cyclists had to choose the best route using a navigator, get to control points, and cope with a number of tasks that required resourcefulness, erudition, and adroitness. ‘Ten five-people teams of Electromachine’s employees took part in the event. Possessing a smartphone with a functioning Internet connection, multi-media messaging service, and a

October 1, 2014. The fan zone in Yekaterinburg’s Mayakovsky Central Park will be expanded and improved, Deputy Head of Yekaterinburg Council Sergey Tushin said when meeting with the representatives of the city council’s Culture Administration, V.V. Mayakovsky Central Park, the Urals’ Capital Municipal Enterprise, and Yekaterinburg Administration for Capital Construction. ‘This supporters’ zone is going to be used as the primary one, so it will be expanded and improved,’ Tushin said. During this meeting, its participants also talked about the location of the fan zone and its separate sections,

October 1, 2014. The Russian Federation Government will direct 21.3m RUR from the federal budget funds to the development of culture and tourism in Sverdlovsk Region, the Cabinet’s press service reports. The funds will be allocated for purchase of special equipment for local cultural establishments, for providing the municipal cultural venues with special-purpose motorized vehicles, and for preservation of historic landmarks in the large, medium-sized, and small cities and towns in the area. The money will also be used for the development of the most successful cultural and tourist centers.

September 30, 2014. Yekaterinburg is going to host the European table tennis championship in 2015: the city’s application was recently approved by the European Table Tennis Union’s congress. ‘This decision is the result of our ongoing efforts aimed at the development of table tennis in Sverdlovsk Region, this is the result of local tennis players’ achievement, and the result of Sverdlovsk Region’s international acclaim,’ says Sverdlovsk Region Minister for Physical Education, Sports, & Youth Policy Leonid Rapoport. The European table tennis championship is to take place on September

September 30, 2014. The Ural Bank for Reconstruction & Development is organizing a special Business Knowledge Day as a way of celebrating the company’s anniversary. The event is open for all sorts of businesspeople who enjoy learning something new and useful, the bank’s press service reports. Seminars, workshops, and advice sessions will be dedicated to various aspects of running a business. The event will take place at the UBRD Business Management Center (12 Anton Valek St) in Yekaterinburg from 10 AM to 7 PM on September 30. During this session, participants will be able to get

September 30, 2014. Uralvagonzavod Scientific & Production Corporation is going to act as the general sponsor of the first national hi tech industry blue-collar jobs contest WorldSkills Hi Tech; the championship will be held on the premises of Yekaterinburg EXPO on October 30-November 3. According to the corporation’s press service, the agreement on the organization of the championship was signed during Innoprom 2014, the international industrial exhibition, by Uralvagonzavod Corporation’s Director-General Oleg Sienko, Governor of Sverdlovsk Region Evgeniy Kuivashev, Russian Industry

September 30, 2014. Sinara Group is now in the 96th place in the Forbes rating of Russia’s largest privately owned companies, the company’s PR Center reports. The magazine’s analysts ranked Russia’s non-state economic sector and created a rating of 200 companies with less than 50% of state-owned or internationally owned authorized capital. A company’s position in the rating is based on its revenues in 2013. Forbes analysts say that the list of businesses has remained virtually the same as last year: only 16 companies had to give room to stronger competitors. ‘The rating of non-listed

September 30, 2014. MegaFon came up with a five-year performance report for its retail network in Ural Federal District. A noticeable increase in smartphone sales proves the most prominent trend at the moment: customers started buying these twice as often over the last year alone, while number of smartphones sold rose by 20 times over the last five years, the company’s press service reports. ‘Given our customers’ needs, we expanded the range of mobile phones available for purchase by five times. You can currently find more than 213 smartphone makes, 107 phone varieties, and 39 kinds of tablet

September 30, 2014. Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK), ChTPZ Group, and Kazakhstan’s KazTransOil signed a memorandum on scientific and technological cooperation at the 11th Russia-Kazakhstan Interregional Cooperation Forum in Atyrau, Kazakhstan, today. The memorandum was signed by MMK Director-General Pavel Shilyayev, ChTPZ Group DG Vitaly Sadykov, and KazTransOil DG/Chairman of the Board Kairgeldy Kabyldin. The parties agreed to exchange technical information and conduct meetings on a regular basis in order to improve their pipe produce. The document also specifically focuses on the

September 29, 2014. A new production facility is expected to be put up on the premises of Uralcryomash (a member enterprise of Uralvagonzavod Corporation) in Nizhniy Tagil in 2015-2017 According to the corporation’s press service, the facility is meant for making 3,500 product units, including tank cars, liquefied petroleum gas and liquefied natural gas containers, and stationary cryogenic tanks. The production facility will be put up on the premises of the former Nizhniy Tagil Concrete Goods Plant 3. The new facility’s area will come to around 50,000 sq m, with about 400 new jobs for workers

September 29, 2014. Ural Electrochemical Plant (a member enterprise of Rosatom’s Fuel Company TVEL, Novouralsk) is going to invest more than 7bn RUR in equipment upgrades in 2014, the plant’s press service refers to the company Director-General Alexander Belousov as saying. According to the DG, the company is starting to modernize one of its gas centrifuge units at one of its technological departments today; the plant also keeps working on the replacement of ancillary equipment. The company operates stably and can definitely meet its production targets. For one, the plant’s sales revenues

September 29, 2014. The FIFA executive committee supported the idea of allowing Yekaterinburg and Kaliningrad construct or reconstruct stadiums that would be big enough for 35,000 supporters in time for the World Cup 2018, R-Sport refers to Russian Sports Minister Vitaliy Mutko as saying. ‘The executive committee agreed that two cities, namely, Kaliningrad and Yekaterinburg, adopted a different concept in terms of the stadium capacity. It was agreed today that they would be allowed to construct or reconstruct stadiums fit for 35,000 people,’ Mutko said. The world football championship will be