The construction of the last ring of Yekaterinburg orbital motorway will start this year, the Governor’s PR Department reports. Governor of Sverdlovsk Region Evgeny Kuivashev and Chairman of Russian Motorways Public Company Sergey Kelbakh signed a protocol of intentions between the region’s government and the corporation in the course of Innoprom 2012 exhibition on July 12. The protocol is related to the construction of the southern half of the motorway ring. To implement this project, Russian Motorways will set up its first joint daughter company in the region. The last section of the

The public prosecution authorities of Nizhniy Tagil’s Leninsky District investigated the break in the hot water supply in some of the town’s dwellings. Some measures were taken following the inspection. It was detected that on May 16, 2012 Uralsevergaz stopped supplying natural gas to 22 boilers of Tagilenergo because the end users owe them a lot of money; as a result, no hot water is supplied to residential buildings located in Nizhniy Tagil. The prosecution authorities placed a claim with Nizhniy Tagil’s Leninsky District Court, demanding that the actions of Tagilenergo’s officials be

The Ural Bank for Reconstruction and Development now makes precious metals deposits more readily available for private individuals. This service only used to be available in just a few branches in Yekaterinburg, but now one can open such a deposit in any part of the country where the bank’s offices exist, the bank’s press service reports. In fact, such alternative savings instruments are becoming increasingly popular as of late. Banks’ customers are looking for the most profitable way to retain and increase their savings and are now interested not only in the classical deposits but also in

Thanks to the implementation of Development Corporation’s project called Energy Company The Industrial Urals – The Polar Urals, the cost of electricity for the end user dropped down to 5.392 RUR per kilowatt-hour. The company’s DG Sergey Melnichenko says they were able also to increase their production ouptut. ‘New users get connected every day, which increases the station’s general workload and the gross profit is now spread throughout a greater amount of energy produced. As a result, every kilowatt of energy’s prime cost is lower. We improved on the heating networks performance last year

Verkh-Isetsky investigative department of Yekaterinburg’s division of Russia's Investigative Committee in Sverdlovsk Region and the prosecution’s evidence proved sufficient for the court to return a verdict on a 48-year-old Yekaterinburg dweller, the former director of Polymer Pipe Company. The man was found guilty of committing a crime described in Article 199.2 of Russia’s Criminal Code (withholding data on the company’s money that should be used for the payment of taxes). The inquiry team and the court determined that the offender knew his company owed over 23m RUR in taxes but

The rating outlook of the Russian metallurgical group Novolipetsk Iron & Steel Works (NLMK) has been changed to Negative because of a drop in profitability and borrowing characteristics. Its BBB- rating has been confirmed, S&P reports. Standard & Poor's affirmed NLMK's long-term company credit rating at BBB- and a demotion of rating outlook from Stable to Negative on July 10. The company's national scale rating was affirmed at ruAAA.

Experts from Yekaterinburg Electrical Network Company (YESK) are to ensure stable electricity supply at all the events related to Innoprom 2012 exhibition, the company’s press service reports. All the circuits and power facilities at the exhibition sites have been checked, as well as the buildings, the hotels, and places that the officials will visit. The power supply is delivered through Aviator substation and an independent power station located at Innoprom site. What is more, the company's repair teams will offer additional control over the facilities at the fair. So, the company is

The net profit of Binbank (calculated in accordance with the Russian Accounting Standards) dropped by three times in the first half of 2012 and came to 223m RUR against 688m RUR a year earlier. This was mainly due to the need to create non-core asset reserves, a less impressive stock market dynamics, and an increase in the salary fund insurance payments, Prime refers to the bank’s press office as saying. The bank’s business customers lending portfolio rose by 16% in six months of the year and reached 70.4bn RUR due to attracting about 5,100 new customers. Binbank’s retail portfolio rose by 7%

Sinara Pipe Plant (SinTZ), a part of Pipe Metallurgical Company (TMK), summed up the results of its annual improvements contest for 2011 on the eve of Inventor & Innovator’s Day. Last year, 311 people contributed to the plant’s innovative activity, including 159 young workers and experts. Throughout the year, 1,080 improvement proposals were considered: 306 of them were accepted and 156 actually launched. This saved the company over 8.5m RUR altogether. Also, 1,372,700 kilowatt-hours worth of electric power, 1,101.4 gigacalories worth of heating energy, and 574,100 cubic meters of

The Mid-Urals Development Corporation explains the delay in the construction of a low-rise residential block Istoksky by the new regional Cabinet formation. ‘Changes in the composition of the Cabinet were the reason why a crucial agreement between the corporation and Sverdlovsk Region Government could not be signed,’ says the company’s Director-General Sergey Filippov. The corporation also explained the project of was supported by the Construction Ministry. ‘We gave this project our general support, and we intend to develop it. Under the existing agreement, the dwellings will primarily be

Russia’s Federal Antimonopoly Service made Ingosstrakh reduce the total share of Ingosstrakh-Yugoria Group on the Russian regional insurance markets in case Ingosstrakh buys a 100% stake in Yugoria Insurance Company. Now the FAS has already approved Ingosstrakh’s petition for the acquisition of a 100% shareholding in Yugoria: the latter is to be privatized in August. For three years, Ingosstrakh will have to submit quarterly reports on how the reduction process is going to the FAS.

The Consulate-General of the Republic of France in Yekaterinburg will soon stop accepting visa applications. Starting August 1, 2012, this authority will be handed over to Moscow, the spokesperson for Yekaterinburg Council reports. The Consulate explains this ‘visa reform’ has to do with the internal reorganization of the French consulate network in Russia and the budget savings program. However, the visa-issuing procedure will remain the same for Yekaterinburg residents. One can still submit all the papers and get the permission to enter France at the united visa center at 13 Karl Liebknecht

Sverdlovsk Region Arbitration Court sustained the application placed by Federal Tax Service 31 on behalf of Sverdlovsk Region division of Russia’s Federal Tax Service on including the service in the list of Russkiye Samotsvety Plant’s creditors. The company is now involved in a bankruptcy case, and the service’s claim comes to 1.8m RUR, the court reports. Now the court ruled on March 6, 2012 that Russkiye Samotsvety Plant should undergo bankruptcy proceedings. Ulyana Nikulina was appointed the company’s trustee in bankruptcy. The tax service will be among the third-priority creditors.

Upon Governor of Sverdlovsk Region Evgeny Kuivashev and Head of Government Denis Pasler’s request, the region’s Ministry for Public Property Management drew up a letter to the Russian TV & Radio Broadcasting Network (RTRS), asking for the unfinished TV tower in Yekaterinburg to be handed over from the federal authorities to the regional ones. Last week, Minister for Public Property Management Alexei Pyankov met head of RTRS Petr Podoinikov. ‘We came to a general agreement on handing the tower over to the regional authorities at no charge, in case the latter provide us with an equivalent

Last week, MasterCroft Ltd sold a 5.1548% stake in Vysokogorsky Ore Mining & Processing Enterprise (VGOK, a member of Evraz plc), Interfax-Ural refers to the plant’s official reports as stating. MasterCroft has kept one vote, or 0.00000012818% of shares. At the same time, Sibmetinvest (a member of Evraz plc), now owns a 99.9999% stake in the business. It used to own 94.8451% of shares before.

Yekaterinburg’s medical market turnover grew by 18.4% and came to 14.38bn RUR, RBC Market Research refers to BusinessStat as saying. The market mainly grew due to the growing obligatory medical insurance funds budget revenues, as this is the main sector of the medical market: in 2011, 47% of the local medical service spending fell into the obligatory medical insurance sector. In terms of physical volume, this sector’s services came to 82% of the market due to lower prices against private medical services: last year, an appointment through the obligatory medical insurance system cost 362.6

On Friday, July 6, Sberbank cards could not be used either in Russia or abroad due to a technical glitch, the bank reports. The bank’s IT experts managed to solve all the problems within a few hours’ time. ‘The card services were unavailable starting from 5:00 PM Moscow time because of a failure in the ORACLE-based processing database. Switching the system to a reserve set turned out to be useless, which was why it was decided to start the recovery procedure. Due to a lot of data stored in the database, this takes a lot of time, but it also guarantees the total recovery of all the customer

Renova Group of Companies’ new holding Regional Airports is planning to present projects on the development of three airports (in Yekaterinburg, Samara, and Nizhniy Novgorod) at the Ural International Exhibition/Forum Innoprom. The exhibition starts on July 12, 2012. The key features of the presentation on Koltsovo Airport are the projects on the development of short-haul flights and the construction of a freight facility (this started a year ago and was pilot-launched in June 2012). The new freight terminal’s area comes to 19,000 sq m; it requires about 1.4bn RUR worth of investments. The

ChTPZ Group and Gazprom signed a bilateral agreement on scientific and technological cooperation for the years 2012-2015. The agreement is aimed at mastering the new kinds of produce with enhanced technical and efficiency characteristics that will meet Gazprom’s needs, ChTPZ reports. The agreement provides for cooperation along three main routes: electrically welded large-diameter pipes, well casing, and oil well tubing. Experts from the two companies’ scientific and technological divisions intend to work on improving the quality of tubes, increasing their lifespan, and devising the normative

Sverdlovsk Region authorities are planning to sign at least as much worth of contracts as last year in the course of Innoprom 2012, Governor Evgeny Kuivashev announced in the course of a briefing. ‘For now, our goal is to sign at least as many contracts as last year. The main thing is to ensure the great quality of the exhibition,’ the Governor said. Last year, 180bn RUR worth of contracts was signed. The international industry and innovations exhibition Innoprom 2012 will be held in Yekaterinburg for the third time on July 12-15.