The hotel chain that currently runs three hotels in Russia (Hilton Moscow Leningradskaya, Hilton Garden Inn Perm, and DoubleTree by Hilton Novosibirsk) and the Hilton Baku Hotel in Azerbaijan signed four new agreements and a multi-project deal on the development of the chain on the Russian market. Russia will get twenty-four Hilton Worldwide hotels altogether; Yekaterinburg was not on the list, Hoteldeluxes.com refers to the company’s press office as saying. Most of these prospective hotels will be put up in Moscow: Hilton Garden Inn Moscow New Riga, DoubleTree by Hilton Moscow Leningradsky

The international rating agency Standard & Poor’s credit rating service promoted Sverdlovsk Region’s long-term rating from BB to BB+, with Stable rating outlook. ‘The rating was promoted due to the region’s financial performance indicators, which proved above our expectations and were caused by the increased budget revenues and some well-balanced control of the expenditure,’ the agency reports. The region’s solvency is also supported by its small debts, high liquidity indicators, and moderate financial performance indicators. ‘The Stable rating outlook indicates that we believe Sverdlovsk

The extraordinary general meeting of Koltsovo Airport’s stockholders that was supposed to have taken place in absentia was declared invalid. According to the company’s reports, the reason for this decision was the fact that there was no quorum for holding the meeting.

Next year, McDonald’s is planning to open up to fifty new restaurants in Russia, Retail.ru reports. The number of outlets operated by the company is expected to reach 310 before the end of the year, and this figure will increase by another 15% in 2012 when forty to fifty new places are launched. McDonald’s intends to keep expanding geographically, with restaurants to be opened in cities with population over a million people and in the regions’ capitals; in addition, more places will be opened in Moscow and Moscow Region, Saint Petersburg, the Urals, and the Volga Region.

The Profile magazine carried a rating of the largest banks in terms of net asset volume. The Ural Bank for Reconstruction and Development was given the 46th position on the list: its assets amounted to 93.13bn RUR on November 1, 2011. Last year, the bank scored the 47th position in the rating. As a matter of fact, the UBRD was also given good ratings among Russia’s most profitable banks at the end of November. According to RBC.Rating, the Ural Bank for Reconstruction and Development was the country’s 28th largest bank in terms of profit volume (this reached 1.8bn RUR on October 1, 2011, which

A large sum of a customer’s money went missing from Ural, Alfa-Bank’s Yekaterinburg office, the victim himself informed UrBC. ‘I decided to place 25,000 RUR into my Alfa-Bank card account on December 23. I used the cash-in ATM located in their Ural office right in the center of the city. Unfortunately, the money was not transferred into my account; nor did the ATM give me my money back,’ the bank’s customer told UrBC. According to the customer, the office clerks did admit that the trouble had most likely been caused by an ATM glitch and suggested that he should submit an official complaint.

The firefighters are now pouring water onto the scene of the fire at Tagansky Ryad market place and dismantling the burned-down structures there. Six firefighting vehicles and twenty-four people are involved in the proceedings. The causes of the fire are being investigated by the firefighting experts and inquest authorities, Sverdlovsk Region division of Russia’s Ministry of Emergencies reports. The fire at a warehouse at 1 Minometchikov St. was reported at 2:24 PM on December 25, 2011. Plenty of combustible material at the warehouse and a strong wind caused the fire to spread quickly. The

Ural Airlines’ fleet of vehicles now numbers as many as twenty-two Airbus planes. The company’s ninth Airbus A321 arrived at Koltsovo Airport of Yekaterinburg yesterday. This was yet another stage in the airline’s fleet upgrade program. The new plane was bought on operational lease terms in Dublin, Ireland. Like the previous A321 planes, this one has 220 economy class seats. The air carrier intends to use it mostly for chartered flights. Ural Airlines also intends to upgrade its fleet of vehicles further by buying four more airplanes in 2012 and to operate thirty Airbus planes by 2015. The

929 flights will be operated from Yekaterinburg’s Koltsovo Airport during the holiday season, between December 25, 2011 and January 15, 2012. This includes 635 domestic flights, 294 international flights, 903 scheduled flights, and 27 chartered flights. The greatest portion of the international flights will be operated to Egypt (26 flights to Hurghada and 20 flights to Sharm El Sheikh), the Czech Republic (32 flights to Prague and 6 flights to Carlsbad), the United Arab Emirates (22 flights to Dubai and 8 flights to Sharjah), Thailand (21 flights to Bangkok and 5 flights to Phuket), and China

The stockholders of Uktus Airport intend to increase the company’s authorized capital. This is going to be one of the issues on the agenda of the annual general meeting scheduled for January 23, 2011. Now under Sverdlovsk Region’s public property management program for 2012 and the plan for 2013-2014, Sverdlovsk Region Government is planning to buy 200m RUR worth of Uktus Airport’s shares.

Head of Sverdlovsk Region Government’s press officer Evgeny Kharlamov explained the facts behind First Deputy Head of Government Mikhail Maximov signing a governmental decree. ‘Mikhail Maximov is going to sign the regional government’s decrees while Anatoly Gredin is absent. This was the case on December 17, for example, when Maximov signed the decree regarding the state guarantees offered by Sverdlovsk Region to OAO Ural Exhibition Center in 2011. Anatoly Gredin was away on business in Moscow at that moment,’ Kharlamov said. In fact, Sverdlovsk Region provided Ural Exhibition Center with

160 Russian railway stations will be fitted with the wireless Internet connection in 2012, Russian Railways’ press service reports. At the moment, twenty Russian railway stations can boast a Wi-Fi connection: the ones in Moscow, Moskovsky and Finlyandsky ones in Saint Petersburg, and the ones in Vologda, Nizhniy Novgorod, Vladimir, Cherepovets, Arkhangelsk, Yaroslavl, Pyatigorsk, Rostov, and Sochi, RZhD Partner reports. It is also reported that, in order to improve customer service for passengers and visitors to the railway stations, the baggage rooms have been converted to automated mode

The shareholdings of Khanty-Mansiysky Bank and of the insurance company Yugoria that currently belong to Khanty-Mansiysky Autonomous Region will be placed on the list of assets to be privatized in 2012, the region’s State Property Management Department informed Interfax. ‘The date of the auction aimed at selling the shares of Khanty-Mansiysky Bank will be announced in the first quarter of 2012; the auction aimed at selling Yugoria’s shares will take place approximately in April or May 2012,’ the Department said. The state-owned shareholdings of Khanty-Mansiysky Bank and Yugoria were initially

This year, the representatives of Titanium Valley Management Company coordinated over three hundred meetings with companies and enterprises based in Western and Northern Europe, Southeast Asia, the United States, and Canada which could become potential residents of the special economic zone. Among the most important events of this kind were taking part in such exhibitions as Hannover Messe in Germany, MIPIM in France, Titanium in the U.S., and Innoprom, Russian Expo Arms, and MAKS in Russia. Most of the promotion activities are expected to take place in 2012, when infrastructure work begins

The Ural Bank for Reconstruction and Development set up a web page with Google+, the new social network provided by the world’s best-known search engine. The address, now hosts photographs and videos about the bank as well as information on the bank’s services and links to popular products. In fact, the bank already runs two groups in Vkontakte, one group in Odnoklassniki, and a Twitter account. The regional SMM market experts speak very highly of the launch of the bank’s projects in the social network Vkontakte. According to a research done by the digital data agency DeltaClick (called Top

The number of violations of the antimonopoly legislation in the field of telecommunications is now on the rise in Sverdlovsk Region, Head of Russia’s Antimonopoly Service Sverdlovsk Region division Tatiana Kolotova said at a press conference. Kolotova pointed out that the increase in the number of offenses was due to Rostelecom. ‘We had to process four or five suits involving this company this year,’ the official added. In addition to telecommunications, power engineering, heat supply industry, and railway shipments are also common areas of the antimonopoly legislation abuse. ‘Every year,

Ural Airlines has received a letter of gratitude from Sverdlovsk Region Government once again; the letter was sent to thank the company for taking part in charity work, its great social responsibility, and providing immediate help for the financially challenged Russians in 2011. The benefactors’ awarding ceremony took place at the end of Charity Days coordinated in Sverdlovsk Region on December 6-21, 2011, Ural Airlines’ press office reports. ‘Your charity work promotes the revival of Russia’s great moral traditions,’ the letter from Sverdlovsk Region Government, Sverdlovsk Region Union of

Radio Equipment Plant placed a claim against Bank Inteza with Sverdlovsk Region Arbitration Court. According to the materials of the case, the claim amounts to 1.28m RUR.

OOO Progress Universal won the tender aimed at selling a 3.5% stake in Ural Transport Bank (UralTransBank) that belonged to Russian Railways. This information is available from the website of TransCreditBank, the company that coordinated the tender. The asset was sold at the opening bid price of 36.8m RUR.

Pipe Metallurgical Company (TMK) reports its premium threaded connections TMK PF have been successfully tested for compliance with the ISO 13679 CAL IV standard in Oil States Industries, an international certification center based in Aberdeen, UK. The center tests the produce of the world’s largest oil and gas companies. The testing was carried out by TMK Premium Service. Subjected to a special qualification test program were threaded connections TMK PF with the diameter of 177.8mm, wall width 10.4mm, and strength grade L80. The testing was done at the order of one of the Middle East’s major