UrBC, Yekaterinburg, October 13, 2010. Sverdlovsk Region Arbitration Court is about to consider the bankruptcy cases involving the enterprises belonging to OOO Avtoland Holding Group, the spokesperson for the court reports. It has been announced that the companies in question, City Motors, OOO Avtoland Sever, and OOO FTsU, applied for bankruptcy because of the money they owe to OAO Khanty-Mansiyskiy Bank. As far as City Motors and OOO FTsU are concerned, the court is to look into their cases on December 10, 2010.

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, October 12, 2010. ‘The weather experts of Rosgidromet have become responsible for the accuracy of weather forecasts for Koltsovo Airport of Yekaterinburg since the end of May. OAO Koltsovo Airport is not dealing in any hydro-meteorological or related services now; moreover, the aeronautical weather station that used to be part of the airport’s facilities has been transferred to Rosgidromet Met Agency,’ the airport’s press service reports. In the meantime, a Turkish Airlines flight was delayed on October 11, 2010 and the air carrier claimed that Koltsovo Airport’s

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, October 12, 2010. A committee of Sverdlovsk Region division of Russia’s Federal Antimonopoly Service members met today to consider case 98 involving OOO Unicom Motors; the car dealer is suspected of violating Article 18 of the Advertising Act. It has been alleged that the company has been sending out text messages containing promotion information to mobile phone users without their preliminary consent, the spokesperson for the division reports. Now Unicom Motors is Honda’s official dealer in Yekaterinburg.

UrBC, Moscow, October 12, 2010. OAO Uralsib reports its net profit went down by 1.122 billion RUR, or 77.7% in the third quarter of 2010, that is, from 1.44 billion RUR in the second quarter of the year down to 323 million RUR in the third quarter. The bank explains that the drop in profits was mainly caused by their shrinking net operating income.

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, October 12, 2010. Uralsvyazinform, a telecommunications provider, intends to go through with large-scale redundancies on December 18, 2010. Out of 20,170 people employed by the company, 1,740 will have to leave, Sverdlovsk Region State Employment Service’s press secretary Kirill Samkov told UrBC. The press officer believes the layoffs have to do with some changes in the company’s structure. The news regarding the upcoming redundancies was first announced at a meeting of Ural Federal District Civil Forum Council held at the Plenipotentiary Representative of Russian

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, October 12, 2010. Sverdlovsk Region Arbitration Court keeps looking into ZAO Alfa Motors (Avtosun Group) bankruptcy case. The Group’s show rooms offer their customers such automobiles as Mazda, Ssang Yong, and Hyundai. On July 8, 2010, OAO Bank Severnaya Kazna placed a claim against ZAO Alfa Motors, its debtor, with Sverdlovsk Region Arbitration Court. The plaintiff wanted the defendant to be declared insolvent since the car dealer hadn’t been paying the 139.2 million RUR it owed the bank under loan agreement VKU-2007-2393 as of November 28, 2007 for over three months. At

Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) and LG Electronics Rus (LG Corporation’s Russian branch) agreed that MMK would deliver a pilot batch of zinc-coated rolled products as well as some stock with polymeric coating to LG. ‘Some technical issues related to making sure the quality of the zinc-coated products’ surface was the one we need were resolved successfully in the course of our negotiations. The parties also considered the development and introduction of bilateral normative documentation on the rolled stock for LG,’ MMK reports. Besides, the agenda of the talks also covered the

UrBC, Moscow, October 11, 2010. It’s going to cost between 180 and 200 billion RUR to finance the Skolkovo Project, Skolkovo Fund’s President Viktor Vekselberg says. ‘Under the current program we have, a three- to five-year development plan means we’ll need about 180-200 billion RUR,’ RIA Novosti quotes the businessman as saying. Vekselberg noted this was the sum total, and a half might actually be supplied by the budget. ‘Our goal is to achieve the ratio of 50/50, where the state and the private enterprise will provide a half of the amount each,’ he explained.

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, October 11, 2010. ‘The commercial estate developers have now realized that the ante-recession boom was actually a result of a market bubble. There are a lot of business center owners out there who had to reduce the rent rates: the supply is already overabundant and exceeds the demand greatly. At the same time, a number of newly built business centers that were started before the recession set in and are just about to be launched now can make things even worse,’ the General Director of IFC YAVA Finance Management Konstantin Selyanin said to UrBC. In the meantime,

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, October 11, 2010. The Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Kingdom of Spain to Russia Juan Antonio March Pujol is going to visit Yekaterinburg for the first time on October 18, 2010. The Ambassador is expected to take part in a Spain-dedicated culture event coordinated by a local shopping center. In the course of one day, he is to meet some college students, community workers, and politicians as well as to do some sightseeing and attend a charity ball at Evropa Shopping Center. The Spanish official will arrive in the Urals’ capital in the evening of October

UrBC, Moscow, October 11, 2010. Russia’s Federal Financial Markets Service decided not to allow OAO Yamal Aviation Company based in Salekhard, Yamalo-Nenetkiy Autonomous Region, to go through with the launch and state registration of an extra issue of ordinary registered non-certificated shares.

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, October 11, 2010. The international rating agency promoted the long-term credit rating and the national scale rating of Surgut, a Russian city, from ВВ-/ruAA- to ВВ/ruAA, with Stable rating outlook. ‘The rating promotion results from the fact that we now give more favorable estimates to the city’s liquidity status, which, in its turn, has to do with our adopting a new methodology on rating the regional and municipal authorities,’ says Standard & Poor's credit analyst Karen Vartapetov. Standard & Poor's reports the rating is still badly affected by

Ural Airlines will now offer more flights from Yekaterinburg to Vnukovo Airport in Moscow to its customers. During the summer, this flight was only available once a week, every Friday. Starting October 14, 2010, the carrier’s planes will land in Vnukovo Airport three times a week: on Thursdays, Fridays, and Sundays. As a matter of fact, Ural Airlines is the only company to offer business class tickets on flights to Vnukovo.

The second tour of a special offer launched by VISA International is now closed. The offer, dubbed, ‘Try It – You’ll Like It’, means that eleven customers of METCOMBANK from Moscow, Yekaterinburg, Perm, Volgograd, and Kamensk-Uralskiy will receive 3,000 RUR each in the nearest future. The second tour of VISA’s prize-giving campaign was launched on July 1-August 31, 2010 and involved all the holders of METCOMBANK-issued cards who used their Visas to pay for products and services over the given time period. The amount of money spent was not a criterion.

A large exhibition facility will probably be put up in Sverdlovsk Region soon. The project is to be supervised by the Mid-Urals Development Corporation, Head of Sverdlovsk Region Government Anatoly Gredin announced at a press conference in Yekaterinburg. According to the official, INEXPO exhibition center might stop operating as a result. ‘There is plenty of space available at 145 Gromov St, but we do not like the idea of holding large-scale exhibitions there. The place will most likely become an innovational technologies museum targeted at a young audience. We are planning to spend about 30

Analysts from Sverdlovsk Region Hygiene & Epidemiology Center’s Consumer Rights Protection Department looked into the customer complaints they had been getting throughout the third quarter of 2010. The experts came to the conclusion that local organizations repeatedly violated consumer rights over this time period, the center’s press officer reports. As far as the banking market is concerned, most customer complaints have to do with OOO Home Credit & Finance Bank, OOO KB Renaissance Capital, and OOO Rusfinance Bank.

The net profit of OAO Zapsibcombank went down by 27.89 million RUR, or 41.1% in the third quarter of 2010, that is, from 67.891 million RUR in the second quarter of the year down to 40.001 million RUR in the third quarter. ‘The 41.1% decrease in Zapsibcombank’s net profits between the second and the third quarters of 2010 resulted from the changes in the tax legislation that came into effect recently; namely, these changes involve a lower limit on the debt interest that can be accounted for in tax relief procedures. This means the bank had to pay more taxes in the third quarter of the year,’

The value of Bank Severnaya Kazna’s assets (property of OAO Alfa-Bank) went down by 3,763,918,000 RUR or 22.12% in the third quarter of 2010, that is, from 17,015,220,000 RUR on July 1, 2010 down to 13,251,302,000 RUR on October 1, 2010. It has been reported that the drop in asset value had to with the cession of business customers’ debts and selling the bank’s realty.

Sverdlovsk Region Arbitration Court ruled on September 17, 2010 that Sredneuralsk Metallurgical Plant should undergo bankruptcy proceedings, which resolved case А60-18859/2010-С14 for the time being. The news was carried under Kommersant’s Insolvency Announcements heading. Viktor Maksimtsev from Region Self-Regulatory Organization of Trustees in Bankruptcy Non-Commercial Partnership was appointed the plant’s provisional trustee in bankruptcy. The court will consider the company’s bankruptcy case on December 13, 2010.

Sverdlovsk Region Arbitration Court is now considering the claim laid by OOO SU-26 Sverdlovskgrazhdanstroy against OAO Euro-Asian International Transportation & Logistics Center; the former insists that the Center be declared bankrupt. A hearing on the relevance of the plaintiff’s demands is to take place today. OAO Euro-Asian International Transportation & Logistics Center is believed to be one of Sverdlovsk Region’s largest logistics hubs. The investment project was designed by Deloitte & Touche Regional Consulting Services Limited, a consultancy.