The net loss of Gazprombank (one of Russia’s Top 5 banks) amounted to 966.9 million RUR in the first quarter of 2010 (in accordance with the Russian Accounting Standards). According to the bank’s report, its net profit reached 16.7 billion RUR in the first quarter of 2009 and 8.55 billion RUR in the last quarter of the year (in accordance with the Russian Accounting Standards), RIA Novosti says. The bank’s net profit declined by 2.3 times down to 9 billion RUR at the end of 2009. Gazprombank reports the profits dropped because the bank had to pay significantly more in terms of profit tax in

Rostechnadzor, the state technological, environmental, and nuclear safety watchdog completed its investigation of the recent accident at Yuzhnaya mine (Evraz Group’s Vysokogorskiy Ore Mining and Processing Enterprise). On February 18, 2010, the company’s boring apparatus operator was killed while drilling a drain hole in Spot 16 because of the faulty machinery and failing to comply with the safety requirements. Rostechnadzor reports the accident was caused by the use of a faulty boring apparatus, by poor organization of the work process, by the victim’s being drunk, and by lack of control

The net profit of OAO Nordea Bank went down by 11.31%, or 138.681 million RUR in the first quarter of 2010; the figures decreased from 1,226,101,000 RUR in the fourth quarter of 2009 to 1,087,420,000 RUR in the first quarter of 2010. The bank explains the decrease in the net profit has to do with the growing security and foreign currency transactions expenses; this kind of spending went up because of the changing exchange rates.

The net profit of Novolipetsk Iron & Steel Works (NLMK) declined by 91% in 2009: the figure went down to $215m against $2.279bn in the year 2008, the company’s report states. ‘Troubles on the global market and having to take a share in the losses of our JV Steel Invest and Finance S.A. (with most of their losses sustained in the first half of 2009) were the main causes of dropping profits last year,’ the company explains. NLMK’s revenues decreased by 48% in 2009; the figures reached $6.14bn compared with $11.699bn in 2008. The enterprise’s gross profit shrank by 63% and amounted to

‘This year, our chain store is planning to improve the interior and design of our outlets and to open some new shops that will meet the unified corporate standards. Sverdlovsk Region is one of our top priority development locations,’ Eldorado electronic goods store’s PR Director Sergey Pavlov informed UrBC. However, the executive was unable to speak of any specific projects or the number of stores to be set up in the area. ‘Our company is now considering all the available options and negotiating with the shopping area owners. Eldorado’s new outlets have to meet our standards, that is, the

‘It’s true that we’ve got a problem with confirming the availability of resources in some of the deposits involved in the project. Some ten deposits still need to be explored further, and the only deposits we are 100% sure of are those of brown coal and chromite ore. Also, the deposits of polymetals, manganese, barites, and rare-earth metals still need some further exploration as well,’ Plenipotentiary Representative of Russian Federation President in Ural Federal District Nikolai Vinnichenko said in his interview to Vedomosti regarding The Industrial Urals-The Polar Urals program. ‘We cannot

Emirates, the United Arab Emirates’ international airline signed an electronic interline agreement with Ural Airlines, one of Russia’s major carriers. The agreement means that the passengers from the Urals and Volga Regions can now buy a single e-ticket for both companies’ connecting flights and travel from Yekaterinburg or Samara to Dubai and over 100 other destinations offered by Emirates. What is more, this interline agreement provides for the bargain prices on Emirates and Ural Airlines’ flights. The two carriers have been cooperating since 2002, and now the latter operates one

‘Uralvagonzavod Scientific & Production Corporation is planning to make 500 managers, experts, and lower-level employees redundant. This is done within the framework of our personnel optimization program. The workers will be offered the positions of machine-tool operators, crane drivers, press operators, core makers, electrical/gas welders, and so on, with the training provided by our employee training department on the plant’s premises,’ the company’s official press release says. ‘In order to protect our younger workers and to ease the socioeconomic tension at the plant and in town, we

‘Our chain store used to focus on premium and middle class footwear, but now we can also offer our customers some less expensive items. For instance, a pair of premium class summer shoes now costs about 7,000 to 10,000 RUR; a pair of shoes within the middle class price segment comes to 4,000 RUR, and people on a tight budget can find some shoes for as little as 2,000 RUR a pair,’ the manager of K+C chain store Elena Saidulina informed UrBC. ‘The main change the store underwent during the recession was our discount policy. Prior to the year 2009, we’d only offer discounts during our

OAO Ural Scientific Research Technological Institute reports the company suffered considerable loss in 2009. According to the institute’s official data, its net loss reached 628,000 RUR in three quarters of 2009 and 1.24 million RUR by the end of the year. This means the company’s losses rose by 613,000 RUR, or 50.6%.

Governor of Sverdlovsk Region Alexander Misharin took part in the meeting of an ad hoc recession-fighting committee under Plenipotentiary Representative of Russian Federation President in Ural Federal District. The agenda of the meeting covered issues related to the local job market, the need to pay off the wage arrears, and the future of the district’s housing construction market. Governor Misharin reported the number of the unemployed in Sverdlovsk Region had gone down by 2,544 people; however, the number of available jobs had also dropped by 827 vacancies. Nevertheless, over 1,250 new jobs

The net profit of UniCreditBank decreased by 38.5% in 2009 and came to 6.7 billion RUR, compared with 10.9 billion RUR worth of net profit in the year 2008. These data are available from the bank’s report, drawn up in accordance with the International Accounting Standards. The bank’s assets declined by 18% last year and amounted to 482.3 billion RUR, compared with 595.8 billion RUR on December 31, 2008. This drop in asset volume was mainly caused by the shrinking lending portfolio, the bank reports. Also, UniCreditBank’s capital went down to 64.2 billion RUR (against 65 billion RUR on

The Russian Federation Government declared that a number of Yekaterinburg-based stations of Sverdlovsk Region Railways (the subsidiary of Russian Railways) are to be renamed. So Sverdlovsk-Tovarniy station is to be called Yekaterinburg-Tovarniy, Sverdlovsk-Passazhirskiy is to be named Yekaterinburg- Passazhirskiy, and Sverdlovsk-Sortirovochniy is to be named Yekaterinburg- Sortirovochniy. This will be done in accordance with the Federal Act on Geographical Names, the Russian Federation Government’s press service says. Russian Railways suggested renaming the stations in Yekaterinburg in March

The international rating agency has recently changed the Rating Outlook for long-term credit ratings of fourteen Russian banks from Negative to Stable. The Ural Bank for Reconstruction and Development was among these banks; in addition, Standard & Poor's affirmed the bank’s credit rating at the earlier level of B- and the national scale rating at ruBBB-. ‘These changes signify that Standard & Poor's believes the situation on the Russian banking market has grown more stable. We feel the banks have already gone through the worst as far as bad debt is concerned, while the

According to Sergey Verkhoturov, Mayor of Krasnoturyinsk, Sverdlovsk Region, the town’s budget revenues were much smaller in 2009 than the year before. ‘We receive less from the town’s major enterprises, including UC RUSAL’s Bogoslovskiy smelter. The reason for this is that the plant had to shut down 35% of its aluminum production facilities and to lay off over 1,000 workers,’ the Mayor said. ‘The smelter’s aluminum production shrank by 37% last year. This year, the plant will probably keep cutting back on production and laying off employees. UC RUSAL’s Moscow headquarters won’t listen to any

Governor of Sverdlovsk Region Alexander Misharin said the top executives of Verkhnyaya Salda-based VSMPO-Avisma Corporation would have to come to a special committee meeting. Mayor of Verkhnyaya Salda Nikolai Tikhonov explained to Alexander Misharin in the course of a videoconference that the town’s own revenues for 2009 only amounted to 72% of the sum obtained in the year 2008, and the forecast for the year 2010 said the tax payments would only reach 62% of the sum received in the year 2009. The Mayor claimed the town’s dropping revenues had to do with shrinking production at VSMPO-Avisma

The customs and law-enforcement officers of Nizhniy Tagil, Sverdlovsk Region keep doing regular checks of ‘dubious’ retail outlets this year. Once the representatives of two types of authorities have joined their efforts, detection and prevention of crimes has become more effective. For example, the officers confiscated 630 pirated items from the local stores in the first quarter of 2010. This figure was three times greater than that for the first quarter of 2009. The experts who carried out an examination of the goods declared all of them were counterfeited clothing and footwear items

The Federal Financial Market Service of the Russian Federation recently halted the issue of OAO Uralvagonzavod Scientific and Production Corporation’s ordinary registered paperless shares. The plant is based in Nizhniy Tagil, Sverdlovsk Region. The share issue in question is an additional one registered on December 17, 2009. The issue consists of 9 million shares with face value of 1,000 RUR each. The additional issue’s state serial number is 1-01-55004-F-003D.

Evraz Group’s management is not ready to guarantee that the taxes the company is to pay to Sverdlovsk Region’s budget will be in any way comparable with those paid before the start of the recession, the holding’s representatives announced in the course of a videoconference. ‘Last year, Evraz’s Sverdlovsk Region-based enterprises paid about 7 billion RUR in taxes, including some 3.2 billion RUR transferred to the region’s budget. The councils of towns where the enterprises are based received over 800 million RUR, including 643 million RUR directed to the budget of Nizhniy Tagil. This year,

In order to create jobs for the unemployed, Sverdlovsk Region signed 570 agreements with 563 enterprises and thus provided 24,740 vacancies with the total pay fund of 490 million RUR this year. These data were provided to UrBC by Sverdlovsk Region’s Ministry for Economics. Among the companies that took part in the program are Ruslich (Verkhnyaya Salda-based iron works), UC RUSAL’s Polevskoy cryolith plant, Uralkhimplast, UC RUSAL’s Bogoslovskiy smelter, Serov mechanical plant, Stroymasterural, and Sukhoi Log-based plant. The companies sent 600, 415, 379, 375, 350, 301, and 254 employees,