The net profit of OAO Bank Petrokommerz plummeted by 675.32 million RUR, or 61.2% in 2009. The figures thus went down to 427.69 million RUR. In fact, the bank finished off the year 2008 with 1.1 billion RUR of net profit. Bank Petrokommerz explains the drop in profits had to do with the need to build up on the possible loss reserves and with the increased security transaction profits and foreign currency transaction revenues.

‘The electronic goods and home appliances market shrank rather considerably in the year 2009. Some analysts say it might have decreased by as much as 40%. Naturally, M.Video chain felt this trend as well. Our sales dropped by 10% to 13%, with the sales figures for the Urals looking worse than those for Russia on average,’ M.Video electronic goods chain store’s Store Manager in the Urals Igor Gusak said at a press lunch in Yekaterinburg. ‘On the other hand, the recession made many people think of our products as a possible source of investment. They were afraid of losing their savings and so

‘M.Video, the electronic goods hypermarket, will open its outlet in ComsoMall shopping center in Yekaterinburg in June or July 2010. The new store’s interior has been completed by 90%,’ M.Video’s press secretary Nadezhda Kisseleva announced at a press lunch in Yekaterinburg. ‘Our developer had some financing problems, but they have been solved by now,’ she added. This means the opening of the mall will not take place in March 2010 as has been previously scheduled. The builder has already put off the opening date several times. Now M.Video was originally supposed to co-invest in the

Rostik’s, a fast food restaurant and member of Rostik’s –KFC chain located in Mytny Dvor mall at Vosmoye Marta St. in Yekaterinburg closed down recently, the mall’s administration informed UrBC. Mytny Dvor reports they are already looking for a new tenant. In fact, Mytny Dvor has lost another tenant a bit earlier when a Calvin Klein shop stopped operating there. Rostik’s –KFC runs another restaurant in Mega Trade & Entertainment Center in Yekaterinburg. Mega’s management reports the restaurant is operating at the moment.

Deputy Chairman of the Russian Federation State Duma Valeriy Yazev recently sold a portion of ZAO Yuveliry Urala’s shares he owned. His shareholding decreased from 37.33% to 22.65%. The share of his daughter Svetlana Yazeva in the jewelry business went down from 77.71% to 17.42%. According to the company’s report, 17.42% of shares were presented to Valentina Morozova under a gift contract and 37.33% were handed over to OOO YAVA-Finance Management under a trust management agreement. Also, OOO YAVA Management Company that used to own 19.76% of the company’s shares no longer has a share in the

‘It’s too early to speak of the end of the recession in Sverdlovsk Region; our problems will still be felt in the foreseeable future. So working with our problem enterprises is still one of our top priorities. Even though the situation at Uralvagonzavod, for example, has grown a bit more stable and the company has enough orders for its produce, about 3,000 people might still have to be laid off,’ the region’s Economy Minister Mikhail Maksimov said during his meeting with Sverdlovsk Region’s town mayors. ‘The recession made it obvious that we got used to living off the two or three leading

‘A drop in profits is definitely one of Sverdlovsk Region’s key problems. We cut back on everything we possibly could in the budgets for 2008 and 2009; only now can we actually start raising our current expenses limits,’ the region’s Economy Minister Mikhail Maksimov said during his meeting with Sverdlovsk Region’s town mayors. ‘This is why the issue of tax legalization is extremely important just now. In October 2009, the government adopted a provision on helping the economy’s real sector make more profit, so the recession-defying committees now must solve the issues related to enterprises’

Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) recently adopted a number of employee training, re-training, and professional development schemes for 2010. ‘The company comes up with such programs every year; the schemes are based on the educational needs and applications of the employees from various departments. MMK’s training and re-training system covers all personnel categories and all our divisions. For one, the company spent over 100 million RUR on the programs last year alone. The plan for the year 2010 will involve over 13,000 workers, a lot of whom are going to get their second

Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) and ZAO ChTPZ Group held a meeting on MMK’s premises to look into the results of their performance in 2009 and to discuss their future cooperation. ChTPZ Group’s representatives demonstrated Chelyabinsk Tube-Rolling Plant’s electric welding unit for pipes (currently under construction). The future unit, called Vysota-239, is one of Chelyabinsk Region’s largest investment projects worth 21 billion RUR. The steel plates produced at MMK’s Mill 5000 are expected to be the main source of raw materials for Chelyabinsk Tube-Rolling Plant’s new production

Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) took part in the 5th international conference on zinc-coated and painted steel in Moscow Region. Over 130 participants from eighty Russian enterprises attended the event. The conference was devoted to production, processing, and use of coated steels in the construction industry as well as others. Most importantly, the attendees spoke about the current state and the development trends of the Russian and global coated steel market in 2010, the launch of the new steel-coating facilities on the home market, and the need to protect the domestic market as

Trade Finance Magazine declared the agreement on financing the construction of MMK Atakaş the Deal of the Year. Trade Finance Magazine is a specialized edition belonging to Euromoney Institutional Investor Group. ‘Despite all the problems in the commodity markets and particularly the ferrous sector through 2009, Russian company OJSC MMK put together a ground-breaking deal to secure financing for the MMK Atakas flat steel making plant in Turkey. The transaction is a worthy winner of a Trade Finance magazine Deal of the Year award for 2009,’ says the magazine’s editor Jonathan Bell. MMK Atakaş

The volume of loans offered by ZAO Uralprivatbank to sole traders for 181 days to 1 year decreased by 30.7% in January 2010. The figures declined from 7.5 million RUR on January 1, 2010 to 5.2 million RUR on February 1, 2010. These data are available from the bank’s report uploaded on the Central Bank of Russia’s official website.

The overdue debt on loans given by OOO UIC-Bank to private profit-making organizations rose by 4.8% in January 2010 and reached 7.64 million RUR on February 1, 2010. These data are available from the bank’s report uploaded on the Central Bank of Russia’s official website.

VSMPO-Avisma Corporation started getting smaller orders in the last quarter of 2008, VSMPO-Avisma Corporation’s General Director Mikhail Voyevodin said in his interview to Kommersant. ‘Our customers place their orders at least six months before the manufacturing date, so we usually have orders for the first half of the coming year as early as September. We received plenty of orders in the summer of 2008, but in September and October, our customers started canceling or downsizing their orders. It was clear by December that the year 2009 would be very hard,’ he noted. ‘As a result, we only

Ural Airlines is now selling the e-tickets for the flights operated under the carrier’s interline agreement with Air Berlin. The company’s passengers can now buy electronic tickets for connecting flights of both companies and go to Greece, Denmark, Spain, Canada, China, Mexico, France, the South African Republic, Jamaica, and many other places. The agreement also means that Ural Airlines can now sell its tickets through agencies cooperating with Air Berlin all over the world. One good thing about e-tickets is that the check-in procedure gets much easier and that all the information about the

‘VSMPO-Avisma Corporation’s employees keep working fewer hours a week, and I don’t think the situation will change any time before the summer. The corporation employs 21,000 people at the moment, 5,000 of whom are working a short week. These figures do not include the workers of our daughter enterprises. All in all, a little under 6,000 people had to switch to shorter hours; the measure was directly related to the actual amount of work available at the enterprise,’ VSMPO-Avisma Corporation’s General Director Mikhail Voyevodin said in his interview to Kommersant. ‘The first changes were

Rostechnadzor (the state technological, environmental, and nuclear safety watchdog) looked into the causes of a fatal accident at one of the mines belonging to Uralkaliy, a potassium fertilizers producer. A mine operator was killed by the rock mass caving during the drifting operations on February 18, 2010. Rostechnadzor came to the conclusion that the accident had been caused by the presence of some free gas within the operator’s working area, poor production discipline, non-compliance with the Drifting Regulations, and poor technological organization.

The volume of loans issued by OAO VUZ-Bank to sole traders for 181 days to 1 year decreased by 1.396 million RUR in January 2010. The figures dropped from 19.925 million RUR on January 1, 2010 to 18.259 million RUR on February 1, 2010. These data are available from the bank’s report uploaded on the Central Bank of Russia’s official website.

The overdue debt on loans offered by Uralfinprombank to Russian citizens rose by 190,000 RUR, or 12.38% in January 2010; the figure increased from 1.345 million RUR on January 1, 2010 to 1.535 million RUR on February 1, 2010. These data are available from the bank’s report uploaded on the Central Bank of Russia’s official website.

The volume of private individuals’ demand deposits at Bank24.ru plunged by 17.5 million RUR in January 2010. The figures dropped from 52.247 million RUR on January 1, 2010 to 34.747 million RUR on February 1, 2010. These data are available from the bank’s report uploaded on the Central Bank of Russia’s official website.