Governor of Chelyabinsk Region Petr Sumin made a few wage arrears-preventing proposals at the recent administration meeting dedicated to labor law compliance. Sumin believes some changes have to be made in the existing legislation; for one, there has to appear an amendment that would enable the regional officials to ask the tax authorities for data on taxpayers’ debts. ‘Our executive branch is actually deprived of essential information on the local enterprises’ financial state,’ he said. The Governor also announced it was necessary to track down the reasons for the accumulation of wage

Sverdlovsk Region Arbitration Court started considering the claim laid by AKB ROSBANK vs. Uralvagonzavod Scientific and Production Enterprise regarding the latter’s 167.49-million-ruble debt. The bank placed its claim papers with the court on August 10, 2009. During the session on September 14, 2009, the defendant is expected to produce a written, well-grounded response to the claim as well as the originals of their promissory notes.

The credit rating service demoted Russian Alfa-Bank’s counteragent’s long-term credit rating from BB- to B+, while at the same time affirming its short-term rating at B, with Stable Rating Outlook. ‘Nevertheless, Alfa-Bank’s national scale rating had to be downgraded from ruAA- to ruA+. However, we did take all of the bank’s ratings off our CreditWatch list after they hit it on June 17, 2009 with Negative Rating Outlooks. As for our assessment of Alfa-Bank’s financial stability, this criterion’s rating went down from ВВВ- to BB+. All in all, these downgrades mainly stem from the troubles with

Nizhnity Tagil Iron & Steel Works (NTMK) might get rid of its membership in Russian Steel Consortium Non-Commercial Partnership after such a recommendation will probably be made by NTMK’s Board of Directors at the company’s last AGM. The annual general meeting is to take place in Nizhniy Tagil on October 16, 2009.

UTair Airlines serviced 2,207,010 people in January-August 2009, which was 2.3% less than a year earlier, the carrier’s press officer reports. In addition to this, the airline handled 1,063.8 tons of mail in the eight months of 2009, which was actually 20.3% less than in January-August 2008. However, the company flew 389,370 passengers in August, which exceeded the figures for the year before by 4.3%. What is more, UTair’s passenger turnover in August 2009 was 5.8% greater than in August 2008, reaching 686,518,000 passenger-kilometers.

Sverdlovsk Region Arbitration Court recently declared a Pervouralsk-based metalwork manufacturer insolvent. The plant will now have to undergo six-month bankruptcy proceedings, to be completed on March 6, 2010. As a matter of fact, the plant itself had placed its bankruptcy application with the court.

Sverdlovsk Gubernskiy Bank recently launched a new consumer loan offer that is extremely easy to get: one only needs two pieces of documentation, and no guarantee or guarantors are necessary. The maximum amount of money one can take out from the bank is 50,000 RUR for a one-year period. Customers can pay the loan back in one or several installments without any extra charges, fines, or commissions. ‘This is, in fact, the bank’s third lending offer. Our latest market research made it clear that consumers need some easily available loans for small-scale spending. This loan type is specifically

The Russian Federation Ministry of Defense will buy 716 apartments from RENOVA-StroyGroup in Yekaterinburg’s Academic district. The decision to this extent was taken at the end of the ministry’s special auction. The MoD declared they were totally satisfied with the quality of the apartments; Deputy Defense Minister general-colonel Vladimir Filippov, who visited the district, said the housing was better than the economy class dwellings in many ways, even though the price (33,600 RUR per square meter) fit the state-set range. The ministry is ready to buy as many as 2,000 apartments from RENOVA

Sverdlovsk Region Arbitration Court keeps looking into the case laid by ZAO Nash Dom against ISK Megapolis. The plaintiff took the case to court in order to have their construction contract 210/P as of June 20, 2007 cancelled. They had contracted Megapolis to build apartment blocks 1A, 1B, 1V, 3A, 3B, 3V, 6A, 6B, 6V, and 6G in Yasnaya St. - Shaumyan St. - Volgogradskaya St. – Gromov St. Nash Dom also wanted to get its 54.96 million RUR worth of advance payments back; however, in the course of the court hearing the plaintiff agreed to decrease the claim down to 43.85 million RUR. At the same

‘The company handled 20.5% less freight in January-August 2009 than in the eight months of 2008,’ says President of Russian Railways Public Company Vladimir Yakunin. ‘In August, the output decrease only amounted to 12.3% against a year earlier, whereas our stone coal shipments even rose by 4.1%. What is more, our shipments of non-ferrous ore, granulated slag, slate stone, press cake, and fish increased as well,’ he notes. ‘As for the passenger turnover, this has gone down by 11% since the beginning of the year; this drop covers a 9% decrease in the number of long-distance passengers and a 16%

Yekaterinburg’s Kirovskiy district court is to consider the claim laid by A.G. Chernyshev against Avtoland Sever on September 11, 2009. The plaintiff wants to be paid the money the car dealer owes him as well as the interest and the moral damage compensation. Incidentally, this isn’t the only civil action taken against Ford’s official dealer in Yekaterinburg. The court has already heard a number of other claims laid against Avtoland and Avtoland Sever, all of which were based on consumer rights infringement charges. Moreover, three more claims will be considered on September 15, 2009. The

‘The company adopted a five-year, full-scale strategic development and investment program in 2007. However, it made sense under the current circumstances to prolong the program until the year 2015. This will make it easier for the enterprise to cope with the workload,’ VSMPO-Avisma’s General Director Mikhail Voevodin said in his interview to Novator. ‘One needs to be very aware of the situation we are in at the moment and of what to expect in the year 2010, 2011, and, possibly, 2012. According to our realistic forecasts, the next three years are going to be more or less the same economically.

Yekaterinburg-based non-ferrous metals processing plant’s Board of Directors decided that the company’s General Director Andrei Fedotov should resign before the end of his term. According to the plant’s official report, he was succeeded by Igor Pokhmelnikov on September 10, 2009. Apart from this, the BOD set up a single executive body to ensure better management of the business.

Sverdlovsk Region Arbitration Court will soon resume hearing of the claim laid by Bank VTB’s Yekaterinburg branch against Pnevmostroymashina and PSM-Gidravlika regarding the latter’s 103,529,527.77-ruble debt. The bank also insists on having the defendants’ mortgaged property arrested. The property in question is made up of a detached building with an adjacent passageway and a total area of 4,266.2 sq m and a 4,982-square-meter land allotment, both of which are located at 8E Sibirskiy Tract 1 km St. in Yekaterinburg. As a matter of fact, Pnevmostroymashina applied for bankruptcy on September

‘Our company has an unresolved issue with Mr. Andrew Welch, who owns a 50% shareholding in Aston Construction Company and Aston Group Management Company. Mr. Welch would like us to buy out his shareholding at a very high price, but we are currently unprepared to accept such an offer. This is why Mr. Welch took a number of measures targeted at persuading us to buy, so to say,’ Aston Construction Company’s Chairman of the Supervisory Board Vyacheslav Trapeznikov said to an UrBC reporter. ‘We did our best to come to a ‘peace settlement’, for instance, by offering to buy out his share at a

The recently united MDM Bank produced its first report (drawn up in accordance with the Russian Accounting Standards). According to this report, the bank’s own funds come to 58.5 billion RUR, thus making it Russia’s seventh largest bank (under the Interfax-CEA rating). MDM Bank is also the country’s eleventh largest bank in terms of net asset volume (this comes to 394 billion RUR). ‘The merger of URSA Bank with MDM Bank resulted in the creation of one of the country’s largest private banks,’ the company’s press service reports. MDM Bank offers its customers the entire range of existing

Global Gaming Expo (GGE)’s claim against Life Group’s Bank24.ru was raised to 199 million RUR. The next court hearing of the case will take place on October 10, 2009. The plaintiff insists on being paid the money the bank allegedly obtained through unjust enrichment; these claims are based on Article 1102 of the Russian Federation Civil Code and Article 129 of the Federal Bankruptcy Act. GGE was founded by Bank24.ru’s former BOD member Alexei Kalinichenko, who dealt in trading on Forex exchange market. His company promised a 30% to 200% annual ROI, with money borrowed from private investors

Sverdlovsk Region Arbitration Court keeps looking into the claim laid by the Moscow Bank of Reconstruction and Development vs. UralOtel; the plaintiff insists on being paid over $3.76m. Following the plaintiff’s demand, UralOtel’s $3,622,885.63 worth of assets was arrested; these assets were represented by a 49% share of a building at 9A Lenin Ave. and a 1,166-square-meter land allotment at 38 Sacco & Vanzetti St. in Yekaterinburg. UralOtel comprises UralOtel at 23 Khomyakov St., Atlantic Hotel, and Yekaterininskaya Hotel.

Raiffeisenbank Supervisory Board’s recent meeting resulted in the decision to close down a number of the bank’s regional subsidiaries. For one, the bank’s Kamskiy branch in Perm and Chelyabinskiy branch in Chelyabinsk will be closed in November and December 2009, while Nizhegorodskiy branch in Nizhniy Novgorod and Yeniseyskiy branch in Krasnoyarsk will stop working for the months of December and January.

‘At the close of the tender, Ford short-listed two companies that may become the car manufacturer’s Yekaterinburg-based dealers, with show rooms in the eastern and the northern parts of the city,’ Ford Motor Company’s PR Director Ekaterina Kulinenko said to an UrBC reporter. At the moment, Ford only has one official dealer in Yekaterinburg, that is, Avtoland Holding. ‘We’ve already signed a protocol of intent with Okami, so now we are negotiating for a dealer contract. As for Avtosan, our talks are focused on the protocol of intent for the time being,’ Ms Kulinenko added.