The international rating agency decreased the metallurgical and mining giant Evraz Group SA’s long-term foreign currency Issuer Default Rating as well as its priority unsecured rating from BB to BB-. Fitch has also placed Mastercroft and Evraz Group SA’s long-term foreign currency IDRs and their priority unsecured ratings on the Rating Watch, with Negative Rating Outlook. Now Mastercroft, with most of its assets based in Russia, is Evraz’s key daughter enterprise. Both companies’ short-term IDRs have been affirmed at B. ‘The rating drop indicates that Fitch feels the steps Evraz management

MRSK Urala, the local electricity supplier, fulfilled successfully 4,190 agreements providing for new customers’ hookup to their electricity supply networks. All in all, the company got 1,928 new consumers in the first half of 2009. ‘Our newly subscribed consumers are largely those who signed agreements with us earlier on. Then, we received 7,591 new applications in the first six months of the year, which was 9.5% less than in the first half of 2008,’ the company reports. MRSK Urala’s experts report their customers’ characteristics have changed lately. For one, the total power volume they

Grinvill Management Company is to undergo bankruptcy proceedings, Sverdlovsk Region Arbitration Court ruled. The company applied for insolvency of its own accord on June 4, 2009. The same kind of petition was placed with the court by Oxana Yu. Kolmogorova on June 30, 2009. The company used to be putting up Grinvill cottage area within ten kilometers of Yekaterinburg, down Chelyabinsk motorway and nearby the settlement of Bolshoye Sedelnikovo. The customers could choose among six house layouts with area ranging between 227.43 and 487 square meters. The company’s bankruptcy application was

Starting August 3, 2009, Ural Airlines is going to offer its customers cheaper flight to Israel thanks to reduced fuel fees. This means the price of all the tickets for Tel Aviv-bound flights (regardless of the tariff scheme employed) will go down by ?110. Following the decrease in fuel fees, the cheapest tickets to Israel and back will be available for 22,013 RUR (including the airport and fuel charges). The carrier operates a direct flight to Tel Aviv each Wednesday, using an Airbus A 320. The plane leaves Yekaterinburg at 11:30 AM and arrives in Tel Aviv at 1:40 PM. The flight lasts five

URSA Bank’s extraordinary general meeting took place on July 30, 2009 and resulted in the election of a new Board of Directors. The new BOD actually became necessary due to bank’s merger with MDM-Bank. The new Board now comprises seven members altogether. ‘The new bank’s stockholders are rather diverse, which is good for the business’s dynamic long-term development. Today we elected the BOD consisting of renowned top class experts with enormous experience in the field of international financing and with great knowledge of the Russian banking sector. The bank’s shareholders and directors will

Sverdlovsk Region Railways (Russian Railways Public Company’s subsidiary) had to cut back on its investments program by 28% in 2009 compared with a year earlier, so now our investments only amount to 15.6 billion RUR,’ Head of Sverdlovsk Region Railways Vladimir Suprun announced at a press conference in Yekaterinburg. Suprun explained the decision had been taken because of the entire country’s general economic difficulties. Meanwhile, according to the official data available, the company’s investments plan provided for about 10 billion RUR worth of investments in 2007 and about 2.5 to 3

The Perm division of the Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS) imposed a fine on LUKOIL-Permnefteprodukt for violating the antimonopoly legislation on the regional fuel market. The offense consisted in their maintaining monopolistic (sky-high) gasoline and diesel fuel prices. The fine amounted to 51,088,937 RUR. FAS’s regional commission declared on June 10, 2009 that LUKOIL-Permnefteprodukt, being dominant on Perm Territory’s retail gasoline and diesel fuel market, violated Article 1 (part 1) of the Federal Competition Protection Act by keeping the high prices on Ai-80, Ai-92, and Ai-95 gas

39,400 trucks were produced in Russian in January through June 2009, which was 72.5% less than in the first half of 2008. The plummeting output was typical of most Russian automobile manufacturers, the spokesperson for Russian Federation Ministry for Industry and Trade reports. For one, GAZ Automobile plant produced 16,500 cars in the first half of 2009, which was only about one-fifth of the output for a year earlier. KAMAZ’s output came to 10,800 automobiles, which fell short of the figures for January-June 2008 by 61.5%. URAL manufactured 3,100 automobiles, which amounted to slightly over

According to Governor of Chelyabinsk Region Petr Sumin’s order, most of the 2.7-billion-ruble subsidy allocated from the region’s budget to deal with some top priority issues will be directed to the social benefit programs. ‘Given the current tax revenues deficit, we must do our best to pay the public sector workers’ salaries and make all the social benefit payments. What is more, the Governor was able to find the means to do even more,’ Deputy Governor Evgeniy Redin said at a press conference. Redin also noted that not a single socially important construction project had been halted in the

Sverdlovsk Region division of the Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS) declared that Delta Credit Commercial Bank violated Article 11 (part 3) of the Competition Protection Act. The regional division of the service was empowered to deal with the case by Russia’s Federal Antimonopoly Service, the spokesperson for the division reports. FAS’s Sverdlovsk Region division took legal action against Delta Credit Commercial Bank on April 7, 2009. The alleged offense consisted in the bank coordinating the activity of several lending institutions by developing the Delta Credit Mortgage Lending Standards

Koltsovo Airport of Yekaterinburg hosted an extraordinary meeting of airline and travel agencies representatives, customs and frontier forces officers, Rospotrebnadzor officials, and state authorities on the highly pathogenic ‘swine’ flu epidemic. All of Yekaterinburg and Sverdlovsk Region’s dwellers were advised to avoid traveling to countries like Great Britain, the United States, Turkey, Spain, and the Dominican Republic, where the virus is spreading at an alarmingly fast rate.

‘We’ve carried out the planned inspections of UC RUSAL’s local enterprises. As far as Sverdlovsk Region is concerned, we examined Sevuralboksitruda (the bauxite mine), Polevskoy cryolite plant, and Siberia & Urals Aluminum Company’s Ural Smelter (UAZ-SUAL). None of these enterprises are in an emergency condition,’ says the Deputy Head of Ural Federal District’s division of Rostechnadzor (the state technological and nuclear safety watchdog) Anatoly Soloviev. ‘We did have a few questions for the enterprises’ top executives, however. Firstly, the repairs and maintenance get very little

URSA Bank’s assets (calculated in accordance with the IAS) reached 202.7 billion RUR in the first quarter of 2009, which was 14.3% better than a year earlier. The share of quick assets in the bank’s balance sheet total came to over 20% on April 1, 2009, which means the bank enjoys a stable liquidity status despite the ongoing economic crisis, the bank’s press office reports. URSA Bank’s own funds amounted to 28.2 billion RUR on April 1, 2009, with the capital adequacy at 15.7% (which is twice the number required by the Basel Committee). The bank’s loan portfolio had reached 120.8 billion RUR

Alfa-Bank announced that it was going to stop offering e-banking services to Bank Severnaya Kazna’s private customers. The service will probably no longer be available in the fall of 2009, Bank Severnaya Kazna’s official website reports. Those private individuals who would like to use the bank’s distance service channels are welcome to use Alfa-Bank’s outlet that is now located on the premises where Bank Severnaya Kazna’s office used to be. They can also consult an expert there. As a matter of fact, Bank Severnaya Kazna’s Internet-Bank system was believed to have been one of Russia’s best

Governor of Chelyabinsk Region Petr Sumin signed a decree that sets up a regional demographic development committee. According to the spokesperson for the Governor, this coordination committee is a new advisory body with a mission to coordinate the actions of the state authorities, the local governments, and non-governmental organizations in the field of the region’s demographic policies. The council is to organize interdepartmental events that will help to improve the local demographics and to draw up improvement proposals. Then, this new committee is to analyze the birth and mortality rates

UralBusinessConsulting Agency of Information and Analytics found out that Uralvagonzavod Scientific and Production Enterprise might have to close down their Yekaterinburg subsidiary and Lipetsk representation. At least, the documents to this extent have already been prepared for the Board of Directors’ next meeting. It has been reported that the closing-down process will be accompanied by the cancellation of renting agreements as well as all the additional ones; the staff will have to leave. Uralvagonzavod does admit the closing down of the subsidiary and the representation is possible. ‘At

Sverdlovsk Region’s division of the Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS) is to resume looking into the claim laid against Bank24.ru and Guta-Strakhovaniye’s Yekaterinburg subsidiary on July 31, 2009. The bank and the insurance company are accused of violating Article 11 (part 1) of the Federal Competition Protection Act FZ-135 as of July 26, 2006, the spokesperson for FAS regional division reports. The division believes that the two accused violated the law by signing a general agreement, which might result in imposing inconvenient and less attractive insurance terms upon the bank loan

Ural Airlines signed an interline agreement with Air China; this will come into full force on August 4, 2009. This means Ural Airlines’ passengers will have an opportunity to enjoy flights with fewer stops and connections. The use of Beijing Capital Airport will be particularly handy for people traveling to countries like Australia, Brazil, Vietnam, Indonesia, Malaysia, South Korea, Singapore, Japan, and plenty of Chinese cities. The new agreement also provides the travelers with the convenience of having their luggage checked in just once, in Yekaterinburg, after which they won’t have to

MIR chain stores of consumer electronics and home appliances are closing down in Yekaterinburg. A representative of a store located at 13 Vosmoye Marta St. explained to an UrBC reporter that their store, as well as the ones located at 65 Amundsen St. and 4 Scherbakov St. would stop working by August 9, 2009. According to the official data available, MIR chain store currently runs sixty-two outlets, seventeen of which are based in Moscow, with the remaining forty-five ones operating in Russia’s major cities.

Sverdlovsk Region Arbitration Court is to hold the main hearing of the claim laid by KAB Bank Sociйtй Gйnйrale Vostok against Pnevmostroymashina on August 31, 2009. The plaintiff insists on the defendants paying the bank 21,891,173.12 RUR and on having the defendants’ mortgaged property arrested, the spokesperson for the court informed UrBC. The preliminary hearing of the case took place on July 27, 2009. In addition to this claim, the bank wants Pnevmostroymashina and PSM-Gidravlika to pay them 111,649,309.1 RUR and to have the defendants’ mortgaged production facilities arrested.