‘MRSK Holding chose the Chinese equipment suppliers purely on the basis of prices. What this actually means is that the holding refused to support the domestic manufacturers and decided to save some money,’ the spokesperson for Ural Turbine Plant Elena Venediktova said to an UrBC reporter. MRSK Holding and their Chinese partner signed a memorandum on economic and trade cooperation. The memorandum states that the Chinese power machinery manufacturers are going to take part in the restoration of the Russian energy complex. The project is expected to take about a decade and is worth some $100bn.

Sverdlovsk Region Arbitration Court is to consider STKS-Nedvizhimost’s bankruptcy application on July 21, 2009. The bankruptcy commissioner will be selected among the members of Self-Regulatory Bankruptcy Commissioners Organization of the North-West, a non-commercial partnership.

Sverdlovsk Region’s division of the Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS) is to resume the investigation of the case involving Delta Credit Commercial Bank this week. The bank is suspected of violating Article 11 (part 3) of the Federal Competition Protection Act. FAS’s local division believes the violation could consist in the banks colluding to coordinate their economic activity related to their mortgage lending practices. For one, Delta Credit is reported to impose special standards on the customers that need to be complied with for the mortgage retirement.

Uralvagonzavod Scientific Production Corporation is not going to pay the share dividend for 2008. The decision to this extent was taken by the enterprise’s shareholders. The stockholders explain that the absence of dividends has to do with the business’s numerous losses. According to Uralvagonzavod’s annual report, the company’s net loss exceeded 6.11 billion RUR in 2008.

Uralkabel applied to Sverdlovsk Region Arbitration Court asking to declare Egorshinskiy radio plant insolvent. The spokesperson for the court said to an UrBC reporter that the date for the preliminary hearing has not been set yet. According to the official data available, the plant owes its creditors and partners over 1.5 billion RUR, in addition to about 61 million RUR worth of wage arrears. As a matter of fact, Mayor of Artemovskiy district (the plant’s location) Yuri Manyakin and Sverdlovsk Region Government have already suggested introducing bankruptcy proceedings there.

Starting August 12, 2009, Ural Airlines is going to operate two rather than just one flight a week from Yekaterinburg to Beijing. ‘Beijing is going to become Ural Airlines’ key airport for destinations like Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, Indonesia, Bali, the Maldives, Malaysia, Japan, and Australia. Our partners, like the giant Europort, are offering some rather exciting summer tours around China, including unique individual tours,’ the company reports. Under the new timetable, the flights will be operated on an Airbus A320 aircraft on Wednesdays and Sundays; the plane takes off in Koltsovo

Sverdlovsk Region public prosecution authorities investigated the issue of several Yekaterinburg-based banks’ compliance with consumer rights legislation. They have detected numerous violations at a number of banks. It has been revealed that some banks do not provide their potential borrowers with full details and terms of their loan offers; sometimes the information is also inaccurate. Then, some of the banks’ lending agreements have terms that infringe upon the customers’ rights or impose on them some additional (and unwanted) services). For one, UralTransBank and Bank24.ru’s advertisements

The net assets of URSA Bank reached 155.3 billion RUR in the first half of 2009. The bank’s own funds were estimated at 24.1 billion RUR, with the capital adequacy reaching 17.3%. This figure is actually 1.7 times greater than the limits set by the Central Bank of Russia’s requirements. URSA Bank’s lending portfolio amounted to 114.6 billion RUR on July 1, 2009. The structure of the portfolio is well-balanced, as the volumes of loans to private customers and to business customers come to 54.3 billion RUR and 60.3 billion RUR, respectively. According to the data provided by the bank, the

The net profit of Yekaterinburg’s oil and mayonnaise producing company decreased by 40.373 million RUR, or 15.15% (from 266.552 million RUR to 226.179 million RUR) over the accounting business period. The enterprise reports the drop in profits has been brought about by rising raw stuff prices.

UC RUSAL’s bauxite output dropped by 35.5% in the first half of 2009 compared with the first half of 2008, reaching 5.8 million tons, the company’s press officer reports. The general decrease in the company’s bauxite output is expected to come to 5.6 million tons by the end of the year 2009. At the same time, the enterprise’s alumina output fell by 34% compared with January-June 2008, only amounting to 3.7 million tons. By the end of the year, the decrease might reach 3.9 million tons. Then, the company’s aluminum production decreased by 10% and came to 1.98 million tons. By December 2009,

Autoland has recently sold one of its show rooms, namely, Autoland Sever located at 6 Kosmonavtov Ave. in Yekaterinburg. This car show used to be the official dealer of Mitsubishi Motors and Ford. The company explains this was a measure taken to help them cope with the current economic downfall and to improve on their main business processes as well as increase profits. It was decided that Mitsubishi Motors and Ford would now use the show rooms at 50 Blyukher St. These are already used by Jaguar, Land Rover, and Volvo. Mazda’s show room that used to be based in the same quarters has been

Sky Express Airline flew 106,940 passengers in June 2009, which was 5% more than a year earlier. The company’s passenger turnover came to 156.97 million passenger-kilometers, while the passenger load coefficient reached 72.23%. As for the first half of the year 2009 altogether, the carrier serviced 429,412 passengers, which falls short of the figures for January-June 2008 by 88%.

Yekaterinburg-based Koltsovo International Airport serviced 914,841 passengers in the first half of 2009, which is 20.9% less than a year earlier. Besides, the passenger turnover dropped by 20.2% on domestic flights, with the figure coming to 572,974 people, and by 23.2% on international flights, with the figure coming to 273,951 people. Then, the number of passengers flying within the CIS decreased by 17.9% and only reached 67,916 people. The number of sorties went down by 19.1% compared with the first six months of 2008 and came to 6,450. Then, the airport processed 5,576.8 tons of mail,

Pipe Metallurgical Company (TMK) announced the results of its performance as of June 30, 2009. In the first half of the year, the company shipped 1,203 tons of steel pipes to consumers, which was 20% less than in the first half of 2008. TMK explained this was mainly due to the shrinking market. ‘The domestic market has reduced by 34.8% compared with a year earlier,’ the company reports. At the same time, TMK’s OCTG shipments (most of which consisted of weldless pipes) went up by 3% in the first half of 2009. The shipments of premium class threaded-joint casings increased as well. Then, the

‘We are rather worried about the fact that our foods are missing from large chain stores’ shelves. To enter these chains, one has to make enormous efforts, which largely means paying huge sums of money. However hard Confectionery Group SladCo might be trying to prove its great quality, it’s just impossible to enter these stores free of charge,’ Director of Confectionery Nadezhda Kharyuta said at the semiannual meeting of Yekaterinburg food manufacturers. ‘Our shelves are full of cheap Ukrainian sweets, whereas Kazakhstan, for instance, raised the customs duties on these items by up to 23%. To

UralBusinessConsulting Agency of Information and Analytics has been informed by Sverdlovsk Region’s Economic Offense Department that the accounts of a certain firm at Bank24.ru had been blocked in absolute accordance with the existing law; the action was taken in the course of an investigation related to money theft from a number of Yekaterinburg-based businesses. The Department claims a group of offenders was using a Trojan software program to steal some money from legal entities’ accounts; the money was then cashed after a series of several transferal transactions. The law-enforcement

Yekaterinburg’s Kirovskiy district court partially sustained the claim laid by Bank Severnaya Kazna (Alfa-Bank’s asset) former Counselor to Chairman of the Supervisory Board Evgeniy Parfenov regarding the arrears of wages and his severance deal, the spokesperson for Judge Anna Vassilyeva reports. A little earlier, the court also sustained the claim laid by the bank’s former Counselor to Chairman of the Supervisory Board Valeriy Malkov regarding his eighteen-million-ruble severance payment. In fact, Kirovskiy district court has had to handle similar claims laid by the bank’s First Deputy

‘Egorshinskiy radio plant currently employs about 1,300 people, with 61 million RUR worth of wage arrears, as far as the basic workers are concerned. As for the top managers, the enterprise owes them about 40 million RUR. There exists an official document describing the paying-off schedule,’ the plant’s BOD member Andrei Gerasimov announced at a press conference in Yekaterinburg. ‘On June 24, 2009, our GD Vitaliy Yelkin sent a letter to the plant’s stockholders informing them of the business’s possible bankruptcy. Under the law, if no action is taken within thirty days, he is to file a

The annual general meeting held at Ural Precision Alloys Plant (the asset of Novolipetsk Iron & Steel Works, NLMK) resulted in the decision not to pay the dividends on ordinary registered uncertified shares for the financial year 2008. The shareholders also elected the new BOD, consisting of five members, and approved of the annual report for 2008. As it happens, NLMK bought a 47.99% share in the plant’s authorized capital from Maxi Group at an auction in late June 2008.

Sverdlovsk Region Arbitration Court keeps looking into the claim laid by Apogei Metall Yekaterinburg against Ural Turbine Plant. The plaintiff insists on being paid 2,466,018.54 RUR for the products delivered, the contract penalty of 123,300.93 RUR for the period of August 27, 2008 to December 29, 2008, and the 969,701.2- RUR interest (VAT excluded) for the period of December 30, 2008 till the payoff date. The plaintiff took the case to court hoping the authorities would secure the claim by arresting the defendant’s cash assets, namely, 2,613,766.07 RUR (2,589,319.47 RUR which is the claim’s