Vladivostok Avia reduced the number of its Vladivostok-Moscow flights to one a week, the local booking offices report. The scheduled Moscow-Yekaterinburg flight was launched on June 1, 2008. The flight was operated on a daily basis (except for Wednesdays). The airline’s representation was introduced in Yekaterinburg last August, but they were unable to explain it to UrBC why the number of flights had been decreased.

The annual general meeting of Verkh-Isetskiy Metallurgical Plant (VIZ) shareholders resulted in the decision not to pay the dividends on ordinary registered uncertified and preference registered uncertified type A shares for the financial year 2008. In addition, the stockholders voted to elect the new Board of Directors, consisting of seven members. Then, they approved of he annual report for 2008 and of the income statement.

‘The increase in airport taxes and tariffs has to do with the need to keep the airport profitable under the current economic circumstances,’ Yekaterinburg-based Koltsovo Airport’s press officer reports. ‘The increase in prices (which complies with the Federal Tariff Service’s Order 107-т/4 as of June 3, 2009) won’t bring substantially bigger revenues, given the overall output downfall. Nevertheless, the new prices will partially make up for greater expenses related to improving the quality of passenger and airline service (such as introducing new buildings and machinery),’ the press officer

Sverdlovsk Region division of the Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS) found KB Citibank guilty of violating the existing Russian advertising law, the spokesperson for the Service Marina Yusypova said to an UrBC reporter. Yusypova explained the advertising text messages the bank had been sending to its customers without the latter’s consent actually violated Article 18 (part 1) of the Federal Advertising Bill. Citibank was ordered to eliminate the violation.

UTair Airlines’ passenger turnover went down by .4% in the first quarter of 2009, the company’s press officer reports. At the same time, the mail and cargo turnovers dropped by 43.5% and 24.9%, respectively, while the accrued flying time shrank by 12.2%, the company reports. Still, in June 2009, the airline flew 337,559 passengers, which is actually 4.6% better than a year earlier.

The net profit of AKB Investbank plunged by 64,285,000 RUR, or 75.5% (from 85,202,000 RUR to 20,917,000) in the second quarter of 2009 compared with the first quarter of the year. The bank reports this has to do with the need to spend more on extensive network development.

Koltsovo Airport of Yekaterinburg is to raise the airport tax for airlines on July 21, 2009. According to the preliminary information available, this means the fee per passenger will go up 18%, the fee charged for taking off and landing services will rise 18.3%, the aviation safety tax will increase by 28.8%, and the fee per international flight passenger will rise by 19.8%. This means an average increase of 18% to 29% on all the basic tax items. In fact, the airport tax sum depends on the actual route of the carrier. The increase in taxes will lead to the airlines’ greater outgoings, which,

Bank24.ru (the asset of Probusinessbank and member of Life Group) has once again found itself in the middle of a customer-related scandal. A special message was posted on behalf of the bank’s customers on one of Yekaterinburg’s banking forums that actually accused the bank of blocking their legal entities accounts. The authors of the message don’t think it improbable that the bank might be involved in some dubious scheme. UralBusinessConsulting Agency of Information and Analytics quotes the message below: ‘Our company suffered last week due to these two banks’ actions that were both illegal

The international rating agency placed Probusinessbank’s (Life Group’s asset) long-term B- Issuer Default Rating and other ratings on its Rating Watch, with Negative rating outlook. ‘The fact that we gave their ratings Negative outlook stems from the increasingly weakening quality of Probusinessbank and its daughter banks’ assets and their limited ability to make up for the future losses with the help of their capitals. The bad debts (that is, the ones overdue by ninety days or more) are reported to make up 8.6% of Probusinessbank’s portfolio in May 2009. The regulatory capital sufficiency

The net profit of Bank Petrokommerz went down by 182,673,000 RUR, or 41.4% (from 441,681,000 RUR to 259,008,000 RUR) in the second quarter of 2009 compared with the first one. The bank says the drop in net profits has been caused by smaller net profits coming from foreign currency reserves and the need to create reserves for possible losses as well as to make greater advanced payments on profits tax.

‘Rusgrad has not been acting as the customer of Yekaterinburg’s Central Stadium reconstruction project since January 2009. Over 50% of all the jobs have been completed by now, with Sinara Group investing a total of 1.3 billion RUR into the project,’ Sinara Group’s PR center explained to an UrBC reporter. Meanwhile, Sverdlovsk Region Arbitration Court is looking into the claim laid by Rusgrad Construction Company against Central Stadium; the plaintiff wants to be paid over 23.72 million RUR. So far, it has been decided in the course of the preliminary hearing that the next meeting would take

Severouralsk public prosecution authorities instituted administrative proceedings involving Sevuralboksitruda (UC RUSAL’s bauxite mine, aka SUBR); the charges are based on Articles 8.14 (part 1), 7.3, and 14.1 (part 2) of the Russian Federation Administrative Offense Code, namely, violation of water code, unlicensed use of subsoil resources, and unlicensed entrepreneurial activity, the spokesperson for Sverdlovsk Region public prosecution authorities reports. The authorities’ investigation of the enterprise’s compliance with the water protection regulations detected some grave violations of

The net loss of Bank Severnaya Kazna rose by over 120% in the second quarter of 2009, that is, from 1.2 billion RUR on April 1, 2009 to 2.7 billion RUR on July 1, 2009. The bank explains this has to do with the company’s need to set up reserves for loans and debts.

VUZ-Bank’s net losses amounted to 19.722 million RUR in the second quarter of 2009. At the same time, the bank rounded up the first quarter of the year with 55.393 million RUR worth of losses. VUZ-Bank (Life Group’s asset) explains the smaller losses in the second quarter have been caused by increased net interest yields and tax refunds.

Standard & Poor’s credit rating service demoted TMK Capital’s bond ratings down to B, placing the bonds’ rating on CreditWatch, with Negative rating outlook. ‘We actually believe the Russian steel pipes manufacturer’s business solvency indicators will grow much worse this year than we had expected,’ the agency reports. ‘TMK’s rating has been demoted from B+ to B, with the same Negative rating outlook. We also had to decrease the ratings of two priority debenture bond issues, of which the first one, worth $300m, is to be retired in 2009 and the second $600m one is to be retired in 2011.

Sverdlovsk Region Arbitration Court started considering the claim laid by Rusgrad Construction Company against Central Stadium on July 9, 2009. The plaintiff insists on the defendant paying over 23.72 million RUR worth of debts. Central Stadium is one of Sinara Group’s assets; the latter has an agreement with Yekaterinburg municipal council regarding the two parties’ socio-economic cooperation. The stadium was closed for reconstruction in 2004, with the proposed deadline for all the jobs set for the second quarter of 2009, in time for the Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit in

VSMPO-Avisma Corporation’s Board of Directors considered the company’s General Director Evgeniy Romanov’s application for leaving office before the end of his term and decided to let him quit the position on July 12, 2009. During the same meeting, Mikhail Voyevodin was appointed the corporation’s General Director starting July 13, 2009. At the same time, the position of the company’s President was abolished. Prior to this decision, Voyevodin had served as VSMPO-Avisma Corporation’s President since March 20, 2009.

Ural Airlines operated its first flight from Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia, to Baku, Azerbaijan (with a stop in Moscow) on July 8, 2009. This flight is to be offered twice a week, that is, every Wednesday and Sunday, and will be operated using A 320 and A 321 aircraft. The timetable for the flight is as follows: For Khanty-Mansiysk-Moscow-Baku flight, the plane leaves Khanty-Mansiysk at 7 AM, arrives in Moscow at 8 AM, departs from Moscow at 10:45 AM and lands in Baku at 2:30 PM. For Baku-Moscow- Khanty-Mansiysk flight, the plane takes off in Baku at 3:30 PM, lands in Moscow at 5:20 PM, departs

General Director of Uralmash Machine-Building Corporation Nazim Efendiev left office to become the company’s BOD Chairman. The spokesperson for the company said to an UrBC reporter that Uralkhimmash’s former General Director Oleg Danchenko was going to become Uralmash’s new GD.

DIXI Group’s annual general meeting resulted in the stockholders’ decision not to pay the dividends for the financial year 2008 due to 199.46 million RUR worth of losses. In addition to making this decision, the shareholders elected the new seven-member Board of Directors and approved of the annual report and the income statement. DIXI Group runs thirteen stores in Sverdlovsk Region and has 492 chains throughout Russia altogether, including 471 Dixi discount stores, 13 Megamart hypermarkets, and 8 Minimart supermarkets in sixteen Russian territorial constituencies within three federal