Central Bank of Russia reports volume of loans given by Bank Uralfinance to financial bodies and local governments for 91 to 180 days went down by 66.82% (from 5 million RUR to 1.659 million RUR) in January-August 2008.

According to the Central Bank of Russia, volume of loans given by UralFinPromBank to non-state financial organizations for 1 to 3 years went down by 15.38% (from 7.022 million RUR to 5.942 million RUR) in January-August 2008.

Utel (aka Uralsvyazinform), one the region’s major telecommunications provider, has recently been featured in an online video clip called The Immaculate Connection. In terms of the plot, the clip shows a conversation between a young man and a young woman wearing a kimono. The man apparently does not want any children and says he is not willing to provide for the baby, whereupon the woman kicks him several times. In the end, they quarrel bitterly using quite a bit of strong language, and the final slogan reads,’ Utel’s Immaculate Connection. So much for the conversation.’ The spokesperson for

Ural Airlines launched its Special Purpose Passenger project on October 7, 2008 and now needs volunteers among their frequent fliers who would be willing to take part in the crew’s evaluation while on board. The passengers who agree to cooperate will be sent an electronic questionnaire with detailed filling instructions. The questionnaire will give the evaluators a chance to do a written assessment of the flight attendants’ performance during a particular flight. The questions are related to the quality of passenger service on board the plane, with a special section devoted to amiability and

RBC.Rating reports Bank24.ru invested 1.881 million RUR in securities in January-June 2008, which exceeds the figures for the first half of 2007 by 41.37%. These data are available from the agency’s Top500 Banks rating in terms of securities investments in the first half of 2008. Meanwhile, the Russian stock market’s crisis has already led to a major downfall in many issuers’ stock prices.

‘The stock market’s collapse primarily hit the stock price-sensitive investment tools,’ METCOMBANK’s CFO Vadim Bambozov said to an UrBC reporter. ‘Given the fact that the inflation rate reached 9.7% on September 1, 2008, some 89% of the country’s unit investment trusts turned out to be loss-making. Some of them experienced the non-profitability of as much as 50%. To make matters worse, people are less interested in investing in trusts now because of the real estate market’s unpredictability and the difficulties of getting there. Investing in precious metals is losing popularity as well

‘The construction of Yekaterinburg’s future Academic district will first and foremost have an impact on the potential customers’ idea of what a quality home is. We haven’t seen such carefully planned and detailed housing projects in Yekaterinburg yet, so Academic will improve on both the quality of and the supply of modern housing in the city,’ says Ural Chamber of Real Estate’s CEO Rustem Galeev. In the meantime, Russian President Dmitriy Medvedev spoke rather favorably of the pace and the quality of the construction during his recent meeting with Renova Group’s Chairman Viktor Vekselberg.

Central Bank of Russia reports volume of loans given by Pervouralsk Joint Stock Commercial Bank to sole traders for 1 t o3 years went down by 25.98% (from 29.424 million RUR to 21.779 million RUR) in January-August 2008.

ChTPZ Group and Rimera are going to participate in KIOGE 2008, the international oil and gas exhibition in Almaty, Kazakhstan, on October 7-10, 2008. ChTPZ Group is planning to present a wide range of full-set delivery options for the fuel and energy sector to its potential customers. These options include Chelyabinsk Tube Rolling Plant and Pervouralsk New Pipe Plant’s produce, the services Rimera can render to the O&G enterprises, and the Group’s new potential in the field of tubing strings, O&G pipelines, casings, and upset tubing production at Pervouralsk New Pipe Plant’s finishing

‘The financial crisis is only starting to gather pace at the moment, so its consequences are hard to predict,’ UMMC Holding’s GD Andrei Kozitsin announced in the course of a press conference in Interfax-Ural’s press center in Yekaterinburg on October 6, 2008. During the regional government’s meeting a week earlier, Kozitsin explained that the global demand for metallurgical industry’s produce tended to go down; so did the nonferrous metals prices, all of which could affect Sverdlovsk Region’s economy quite badly.

Moscow, 7 October 2008 – UC RUSAL, which owns 25% plus two shares of Norilsk Nickel, believes that it is necessary to issue the following clarification in light of the abrupt drop in Norilsk Nickel’s shares: Yesterday’s fall in Norilsk Nickel’s share price on the Russian and international markets has no connection with the stake owned by UC RUSAL. UC RUSAL considers its investment in Norilsk Nickel to be a strategic stake and has no intention of selling its stake.

‘The city council is doing their best to facilitate the construction of Yekaterinburg’s future Academic district,’ the spokesperson for Yekaterinburg municipal council Konstantin Pudov said to an UrBC reporter. Renova Group’s Chairman Viktor Vekselberg recently reported to Russian President Dmitriy Medvedev on how the implementation of the project went along. ‘Our goal is to put up a city of the twenty-first century. This is an ambitious endeavor, but we have been able to face the challenge so far, despite the financing difficulties and the stock market problems. The project requires 11

RTS stock exchange stopped dealing in Uralsvyazinform’s common and preferred stock for one hour at 11 AM Moscow time. This had to do with the mobile operator’s shares dropping in price by over 10% at the opening of business. At the same time, the company’s common stock fell by 18.16% at MICEX stock exchange by 11 AM on Monday, thus coming to only 17.5 RUR per share.

The assembling of a finishing center meant for OCTG production is nearly complete at Pervouralsk New Pipe Plant (part of ChTPZ Group) by now. Over 50% of the machinery got assembled already, while the startup and commissioning have been scheduled for the first quarter of 2009. The plant has been working on its Finishing Center since March 2007; the project is expected to result in a new OCTG facility capable of producing tubing strings, casings, and O&G pipelines. The center will comprise a coupling unit, a thermal treatment unit, a pipe-end upset unit, a pipe control unit, and a

Bank24.ru’s BOD Chairman Sergey Lapshin coordinated a press conference dedicated to setting up of the bank’s first 24/7 office in Saint Petersburg. He announced that Olga Lysukho was chosen to run the office there. In the meantime, FinNews.ru reports the bank is apparently not planning to expand its ATM network in Saint Petersburg.

The Ural Bank for Reconstruction and Development has recently raised the interest rate the company offers on its special Holiday deposit up to 13.9% a year (provided the deposit period comes to 100 to 130 days). In case you want to withdraw your money before the deposit period comes to an end, the interest rates will still be generally higher than the usual ones. According to the terms of the bank’s other deposits, the interest is either paid on a monthly basis or at the end of the deposit period; as a matter of fact, improved interest is offered for these deposit types as well: in case you

The 3d Russian Promissory Notes Congress was held in Yekaterinburg on October 3, 2008. The event was coordinated by SKB-Bank. ‘The choice of the location was brought about by such factors as Yekaterinburg’s impressive economic growth and its developed financial infrastructure as well as the upcoming Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit next year,’ the bank’s press officer reports. ‘The congress was a great success in Kazan in 2006 and in Samara in 2007, which means the country’s financial community is quite interested in this kind of securities,’ says Cbonds Marketing Director Olga

MOTIV Communications Group looked into the outcomes of its special summer offer known as Roaming Non Stop. The company reports their customers’ use of the mobile services abroad doubled in 2008 compared to a year earlier. At the same time, the use of the National Roaming service went up by 75% as well. Turkey was definitely the summer’s roaming leader, followed by Egypt, Spain, Italy, Greece, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Germany, Ukraine, and Kazakhstan. MOTIV was able to significantly expand its roaming geographically in May through September, adding more than twenty new countries to its

Uralsvyazinform, the telecommunications provider, admitted that the company had violated the existing legislation on consumer rights protection, reports Egor Tomilov of Sverdlovsk Region’s division of Rospotrebnadzor (the state consumer rights watchdog). Rospotrebnadzor’s regional division received a complaint from Sverdlovsk Region’s division of the Federal Antimonopoly Service. The latter claimed Uralsvyazinform was forcing some of its customers to use certain tariff schemes. The antimonopoly agency found no antimonopoly law violations there but saw this as a violation of consumer rights

UralFinPromBank raised the interest rates on the consumer loans it offers by 1% to 1.5%. The interest rates thus now come to 21% to 22% a year, depending on the terms of the contract.