06 October 200807:37

Castorama to be Retail Park’s anchor tenant

RSG Commercial Estate and Castorama, the French chain store, agreed that the latter’s hypermarket was going to become Retail Park’s anchor tenant in the near future. Retail Park is to be located in Yekaterinburg’s future Academic district and will probably be launched in 2011. The new district’s trade and business node will boast the area of 45,000 square meters where all kinds of goods and services meant for making one’s home a better and cozier place can be found. RSG and Castorama’s agreement states that the French company is to rent 12,200 square meters worth of shopping space for its
06 October 200807:35

UBRD pays 25.24 million RUR on bond coupons

The Ural Bank for Reconstruction and Development Finance (fully owned by its parent enterprise, the Ural Bank for Reconstruction and Development) made 25.24 million RUR worth of coupon payments on their second bond issue’s ninth coupon. Each 1,000-ruble bond thus yielded its owner 31.16 RUR of profit, the spokesperson for the bank reports. The issuer determined the interest rates for the ninth, tenth, eleventh, and twelfth coupons at 12.5% a year, or 31.16 RUR per each 1,000-ruble bond. The coupon payments for the tenth, eleventh, and twelfth coupon periods will be made on January 1, 2009,
06 October 200807:33

MegaFon to launch iPhone sales on October 3, 2008

MegaFon, one of Russia’s major mobile operators, started selling iPhone 3G in Russia on October 3, 2008. The operator’s tariff schemes that are part of the iPhone 3G package include a certain amount of prepaid traffic (ranging between 500 MB and 5 GB). Customers willing to make a preliminary purchase application may do so via the company’s website (http://www.iphone.megafon.ru/). After you fill in the electronic form online, you are given a personal order number. The tariff schemes description is also available via MegaFon Ural’s website www.megafonural.ru or over the phone (the service
06 October 200807:27

Investing in unit investment trusts is unwise now, Dankevitch says

‘One must admit that investing in unit investment trusts is not a very good idea at the moment. This market is currently not growing at all and is very volatile at the same time, so the trusts’ quotations have recently gone down,’ Otkrytiye Finance Corporation’s CEO Evgeniy Dankevitch said at a press conference devoted to setting up of the company’s office in Yekaterinburg. Otkrytiye actually comprises Otkrytiye Management Company that runs its own unit investment trusts; incidentally, these trusts’ profitability is currently below the inflation rate and some of them are even bringing nothing
02 October 200807:17

British Midland Airways stops operating Yekaterinburg-London flights on October 12, 2008

Starting October 12, 2008, British Midland Airways will no longer operate any Yekaterinburg-London flights because of their economic inexpediency, the spokesperson for the company explained to an UrBC reporter. The company first introduced its London-Yekaterinburg-London flight on May 10, 2004. The launch of the flights was greatly facilitated by Governor of Sverdlovsk Region Eduard Rossel. Both the Governor and the airline’s general director then said the flight was a very promising one and were even considering launching the daily flights for the destination.
02 October 200807:15

Governor Eduard Rossel still in control of Marriott Hotel

‘Having looked into this project, bearing in mind the existing social limits and the responsibility we have regarding the protection of historic buildings, and given the current financial situation, we would like our hotel construction project to be taken off your special list,’ Marriott Hotel project investor’s representative Alexei Kurbanayev said in the course of a monthly meeting devoted to the buildings that are under Governor of Sverdlovsk Region Eduard Rossel’s special control. In August 2008, Alexei Kurbanayev explained at a similar meeting that putting up Marriott Hotel was
02 October 200807:11

iPhone 3G insurance raises price 4% on average

Rosgosstrakh and Eldorado chain store selling consumer electronics have recently announced that they would try to persuade the people who bought Apple iPhone communicator to acquire an insurance to go along with it. The cost of an insurance package will come to 999 RUR for Eldorado’s customers, with the insurance agreement valid through one year. The insurance is believed to enable an iPhone owner to get compensation in case the device gets stolen or damaged. At the same time, the insurance plan raises the price of an iPhone by 3.7% to 4.3%. Apple iPhone 3G will officially hit the Russian
02 October 200807:09

URSA Bank gets accredited

URSA Bank has recently been accredited by the Deposit Insurance Agency, the state corporation. This means the bank’s new status allows it to take part in the tenders where banks compete for the right to be the agency’s mediators when it comes to insurance payments and paying off top-priority creditors. URSA Bank joined the obligatory deposit insurance system on September 21, 2004. The Deposit Insurance Agency currently cooperates with twenty-three banks in terms of compensation payments.
01 October 200808:53

Nizhniy Tagil’s trade turnover comes to $3.1bn in January-August 2008

Nizhniy Tagil Customs processed 17,800 cargo manifests in January-August 2008; some 190 legal entities dealt in foreign trade altogether, while the total cargo turnover amounted to 3.1 million tons, with 55.1% of goods shipped to or from the far abroad and 44.9% shipped to or from the CIS. The external trade turnover in the area came to $3.1bn, which exceeded the figures for January-August 2007 by 33.7%. The export/import ratio came to 81%/19%. 80.7% of the total trade turnover involved the countries of the far abroad, while 19.3% of the total turnover had to do with the CIS. The latter rose
01 October 200808:51

SKB-Bank’s online users like the site

According to the findings of an interactive survey, most visitors to SKB-Bank’s official website found the site very convenient. 531 people were surveyed altogether within three weeks’ time, the bank’s press officer reports. 43% of respondents feel www.skbbank.ru provides an easy way of finding any necessary information related to the bank’s performance, while the convenient navigation makes it possible to find the details on any service within just one or two clicks. 19% of those surveyed say the site is generally simple to use, although it takes them a few minutes to get the grasp of the
01 October 200808:45

Rimera and Tatneft set up new team

The representatives of Rimera (part of ChTPZ Group). ALNAS, Almetievskaya electric submersible unit maintenance center, and Tatneft’s engineering center and R&D unit met to discuss the ways of working together in the field of development of high-viscosity oil deposits, the spokesperson for Rimera reports. At the end of the meeting, the parties decided to set up a joint work group that will focus on design and launch of new kinds of machinery suitable for such deposits’ development. ‘We appreciate our cooperation with Tatneft very much and are trying to find out what our customers’ vital
01 October 200808:39

UralMedStroy 1 claims to lack money, COMTECH Yekaterinburg says

‘UralMedStroy 1 owes us over 2 million RUR at the moment, which was why we placed a claim to this extent with Sverdlovsk Region Court of Arbitration. The enterprise has been putting off its payments for the rolled metal delivery for 130 days now, claiming they don’t have enough money for the time being,’ COMTECH Yekaterinburg’s Commercial Director Vitaliy Popov said to an UrBC reporter. The claim laid by COMTECH Yekaterinburg against UralMedStroy 1 was first heard in the Court of Arbitration on September 29, 2008. The plaintiff insists on getting 2.27 million RUR from the local developer. ‘We