Interfax-CEA’s analysts came up with a report on the Russian bank’s performance in the second quarter of 2008. The Ural Bank for Reconstruction and Development was once again declared the Urals’ No.1 in terms of asset volume and profitability. In addition, the bank was given the 60th position in the country-wide rating of banks’ net assets. The bank’s net assets amounted to 47.643 billion RUR in the second quarter of 2008, which exceeded the figures for the previous quarter by 25%. Besides, the Ural Bank for Reconstruction and Development was rated 58th on Russia’s Top 100 Banks list.

Central Bank of Russia reports volume of loans given by UralTransBank to state-run for-profit organizations for 91 to 180 days dropped by 78% (from 30 million RUR to 6.6 million RUR) in January-July 2008.

‘Some beer manufacturers have to provide themselves with their own resource base (which generally means barley),’ FINAM Management Company’s analyst Maxim Klyagin announced in the course of a recent press conference. ‘In 2007, for instance, the main reason for Baltika beer becoming a less profitable product to deal in was the growing costs of buying substantially more expensive raw materials and having them transported,’ he said.

Olips, the local developer, organized a celebration for children in Dirigible mall in Yekaterinburg. The event took place on the eve of August 2, the Builder’s Day, and included contests with tokens given away as prizes. These tokens could be exchanged for popcorn and candy floss. In addition, some extra prizes were given to the most active contest participants. ‘Builder’s Day is a very large-scale holiday, so we just wanted to share it with everyone, and I believe we succeeded in this,’ says Olips’s Deputy GD Evgeniy Melnikov. Olips is currently implementing a few real estate development

Interfax-CEA reports SKB-Bank was promoted in Russia’s Top 100 Banks rating (based on the volume of banks’ assets) in the first half of 2008. The banks’ rating was compiled by the agency’s experts on the basis of data available as of July 1, 2008. SKB-Bank was given the 74th position in the rating compared to the 67th position a year earlier. The bank managed to raise its net assets by 51% over one year, so these now come to 35.772 billion RUR. 1,000 banks aspired to be featured in Interfax-CEA’s rating as of July 1, 2008 altogether.

Sverdlovsk Region directed 7,028,800,000 RUR worth of uniform social tax payments to the federal budget in January-May 2008, the spokesperson for the regional division of the Federal Tax Service reports. This exceeded the figures for January-May 2007 by 133.3%

‘The project on multi-faceted development of Sverdlovsk Region’s territories was drawn up a long time ago. We’ve already placed it with the executive authorities and are now working on its implementation,’ says Sverdlovsk Region Duma deputy Nail Shaimardanov. The Russian Government stated recently that the federation’s constituent entities with special long-term multi-faceted area development programs were going to receive some substantial funding from the federal authorities meant for putting up engineering and social infrastructures. Apart from such projects, the region must deal in some

Noviy Grad still hasn’t been able to finish the construction of an apartment block at 72 Khokhryakov St. in Yekaterinburg. The building was actually supposed to have been completed and commissioned in the year 2000, or nearly eight years ago. The first half of the year 2008 is over, but the building is still under construction; to make matters worse, both the building and the builder have been involved in a number of unpleasant clashes and scandals. For one, the local law-enforcement agencies are currently investigating the overselling of apartments in the future dwelling that was apparently

‘According to our estimates, Sodeystviye consumer cooperative’s target audience largely consists of socially vulnerable local strata, mostly pensioners and the working class. The cooperative’s customers have already become proverbial for their low financial literacy. The thing is, the average interest rate most Russian banks offer on their deposits comes to no more than 12% a year, while the maximum interest that Sodeystviye promises is 28% a year. Given today’s lack of stability on the stock market, this kind of profitability is impossible to achieve even for unit investment trusts that are

Sverdlovsk Region’s division of Federal Antimonopoly Service took legal action against Bank Uralsib, accusing the company of violating the federal advertising legislation, the spokesperson for the Service reports. Bank Uralsib’s advertisement on their consumer loans with a mortgage was reported to lack some essential data on the product and the terms of buying or using this loan type. There was no information about the incidental commission for providing a customer with the loan prior to having the mortgaged property officially registered by the state. Nothing was said about the insurance

Russian Railways Public Company violates the existing labor code in terms of regulations related to paying for working overtime, Russian Trade Union of Railway Engine Crews’ website states. ‘According to the Article 11 of Russian Federation Labor Code, the rules apply to all kinds of employers regardless of form of ownership. Russian Railways Public Company’s employees must be paid 1.5 times more for every extra hour of work, while Article 152 of Russian Federation Labor Code states that these sums apply to the first two hours of overtime, while all the other hours must get a double pay. At

SKB-Bank was given the top position in BankInformService Information Agency’s rating of the banks’ activity as of August 5, 2008. The experts who worked on the rating report they used the data available for eight categories, including the banks’ activity on the spot currency market, their most popular card, deposit, and loan type, the banks’ PR Departments’ performance, and so on. The general score is determined by the average score in each category valid throughout the current week. The rating gets re-assessed on a daily basis, with over sixty banks based in the mid-Urals featured in the

Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) keeps working on its investment project in Saint Petersburg: the building of a maintenance metal goods center will have been completed by the end of the year, while the delivery and assembling of all the necessary equipment has been scheduled for the beginning of 2009, the company’s PR Department reports. Four major bits of machinery are to be supplied by FIMI, the Italian firm: three crosscutting units, one of them fitted with the flattening and multi-tasking processing options, and a longitudinal cutting unit. This equipment will enable the workers

Baltika beer is missing from most of Yekaterinburg’s cafes and pizzerias, including, for instance, MacPeak, Bullet, Passage, Tsentralniy Dvor, Proviant-21, McDonald’s Sbarro, Studio, Pizza-Nova, American Hot Pizza, Master Pizza, and Pizza Mia, all of which appear to prefer some other beer suppliers. In the meantime, Director of Tatischev café chain Maxim Myakishev recently spoke very unfavorably of Baltika beer’s quality.

‘We’ve used URSA Bank’s package offer and it helped us to use our time more effectively, to cut down on the accountants’ labor cost and to spend less on the certain services URSA Bank offers,’ says the director of Kompaniya REM Elena Sukhanova. URSA Bank came up with the new way of working with businesses, known as Business Packages, in March 2008. These packages provide for a set of services related to settlement and cash services and of special lending offers. The bank currently offers its partners four business packages: Acquaintance, Development, Leader, and Partner, each of which is

‘65% to 70% of Sverdlovsk Region Railways’ rolling equipment is depreciated right now. We use some electric trains that are forty years old, even though their lifetime normally comes to no more than twenty-eight years,’ head of Sverdlovsk Region Railways Vladimir Suprun said in the course of a press conference in Yekaterinburg. ‘The fact that the equipment is worn out does not mean it’s not safe. We give all the cars and railway engines regular overhauls and carry our repairs. All this helps to use them longer. Some of our railway engines are worn out by 100%, but they can still work,’

‘No insurance payment can fully cover the cost of having a car repaired,’ director of Autoservice Vladimir Maryanov said to UrBC. The businessman reports there are some unwritten rules that the insurers and the claim adjusters adhere to: ‘No insurance company will ever work with an adjuster who proposes payment amounts that are greater than a certain figure. Experts look into the visible damage, yet there are some hidden defects that can only be detected later on. An experienced adjuster can often see these problems from the start, but they would normally ignore them. In case a car owner asks

The Russian Federation Federal Antimonopoly Service took legal action against Koltsovo airport of Yekaterinburg and Kaliningrad-based KD-Avia for their alleged violation of the federal bill on the protection of competition, the spokesperson for the Service reports. The suit was initiated on July 29, 2008 upon Siberia Air Company’s request. Siberia claimed Koltsovo airport and KD-Avia avoided signing agreements on ground handling operations and airport servicing with the airline. Thus Koltsovo airport refused to cooperate with Siberia when the latter wanted to operate scheduled

According to the National Managers’ League, the profitability of unit investment trusts run by metallurgical enterprises dropped below zero on July 24-31, 2008. For one, the share price of Trubnaya Ploschad – Russian Metallurgy (Bank of Moscow Management Company) went down by 10.44%, that of Rus-Capital-Metallurgy (Rus-Capital Management Company) dropped by 9.18%, and that of BCS Metallurgy Fund (BrokerCreditService Management Company) decreased by 8.5%. At the same time, the share prices of CIT Fortis-Russian Metallurgy and Machine-Building (CIT Fortis Investments Management Company), Troika

102,974,900,000 RUR were directed to the federal budget from Sverdlovsk Region’s territory in January-May 2008, which exceeded the figures for January-May 2008 by 31.6%, the spokesperson for the regional division of the Federal Tax Service reports. Sverdlovsk Region is reported to have transferred 28,810,500,000 RUR worth of tax payments to the federal budget, which is 1.4 times better than a year earlier. As for the regional budget itself, Sverdlovsk Region received 40,141,500,000 RUR worth of tax and non-tax payments in January-May 2008, which exceeded the figures for a year earlier by