Head of Sverdlovsk Region Government Viktor Koksharov held a business meeting with the British Kingfisher’s executives (the company’s Real Estate Director Michael Bjerklund and Project Manager Ksenia Mostovskaya), the UK Consulate General in Yekaterinburg’s Advisor for Trade and Investments Yulia Alexeeva, the region’s Minister for Trade, Food, and Services Vera Solovieva, and Minister for State Property Management Alexei Molotkov. Viktor Koksharov said Sverdlovsk Region was quite interested in the large British low-price retailer’s arrival; however, Yekaterinburg seemed to be lacking

According to the Central Bank of Russia, volume of loans given by Bank24.ru to sole traders for up to 30 days dropped by 100% (from 50 million RUR to zero) in January-June 2008.

Central Bank of Russia reports volume of loans given by Sverdlovsk Gubernskiy Bank to sole traders for 1 to 3 years went down by 30.16% (from 333.034 million RUR to 232.576 million RUR) in January-June 2008.

Governor of Belgorod Region Evgeniy Savchenko chaired a meeting of Prioskolskiy Ore Mining and Processing Enterprise Committee. The future enterprise is going to become one of Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK)’s subsidiaries. The meeting was attended by MMK’s representatives involved in the construction of the ore mining enterprise (including MMK BOD Chairman Viktor Rashnikov). The attendees discussed the social projects currently carried out in Belgorod Region with MMK’s financial support. The implementation of the projects is monitored by an ad hoc fund. The fund’s council chooses

‘The information on services Neva offers looks rather dubious to professionals. As far as their Private Banking service is concerned, for instance, the company only speaks about ‘unlimited capital management opportunities, highest financial service standards, individual approach, strict confidentiality, special terms’ and so on,’ Management Company’s Investment Director Alexander Metzger said to UrBC. ‘As for their Trust Management offer, Neva provides more detailed data here, yet their information still leaves the field pretty open. Firstly, what they offer is not trust management but

Uralmash Machine-Building Corporation (Russia) and ABB Industries FZE (UAE) signed an agreement on strategic cooperation in the field of development, production, and supply of industrial produce as well as experience-sharing in terms of design, technologies, and expertise. The agreement is valid through the end of 2009. The two companies intend to work together on creating hi-tech systems and solutions for different branches of industry, including the metallurgical one. Both parties are to participate in drawing up and implementing of various projects and to contribute to mutual enhancement

The future apartment dwellers of Aston Park (the set of apartment blocks Aston is currently putting up at 14 Kunarskaya St. in Yekaterinburg) may not find enough parking lots for their cars. People who’ve invested in the apartments in the first buildings of Aston Park say the yard is not big enough to fit many cars. Besides, this yard is already partially occupied by steel garages. Apparently, Aston has been unable to handle the problem so far. The company’s representatives report they are planning to put up a two-level underground car park next to the first buildings of Aston Park (two

SKB-Bank came up with a new offer for its customers, who now don’t have to worry about any commission on a loan. The offer is currently available for customers who apply for a loan with the collateral known as ‘loan to a friend’. The money can be transferred into the customer’s bank card account if they like, and the customer does not have to pay the 2% commission. In case the borrower uses the money through non-cash operations, this will be commission-free for them as well, SKB-Bank’s press officer reports. SKB-Bank’s Consumer Lending Director Konstantin Bogatyrev says this is a good offer

‘Local drivers are buying 12% more Toyota cars lately, so our center sold about 20% more cars in the first half of 2008 compared with the first half of 2007,’ Toyota Center Yekaterinburg Vostok reports. The car center’s experts say the most popular car makes are Corolla, Avensis, Auris, RAV4, and Camry, usually in silver and black. In the first half of 2008, Toyota Camry, a business class car, became about 9% (80,000 to 100,000 RUR) less expensive due to the fact that it is now assembled at a Russian factory. In addition, the delivery grew speedier for most models, as Toyota’s delivery quotas

Chelyabinsk Tube Rolling Plant and Pervouralsk New Pipe Plant (ChTPZ Group’s largest tube and pipe manufacturers) supplied their consumers with 867,800 tons of tubular goods in the first half of 2008, which falls short of the figures for a year earlier (that is, 969,500 tons) by 10%. ChTPZ Group sold 463,400 tons of tubes and pipes in the first six months of the year, which falls short of the figures for a year earlier (that is, 539,000 tons) by 14%. These figures include a 22% drop in the amount of large-diameter pipes: this came to 235,000 tons compared with 302,600 tons of LDPs in

АК&М Rating Agency, supported by the Soviet of the Federation, did a research on the Russian Federation’s constituent entities’ credit solvency. Sverdlovsk Region was Russia’s No.5 in terms of credit solvency based on its financial performance, only outstripped by Moscow, Saint Petersburg, Perm Territory, and Krasnoyarsk Territory. As for its credit solvency based on its economic performance, the region was given the 8th best position. Then, the agency rated Sverdlovsk Region No.9 in terms of integrated level of relative credit solvency in 2007 (compared with the fifth position in 2006).

The Federal Tourism Agency (Rostourism) recently hosted a meeting of the hotel assessment committee chaired by Rostourism’s Deputy Head Natela Shengeliya. The committee looked into twenty-six applications for categories, placed by all kinds of hotels and lodgings, and categorized twenty-four hotels and lodgings within the range of 1 to 5 . Yekaterinburg-based Senator Hotel and Grand Avenue Hotel were given the fourth and the third categories, respectively.

Central Bank of Russia reports volume of loans given by UralFinPromBank to sole traders for 31 to 90 days dropped by 93.50% (from 18.18 million RUR to 1.18 million RUR) in January-May 2008.

Renova-StroyGroup-Akademicheskoye is going to take part in an exhibition devoted to low-rise construction in Sverdlovsk Region with its housing complex project known as the 45th Quarter. This future complex will be located in the south-east of Yekaterinburg, next to the city’s future Academic district. The layout for the project has been developed by Albert Speer&Partner GmbH, the company’s press officer reports. The housing complex will consist of a number of cottages, united by a single architectural concept, guarded premises, united infrastructure and maintenance facilities. The area

The meeting of Saint Petersburg municipal council resulted in the decision to give Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) the status of their strategic investor. This status touches upon the enterprise’s project involving the construction of a pressings-making plant and a maintenance metal goods center in Kolpino. These facilities will be located on the premises of Izhorskiye Zavody where the area of forty-eight hectares has been provided to put up a modern car parts producing plant in 2010 or 2011. The examination conducted by Saint Petersburg Investments and Strategic Projects

Russian Expo Arms — 2008 и Russian Defence Expo — 2008 exhibitions were opened at the firing ground located by Staratel settlement in the vicinity of Nizhniy Tagil on July 9, 2008. Both events are supported by SKB-Bank as usual. The annual exhibitions attract more and more participants and visitors every year. This year, over 400 Russian and foreign enterprises are expected to take part in the event, and over 60,000 people are expected to visit the fairs. In addition, business executives from forty-seven different countries will probably pay a visit, SKB-Bank’s press officer reports. The

Central Bank of Russia reports volume of loans given by Uralfinance to state-run for-profit organizations for 31 to 90 days went down by 23.07% (from 53.95 million RUR to 41.5 million RUR) in January-May 2008.

Oleg Cherepanov, a Yekaterinburg-based entrepreneur, has recently announced he’s sold NOVA-Group and launched a new business project. NOVA-Group started working on several construction projects in Yekaterinburg in 2006. During his first visit to Sverdlovsk Region, First Deputy Head of Russian Federation Government and the country’s future President Dmitriy Medvedev visited some of NOVA-Group’s premises and discussed the prospects and challenges of the building industry with Oleg Cherepanov. NOVA Group eventually reached new quality heights in the course of its development, so Saint

Starting August 1, 2008, Ural Airlines will operate an extra Yekaterinburg-Salekhard-Nadym-Salekhard-Yekaterinburg flight on Fridays in addition to the other two weekly flights. ‘This route is very popular with passengers flying to and back from their vacations as well as with business travelers, so we decided to raise the number of flights we offer,’ the airline’s press officer reports. Now the flights are available every Wednesday, Friday, and Sunday: flight U6 505 takes off in Yekaterinburg at 8.55 AM and arrives in Salekhard at 11.50 AM, then the plane leaves Salekhard at 12.40 PM and

Ural Mining and Metallurgical Company (UMMC) does not provide any financing for the construction of Demidov Business Center in Yekaterinburg, Demidov’s press officer Oleg Zemtsov says. UMMC declared its rights over the business center, developed by Klaas-Stroy, on May 29, 2008. The company’s experts say they bought 550 million RUR worth of loan agreements from one of Klaas-Stroy’s shareholders; besides, an agreement to acquire 50% of Klaas-Stroy’s shares was reached. ‘UMMC has not officially reported their acquisition of Klaas-Stroy’s shares yet. What is more, we haven’t seen any of the