MegaFon’s MegaFon Modem and MegaFon Modem Plus tariff schemes acquired additional options (Packet Internet 250, Packet Internet 1500, Packet Internet Subscription 250 and Packet Internet Subscription 1500) on July 2, 2008. Packet Internet is an additional incidental service including 250 MB or 1,500 MB of incoming and outgoing traffic for GPRS connection. Packet Internet Subscription is an additional monthly service including 250 MB or 1500 MB of incoming and outgoing traffic for GPRS connection with number rounding value of 1 Kb. Thus buying Internet traffic wholesale saves you a lot of

Central Bank of Russia reports volume of loans given by SberInvestBank to nongovernmental financial organizations for 181 days to 1 year dropped by 59.71% (from 19.635 million RUR to 7.910 million RUR) in January-May 2008.

‘The prices of vacation trips went up by 25% to 30% compared with the year earlier due to jet fuel becoming more expensive. The price of the rest of a trip’s components (that is, a hotel stay, food, and so on) has remained practically the same,’ director of Ural Tourism Association Tagir Sultanov observed in the course of a press conference. ‘I believe that the latest increase in prices was actually the last one. The season only lasts for about four months on average, and its first half has nearly come to an end by now. We expect the second half to be more favorable for the travelers in terms

UralBusinessConsulting Agency of Information and Analytics has recently found out that passengers who bought Vladivostok Avia’s Yekaterinburg-Moscow tickets online now cannot return them and get their money back. It has been reported that people who called the airline’s Yekaterinburg office in order to return their tickets were explained that this could only be done through the company’s website. In the meantime, the website does not provide any information whatsoever as to the ticket return procedure. The air carrier suggested that the customers should place an official letter demanding the

SKB-Bank managed to go through with its SKB-1 bond issue offer successfully. The bondholders could sell their bonds at a price that comprised 100% of their face value and get the coupon yield (determined by the bank for the fifth coupon period at 12.6% a year). The volume of the bonds offered for retirement totaled to 238,312,000 RUR (based on their face value), which comes to less than a quarter of the issue. Most of these bonds were bought by the bank’s new investors. SKB-Bank launched its bond issue on June 21, 2007. The volume of the issue came to 1 billion RUR; the bonds are to be in

BINBANK apparently fails to provide its potential borrowers with full data on their consumer loan offers. The bank’s website does provide certain criteria for getting the loan: one has to be no younger or older than a certain age, have a registered place of residence and be employed in the city or region where one applies for a loan. However, only after a customer fills in and submits the application does the bank’s expert contact them; he or she answers the applicant’s questions and explains what papers the bank must get. At the same time, these experts are believed to miss out on some

According to the National Managers’ League’s profitability ranking of unit investment trusts as of June 30, 2008, the share price of BCS Consumer Sector Fund (BrokerCreditService Management Company) has gone down by 17.58% since the beginning of the year.

Kommersant came up with the results of a research done on Russia’s factoring market opportunities in 2007. The magazine’s analysts report the Ural Bank for Reconstruction and Development was featured in their Russia’s Top 30 factoring market players list. The magazine reports the total worth of debts yielded to the bank as a result of its factoring transactions amounted to 73,650,140,000 RUR last year, thus the bank got the 29th best position in the rating. The volume of finances provided by the Ural Bank for Reconstruction and Development to its customers reached 60 million RUR, which

To upgrade the machinery, one of the company’s production shops had to close down for the time being. The renovating process is expected to take fifteen days, in which the equipment of two rolling mills (850 and 650) will be improved upon. This will include the breakdown mill, the pinion stand, the spindle system that rotates the rollers, and the water-accumulator installation that supports the balance of the upper rollers. In addition, the roller conveyors, manipulating equipment, and six saws will be repaired. Rolling mill 850 will be fitted with the automated breakdown mill control system.

The Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland to Russia Sir Anthony Russell Brenton said at a press conference hosted by Interfax-Ural and Tyumenskaya Linia in Tyumen on July 2, 2008 that it was sad to hear TNK-BP’s Russian and British stockholders could not agree on certain points. He noted the embassy was willing to facilitate the conflict resolution. However, no direct interference in the stockholders’ affairs was deemed acceptable; nor should Russian state authorities step in. Anthony Brenton believes the shareholders must

Deputy Governor of Chelyabinsk Region Roman Panov met the heads of the region’s municipalities in the course of their monthly meeting to discuss the implementation of the state guarantees system within the regional healthcare network. The system is designed to work in two directions. Firstly, it aims to eliminate the waiting queues, as data on these are promptly collected by the health ministry on a daily basis. Things got better in most towns and cities, while the less successful municipalities were asked to use the summertime for improving upon their clinics’ patient service. Secondly, the

Central Bank of Russia reports volume of loans given by Sverdlovsk Gubernskiy Bank to for-profit self-regulatory organizations for 31 to 90 days went down by 93.54% (from 495.910 million RUR to 32.001 million RUR) in January-May 2008.

Governor of Khanty-Mansiyskiy Autonomous Region Alexander Filippenko spoke at a press briefing in the course of the Russia-EU summit and the 5th Congress of Finno-Ugric Peoples in Khanty-Mansiysk. He did admit that the project on the industrial development of the northern parts of the Urals (known as The Industrial Urals-The Polar Urals) might make a negative impact on the aborigines’ lifestyle and the local environment. To avoid this, the designers and the builders must use the most successful Russian and global experiences of northern lands development as best they can and definitely take

Central Bank of Russia reports volume of loans given by Uralprivatbank to for-profit self-regulatory organizations for 31 to 90 days dropped by 83.85% (from 7 million RUR to 1.13 million RUR) in January-May 2008.

‘Speaking of the Turkish tourist market, I’d say there are some full-fledged operators who book flights and make direct hotel reservations and thus come up with a ready package; also, there are some operators who don’t have any direct contact with the hotels or air carriers or don’t operate on a large enough scale to do massive booking, so these operators borrow some of the packages from other companies. For one, Vasco, a Turkish-Austrian operator with a daughter enterprise in Russia (known as Detour) borrowed our reservations for Yekaterinburg-Antalya and Chelyabinsk-Antalya flights but

LSR Group’s Board of Directors approved of the company’s two recent transactions targeted at geographical diversification and building up their position on Yekaterinburg’s construction and building materials market, the Group’s official website reports. One transaction involved acquiring 100% of Uralscheben’s shares. The sum of the transaction has remained unknown. Uralscheben is reported to be one of Yekaterinburg’s major macadam market players that supplied 5% of all the macadam used by Yekaterinburg’s builders last year. Uralscheben owns 100% of Rezhevskoy DCZ and Gagarskiy granite mine’s

Sverdlovsk Region’s division of Rostechnadzor (the state environmental, technological, and nuclear safety watchdog) intends to inspect a number of regional enterprises, their press officer reports. The agency is going to examine the premises and papers of Sinara Pipe Plant, Severskiy Pipe Plant (members of Pipe Metallurgical Company), Volchanskiy Ugol, and Severouralskiy brewery. In addition, Sverdlovsk current transformer plant, Polevskoy machine-building plant, Serov mechanical plant, Serov metallurgical plant, Gazpromtransgaz Yugorsk, Pervouralskaya poultry plant, and Pervouralsk New Pipe

Kommersant-Tema came up with the results of a research done on Russia’s factoring market opportunities in 2007. The magazine’s analysts report the share of provincial banks keeps going up. Last year, for instance, this share came to 46.4% of the market against 43.3% in 2006. The magazine also rated Russian companies that did best in terms of factoring earnings in 2007. SKB-Bank, for one, has received over 120 million RUR by January 1, 2008, which was 828% better than a year earlier and thus secured the bank the 11th best position among all Russian factoring market players. According to Expert

The Ural Bank for Reconstruction and Development is going to run a special offer for its customers on July 4-14, 2008. Customers can take advantage of the special discount and get a business development loan with the annual interest rate that is 1% lower than usual. In order to use this offer, one has to apply for a loan quickly in any of the bank’s offices where the SME Lending Program is available. These are the terms of the offer, known as ‘SME Lending Program’s Birthday’: 1. The offer is available between July 4, 2008 and July 14, 2008 in all of the bank’s offices where the SME Lending

Yekaterinburg Consumer Rights Committee keeps getting complaints regarding Noviy Grad, the local developer. ‘In fact, we get claims related to nearly all the local builders, including Noviy Grad, a number of companies whose names include the word Mayak, and many others,’ says the Committee’s Chairman Andrei Artemiev. Andrei Artemiev reports there is a whole range of financial pyramids on the city’s housing market into the bargain. ‘Such builders put up dwellings for one group of customers using the money invested by some other customers; as a result, the number of the so-called deceived