URSA Bank starts this year’s Course Leader Scholarship program this May, the bank’s press officer reports. The scholarship is aimed at finding and supporting gifted students with some promising managerial potential in Russia’s best colleges and universities. The contest is to be held in twenty-four colleges in the Urals and Siberia, namely, in cities like Novosibirsk, Yekaterinburg, Krasnoyarsk, Kemerovo, Irkutsk, Tomsk, Omsk, Barnaul, and Chelyabinsk. ‘URSA Bank looks for leadership, potential, and youthfulness. We always welcome people who are willing to reveal their best professional

‘Chevrolet sales increased invariably in January-March 2008 against the first quarter of 2007, and we expect them to exceed the figures for the second quarter of 2007 in April-June 2008,’ Autobahn’s Sales Manager Dmitriy Poleschuk said to UrBC. AUTOSTAT reports Russian automobile market is now only Europe’s fourth largest market. 73% of automobiles sold in Russia were foreign ones, while Chevrolet is still Russia’s best selling foreign brand that even managed to build up its share of the market up to 9.3%. ‘We feel the increase in sales has to do with more car loan offers becoming available.

According to the data available for the first three months of 2008, Russian automobile market failed to retain last year’s position in the European rating and is now only Europe’s fourth largest market. AUTOSTAT reports some 630,000 new cars were sold in Russia in January-March 2008, 460,000, or 73% of those being foreign cars. Chevrolet is still Russia’s best selling foreign brand that even managed to build up its share of the market up to 9.3% (58,500 automobiles). Nevertheless, Russian LADA has remained the best-selling make of a car on the domestic market, with sales coming to 145,000

According to the data provided by AUTOSTAT analytical agency, the Russian market of foreign light commercial vehicles has increased eightfold over the last four years, rising from 6,283 to 49,711 automobiles. In fact, this market segment doubles every year. AUTOSTAT’s analysts believe this segment of the market is highly likely to keep growing next year as well.

The court of Pervouralsk, Sverdlovsk Region returned the verdict of guilty on Andrei Kuchukaev, acting foreman of one of Sverdlovsk Region Railways’ subdivisions. It was revealed in the course of the preliminary investigation and the inquest that Andrei Kuchukaev stole 15 railroad rails with the total length of over 120 meters in October 2006. The rails belonged to the railway company, so the theft did it more than 30,000 RUR worth of damage. The stolen rails were sold to some commercial enterprise that used them to put up a warehouse, Ural Federal District’s public prosecution authorities

SKB-Bank’s cash-in ATM accepted over 1 million RUR over a little less than a fortnight; the ATM is located at the bank’s headquarters at 75 Kuibyshev St. This new multitasking machine combines the options of withdrawing cash from one’s account and topping it up with cash, paying one’s mobile phone and housing bills or for using satellite TV. This is, in fact, the bank; first cash-in ATM, but it is already clear that the service is extremely popular with customers and needs to be made more wide-spread. This is why another such ATM is to appear at Yekaterinburg’s Dirigible Mall very soon.

Troika Dialog Investment Company believes Sberbank’s shares are likely to be on the increase now due to both the bank’s nice-looking performance figures and the global investors’ interest in the bank’s stock that has been gradually recovering lately.

Central Bank of Russia reports volume of loans given by Tagilbank to sole traders for 91 to 180 days despite overdraft dropped by 81.08% (from 11.94 million RUR to 2.258 million RUR) in January-April 2008.

The Russian Federation Government’s last meeting that is to be chaired by current Prime Minister Viktor Zubkov has been scheduled for May 6, 2008. The agenda of the meeting covers, among other things, the prices that are to be paid for the produce supplied by natural monopolies. According to the Deputy Minister for Economic Development Andrei Klepach, prices are expected to go up by 2 or 2.5 times over the next three years. The new tariffs will probably add .5% to 1.4% to the annual inflation rate in 2009-2011. The Ministry for Economic Development suggests increasing the rates for domestic

MegaFon Ural came up with a new offer for businesses: new Business Trip options save a company’s within-network roaming and work best for employees who need to have a certain amount of roaming services for a trip. The new offer provides for calls at reduced prices as well, MegaFon Ural’s press officer reports. The offer is available for companies that use MegaFon’s Universal, Special, Trademark, Alliance, and Profit Plus tariff schemes. A customer can choose among packages that offer 60, 180, or 300 minutes and subscribe to the offer via Service Guide self-service system or at the company’s

Central Bank of Russia reports volume of loans given by Tyumenenergobank to nongovernmental financial organizations for 1 to 3 years plummeted by 100% (from 127 million RUR to zero) in January-April 2008.

The average price of one square meter of Yekaterinburg-based housing came to 63,726 RUR on April 29, 2008, which is .4% less expensive than four weeks earlier. Prices went up by 1% in the center of the city and came to 81,066 RUR per square meter, housing in the second most expensive areas grew .4% less expensive and now costs 66,595 RUR, housing in the third and fourth most expensive areas decreased by .2% and came to 57,792 RUR and 54,954 RUR, respectively. As for the fifth most expensive residential area of Yekaterinburg, prices dropped by 1.5% and now came to 49,055 RUR, the Ural Chamber

‘Baltika’s beer is sold in the low- and medium-price segments in our stores,’ Lenkom (owner of Napilnik beer markets) said to UrBC. The Federal Antimonopoly Service approved of Carlsberg Breweries’ buying Baltika and of their plans to enter the global market. Lenkom reports no price increase is to be expected. ‘Baltika will probably cost the same in the nearest future,’ the company’s experts say.

‘Our retail food market appears to be developing quite successfully at the moment, and Yekaterinburg’s chain stores are competing very confidently and professionally both within and outside the city. They are now entering Sverdlovsk Region’s other towns as well as breaking into markets outside the region,’ says Deputy Mayor of Yekaterinburg Viktor Konteev. ‘As for the prospective construction of four more Auchan hypermarkets in Yekaterinburg, I should say these French entrepreneurs can boast enormous floating capital and can therefore afford to work with minimum profit. We are fully aware of

United Company RUSAL’s Social Welfare Project Center conducts a workshop on expertise, monitoring, and evaluation of social projects in Kamensk-Uralskiy, Sverdlovsk Region, on May 5-7, 2008. The workshop is to be attended by teachers, municipal and civil officers, and heads of local NGOs. The company’s Social Projects School is targeted at stimulating a certain project-developing culture in the local community and training social management experts. Sverdlovsk Region dwellers are going to take part in the workshop for the first time this year.

‘The share of innovational products in Sverdlovsk Region’s industrial output that comes to about 11% at the moment has to reach 25% to 35% by 2020. Only 16% of local industrial enterprises actually deal in technological innovations, while the country’s long-term development scenario calls for at least 40% to 50%,’ Head of Sverdlovsk Region Government Viktor Koksharov announced at a recent government meeting devoted to the region’s developmental strategy. Viktor Koksharov feels this industrial growth rate can be achieved through large-scale modernization of existing production facilities and

According to Interfax CEA’s rating, URSA Bank was one of Russia’s Top 10 banks in terms of private individuals’ investments in the first quarter of 2008. The bank managed to attract 37.782 billion RUR from natural persons. As for the private individuals’ deposits’ growth rate, URSA Bank was rated the country’s second best bank among the top ten organizations, as its deposit portfolio grew by 6.35% over the first three months of 2008, while the top 100 Russian banks only achieved the 2.7% growth rate and twenty out of Russia’s fifty largest banks did worse in this respect compared to the

SKB-Bank’s balance sheet total amounted to 35.8 billion RUR on January 1, 2008 and, thanks to the company’s great activity in the first quarter of the year, the figure reached more than 40 billion RUR by April 2008. SKB-Bank is now Ural Federal District’s leading bank in terms of private individuals’ deposits and Sverdlovsk Region’s largest bank in terms of consumer loans offered to its customers. In addition, SKB-Bank is the region’s No. 1 in terms of own funds, the bank’s press officer reports. ‘SKB-Bank’s stock comes to more than 5 billion RUR at the moment, which makes it possible for us

RusRating confirmed forty-four Russian banks’ credit ratings using the data available as of May 4, 2008. Yekaterinburg-based SKB-Bank’s credit rating was confirmed at BB-, which is better than the rating of many large Moscow-based banks. SKB-Bank’s rating was originally confirmed by the agency at B+ in August 2006 and was promoted to BB- in July 2007. The agency’s analysts say SKB Bank’s rating is based on the fact that SKB-Bank is a medium-sized provincial bank (one of the largest in Sverdlovsk Region, though) that has been cooperating intensely with the region’s authorities for a long time.

‘The region’s labor productivity is expected to quadruple by 2020,’ Head of Sverdlovsk Region Government Viktor Koksharov announced at a recent government meeting devoted to the region’s developmental strategy. Viktor Koksharov believes the implementation of Sverdlovsk Region’s socioeconomic development projects will result in the average annual wage growth of 108.5%, the average annual industrial output growth of at least 107%, and the average annual GDP growth of at least 108% by 2020. ‘These are quite serious and challenging goals; to achieve all this, the investment in the region’s