The value of net assets of Energy – Mixed Investments (the unit investment trust) managed by Eurogreen Management Company Ltd. went down by .29% between February 21, 2008 and February 22, 2008. According to Eurogreen’s website, the company’s net assets decreased from 3,067,675.03 RUR on February 21, 2008 to 3,058,876.06 RUR on February 22, 2008.

Russian Copper Company inspired the creation of Russian Nickel Company - a new player on the nickel and cobalt production market. According to Russian Copper Company’s press officer, Russian Nickel Company consists of enterprises that possess licenses entitling them to development of cobalt and nickel deposits in Chelyabinsk Region and Altai Territory. The estimated volume of the known reserves comes to more than 440,000 tons of nickel, while the volume of the possible reserves reaches over 714,000 tons. This year, the company is to handle the basic design and start the construction of an ore

According to the National Managers’ League’s online data on unit investment trusts, the share price of Denezhkin Kamen (Investstroy Management Company) went down by 19.11% (from 1,125.25 RUR to 944.74 RUR) between December 29, 2007 and January 31, 2008.

Central Bank of Russia reports volume of loans given by Sverdlovsk Gubernskiy Bank to for-profit self-regulatory organizations for 181 days to 1 year went down by 17.84% (from 2,703,220,000 RUR to 2,220,958,000 RUR) in December 2007-January 2008

Over 400 strong drinks producers took part in the 10th International Tasting Contest held within the framework of ProdExpo 2008 exhibition. Many competing drinks were given gold, silver, and bronze medals, while the first prize was awarded to vodka produced by Khortytsa. This trademark entered the Russian market in 2006, and its sales have been soaring since. Apart from the first prize, the drink received over 200 awards at a number of respectable international competitions. ‘We were determined to become the market’s absolute leader in terms of quality when we first launched the production of

The solemn ceremony of laying of the foundation stone for the plant’s future LDP shop took place at Chelyabinsk Tube Rolling Plant, the spokesperson for ChTPZ Group (which the plant is a part of) told UrBC. The event was attended by Governor of Chelyabinsk Region Petr Sumin, Chelyabinsk Region’s representative in the Soviet of the Federation A. Komarov, Mayor of Chelyabinsk M. Yurevitch, ChTPZ Group’s BOD Chairman A. Fedorov, and Vice President of SMS MEER, ChTPZ‘s German partner. The shop, meant for production of large diameter pipes (with the diameter of 508 mm to 1,420 mm) with both inner

According to the Central Bank of Russia, volume of loans given by Uralfinprombank to natural persons for 181 days to 1 year went down by 16.12% (from 134.791 million RUR to 113.057 million RUR) in December 2007-January 2008.

According to the National Managers’ League’s profitability ranking of unit investment trusts as of February 21, 2008, the share price of Raiffeisen Telecommunications (Raiffeisen Capital Management Company) has gone down by 19.14% since the beginning of the year.

According to the National Managers’ League’s profitability ranking of unit investment trusts as of February 21, 2008, the share price of CIT Fortis Telecommunications (CIT Fortis Investment Management Company) has gone down by 18.28% since the beginning of the year.

'If the regional division of the state board of experts does not approve of their construction project, Aston might be forced to pull down the building they have been putting up at 57 Radischev St. It all depends on whether the builder has actually got the construction permit,’ says Svetlana Korabel, Director of Jus Cogens Law Firm. According to Rossiyskaya Gazeta, Sverdlovsk Region’s division of the state board of experts looked into the project and was planning to turn it down on February 20, 2008, since the experts found a number of problems in this project. In the meantime, the local

The world’s largest producer of aluminum and alumina, UC RUSAL has recently launched ALSCON plant in Nigeria. The company is planning to fully upgrade all the production processes and make the plant produce 197,000 tons of aluminum a year in 2010. The upgrading program will cost about $300m to complete. Having bought ALSCON’s shareholding in February 2007, RUSAL decided to revive the plant that had been idle for eight years. The upgrading program covers both the construction jobs and the improvements in the technological field. The plant consists of two electrolysis departments, a

The new Board of Directors was elected in the course of an EGM held by Ural Treasures Bank’s shareholders. The new Board now consists of V. Balabanov, A. Gusev, A. Danilin, I. Mukhametdinov, and V. Urvantseva. Besides, the bank moved on from being a close joint stock company to being an open one. V. Balabanov was re-elected BOD Chairman, while Alexander Vasilyev was appointed acting CEO and Chairman of the Supervisory Board, thus succeeding Mr. Markov, who is now employed by Moscow-based Rus-Bank, the bank’s press officer said to UrBC. Ural Treasures Bank is Ural Federal District’s 15th

LUKOIL Permnefteprodukt introduced new prices for gasoline sold in Perm Territory, Kirov Region, and Sverdlovsk Region. Regular EURO 92 and Super EURO 98 now cost 20.5 RUR and 23.9 RUR per liter, respectively, which is 3% and 1.7% more expensive than the previous prices and 18.50% and 14.35% more expensive than in February 2007. The increase in prices was explained by the need to switch to the EURO standard gasoline whose quality is better in many ways, the growing wholesale market prices, and rising tariffs, which means LUKOIL has to spend more on transportation and storage.

Central Bank of Russia reports volume of loans given by Tagilbank to natural persons for 1 to 3 years went down by 5.97% (from 196.167 million RUR to 184.449 million RUR) in December 2007-January 2008.

'The scheme that gives a member of a cooperative a chance to buy an apartment for 50% of the price does not seem to be very transparent or clear. The cooperative must explain where they will get the other half that will later be paid to the bank through a mortgage loan,’ Director of Yarmarka real estate agency Dmitriy Gusev said to UrBC. In the meantime, Yekaterinburg is full of ads that offer buying a place through cooperatives. The cooperatives claim you only have to pay 50% of the apartment’s full cost, with the other half to be paid by RusFinance. Then the cooperative will allegedly

URSA Bank completed two trade financing transactions worth $4.4m in February 2008. Firstly, the bank received $1.4m for a term of one year from Bank of Montreal (BMO Group, Canada) in order to finance the import contracts of a Tomsk-based trading firm. Secondly, URSA Bank got $3m for eighteen months from the Japanese Sumitomo Mitsui Corporation in order to finance the purchase of machinery for a Yekaterinburg-based medical equipment producer. Trade financing is quite popular on the banking services market nowadays, as Russian companies need to buy some modern equipment abroad as well as

Sberbank’s Ural branch’s consumer loan portfolio exceeded 83.3 billion RUR at the beginning of 2008, which is 29.3 billion RUR better than a year earlier. So far, the bank has provided its customers with 341,000 loans. 'This impressive loan portfolio growth results from the ongoing improvements our crediting schemes are given, and the emergence of more subsidiaries. Most of the loans we offered our customers were no-purpose consumer loans, automobile loans, and mortgages. We gave thousands of people an opportunity to move into a better home, buy a car, go on holiday or get some new

'We happen to be Societe Generale’s daughter enterprise, and yet we are quite independent from its financial successes or failures. Despite the current problems, Societe Generale will probably provide us with the resources it was expecting to allot. I personally don’t feel the crisis has affected our company in any way, and we haven’t had to cut down on our development program yet. However, the things that happened were not particularly good ones because they mean we’ll still have to work as hard as at the very beginning,’ BSGV-Yekaterinburg’s GD Andrei Pavin announced at the press

Central Bank of Russia reports volume of loans given by Pervouralsk Joint Stock Commercial Bank to sole traders for 181 days to 1 year went down by 17.08% (from 17.308 million RUR to 14.352 million RUR) in December 2007-January 2008.

According to the Central Bank of Russia, volume of loans given by Uralfinance Commercial Bank to for-profit self-regulatory organizations for 91 to 180 days went down by 5.52% (from 22.009 million RUR to 20.795 million RUR) in December 2007-January 2008.