04 February 200809:05

Home appliance chain stores suffer losses without new products

A number of chain stores (including Eldorado, Technosila, and M.Video) dealing in home appliances and consumer electronics are suffering losses at the moment as they are unable to offer any new products for sale. Most of their assortment is four to six weeks old, even though most of the goods in stock were sold during the winter holiday season. According to UrBC’s own sources, the stores are experiencing some problems with the range of products due to the fact that the goods (imported from abroad) can’t seem to pass through the customs.
04 February 200809:01

Claims laid against United FX — Traders Group merged in single suit, Sverdlovsk Region Department of Internal Affairs says

'A lot of criminal suits involving United FX — Traders Group have been filed recently upon the numerous applications of the company’s victims,’ acting deputy head of Sverdlovsk Region Department of Internal Affairs Sergey Kupratsevitch said to UrBC. This Saint-Petersburg-based company, with branches in Moscow, Yekaterinburg, and a number of other cities, dealt in trading operations on Forex foreign exchange market using the money of private investors, who had to bet between $1,000 and $100,000 to get the promised 30% to 200% in terms of annual interest. The company made the market
01 February 200809:17

Kupets supermarket chain might sell up to 50% of shares to portfolio investor, Falcon Advisers says

'Kupets, the supermarket chain store operating in Yekaterinburg, is willing to sell up to 50% of its shares to a portfolio investor,’ Falcon Advisers’ Managing Partner Igor Kovanov said to UrBC. 'We intend to find the potential buyer before the end of March 2008, while the transaction we believe is likely to go through by the end of June 2008,’ he added. 'We cannot come up with any precise evaluation of the share price yet, but I’d say something between $150-$220 sounds pretty close,’ Mr. Kovanov observed.
01 February 200809:13

Sberbank’s Ural branch to set up 21 new offices in 2008

'One of Sberbank of Russia’s strategic goals is to make banking services more accessible to the general public, which is why we kept on expanding our subsidiary network last year as well as tried to make the existing outlets more efficient,’ the spokesperson for Sberbank’s Ural branch reports. In 2007, the bank’s Ural division set up the record number of new offices, that is, twenty-four outlets, so the total number of offices reached 1,701. These included specialized small business support centers, mortgage lending centers, centers dealing in loans to private individuals, and a
01 February 200809:11

Societe Generale might go bust, Finam claims

'The bank’s direct financial losses stemming from one of its traders’ fraud have been estimated at 5bn. In addition, the fact that the bank lost one of its credit rating positions means it will grow .25% to .75% more expensive for them to borrow on the bonds market,’ Finam investment bank’s analyst Vladimir Sergievskiy said to UrBC. Societe Generale, France’s second largest bank, lost Ï4.9bn ($7.1bn) due to one of its traders’ gerrymandering related to European stock exchanges’ indices futures. An 80% decrease in the bank’s annual profit is expected. The bank owns a daughter enterprise
01 February 200809:07

Nizhniy Tagil Iron & Steel Works lowers industrial accidents rate by 24% in 2007

Nizhniy Tagil Iron & Steel Works (part of Evraz Group) managed to lower its industrial accidents rate by 24% in January-December 2007, while the frequency of accidents went down by 19%. There was not a single fatal accident, either. These data were provided at the special extended meeting devoted to the company’s labor protection activity in 2007. The meeting was attended by executives from all of the enterprise’s departments. The spokesperson for Nizhniy Tagil Iron & Steel Works reports these improvements were possible due to meeting all the industrial safety regulations and
01 February 200809:05

Ural Treasures Bank raises own funds by 30% in 2007

Ural Treasures Bank’s balance sheet total rose by 30% last year and reached 10,650 million RUR on January 1, 2008. The bank’s own funds grew by 30% as well and reached 811 million RUR on January 1, 2008. Their balance sheet profit came to 120.8 million RUR, which exceeds the figures for a year earlier by 1.5 times, the bank’s press officer reports. According to the Profile magazine’s 48th issue published on December 24, 2007, Ural Treasures Bank was one of Russia’s Top 200 banks in terms of net assets and was given the 162nd position in the rating. The bank has plenty of nice offers for both
01 February 200809:01

SKB-Bank increases authorized capital

SKB-Bank’s extraordinary general meeting took place on January 28, 2008. The majority of voters (99.998348%) decided to raise the bank’s authorized capital through an additional issue of 471,630,000 ordinary uncertificated registered shares with face value of 1 RUR each. In addition, the voters agreed to allow the shares to be sold for 3.7 RUR per share. The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and Sinara Group are the most likely buyers of this share issue.
31 January 200809:11

Koltsovo airport no longer lends to Aviaprad, RENOVA says

'When the airline first entered the air carrier market and started using Koltsovo airport’s services, Aviaprad received a very warm welcome. At the same time, things grew less blissful in the fall of 2007 when the carrier’s debts kept growing yet the company was unable to come up with either a clear-cut paying-off schedule or restructuring proposals. Aviaprad’s debt reached more than 1 billion RUR in January 2008,’ RENOVA Group’s representative Andrei Shtorkh said to UrBC.