The Ural Bank for Reconstruction and Development received a subordinated loan worth $50m for the term of ten years on December 21, 2007. The loan was offered to the bank by ABN AMRO BANK N.V. until December 2017. This is the first time the Ural Bank for Reconstruction and Development has obtained a loan from a foreign contractor. It appears that the deal went through thanks to the impressive estimates given to the bank by the world’s leading rating agencies. The Ural Bank for Reconstruction and Development’s long term rating was confirmed at B- by Standard and Poor’s (with Rating Outlook seen

According to the rating of unit investment trusts as of January 15, 2008, the profitability of LUKoil Conservative Fund went down by .02% between January 14, 2008 and January 15, 2008.

According to the rating of unit investment trusts as of January 15, 2008, the profitability of Raiffeisen Electroenergy went down by .52% between January 1, 2008 and January 15, 2008.

The spokesperson for Evraz Group reports that Titan Acquisition Sub, their daughter enterprise, has successfully acquired a shareholding of Claymont Steel Holding on January 16, 2008. It has been reported that Claymont Steel’s shareholders offered 16,415,722 ordinary shares for sale, which comes to approximately 93.4% of currently circulating shares, and Evraz Group bought them all. This is going to become a part of a merger. Each of Claymont Steel’s shares that has not been sold during the time of the offer (excluding those that already belong to either Evraz Group or Claymont Steel or their

Kommersant, a prominent Russian publishing house, came up with its First Rating on Russia’s Top 200 largest banks. Most of the banks that made it into the first hundred are based in Moscow, while only two banks located in Tyumen Region and three banks located in Sverdlovsk Region actually represent the Urals. Yekaterinburg-based SKB-Bank was given the 88th position in terms of its equity capital (the figure exceeded 3 billion RUR on October 1, 2007). As a matter of fact, SKB-Bank was promoted to its current rating from the 69th position it was given in 2006.

The volume of Uralfinprombank’s net profit decreased by 6,660,000 RUR, or 18.11%, in the fourth quarter of 2007 compared to the previous quarter, their report says. The net profit dropped from 36,784,000 RUR in July-September 2007 to 30,124,000 RUR in October-December 2007. The bank explains this by the increased managerial expenses.

During his visit to Ural Federal District, First Deputy Head of Government Dmitry Medvedev chaired a meeting on Chelyabinsk Region’s environmental problems in South Ural State University. The meeting was attended by BOD Chairman of Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) Viktor Rashnikov, who made a report on the local companies’ conservation activity. According to Mr. Rashnikov, Chelyabinsk Region has always been an industrial area whose enterprises affect the environment badly enough. To amend the matters, the enterprises have elaborated and are now using some special environmental

'It’s a bit early yet to speak of a serious downfall in the global economy, at least because even the world’s leading economists and central banks aren’t able to come up with any adequate statements yet,’ Unicom Partner Investment Company’s Asset Management Director Sergei Kaliberda said to UrBC, relating to the recent lowest-ever decrease in Russian stock markets’ indices (MICEX index lost 4.29% and RTS index dropped by 4.41%). 'I believe, however, that a certain slowing down of global economic growth is to be expected, and the current situation is grave enough. The root of the

'The growth of housing prices in Russia is a great problem. Dwellings became 22% more expensive over just nine months of 2007. As for the Urals, housing prices rose by 20% in terms of new homes, while existing home prices are even higher. At the same time, it became 21.5% more costly to put up one square meter of dwelling in January-September 2007, which is a problem, too,’ First Deputy Head of Government Dmitry Medvedev said in the course of a meeting on the top priority national project known as Affordable and Comfortable Housing to Russian Citizens in Tyumen.

Chairman of SKB-Bank Mikhail Khodorovskiy took part in the interdepartmental meeting chaired by First Deputy Head of Government Dmitry Medvedev. The agenda of the meeting (held in Tyumen) covered issues related to the top priority national project known as Affordable and Comfortable Housing to Russian Citizens and its implementation in Ural Federal District. The meeting was attended by Governors of all the regions within the district and by mayors of all the major cities. SKB-Bank acted as the representative of Sverdlovsk Region’s banking community that does its share of work through mortgage

In 2007, Ural Turbine Plant’s maintenance team signed over twenty contracts related to maintenance of the Ural turbines that are now being used abroad. The contract parties are mainly based in Kazakhstan, Byelorussia, Romania, Austria, and Bulgaria. 'We built up on our market position in Byelorussia and Kazakhstan last year and managed to more than quadruple the volume of our export contracts. In addition, we are thinking of entering Azerbaijan’s market and we’ll keep doing businesses with the heat power plants located on the premises of large industrial enterprises as well as keep on

Central Bank of Russia reports volume of loans given by Perviy Respublikanskiy Bank to for-profit self-regulatory organizations despite overdraft went down by 22.91% (from 54.793 million RUR to 42.239 million RUR) in January-December 2007.

Central Bank of Russia reports volume of loans given by Ural Innovational Commercial Bank to sole traders for 181 days to 1 year plummeted by 90.8% (from 15 million RUR to 1.38 million RUR) in January-December 2007.

According to the Central Bank of Russia, volume of loans given by UniCreditBank to state-run for-profit organizations for 181 days to 1 year dropped by 30.32% (from 172.251 million RUR to 120.016 million RUR) in January-December 2007.

The value of URSA Bank’s assets rose from 138,105,168,000 RUR on January 1, 2007 to 253,825,580,000 RUR on January 1, 2008, thus increasing by 115,720,412,000 RUR, or by 83.8%, over one year.

Severnaya Kazna Insurance Company sold a portion of its shareholding in Bank Severnaya Kazna’s authorized capital, thus decreasing its share from 17.0756% to 13.4745%. This information was published in compliance with the demand that any issuer and/or a joint stock investment fund must promptly reveal any essential information that might influence their stock price.

According to the Central Bank of Russia, volume of loans given by UralTransBank to for-profit self-regulatory organizations for 1 to 3 years went down by 31.47% (from 15.307 million RUR to 10.489 million RUR) in January-December 2007.

‘The holiday standstill experienced by the stock markets recently is over now,’ says SKB-Bank’s Dealing Department Director Anton Khavin. 'The European Central Bank kept the refinancing rate at 4% last week, but it’s not very likely to decrease any further; quite on the contrary, the rate might as well go up to offset the 3% inflation that threatens to harm the region’s economy. In the meantime, the U.S. financial authorities report they might let their rate keep decreasing,’ he notes. 'Data related to Europe’s GDP growth in 2007 are expected to arrive this week, alongside with the

A flight operated by Aviaprad was delayed by five days; Yak-42 coming to Yekaterinburg from Norilsk was supposed to have arrived in Yekaterinburg at 2 PM on January 11, 2008 yet the interactive timetable used in Koltsovo airport first read that Aviaprad’s plane would only land on January 12, 2008 and then that the plane would arrive on January 14, 2008, and then that the arrival was postponed till January 15, 2008. According to the latest updates available, the plane is to be in Yekaterinburg at 1.40 PM on January 16, 2008.

Chelyabinsk Tube Rolling Plant and Pervouralsk New Pipe Plant (ChTPZ Group’s largest tube and pipe manufacturers) supplied their consumers with 1,895,000 tons of tubular goods in 2007, which is 10% better than in 2006 when the figure only came to 1,721,000 tons. ChTPZ Group sold 1,049,000 tons of tubes and pipes last year, which exceeds the figures for a year earlier by 9%. These figures include a 16% increase in the amount of large-diameter pipes: it came to 593,400 tons, ChTPZ’s press officer reports. Chelyabinsk Tube Rolling Plant delivered 75,300 tons of tubular goods to consumers in