‘Reftinskaya power station’s malfunctioning power generating unit will only resume operating in March 2008,’ OGK-5 Investment Projects and Repairs Director Nikolai Gavlitin announced at a press conference on October 4, 2007. 'This has to do with the delivery of the needed equipment and with the delivery of a special transformer from Ukraine in particular. This piece of equipment is expected to arrive in late December, so we’ll probably manage to restore and reinstall the equipment by March 2008,’ he added. 'The company intends to spend around 1 billion RUR to have Reftinskaya power

Central Bank of Russia reports volume of loans given by UralFinance Bank to natural persons for 31 to 90 days went down by 100% (from 565,000 RUR to zero) in January-September 2007.

Russian Railways Public Company looked at its passenger turnover figures in January-September 2007. The company serviced 102,972,000 passengers in nine months of 2007, their press officer reports. Sverdlovsk Region Railways and Privolzhskaya Railways’ passenger turnover growth rates were the lowest in Russia, as they only amounted to 1.4%. At the same time, the passenger turnover of Krasnoyarsk Railways went up by 5.2% and that of Gorkovskaya Railways increased by 5.1% in January-September 2007.

According to the Central Bank of Russia, volume of loans given by AGROPROMBANK Credit to for-profit NGOs for 91 to 180 days went down by 19.69% (from 770.281 million RUR to 618.618 million RUR) in January-August 2007.

United Company RUSAL’s Press Service came up with the results of a survey conducted by the Russian Public Opinion Research Center. The survey aimed to find out Russian people’s attitude toward aluminum and to gauge their knowledge of the subject. ‘Aluminum is the most well-known metal in Russia, and the country’s industrial development as a whole is inherently connected with the development of aluminum industry in particular,’ the survey maintains. More than 55% of respondents living in different parts of Russia believe aluminum is Russia’s most popular metal, followed by gold and iron. 95%

Central Bank of Russia reports volume of loans given by Tagilbank to for-profit self-regulatory organizations for 31 to 90 days went down by 30.6% (from 26.25 million RUR to 18.21 million RUR) in January-September 2007.

According to Bankir.ru, thirty-five Russian banks (including one bank located in Chelyabinsk Region, three banks in Sverdlovsk Region, and three Tyumen Region-based banks) belong to the low credit-risk category. SKB-Bank was able to become one of the banks thus rated. Bankir.ru’s experts report that the bank’s resource base is fairly diverse both in ways of attracting finances and in terms of currencies; the resource cost meets the market standards, and the risk of a sudden outflow of funds that could hurt the company is very low. SKB-Bank is more likely to develop in a positive rather than

Central Bank of Russia reports volume of loans given by Uralprivatbank to natural persons for 31 to 90 days went down by 100% (from 750,000 RUR to zero) in January-August 2007.

'A certain degree of cooperation between banks and insurers is not illegal, yet there is a borderline that one has to be aware of. For one, collusions aimed at setting fixed prices are prohibited by the competition protection law,’ Deputy Head of Federal Antimonopoly Service in Sverdlovsk Region Sergey Volkov said to UrBC. Federal Antimonopoly Service in Sverdlovsk Region filed lawsuits against Severnaya Kazna and UralTransBank, claiming that these banks had made collusive agreements with the insurance companies in order to be able to impose higher-than-the-market-average insurance fees

The value of net assets of Energy – Mixed Investments (the unit investment trust) managed by Eurogreen Management Company Ltd. went down by 1.21% between September 28, 2007 and October 3, 2007. According to Eurogreen’s website, the company’s net assets decreased from 5,032,395.63 RUR on September 28, 2007 to 4,971,594.02 RUR on October 3, 2007.

Mergers and acquisitions are widely believed to be the principal ways for banks to grow stronger. As for Russia, for instance, M&A used to happen if an acquired bank failed or its owners no longer wished to be in the business. Nowadays, however, mergers and acquisitions are more far-sighted. The Russian banking community experienced its first M&A in 2004, and a great increase in the number of mergers and acquisitions followed in 2006. The market players are inclined to think that SibAcademBank’s merger with Uralvneshtorgbank that resulted in the emergence of URSA Bank (one of Russia’s

Uniastrum Bank’s Yekaterinburg branch stopped offering its customers dollar and Euro mortgages, the bank’s call center reports. This is believed to be a temporary decision, so mortgage loans given in foreign currency are likely to become available again in mid-October. The call center assistants were unable to comment on the reasons for adopting this new policy, though. Uniastrum Bank first announced it was going to stop dealing in mortgages on August 31, 2007. The bank’s representatives said then that they only meant the bank would take a little longer to process the loan applications they’d

On October 2-4, 2007 Yekaterinburg World Trade Center hosted a real estate exhibition that happens to be one of the Urals’ largest professional fairs. Olips presented its two business class apartment blocks: an 80,000-square-meter one called Sozvediye and an 17,714-square-meter one known as Parkoviy. 'We’ve come up with two interesting projects and we are positive that the visitors to the exhibition will think highly of them. Sozvezidye is a large project we are working on in Botanicheskiy district of Yekaterinburg; its location can be called perfect infrastructure-wise. There will soon

SKB-Bank introduced two new offices in Volgograd and Perm. These offices, known as Kachinskiy and Balatovskiy, can now be found at 169 G.K. Zhukov St. in Volgograd and at 30 Sovetskoy Armii St. in Perm, respectively. Both offices welcome individual customers from 9 AM to 7 PM on weekdays and from 9 AM to 4 PM on weekends. Legal entities are invited to come from 9 AM to 4 PM on weekdays, the bank’s press officer reports. Kachinskiy is SKB-Bank’s sixth office in Volgograd Region, so the locals can still use Volzhskiy, Promyshlenniy, Volgogradskiy, Krasnoarmeyskiy, and Krasnooktyabrskiy outlets.

The bank’s official website informs the customers that since October 3, 2007 is a public holiday in Germany, Severnaya Kazna is not going to handle any outward euro payments for one day. All the euro payments and stock trading operations will be performed on October 4, 2007, though. In the meantime, one can still sell or buy euros within the bank as well as make inward payments on October 3, 2007. In addition, it is also possible to make dollar payments and stock trading operations as usual.

The value of net assets of Energy – Mixed Investments (the unit investment trust) managed by Eurogreen Management Company Ltd. went down by .1% between September 27, 2007 and September 28, 2007. According to Eurogreen’s website, the company’s net assets decreased from 5, 037,459.08 RUR on September 27, 2007 to 5,032,395.63 RUR on September 28, 2007.

‘The recent increase in food prices has been brought about by a combination of factors like more expensive petroleum, oil, lubricants, and heat-carrying agents and this year’s massive crop failure that was experienced by a lot of countries and made the global crop prices soar immediately,’ Good Taste Meatpacking Plant CEO and Chairman of Sverdlovsk Region Meat Union Sergey Emelyanov said to UrBC. ‘These problems affected Sverdlovsk Region as well. I feel food prices are bound to keep growing this October,’ he added.

‘I am inclined to think that charging for hookup is totally wrong. Our power industry executives are trying to make up for the lack of investments they kept experiencing over the last few years, and they are doing this at the expense of new consumers rather than through the use of their profits,’ Good Taste Meatpacking Plant CEO and Chairman of Sverdlovsk Region Meat Union Sergey Emelyanov said to UrBC. ‘For one thing, a lot of large animal production units are being put up in Russia within the framework of the national program, and this means that they will have to pay for the opportunity to

‘The need for restructuring of the banks’ liabilities was more than once brought into the limelight by many leading experts and heads of central banks in plenty of large countries,’ Finam Investment Bank’s Analyst Vladimir Sergiyevskiy said to UrBC. ‘The actual chances of doing so, however, are very scarce. What is more, if the decision is forced upon the banks by the authorities, the consequences will be so grave that no politician will ever dare assume this responsibility. Besides, measures taken by the American and European monetary authorities do not provide for any natural restructuring.

The spokesperson for Sverdlovsk Region Ministry of Trade, Provision, and Service reports that food prices are really growing because of the suppliers’ new policy implemented over the last couple of weeks. ‘Milk, butter, cheese, and sausages (depending on the variety, fat contents and other factors) grew 3% to 17% more expensive in the last two weeks,’ the spokesperson says. Some independent media, however, claim the food prices went up by 10% to 20%.