01 October 200707:51

Atrium Real Estate Center claims agencies forced to quit due to fierce competition

‘The sales on the existing homes market nearly halved compared to a year earlier; most people are now looking for one-room apartments, cottages, and single rooms,’ Atrium Real Estate Center’s Residential Real Estate Director Olga Zavyalova said to UrBC. ‘Ours is a fairly large company, so we are doing our best to retain our personnel (and we are talking about more than just ten or fifteen people here). Despite the current standstill, we can easily meet the minimum requirements imposed on the number of transactions, so we don’t really need to make our employees redundant.’ At the same time, Ms
28 September 200713:09

Fitch Ratings ups URSA Bank’s rating

Fitch Ratings, the international rating agency, promoted URSA Bank’s Rating Outlook from Stable to Positive. The bank’s Issuer Default Rating was affirmed at B, its individual rating at D in both short- and long-term; its support rating was affirmed at 5 and level of long-term IDR support was affirmed as missing.. ‘This positive rating results from URSA Bank’s recent issue of $408 million worth of preference shares and the rate the bank uses on its mortgages and car loans; credit cards offered to borrowers with a nice credit record were another factor,’ Fitch Ratings says referring to Alexei
28 September 200713:05

SKB-Bank sets up new offices in Noviy Urengoy and Rostov-on-Don

SKB-Bank set up new offices in Noviy Urengoy and Rostov-on-Don, the bank’s press officer reports. The two offices are located within 3,500 kilometers of one another; this distance covers twenty more subsidiaries, offices, and representations of the bank, with the total number of the company’s outlets all over Russia coming to nearly eighty units. The additional offices are located at 8 Leningradskiy Ave. in Noviy Urengoy and at 144a Pushkinskaya St. in Rostov-on-Don. Both places welcome private customers from 9 AM to 7 PM on weekdays and from 9 AM to 4 PM on weekends. Legal entities can use
28 September 200713:03

Blagodat Securities claims Russian banks might reconsider their lending practices

‘Speaking of possible changes in the way loans are given in this country, one should bear in mind that these are mainly financial intermediaries that actually have a sort of borrowing policy, which means these changes will above all affect the Central Bank of Russia and other Russian banks. As for the Central Bank of Russia, it will probably try to liberalize the assets it uses as collaterals for lombard loans and repurchase agreements. This way the authorities are hoping to be able to improve the refinancing mechanisms while the global stock market appears to be so unstable,’ Vsevolod
28 September 200713:01

Pervouralsk New Pipe Plant makes its 10,000,000th ton

Pervouralsk New Pipe Plant’s 10,000,000th ton of pipe goods was produced at the company’s first pipe-rolling shop recently; it took the enterprise 71 years to reach this figure after the pipe-forming machine was first launched. The spokesperson for Pervouralsk New Pipe Plant (part of ChTPZ Group) says their pipe-rolling mill 220 is unique in that while its design and the technology it uses are not very complicated, the mill is capable of producing the plant’s widest range of weldless hot-rolled pipes (with the diameter ranging from 114 to 219 millimeters) from different kinds of steel. The
28 September 200712:55

RUSAL to implement six social welfare projects in Sverdlovsk Region

‘RUSAL is going to implement six social welfare programs in Sverdlovsk Region according to a certain schedule. Each program has some strict deadlines. A presentation called One Hundred Cool Projects has already taken place in Yekaterinburg. The next point on the agenda is moving on to the Step over the Horizon program,’ RUSAL Social Welfare Projects Center CEO Igor Sukhotin said to UrBC. The One Hundred Cool Projects contest has been held for the fifth time this year; it was the first time the contest was hosted by Sverdlovsk Region. Principals, teachers, and students from a number of
28 September 200712:53

Alfa Bank’s customers might fall prey to fraudsters

A letter addressed to Alfa Bank’s Internet Bank customers was spammed around on September 26, 2007. The letter used Alfa Bank’s branded logos and letterheads; it also contained some information about the bank’s license details. At the same time, the contents of the letter give one grounds for suspecting it could be part of a swindle aimed at getting hold of the customers’ personal data and accessing their accounts. The letter reads as follows: Dear Alfa Client Online User, Due to the fact that Alfa Bank possesses some data on the increasing rate of IT-crime targeted at stealing money from the
27 September 200712:58

BrokerCreditService Company to fight unscrupulous market players

‘We’ve taken a number of decisions aimed at fighting the unscrupulous players on the financial market as well as at restraining the media that engage in providing the public with legally inaccurate information; in addition, some measures will be taken to enhance the people’s economic literacy,’ Director of BrokerCreditService Company’s Yekaterinburg branch Viktor Nemikhin said after attending a meeting on counter-fraud policies on stock markets. This meeting was coordinated by National Association of Securities Market Participants (NAUFOR)’s Ural branch and the local division of Federal
27 September 200712:56

Future Development Forum held in Yekaterinburg

The Future Development Forum proceedings were resumed in Yekaterinburg on September 26, 2007. ‘I’m pleased to see that our forum managed to grab the attention of experts from management companies, builders and developers, investment funds, banks, and many other people that contribute to the way Yekaterinburg looks today,’ Deputy Mayor Viktor Konteev declared in the course of the opening ceremony. The ceremony itself took place in Moskovskaya Gorka Hotel on September 25, 2007; the hotel also hosted a conference on selective-entry unit investment funds for businesses, real estate, protection
27 September 200712:54

Ural Airlines takes part in Sukhoi Superjet 100 presentation

Sukhoi Superjet 100’s first public presentation has recently taken place in Komsomolsk-on-Amur. The event gave all the project participants (Sukhoi employees and the company’s partners and suppliers) a chance to get together for the first time. The presentation was also attended by First Deputy Head of Government Sergey Ivanov. Sukhoi’s first customers, including Aeroflot, Ural Airlines, Dalavia, and Air Union, were also invited. Ural Airline’s press officer reports the plane presented is fully prepared for flight trials, with body, planes, fins, and engines all pieced together safely. The
27 September 200712:52

URSA Bank pays $114.5 million on Uralvneshtorgbank’s Eurobonds

URSA Bank paid $114.5 million on Uralvneshtorgbank’s one-year Eurobonds (this comprises both the sum itself and the interest) on September 21, 2007. URSA Bank accepted this liability since it was actually born out of Uralvneshtorgbank’s merger with SibAcademBank in December 2006. The principal amounted to $110 million; the interest came to $4.5 million. Uralvneshtorgbank went through with the Eurobond issue in September 2006 when the demand outstripped the supply impressively, reaching over $210 million. Investors from Switzerland, Great Britain, Germany, Luxembourg, Hungary, Chile, the
27 September 200712:50

SKB-Bank becomes Sverdlovsk Region’s largest bank in terms of consumer lending in September 2007

SKB-Bank’s consumer loan portfolio reached 9,259,040,000 RUR on September 1, 2007, which means SKB-Bank became Sverdlovsk Region’s largest bank in terms of consumer lending and got on Ural Federal District’s Top 3 banks list. The volume of consumer loans offered by the bank has grown by 4,225,876,000 RUR, or 84%, since the beginning of the year, whereas the loan portfolio quality has traditionally remained outstanding, with the proportion of bad debt coming to a mere 2%. SKB-Bank’s press officer reports theirs is the best growth rate in the entire Ural Region.