According to the Central Bank of Russia, volume of state-owned for-profit organizations’ deposits in Uralsib went down by 57% (from 14 million RUR to 6 million RUR) in January-July 2007.

Nicom Auto reports it has bought 25% plus 1 share of AMUR car factory. According to Vedomosti newspaper, this announcement was made by the company’s GD Vladimir Franke in the course of Interauto Exhibition on August 30, 2007. The transaction is supposed to be completed this fall; Mr. Pavel Chernavin has already confirmed these terms. The price of the transaction has been kept confidential, yet some analysts claim it’s going to come to something like $5m, since AMUR car factory does not have any welding fabrication or paint spray processing facilities. AMUR car factory (whose controlling

‘Even by the end of August, many housing maintenance and utilities services still haven’t paid their natural gas bills issued as early as last year. The case hasn’t changed much over last month, and all the services still owe us 1 billion RUR altogether,’ the spokesperson for Uralsevergas Oleg Vlasov said to UrBC. ‘At the moment, there are twenty-nine municipalities in Sverdlovsk Region that are serviced by companies with over five-million-ruble debts. Our greatest debtors (as of August 28, 2007) are Nizhniy Tagil, with its 238 million RUR worth of debt, Ivdel, with its 105 million RUR worth

Central Bank of Russia reports volume of natural persons’ investments and demand deposits in Plato Bank went down by 11.22% (from 1.622 million RUR to 1.44 million RUR) in January-July 2007.

‘The project on the industrial development of the northern parts of the Urals (known as The Industrial Urals-The Polar Urals) is the grandest territory development project since the Soviet times; it could actually yield some very impressive economic and political returns. The implementation of this project, though, is associated with a number of certain difficulties,’ Finam’s Konstantin Romanov said to UrBC. Mr. Romanov believes one of the problems facing the project coordinators is the need to look for some private investors who would contribute at least 25% of the total sum to the project.

Central Bank of Russia reports volume of loans given by UralTransBank to for-profit self-regulatory organizations for up to 30 days went down by 25.34% (from 32.341 million RUR to 24.148 million RUR) in January-July 2007.

According to the Central Bank of Russia, volume of for-profit self-regulatory organizations’ deposits in GRAN Bank valid for 31 to 90 days went down by 98.64% (from 25 million RUR to 340,000 RUR) in January-July 2007.

Uralmashzavod’s General Director Nazim Efendiev announced at a press conference that the enterprise was planning to expand its production through acquiring a number of other businesses. Buying Uralmash – Metallurgical Equipment from Severstal might become the first step in a series of such acquisitions. Analysts believe this transaction would be mutually beneficial, since Severstal could do away with a non-core asset, whereas Uralmash would be able to improve on the quality of equipment it makes for the ore mining and metallurgical industries through the new addition. ‘When we talk of uniting

Central Bank of Russia reports volume of nongovernmental financial institutions’ deposits in VUZ Bank valid for 1 to 3 years went down by 13.3% (from 38.5 million RUR to 33.38 million RUR) in January-July 2007.

‘I do think all the critique targeted against the project on the industrial development of the northern parts of the Urals is well grounded. This project is only a simulation of activity on the part of both the regional and district authorities,’ Unicom Partner’s Asset Management Director Vitaliy Kalugin said to UrBC. ‘As far as the civil servants are concerned, they only see the development of the project as a good way of getting a lot of money from the Federal Investment Fund. The implementation strategy they said they were going to use as well as the obvious dependence on the undiscovered

According to the Central Bank of Russia, volume of loans given by Sverdlovsk Gubernskiy Bank to for-profit self-regulatory organizations went down by 60% (from 586.125 million RUR to 234 million RUR) in January-July 2007.

‘Maxi Group is going to have a hard time breaking into the weldless pipe market; such pipes are made by a great number of companies, so the competition is quite fierce,’ Metex Yekaterinburg’s Sales Manager Sergey Chelkov said to UrBC. Mr. Chelkov believes that because of this competition, Maxi Group will spend a lot of time finding its customers and will even have to sell at low prices. ‘If they want to stay on the market, their weldless pipes must be cheaper than those of their competitors,’ he says. Maxi Group has recently started putting up a weldless pipe production plant in Revda;

The value of net assets of Energy – Mixed Investments (the unit investment trust) managed by Eurogreen Management Company Ltd. went down by 1.01% between August 27, 2007 and August 28, 2007. According to Eurogreen’s website, the company’s net assets decreased from 4,901,369.28 RUR on August 27, 2007 to 4,851,749.56 RUR on August 28, 2007.

‘Our agency does not deal with any of Bank URALSIB’s mortgage schemes,’ Russkiy Dom 2000’s Mortgage Lending Director Valentina Vinnikova said to UrBC. According to Ms Vinnikova, Russkiy Dom 2000 co-operates with a lot of crediting organizations, yet the agency is not really in the know of Bank URALSIB’s mortgage offers. In the meanwhile, the number of Sverdlovsk Region-based banks that deal in mortgage lending keeps growing, and so does the variety of options. However, this has not resulted in greater numbers of given mortgages: this year, the amount of money offered to customers in the form

Central Bank of Russia reports volume of state-owned financial institutions’ deposits in Tyumenenergobank valid for 181 days to 1 year went down by 100% (from 1 million RUR to zero) in January-July 2007.

Chelyabinsk Region placed over 5 billion RUR worth of public contracts in the first half of 2007, First Deputy Head of Chelyabinsk Region’s Main Material Resources Administration Sergey Sushkov says. Mr. Sushkov reports over 550 auctions and about 2,000 quotation events took place in January-June 2007. ‘On average, one can save up to 10% off the market-average prices within the region when placing public contracts,’ he says. ‘It’s true that there may be some disagreements between a bidder and a customer, yet the number of these disagreements is limited. In fact, the claims do not exceed a

Governor of Chelyabinsk Region Petr Sumin set up a special committee that will be responsible for fighting socially important illnesses. This committee will mainly keep an eye on the proper implementation of the federal project on preventing and fighting socially important illnesses in 2007-2011. This work team includes First Deputy Governor Andrei Kosilov, Chelyabinsk Region Health Minister Viktor Shepelev, head doctor of Chelyabinsk cancer clinic Andrei Vazhenin, Head of Chair of Therapy, Functional Diagnostics, Preventive Medicine, and Family Practice of Ural State Medical Academy for

Central Bank of Russia reports volume of loans given by Yekaterinburg Municipal Bank to natural persons for 1 to 3 years went down by 10% (from 338.069 million RUR to 304.2 million RUR) in January-July 2007.

A few executives from the Plenipotentiary Representation of Russian Federation President in Ural Federal District and the coordinators of the project on the industrial development of the northern parts of the Urals preferred not to discuss the issues related to the implementation of their project. Kommersant Ural’s press center hosted a debate devoted to the possible doubts raised by the future of the project on August 29, 2007. Executives from the Plenipotentiary Representation of Russian Federation President in Ural Federal District, the management of the corporation set up to implement the

‘At the moment, Russia’s Federal Antimonopoly Service is busy going through Aviaprad’s files,’ Head of Federal Antimonopoly Service in Ural Federal District Tatiana Kolotova announced at a press conference on August 29, 2007. ‘This airline has for a long time refused to provide the service with the data we needed on the proprietors of the company and on their purchasing prices as far as fuel was concerned. All the papers were only submitted on July 20, 2007, and it’s not at all improbable that a new court trial will begin upon the investigation of these documents,’ she added. ‘Sverdlovsk