Ural Turbine Plant (part of RENOVA Group) negotiated with a delegation from Power Machines headed by the company’s General Director Boris Vainziher on July 4-5, 2007. The talks concerned the prospects of the two companies’ cooperating and doing business together, the spokesperson for Ural Turbine Plant reports. The negotiations were attended by top executives of Leningrad Metallurgical Works, Turbine Buckets Plant, TeploEnergoService EC, Ural Turbine Plant Services, and Ural Power Engineering Industry Plant. 'RAO UES of Russia promised to set up 41 giga-watts worth of power facilities by

The Banker (one of the world’s most influential magazines owned by the Financial Times Group) came up with its Top1000 largest banks list. URSA Bank has been mentioned for the first time, becoming the world’s 832nd largest bank and Russia’s 23d largest bank in terms of stock. URSA Bank was also rated the world’s 821st largest bank and Russia’s 13th largest bank in terms of assets. The Banker has been publishing its annual rankings since 1926; the evaluation is based on the method developed by Basel-based Bank for International Settlements (BIS). The data (concerning primarily the amount of

The customs of Nizhniy Tagil have transferred over 1.162 billion RUR to the federal budget since the beginning of the year, which exceeds the initial target figures determined by the Ural Customs Administration by 5.9%. This June, Nizhniy Tagil Customs have sent 166.734 million RUR to the state, which is 6% better than the initially planned figures determined by the Ural Customs Administration.

Yekaterinburg Consumer Rights Committee voted for Bank24.ru’s project as the Best Mortgage Lending Scheme in the course of the Quality Service Festival in April 2007. Only three months later, the bank’s first 24/7 mortgage lending center was set up in Yekaterinburg; the opening ceremony took place on July 4, 2007. The center is located in the bank’s new office at 29 Malyshev St., and all the customers wishing to consult an expert and have their chances of getting a mortgage assessed may do so there. One can also use the bank’s hotline number 222-22-22 (that is actually available round the

RENOVA Stroy Group and a number of other successful Russian developers’ top executives as well as representatives of investment companies and haulers and civil servants met some French entrepreneurs within the cooperation framework supported by the Russian Union of Employers and Entrepreneurs and Medef International, the French association of employers, the spokesperson for RENOVA Stroy Group reports. RENOVA CEO Veniamin Golubitskiy presented his report on the Russian companies’ development strategies used when going global. RENOVA has successfully cooperated with the French companies when

According to the Central Bank of Russia, volume of natural persons’ investments and deposits in UIC Bank valid for 91 days to 180 days went down by 2% (from 115.496 million RUR to 113.015 million RUR) in January-April 2007.

Ural Bank for Reconstruction and Development-Finance Ltd. (a daughter enterprise fully owned by the Ural Bank for Reconstruction and Development) paid 27.42 million RUR on the maturity date of the fourth coupon (that is, July 5, 2007). This was the company’s second series of three-year bonds, their press office reports. Each bond with face value of 1,000 RUR got 27.42 RUR, which amounts to the annual 11%. The one-billion-ruble issue was available at MICEX on July 6, 2007, with the first coupon annual interest rate set at 11%. The interest rate on the 2nd to 4th quarterly coupons is equal to

Pervouralsk-based NGOs are almost done surveying the city dwellers on their proposals regarding the conservational and social welfare project to be implemented at Pervouralsk Tube Works. The survey is part of a protocol signed by the plant management and the city’s environmentalists in May 2007. The main idea behind the survey is getting the people’s opinion on how the plant should be renovated, especially in terms of putting up an electric furnace steelmaking facility. The company’s top executives are also trying to take into account the population’s preferences when improving on their

'We don’t really keep any statistical record of food prices growth, so we would be hard put to come up with precise data, but it is certainly obvious that fruit and vegetables have grown very expensive over the last month. The recent ban on employing foreign workers in the capacity of shop assistants is definitely one of the main causes of this. Russian citizens just have to be paid higher salaries, which is bound to affect the food prices,’ Alexander Piankov, Director of Shartash Service Ltd., explained to UrBC. Fruit and vegetables have become 12.2% more expensive in the last month,

'After the federal law on the state regulation over the gambling activity has come into force on July 1, 2007, most of Yekaterinburg’s amusement arcades and gambling houses have been undergoing inspection conducted by Sverdlovsk Region public prosecution bodies,’ head of the Public Services Committee under the city council Oleg Neifild said to a UrBC reporter. 'Over the last three days, 30 amusement arcades have been proved not to comply with the federal legislation, with eighteen of them located in Zheleznodorozhniy district of Yekaterinburg,’ Mr. Neifild said.

According to the Central Bank of Russia, volume of natural persons’ investments and deposits in UralTransBank valid for 181 days to 1 year went down by 13% (from 1.018 million RUR to 897,000 RUR) in January-April 2007.

The Federal Tourism Agency (aka Rostourism) keeps processing the applications travel agents have been sending in order to be put on the United Federal Register list. Most of Yekaterinburg-based travel agents have already been accepted; there are, however, a number of legal entities dealing in both foreign and domestic travel services whose applications have been rejected. There have been four such companies by the end of June 2007, namely, SPAER Tour 2 Ltd., Alina Ltd., Altair Travel Firm Ltd., and DENAS TOUR Ltd.

Alexei Mizyulin was appointed URSA Bank’s Managing Director on July 2, 2007. He is going to supervise the subsidiary and regional network development in URSA Bank’s Ural branch. Mr. Mizyulin has a great deal of experience and is well known in the banking business as an expert on chain banks, URSA Bank’s press officer reports.

Central Bank of Russia reports volume of natural persons’ investments and deposits in SberInvestBank valid for 181 days to 1 year went down by 13% (from 39.074 million RUR to 33.961 million RUR) in January-May 2007.

A Yekaterinburg-Irkutsk flight that was supposed to have been performed by Aviaprad was put off by six hours. The passengers just had to wait in Koltsovo airport without being explained anything. It was unofficially reported that the plane only took off after the passengers had been stuck at the airport for six hours. Koltsovo airport’s press officer has refused to produce any comments so far and suggested asking the spokesperson for Aviaprad. As for the carrier, the company was unwilling to speak to any reporters and gave no explanations - as usual.

The regional public prosecution authorities met to discuss the law-enforcement agencies’ performance in the field of preventing undocumented immigration. The meeting attendees observed that despite all the measures taken, there have been no dramatic improvements so far. Last year, the number of foreign citizens with a temporary registration exceeded that for 2005 by 18%, reaching over 145,000 people; only 52,000 people, however, obtained work permits. The meeting participants also commented on the need to prevent crimes committed by foreigners and the ways of prosecuting the offenders.

'The gambling industry has no future in Sverdlovsk Region once the federal law on the state regulation over the gambling activity has come into force on July 1, 2007. Besides, all the gambling houses will either be closed down or moved to the specially designated areas (in Altai, in the Far East, at the boundary of Rostov Region and Krasnodar Territory, and in Kaliningrad) on July 1, 2009,’ President of Ural Gambling Business Development Association Alexei Galaguzov said to UrBC. ‘Some entrepreneurs could invest in these would-be gambling zones, but so far, there have been no people from

RusRating Rating Agency has recently promoted SKB-Bank from B+ to BB-. The agency’s analyst Elena Nikolaenko explains this has to do with the fact that the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development has bought a share in SKB-Bank; besides, the company manages to build up on capital and expand geographically as well as to keep on perfecting its corporate management practices. The bank’s rating on the whole is determined by nice rate of development, great support provided by a financially independent owner, and having a good potential for further growth. There are, however, some things

Ural Airlines received a document certifying the carrier’s compliance with the regulations on collection, processing, and analysis of in-flight data when using A 320 civil aircraft on June 1, 2007. This certificate means the company’s experts are permitted to decode A 320 flight data recorders on their own. Remarkably, there are only three Russian carriers at the moment that are capable of performing such tasks independently: Aeroflot, Siberia, and Ural Airlines. The airline analysts produced 157 flight transcripts within the first month of working on their own. 'We’ve only got two

Sverdlovsk Region Minister for Industry, Power Engineering, and Science Vladimir Molchanov presented his report on the agreement signed by Sverdlovsk Region and RAO UES of Russia at a meeting chaired by Governor of Sverdlovsk Region Eduard Rossel. The meeting was attended by Chairman of RAO UES of Russia Anatoly Chubais. According to Mr. Molchanov, the region consumed 48.6 billion kilowatts per hour last year. This year, the consumption has preliminarily been estimated to come to 25.2 billion kilowatts per hour in January to June, with the peak summer consumption figures reaching 5,000