Federal Mortgage Lending Agency declared that the minimum interest rate on a mortgage would come to 10.75% a year beginning from July 1, 2007. Analysts say a .25% reduction is not too much, but what matters is the government’s very intention to make mortgage loans more affordable. 'Lower interest rates on mortgages actually support the Affordable Housing Program. Provided the country’s economy does okay (that is, if the inflation rates go down), the interest rates are simply bound to decrease even more impressively. In fact, the lowest annual interest rate might amount to a modest 10% as

Governor of Sverdlovsk Region Eduard Rossel met General Director of Uralmashzavod Nazim Efendiev on July 2, 2007. The spokesperson for the Governor reports Mr. Rossel and Mr. Efendiev were discussing some technicalities of setting up an engineering company meant for development and introduction of new technologies.

According to the Central Bank of Russia, volume of profit-making self-regulatory organizations’ deposits in METCOMBANK valid for 1 year to 3 years went down by 51% (from 78.767 million RUR to 38.565 million RUR) in January-April 2007.

The Ural Bank for Reconstruction and Development’s annual general meeting held on June 27, 2007 resulted in approval of the annual accounting report for 2006. The bank managed to prove once again that it has remained the Urals’ No.1 on the financial market. The bank’s balance sheet total rose by 1.7 times and reached 33.2 billion RUR in 2006, its loan portfolio increased by 1.4 times, amounting to 15.9 billion RUR. The balance of accounts and balance on deposits grew by 1.9 times and came to 8 billion RUR. The volume of natural persons’ deposits rose by 1.5 times last year, amounting to over

MAVLON INVEST LTD was officially reported to have sold its 20.00029% share in GRAN Bank’s authorized capital to a Cyprus-based REKHA HOLDINGS LIMITED. MAVLON INVEST LTD, an offshore company, announced that it had bought a 19.693% share in GRAN Bank from Conversbank on June 14, 2007. This information was revealed in compliance with the regulation that an issuer/a joint stock investment fund must promptly reveal any information that can influence its stock price.

‘This season, most tourists head for Turkey, Egypt, and Cyprus. Croatia and Montenegro have also grown very popular now that one can fly there straight from Yekaterinburg,’ Direct Sales Manager of Riviera Tour Ltd. Tatiana Rogacheva says. 'Each tourist type normally tends to choose a certain price category. As regards the middle class, they mostly go for economy-class hotels such as four-star ones,’ she notes.

Ural Airlines has flown 39,802 passengers to Saint Petersburg since the beginning of the year, which exceeds the figures for January-June 2006 by 47%. The carrier’s press officer reports this has been brought about by lower tariffs as well as the introduction of two extra Chelyabinsk-Saint Petersburg flights a week. The research conducted by the airline reveals that this year, the carrier’s Saint Petersburg-bound flights have largely been used by people living in Yekaterinburg, Chelyabinsk, Chita, Vladivostok, Khabarovsk, and those living in Yakutia and the NIS. Most of these travelers went

According to the Central Bank of Russia, volume of loans given by Uralfinprombank to profit-making self-regulatory organizations for 31 days to 90 days went down by 42.5% (from 255.187 million RUR to 146.656 million RUR) in January-June 2007.

According to the Central Bank of Russia, volume of state-owned profit-making organizations’ deposits in URALSIB valid for 181 days to 1 year went down by 63.2% (from 6.8 million RUR to 2.5 million RUR) in January-May 2007.

MAVLON INVEST LTD was officially reported to have sold its 20.00029% share in GRAN Bank’s authorized capital to a Cyprus-based REKHA HOLDINGS LIMITED. MAVLON INVEST LTD, an offshore company, announced that it had bought a 19.693% share in GRAN Bank from Conversbank on June 14, 2007. This information was revealed in compliance with the regulation that an issuer/a joint stock investment fund must promptly reveal any information that can influence its stock price.

Chairman of Severnaya Kazna Andrei Volchik reduced his share in the bank’s authorized capital from 8.413% to 5.413% by selling a 3% share holding. The amount of shares owned by Mr. Volchik has undergone some changes before: the figure went up from 7.691% to 8.413%, or by .73%, on June 14, 2007, whereas Mr. Volchik decreased his share from 7.995% to 7.044%, or by .951%, a bit earlier. He also sold some shares on April 25, 2007 when his share holding was reduced from 10.024% to 7.995%. This information was revealed in compliance with the regulation that an issuer/a joint stock investment fund

Hermitage Hotel (aka L’ermitage) hosted a meeting of a committee for facilitating foreign and Russian travelers’ visits to Sverdlovsk Region. One of the points on the agenda was devoted to acute shortage of cheap hotel rooms. A room classed as a cheap A-class one must cost between 500 RUR and 1,000 RUR; in the meantime, it will cost you $140 on average to book a hotel room in Yekaterinburg, Deputy Mayor Viktor Konteev’s press officer Oleg Zemtsov says. 82% of travelers arriving in Yekaterinburg fall into the ‘business class‘ category, which is one of the reasons why local investors are

Net assets of Energy-Mixed Investments that are currently supervised by Eurogreen Management Company are going down; Eurogreen’s official website says the value of assets amounted to 5,138,507.5 RUR on June 25, 2007 compared with 5,183,356.07 RUR on June 22, 2007, which means the figure decreased by .87%.

'Electric power industry is Sverdlovsk Region’s major problem; if we fail to solve it, we have no future in terms of development. The agreement we signed with RAO UES of Russia does not seem to be fully functional, that is, the network is being maintained properly, but the output of power is insufficient. We are now drawing up a report on how this agreement has been working over the last six months, and I am meeting head of RAO UES of Russia Anatoly Chubais on July 2, 2007 to discuss the performance of the company and the reasons why our agreement is failing,’ Governor of Sverdlovsk

According to the Central Bank of Russia, volume of loans given by SberInvestBank to sole traders for 181 days to 1 year went down by 19% (from 10.95 million RUR to 8.85 million RUR) in January-May 2007.

According to the Central Bank of Russia, volume of non-profit NGOs’ deposits in Sverdlovsk Gubernskiy Bank valid for 1 year to 3 years went down by 40% (from 110 million RUR to 65 million RUR) in January-May 2007.

Uralmashzavod and Uralmash Drilling Machinery are thinking of establishing a long-term partnership: ‘We could start mass-line production of high-tech equipment together,’ Uralmashzavod CEO Nazim Efendiev says. To begin with, the two companies signed a 250-million-ruble agreement in June 2007 that states Uralmashzavod is to supply 27 1180 L1 pumps to Uralmash Drilling Machinery; the pumps will be used for different types of drilling rigs. The first shipment has to be ready by November 2007, the second one by the second quarter of 2008. Some bits of machinery are already being produced by

Severnaya Kazna Leasing Company Ltd. sold its 15.022% share of Severnaya Kazna‘s authorized capital. This information was published in compliance with the demand that an issuer and/or a joint stock investment fund must promptly reveal any information that can influence its stock price.

'We did get a few offers from some of Aviaprad executives regarding the acquisition of the company, but we were not truly interested. Our developmental strategy is different, and we are quite busy carrying out our re-branding campaign, replacing our old planes with the new ones, and trying to get the IOSA certificate. Buying Aviaprad is not going to help us do the tasks any better,’ General Director of Ural Airlines Sergey Skuratov says in response to media reports about the two carriers negotiating for the acquisition of Aviaprad.

36.6, a federal chain of pharmacies, announced that the company had fully bought out all of Zdravnik drugstores. The sum of the transaction has been kept confidential.