Albert Avdolyan began searching for buyers for the Vera coal port

Structures associated with Albert Avdolyan are planning to sell the Vera coal port in the Primorsky Territory. Previously, the port was intended for transshipment of coal from the Ogodzhinsky deposit, but now it mainly ships coal from the Elginsky deposit. The need for sale may be related to Albert Avdolyan’s plans to focus on building a private railway from Elga and a new port at its end on the coast of the Sea of ​​Okhotsk. Experts estimate the port of Vera at 25–28 billion rubles, and its potential buyers could be coal companies that do not have their own port facilities.

The structures of Albert Avdolyan have put up for sale the large coal port of Vera in the Primorsky Territory, sources familiar with materials for potential investors told Kommersant. According to interlocutors, Sberbank is looking for buyers. Another Kommersant source on the coal market confirmed information about the search for buyers for the asset. Albert Avdolyan’s representative did not provide comments. In the nearby port of Vostochny, Kommersant was told that they have no interest in the port of Vera; NTK (part of SUEK) declined to comment.

Port Vera is located near Cape Otkryty, 130 km from Vladivostok. Historically, the port was part of the business empire of Dmitry Bosov, who died in 2020: it was assumed that it would transship coal from the Ogodzhinsky deposit in the Amur region. After the death of Mr. Bosov, the port along with the deposit, as a result of a series of transactions, passed to the structures of Albert Avdolyan and was used mainly for transshipment of coal from the Elga deposit.

At the end of 2023, the port handled 7.3 million tons of coal, Interfax reported with reference to Mortsentr-TEK. The maximum transshipment capacity is 9 million tons. In the company’s reporting for 2022, Albert Avdolyan is named as the beneficial owner with a share of 75%, but now the ultimate owners are not disclosed in the Unified State Register of Legal Entities. The remaining 25% belongs to Arn Trade JSC, whose owners are also not disclosed. On the website of the Elga holding company, owned by Albert Avdolyan and Alexander Isaev, the port of Vera is listed among the company’s logistics projects.

According to interlocutors, in 2023 the port received revenue of 9.2 billion rubles, and EBITDA amounted to 5.6 billion rubles. The net debt to EBITDA ratio is 2.8x. Most of the investments in the port infrastructure have already been made.

Now the port operates on a captive tariff, and with the transition to a market tariff for coal transshipment in the amount of $20–24 per ton, revenue could reach 18–21 billion rubles. per year, Kommersant’s interlocutors say.

The reasons why Elga decided to sell the port of Vera are not exactly known to Kommersant’s sources. In recent months, Elga has been consolidating efforts on its key project – the development of the Elga deposit and the construction of a private railway and port on the Pacific coast with a capacity of 50 million tons per year, so as not to depend on the throughput of the BAM for coal shipments. Investments in the construction of the road were estimated at 140 billion rubles, in the port – at 137 billion rubles. Thus, in November 2023, Elga sold one of its best assets, Sibanthracite, to the Bashkir Industrial Holding, explaining the deal by the need to concentrate all resources on the development of the Elga complex. Against this background, the development of the Ogodzhinskoye field also fell into the background (the production plan for 2023 was only 1.2 million tons), which reduces Elga’s interest in preserving the port of Vera.

Alexander Kotov, head of Neft Research consulting, says that the plans were to increase the capacity of the Vera port to 20 million tons in 2025. In his opinion, potential buyers could be coal companies that do not have their own port facilities in the Far East or access to them.

The cost of the port could be 25.2–28 billion rubles, estimated Karen Dashyan from Advance Capital based on the EV/EBITDA multiplier for 2023, which was used last year in transactions in the transport infrastructure and logistics segment on the Russian market. The analyst notes that the port has a relatively high debt burden, which negatively affects cash flow at the current Central Bank rate. In his opinion, the most likely buyers of the asset are coal companies.

Evgeny Zainullin, Dmitry Kozlov, Natalya Skorlygina