Caterpillar assets in Russia were bought by the structure of ex-employees of Sberbank PSK-new solutions LLC
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The President of the Russian Federation approved the sale of the assets of the American Caterpillar in Russia – a plant in the Leningrad region and a leasing company – a structure owned by ex-employees of the Sberbank investment block. Kommersant’s interlocutors believe that buyers are primarily interested in the leasing business, and were forced to purchase the plant due to the position of the seller, as was the case in the deal with the assets of the Swedish Volvo AB. According to market participants, it will be difficult to restore production at the plant, but the deal could still be profitable due to the availability of equipment and the current value of assets.
The Russian assets of Caterpillar – the Caterpillar Tosno plant and the leasing company Caterpillar Financial – are being purchased by PSK – New Solutions LLC, it follows from the corresponding orders the President of the Russian Federation, who authorized such a transaction.
PSK – New Solutions LLC was created in August 2022 and belongs to the Romuald company, as follows from the Unified State Register of Legal Entities. 99% in the latter belongs to Kirill Polishkin, another 1% to Jan Weizmann. Previously, Messrs. Polishkin and Weizman appeared as employees of Sberbank structures. Thus, Kirill Polishkin served as deputy director of the department for working with the largest clients of Sberbank CIB JSC, Jan Weizman was managing director and head of the department for working with clients of the metallurgy and mining industry of Sberbank. Reuters indicates that both worked at Sberbank CIB.
Caterpillar’s Tosno plant has been in operation since 2000, producing Cat 773 and Cat 777 series off-road mining trucks, Cat 320 and Cat 336 hydraulic excavators, and components. Since 2020, generator sets have been assembled. But, according to the plant’s reports, the main activity was the production of components for Caterpillar equipment for export to France, Belgium, Poland, Italy and the USA. The company also has a branch in Novosibirsk, where off-road dump trucks were assembled. Production has been suspended since March 9, 2022, as has the conclusion of new leasing agreements by Caterpillar Financial. But the company continued to service its current leasing portfolio. Caterpillar in the Russian Federation also has a distribution company, Caterpillar Eurasia, which is not included in the deal.
Dmitry Babansky from SBS Consulting notes that leasing of road construction equipment (DCT) is an interesting and promising segment. “In the first half of 2023, the volume of new business in DST leasing more than doubled, and it is significantly higher than the first half of 2021.
Even taking into account that the company is captive, there are many options for development in such a market,” explains the analyst. He believes that the main interest in the deal is the connection between production and the leasing company.
Caterpillar Financial did not disclose its data in the Expert RA ranking of leasing companies even before the suspension of new business in March 2022. According to Kommersant’s interlocutors, the quality of the company’s leasing assets can be assessed at the level of John Deere Financial for the period of its purchase by the Insight investment group. Although the cost of the transaction was not disclosed, on the eve of its completion, at the end of February, Insight placed bonds for 11 billion rubles. Insight did the same when purchasing the assets of Siemens Finance, placing bonds in an amount comparable to the cost of the transaction (see “Kommersant” dated March 7). According to the Expert RA ranking for 2021, John Deere Financial took 22nd place in terms of new business volume – 21.4 billion rubles. The company’s portfolio amounted to 31.6 billion rubles.
The general director of the Spetsavtoprom association, Denis Kudryavtsev, notes that the plant in Tosno, taking into account the price at which assets are currently being sold, is a good investment. “It still has relatively new equipment, and right now we don’t have enough means of production,” he explains. At the same time, he considers it unrealistic to resume Caterpillar production without access to suppliers. “Perhaps there will be an option among Chinese mining dump trucks that can be localized,” continues Mr. Kudryavtsev. In theory, the plant can be used to produce basic components for servicing, but nothing more – “for example, the plant did not have a foundry, and when servicing an excavator, the caterpillar belt actively wears out,” he says. Denis Kudryavtsev believes that the plant may in the future be sold to a manufacturing company, as was the case with the assets of Volvo AB in Kaluga. Let us recall that Volvo AB’s assets in trucks and excavators, together with the leasing business, first came under the operational control of Expobank owner Igor Kim, but then the plant was transferred to structures associated with Dmitry Strezhnev (see “Kommersant” dated October 27). Kommersant’s sources in the leasing market note that there were hardly many bidders for the assets, since not everyone is ready to buy the plant as well.
The press service of the Leningrad region government said they do not comment on the transactions.
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