GC “Rost” became a co-owner of the greenhouse complex “Agrokultura Group”

The rising cost of building new greenhouses is contributing to the interest of large vegetable producers in purchasing existing enterprises. Sergei Rukin’s Rost Group became a co-owner of the 100-hectare Agrokultura Group complex near Moscow. The proximity of the asset to Moscow simplifies the delivery of products, experts say.

A large vegetable producer, GC Rost, has become a co-owner of the Agrokultura Group greenhouse complex near Moscow, as follows from the Unified State Register of Legal Entities. Since September 15, the structures of the Rost Group have owned Peresvet-Agro LLC, which owns 50% in Agrokultura Group. The Peresvet-Agro company originally belonged to the Peresvet Bank, in which the Russian Orthodox Church owned a share. And at the end of 2016, Vladislav Glinberg’s City Capital became the owner of Peresvet-Agro.

Another 50% of Agrokultura Group belongs to JSC Kometa. As stated in the reporting of this company for 2022, 70% of the shares are owned by the general director of Agrokultura Group Vladimir Chernyshev, another 30% by Mark Budyko. The latter may be the founder of the Petrosoyuz holding, a manufacturer of sauces and semi-finished products, which was sold to the American Heinz (today Kraft Heinz) in 2005–2007. Two sources of Kommersant who know about the deal believe that Rost Group will probably receive a share of Comet. But one Kommersant interlocutor believes that Vladimir Chernyshev, as the manager of the complex and a strategic investor, can retain participation in the project. Mr. Chernyshev declined to comment. Vladislav Glinberg’s Start Invest and Rost Group did not respond to Kommersant.

According to its own data, Agrokultura Group manages a greenhouse complex with an area of ​​100 hectares in the Kashira district of the Moscow region. It grows tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, eggplants, berries and herbs under the Green Standard brand; the annual production volume is 86 thousand tons of vegetables, 550 tons of berries and 2 million pots of salad crops. In 2022, the company’s revenue increased by 23% year-on-year, to 8.12 billion rubles, net profit was 539.62 million rubles.

On the website of the Rost Group of Companies, the Agrokultura Group complex is already included in the list of managed facilities. Taking into account the latter, the group includes 20 greenhouse complexes with a total area of ​​600 hectares. In 2022, Rost Group produced 327 thousand tons of vegetables, and this year it intends to produce 380 thousand tons of products under the brands Flamenco, Lukhovitsky Vegetables, etc. The main owner of the group is Sergey Rukin.

General Director of Growth Technologies Tamara Reshetnikova says that Agrokultura Group is the largest producer of greenhouse vegetables in the Moscow region and the second in the Central Federal District after Kaluga-based Agro-Invest (the Moe Leto brand, part of the Avilon Group of Companies owned by Alexander Varshavsky) . In terms of greenhouse area, these are the largest suppliers among modern enterprises throughout the country, the expert adds. According to her, one of the key advantages of Agrokultura Group is its proximity to Moscow, a huge sales market and an important logistics hub for supplies to other regions.

Investment banker Ilya Shumov notes that in the current realities, when the cost of building new greenhouses has increased to 300-400 million rubles. for 1 hectare, and in most regions there are no subsidies for reimbursement of capital costs, it becomes much more profitable for large players to buy existing businesses. According to him, Agro-Invest and Gorkunov remain large independent suppliers on the market, and there are also many greenhouse complexes with an area of ​​20 hectares or more. As Ms. Reshetnikova points out, the costs of greenhouse operators today are rising due to rising prices for fuel, electricity, seeds, fertilizers, plant protection products, etc., and the increase in prices for greenhouse vegetables is outpacing inflation.

As the Ministry of Agriculture reported on September 25, since the beginning of the year, the harvest of greenhouse vegetables in Russia has increased by 1.3% year-on-year, to 1.14 million tons, including 621.5 thousand tons of cucumbers and 484.4 thousand tons of tomatoes. Sales of almost all categories of vegetables, according to NielsenIQ data, for the 12 months through July of this year, grew both in volume and in monetary terms. Thus, sales of tomatoes increased by 10.2% in packages and by 12.7% in money, cucumbers – by 7.2% and 16.1%, peppers – by 21.7% and 21.3%, respectively.

Anatoly Kostyrev