Mikhail Zurabov left the capital of ExOil Group structures

Since 2019, the former Russian Ambassador to Ukraine, ex-Head of the Ministry of Health Mikhail Zurabov, who has owned 25% in the structures of the large producer and exporter of vegetable oils ExOil Group, has left this business. His shares went to the main owner of the group, Karen Vanetsyan, who can prepare the integration of assets with the oil extraction plant purchased from the American Bunge. Butter prices are falling, but industry margins remain high, experts say.

Former Russian Ambassador to Ukraine, ex-Minister of Health Mikhail Zurabov left the capital of the structures of the large producer and exporter of vegetable oils ExOil Group, follows from the Unified State Register of Legal Entities. According to SPARK, since 2019, Mr. Zurabov has owned 25% each in Chernozemye LLC and Chernozemye Trading House LLC. At the end of March 2023, these shares were transferred to the main owner of ExOil Group, Karen Vanetsyan. Mr. Vanetsyan did not provide a comment. In the company “Kronner”, where Mikhail Zurabov acts as a co-owner, “Kommersant” did not answer.

Chernozemye operates an oil extraction plant with a processing capacity of more than 2 thousand tons of raw materials, capable of producing up to 900 tons of vegetable oil and up to 740 tons of meal per day. In the 2021/22 season, the company produced 233,000 tons of oil and 201,000 tons of meal, according to the ExOil Group website. Trade House Chernozemye, according to the data available to Kommersant, this season ranks fourth in the export of sunflower oil to the Russian Federation, having shipped more than 120 thousand tons of products from September 2022 to March 2023. The revenue of TH Chernozemye in 2022 increased by 30.6%, to 32.22 billion rubles, the turnover of Chernozemye increased by 12.9%, to 6.09 billion rubles.

Simultaneously with the exit from the capital of Chernozemye and the trading house Chernozemye, Mikhail Zurabov received a 50% stake in Terminal Ilyinka LLC. Judging by the posted vacancies, the company manages facilities for receiving, storing and shipping petroleum products in Ilyinka, Astrakhan region. “Terminal Ilyinka” was established by the management company “ExOil Group” in 2019, and then changed several owners, follows from SPARK. In the financial statements of Terminal Ilyinka LLC, ExOil Group is mentioned in the list of related parties as of January 2022 in connection with financial transactions. Marat Ibragimov, a senior analyst at Gazprombank, notes that the deals are similar to an asset swap. He does not rule out that Mikhail Zurabov participated in ExOil Group as a financial investor and most likely invested the funds received from the sale of shares in another business.

The consolidation of ExOil Group by Karen Vanetsyan may be connected with the purchase by the businessman of the oil extraction business of the American Bunge in Russia. The plant in the Voronezh region with a capacity of 200 million bottles of sunflower oil per year with the Oleina and Ideal brands came under the control of Mr. Vanetsyan in February 2023. As the businessman told RBC, the owners of ExOil Group are studying the issue of integrating the business with the former asset of Bunge. As Kommersant’s interlocutors noted in the market, if ExOil Group had a strong position in the export of crude oil, then the former Bunge plant had a strong position in the local oil market in a bottle.

Prices for sunflower oil are now declining. By the beginning of June, the cost of Russian oil on the world market had dropped to $710–740 per tonne (FOB), which is the same as in May 2020, which is already negatively affecting export rates. In the domestic market, according to Sovecon, sunflower oil in the week of June 5-9 fell in price by 2 thousand rubles, to 64.32 thousand rubles. per ton (see Kommersant dated June 13).

Andrey Sizov, the director of Sovecon, says that the production of vegetable oil with already built exports at the current duties remains an extremely highly profitable business. In June, a zero duty was set for the export of sunflower oil, the export of sunflower until August 31, 2023 is limited by a duty of 50%. According to Mr. Sizov, profitability in the industry may worsen if the supply of sunflower is reduced, which is likely after 2024.

Anatoly Kostyrev