PJSC Inter RAO received 28.93% in LLC Sea Port of Gelendzhik

The development of domestic tourism continues to stimulate investors to invest in recreational facilities. Thus, in the project for the construction of port infrastructure in Gelendzhik with a marina and hotels worth 100 billion rubles. a new co-owner appeared – a company with state participation “Inter RAO”. Experts believe that the appearance of such a company on the list of project investors will help solve the problem with power supply that is observed in the resort areas of the Krasnodar Territory.

At the end of 2023, PJSC Inter RAO received 28.93% in Gelendzhik Sea Port LLC, discovered “Kommersant” in the SPARK database. The shareholders of Inter RAO are the state-owned Rosneftegaz (27.63%), Inter RAO Capital (Inter RAO structure; 29.56%), Rosseti (8.57%), 34.24% – in free circulation.

At the same time, the share of other founders of Gelendzhik Sea Port LLC decreased. Thus, the share of Galeon LLC (owned by Rossiya Bank) decreased from 45.15% to 28.93%, Financial Systems JSC – from 25.72% to 13.21%, VTB Bank – from 29.13 % to 28.93%. VTB told Kommersant that the current format of the bank’s participation in the Gelendzhik Sea Port project is optimal. Inter RAO and Rossiya Bank did not respond to Kommersant’s request.

LLC “Sea Port of Gelendzhik” is an investor in the construction project in the city of a coastal structure complex in the seaport and a multifunctional recreational complex with an estimated cost of 100 billion rubles. The project includes a yacht marina with 250 seats, a passenger terminal, a multifunctional congress center for holding symposiums, an art exhibition space with permanent and seasonal exhibitions, and a yacht club for gathering and hosting events for yachtsmen.

The resort complex will include 27 low-rise buildings on the first coastline of the Black Sea. There were also plans to build apartments and a four-star hotel with 173 rooms. The official project implementation period is 2018–2027. Initially, the project was handled by the structures of VTB and Rossiya banks.

Attracting a participant such as Inter RAO can help the project in solving the issue of providing technical conditions, primarily electricity, with which there are problems in the city, notes CMWP partner Marina Smirnova. Port facilities will require additional capacity, at least comparable to the needs for resort infrastructure, which is quite expensive, so a partner in the form of an energy company can help solve a number of problems, she adds.

Projects like Gelendzhik Marina can be very attractive to investors, especially in the context of growing demand for domestic tourism in Russia, says NF Group partner Olga Shirokova. According to her calculations, in 2022 the tourist flow to the Krasnodar Territory increased by 53% compared to 2018. The project format, focused on recreational real estate, has the potential to receive various subsidies, as well as preferential financing, adds Vladislav Nikolaev, regional director of the Nikoliers strategic consulting department.

Taking into account the moratorium on new construction in Gelendzhik, which creates pent-up demand, new projects can provide a good return on investment, notes Ms. Shirokova. Marina Smirnova, on the contrary, says that the costs of constructing infrastructure facilities take a long time to pay off, which is why they are implemented in the form of public-private partnerships. “Private investors do not have the opportunity to wait 40–50 years for their investments to be repaid,” she explains.

A Kommersant source in the tourism market says that VTB has run out of funding for this project and therefore it was necessary to attract a new player for these purposes. Marina Smirnova believes that this could be either a request “that cannot be refused” or a certain interest of Inter RAO – to promote its services and make money on the commercial component.

Daria Andrianova, Dmitry Kozlov