Trans-Baikal agricultural holding “Komsomolets” changed its owner

The structure of the investment fund “Signet Investments” has closed a deal to buy a large agricultural holding “Komsomolets” in Transbaikalia, which manages almost 190 thousand hectares. Recently, this manufacturer has been unprofitable, but the investor’s interest in it is explained by a larger share of export deliveries to China. Experts do not exclude that the new owner of the asset will start with the processing of rapeseed oil, the demand for which in China is growing every year.

Pavel Polukhin, chairman of the board of directors of Signet Investments, announced the closing of the deal to buy the agricultural holding Komsomolets to Kommersant. The sellers of 100% of the company’s shares were its founders – Valery and Ivan Nageley.

Kommersant reported on June 26 that such a deal was being prepared. At that time, the Federal Antimonopoly Service gave APC LLC, the Signet Investments structure, preliminary consent to the deal. Then the source of Kommersant said that the valuation of the asset takes into account mainly the debt burden. At the end of 2022, the long-term and short-term liabilities of Komsomolets exceeded 2.2 billion rubles, according to financial statements. Signet Investments declined to specify the amount of the transaction.

The agro-industrial complex is owned by the Irriko Group of Companies, which is owned by the ZPIF Signet – Investments 1, managed by Signet Capital. Irriko also owns the Yakhroma agricultural holding with assets in the Moscow region and the Tambov region and an agricultural holding in the Stavropol Territory. After the deal with Komsomolets, Signet Capital, as they say, should become one of the thirty largest owners of agricultural land in the country. Its land bank will be about 233 thousand hectares.

Komsomolets is one of the largest agricultural holdings in the Trans-Baikal Territory. The agricultural holding manages agricultural lands in Krasnokamensky, Priargunsky, Sretensky, Uletovsky and Chernyshevsky districts of the region.

Signet Investments is owned by Pavel Polukhin. However, the market believes that the businessman is acting in the interests of the ex-banker Gleb Frank. Mr. Polukhin, in an interview with Kommersant, denied the company’s connections with Gleb Frank.

Komsomolets completed last year with a loss of 104.82 million rubles. with a revenue of 586.45 million rubles. As noted in the reporting of the agricultural holding, in 2022, difficult weather conditions led to the postponement of the harvesting campaign and violations of shipments to buyers, the business was complicated by increased duties on rapeseed exports and an increase in production costs due to Western sanctions.

Director General of the Institute for Agricultural Market Studies Dmitry Rylko does not rule out that the interest of the Signet Investments structure in Komsomolets is due to the fact that the agricultural holding’s products are oriented to export to China. In addition, Marat Ibragimov, a senior analyst at Gazprombank, adds, the authorities of Russia and China have agreed to expand the mutual access of agricultural products to the markets of the two countries.

Andrey Sizov, the director of Sovecon, believes that the buyer of the Komsomolets agricultural holding is counting on expanding supplies of the same rapeseed to China, as well as rapeseed oil, of which China is the world’s largest buyer. He suggested that on the basis of the purchased holding, they could start processing rapeseed oil. At the same time, Mr. Sizov continues, until the end of August this year, the export of rapeseed from Russia is prohibited, the only checkpoint from which the export of this raw material is allowed abroad is located in Transbaikalia. A Kommersant source in the market says that in the event of a further ban on the export of rapeseed, this supply channel will remain active. Including for this reason, the Komsomolets business could attract the attention of the Signet Investments structure, he does not exclude.

In addition, the Trans-Baikal Territory borders on the Chinese province of Heilongjiang. And this is one of the main regions in China with a developed infrastructure for processing crops, Andrey Sizov states. This, according to him, expands the opportunities for Komsomolets, which also grows grain crops, to supply them to the Chinese market.

Khalil Aminov, Ekaterina Rakitina