VTB asks the authorities to close financial holes in USC and does not plan to receive income from management

VTB was given six months to audit the United Shipbuilding Corporation (USC), which was previously transferred to the bank for management. The head of VTB, Andrei Kostin, believes that the government should take upon itself to close the financial holes of the corporation. According to him, the bank does not plan to receive any income from the management of USC, but did not rule out lending to the organization.

“Your fellow journalists ask me: do you want to add any other assets? It sounds naive, because USC is about putting your life on hold, 24/7, and it’s not a fact that it will work out, because it’s a huge, complex industry,” said Mr. Kostin RBC.

The head of VTB said that almost all USC contracts are unprofitable, the industry is “all the time being sucked in by the state.” The bank wants to eliminate this approach. The audit will take six months because the government is not satisfied with the previous analysis. USC allegedly does not have a single real financial statement; it is unreliable. “Today the company has huge financial problems, which means that management was not effective,” added Mr. Kostin.

“Our approach, which received the support of the president, is to take responsibility for this entire industry, but the state must capitalize the company by closing old holes. This should not be done at the expense of the bank,” the head of VTB believes.

Andrei Kostin did not preliminarily estimate how much funds are needed from the state, but the bank does not intend to solve this “at its own expense.” According to him, “we will not feed the industry at the expense of the bank’s shareholders.” In general, the industry needs from 0.5 trillion to 1 trillion rubles. in 5–7 years. Mr. Kostin aims to create an effective system that will enjoy state support only at the first stage, and after that will work only on market conditions.

According to the head of VTB, there will be a discussion about the issue of USC financing. However, as he claims, “even the not very generous Ministry of Finance admits that support is needed.” When asked whether the bank would lend to USC, the head of VTB replied: “If it is necessary, we will lend.”

Andrey Kostin claims that the bank has no thoughts or plans about receiving income from the management of USC. “We are not shareholders of the company. We do not ask for any commissions for management,” he said. The head of VTB did not agree with the journalist’s opinion that this was “some kind of charity.” “No, this is a lot of trust. The President told me at the meeting that we are handing over an entire industry, this is a big challenge in life for you. This is truly a huge challenge, but we will try to cope. We must cope,” he added.

Mr. Kostin also said that VTB’s plans do not include the idea of ​​selling USC’s real estate portfolio. In particular, there are no plans to sell the Baltic Plant, which was discussed earlier. The head of the bank also announced major personnel changes in USC.

The government decided to transfer USC, which is responsible for the construction of almost all warships and most civilian ships in the Russian Federation, to the trust management of VTB for five years. According to Kommersant, the decision was caused by the failure of the USC rehabilitation program, which began in 2020.

Details – in the material “Kommersant” “Ships have entered our banks”.

Leonid Uvarchev