Alexander Tkachev became interested in buying up land

The enterprise of the former federal minister of agriculture suffers losses.
25.06.2019
Kommersant
Origin source
Shareholders of the Kuban Agrocomplex. N. I. Tkachev, who owns, according to Forbes, the most expensive land bank in Russia, will again elect members of the Board of Directors - the previous elections were held two weeks ago. Meanwhile, the holding is suffering huge losses amid incredibly high payables. According to the company's reports, in 2018 interest on loans amounted to just under 10 billion rubles. with revenue of 50 billion rubles. Some experts argue that with such indicators there can be no talk of profitability, and soon the holding will begin to “devour” its own capital. Others point out that the real state of affairs in a holding can be judged only on the basis of the consolidated financial statements of all subsidiaries and related companies.

Shareholders of JSC "Agrocomplex them. Tkachev ”plan to raise at an extraordinary meeting, which is scheduled for August 23, the issue of early termination of powers of members of the Board of Directors of the company and the election of new ones. Information about this is published on the Interfax corporate information disclosure center. The council was elected two weeks ago, on June 7, at the annual meeting of shareholders and why it was urgently needed to re-elect it, they refused to comment on the holding. “We do not comment on business activities, the company feels great,” said Evgeny Khvorostina, director of the company, “Kuban”.

According to the financial statements of the holding, for the second year in a row, the agrofirm has been bringing losses to shareholders: in 2018 - 2.9 billion rubles, a year earlier - 2.1 billion rubles. In 2018, the volume of loans of the company amounted to 63.5 billion rubles, and short-term loans - 24 billion rubles. At the same time, the company's revenue reached 50 billion rubles. The experts interviewed by Kommersant Kuban note that now the agro-complex is calculated for a large-scale purchase of foreign assets, which it has been implementing over the past years.

A week ago, Forbes published the rating of Russia's largest landowners, according to which Agrocomplex them. NI Tkachev became the leader in the country, his land ownership is 649 thousand hectares, worth 68.5 billion rubles. They are located in the Krasnodar and Stavropol Territories, the Republic of Adygea and the Rostov Region.

The society was created by the father of the former Kuban governor and ex-Minister of Agriculture of the Russian Federation Alexander Tkachev. Now the holding includes 60 enterprises that are engaged in plant growing, feed production, meat and dairy cattle breeding, gardening, processing of agricultural products. At the end of 2018, the holding ranked fourth in the ranking of the largest poultry producers in Russia (290.8 thousand tons). In October 2018, "Agrocomplex them. Tkachev ”ranked 117th in the rating of the largest investors in the Russian economy with a total investment of 28.8 billion rubles. over the past five years.
The agricultural complex began to actively grow from 2001 to 2018, when Alexander Tkachev first served as governor of the region, and then head of the federal ministry of agriculture. According to Forbes, over this time period, the land bank of the agricultural complex increased from 80 thousand hectares to 650 thousand hectares (during the time when Mr. Tkachev was sitting in the ministerial chair in 2015–2018, the land area increased by 150 thousand hectares). The largest transactions concluded by the holding were the acquisition in 2014 of Wimm-Bill-Dann five farms with a total area of ​​30 thousand hectares and 40 thousand hectares of GK Sever of Kuban, which was previously controlled by the Tsapkov gang. Among the recent acquisitions is the purchase in the current year of the Adyghe NJSC Kievo-Zhuraki AIC and two bakeries: OJSC Slavyansky KHP and OJSC Poltava KHP.

According to Vedomosti's research, most often the agro-complex through intermediaries acquired the assets of failed companies, which were delivered to him several times cheaper than the estimated value. The change of owners led to a change of creditors, the main of which were Sberbank and Rosselkhozbank, which issued Agrocomplex and the companies included in it, judging by their reports, 10-year loans maturing in 2024-2026. In addition, according to RBC Krasnodar, in 2017 the Agrocomplex named after NI Tkacheva became the largest recipient of subsidies in the Kuban to reimburse part of the interest rate on investment loans. The Commission for Coordination of Crediting Issues of the AIC of the Ministry of Agriculture of the Russian Federation approved seven applications to the company. Subsidies were subject to loans totaling more than 1.1 billion rubles. The size of the subsidies was not reported.

Often the media suspected the management of the holding company to use the administrative resource in consolidating the land. In particular, as Forbes wrote, in the fall of 2005, the Kristall plant of the Russian Sugar Company in Vyselki was surrounded by temporary traffic police posts, which simply did not allow trucks with beets to enter the plant. In fact, the work of Kristall was stopped, and later six administrative cases were initiated against it. In March 2006, the plant moved Agrocomplex them. N.I. Tkachev.

Analyst GC "Finam" Alexey Korenev said huge debt Agrocomplex with a relatively small revenue. “The debt significantly exceeds both the company's revenue and the value of its assets. Interest payable, amounting to 10.5 billion rubles. in 2017 and 9.6 billion rubles. in 2018, just huge for this amount of revenue. With such a debt burden, business profitability is out of the question. A little more, and the agrocomplex will begin to devour its own capital. The only thing that could save the agro-firm is to obtain soft loans at ultra-low rates, which will allow restructuring the debt and reduce the burden of debt service, ”the expert said.

The leading analyst on corporate and sovereign ratings of the Expert RA agency Mikhail Tkach disagrees with this position. “In our opinion, the losses of Firma Agrocomplex named after N.I. Tkachev, JSC” are not indicative according to RAS standards, since they do not take into account the financial results of subsidiaries and related companies, as well as potential intragroup turnover. Like most agricultural holdings, the agro-complex unites many legal entities responsible for various areas of activity, therefore financial results and the level of debt load must be assessed using consolidated data, ”said Mr. Tkach. The expert noted that in 2018 financial investments of JSC “Firm“ Agrocomplex named after NI Tkachev ”” increased by 2 billion rubles. and at the end of the year amounted to 61 billion rubles. Their growth is probably due to the expansion of the land bank or the implementation of investment projects for the production of agricultural products. “Taking into account the limited supply and demand for land, state support, export potential and prospects for the development of agriculture in the Russian Federation, the company's investments are likely to be justified,” Mikhail Tkach said.

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