The revenues of Alrosa, the world leader in diamond mining, are falling, and management rewards are only growing. The corporation has been managed by Sergey Ivanov Jr. for three years now. He made a successful career thanks to the political ties of his father.
In March, Sergei Ivanov was elected for a new term, for the next five years. At the same time, members of the supervisory board of the diamond state-owned company voted unanimously for the son of special representative Vladimir Putin. Apparently, neither the Minister of Finance Anton Siluanov, who heads the supervisory board of Alrosa, nor his other colleagues were embarrassed by the failed performance of the corporation.
Who owns Alrosa
33% - Russian Federation
25% - Republic of Sakha (Yakutia)
8% - administration of districts (uluses) of the republic
34% of the shares are in free float (mainly funds from the USA and Europe)
Dear team
According to the editorial staff, in 2019, members of the board of Alrosa earned an average of 143.2 million rubles. per person. This is 3.5 times more than a year earlier (40.9 million).
If in 2018, according to the quarterly reports of the company, the total remuneration of 8 top managers amounted to “only” 327.7 million, then last year the truncated composition of the board of 6 people divided already 859.2 million among themselves.
At the same time, Alrosa's net profit for the year decreased by 31%, amounting to 63 billion rubles. (according to IFRS).
And already in the first quarter of this year, the company even showed a loss of 7.481 billion rubles. (RAS).
In “Alrosa” the failure was explained as “weakening of the national currency”. There really is a connection. As the editorial office was convinced, 96% of the debt of the Russian state-owned company is in US currency. As of December 31, loans and debt amounted to almost $ 1.9 billion.
However, something else is funnier here. When Alrosa’s profit fell by 41% at the end of 2017, the company explained the reason ... on the contrary, the strengthening of the ruble! And this also has logic: after all, the company receives the bulk of its revenue from sales abroad. In general, all failures can always be attributed to ruble fluctuations in any direction.
As the editorial analysis showed, out of 12 key members of Ivanov’s team in the leadership of Alrosa, at least four are connected with him in past jobs. Deputy Director General Evgeny Agureev had previously lived in Sberbank, and Ivanov was a senior vice president in the state bank. Other deputies - Vladimir Kozlov and Olga Makarova - worked at Sogaz, the board of which Ivanov headed. And another Ivanov’s deputy, Vladimir Marchenko, is associated with him for work at Gazprombank.
It seems that if the “child prodigy” Ivanov is ever appointed head of the Russian Railways or Roscosmos, his people will follow him there too.
The main thing in domestic management is all the same communication, not professionalism.
Our super-talented managers that drive banks and get diamonds, that launch rockets into space and trains on rails are all one.
Alrosa's 26% share in global diamond mining.
All roads lead to Putin
The appointment of Ivanov Jr. as the head of Alrosa three years ago came about thanks to Yury Trutnev, Presidential Envoy to the Far Eastern Federal District. It is Trutnev, according to our copy of Siluanov’s letter to President Putin (the minister’s correspondence was published by the BlackMirror telegram channel) that lobbied for the resignation of former head of state-owned company Fedor Andreev. And Trutnev, however, three years later publicly announced the appearance of Ivanov Jr. at the head of Alrosa.
Coincidentally, Trutnev himself as the plenipotentiary was already promoted by Ivanov Sr. when he was the head of the presidential administration. Such a simple combination of “bash on bash”.
The Vladimir Ivanov family should also thank Vladimir Putin for the apartment of 254.3 square meters. m in the house of the Presidential Administration (Rochdelskaya St., 12, p. 1), which he inherited, according to the extract from Rosreestr, from the state. According to the editorial staff, the head of Alrosa lived in another house of the President’s Administrative Affairs (Trekhgorny Val, 12, p. 2).
At the end of March, a Yakut court convicted two Alrosa managers who were in charge of the Mirny GOK in a disaster at the Mir diamond mine. Director Alexander Kisilichin and chief engineer of the enterprise Alexander Mann for violating mining safety rules that caused the death of employees were sentenced to two and a half years in a penal colony.
The tragedy occurred in August 2017. As a result of the flooding of the underground mine, eight miners died. Information about the seepage of water into the mine came a few days before the accident, but was ignored by the top management of the company.
Opaque diamonds
According to the editorial office, Julia Ivanova was registered in the same apartment as him, who, like the mother of the head of Alrosa, worked for Solvey Pharma. Together with one of her relatives - Tamara Ivanova. The latter, according to the Unified State Register of Legal Entities, is the sole owner of Alfa-Diagnostics LLC. This company has mastered over 1.3 billion rubles in public procurement.
Alpha Diagnostics supplies analyzers and test systems for performing medical laboratory research.
So the Ivanov family, apparently, is related to a very profitable business, tied to state-owned companies.
In Alrosa, procurement is not transparent. Ivanov actively uses the permission of ex-Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev not to disclose state-owned contractors. Tens of billions of rubles are distributed in such an opaque way.
However, the editorial office is aware of one supplier of Alrosa, whose beneficiary is associated with long-standing comrade of President Putin.
Severpromkomplekt LLC supplies polyethylene pipes, oxygen cylinders, valves and other equipment to the diamond corporation. The owner of this company is Petersburger Andrei Okhotnikov, a business partner (for SZ Rybkhoz) of Vladimir Gorshenin, son-in-law of Vasily Shestakov. Shestakov is known not so much as a former State Duma deputy from United Russia, but as Putin’s judo sparring partner.
Due to the coronavirus pandemic, diamond sales are declining. However, while Alrosa does not intend to adjust product prices. In order to reduce costs, the company switched to a four-day mode of operation.