Elvira Nabiullina received the land of Mikhail Shishkhanov

Under the control of the former owner of Binbank, the agrarian holding company Rostagro went to the bad debts fund established by the Central Bank of Russia. In turn, the agrarian holding "White Bird", owned by the former owners of Promsvyazbank, the brothers Ananyev.
23.08.2018
Kommersant
Origin source
The non-core and bad assets fund began to be replenished by large agro-holdings, affiliated with the owners of sanitized banks. Under his control went included in the top ten largest landowners of MC "Rostagro", which was previously associated with the ex-shareholder of Binbank Mikail Shishkhanov. The fund probably wants to sell 377 thousand hectares of land company, but the process will stretch for a long time, experts warn.

The subsidiary structure of the bank Trust, on the basis of which the Central Bank creates a fund of non-core and bad assets, LLC Growth Investments, became owner of the management company Rostagro in late July, follows from the data of the Unified State Register of Legal Entities. At the same time, the "Gold Agro" LLC, "Agro Platinum" LLC, "Bekovo Agro" LLC and "Tsentr" LLC were transferred under the control of the "Trust". According to BEFL estimates, in May 2018, Rostagro ranked ninth in the ranking of the largest owners of agricultural land, controlling about 377 thousand hectares. The company's land bank is concentrated in the Penza, Voronezh, Lipetsk and Saratov regions, there are assets in the Stavropol Territory.

"Rostagro" (before the end of 2017 was called "Rosagro") was previously associated with the group "Bin" (now "Safmar"), but its representative denied this. In September 2017, the Central Bank announced the sanation of Binbank, at that time the main owner of the bank with a share of 67.97% was Mikail Shishkhanov. Bad and non-core assets of rehabilitated banks, including Binbank, will be collected in a special fund created on the basis of the Trust, told the Central Bank. The Fund expects to get control over Rostagro, said Vasily Pozdyshev, Deputy Chairman of the Bank of Russia. Earlier, the only owner of Rostagro in the USRLE was Iman Aliyeva, in May 2018 her share was transferred to Magomed Khatsiyev. In the Trust, the Central Bank and Rostagro on Wednesday did not answer questions from Kommersant.

The former owners of Rostagro have been trying to sell assets for several years. In 2016, the Federal Antimonopoly Service authorized the structure of the agricultural holding company Yury Khokhlov to purchase from Rostagro about 150 thousand hectares in the Penza and Voronezh regions. Then the seller explained this by reorganizing the business, but the deal never materialized, the source told Kommersant. In the ASB, the deal was not commented. Kommersant's interlocutors in the industry said that the owners of Rostagro continued to seek buyers for land (see "Kommersant" on July 2). Director of Sovecon Andrey Sizov is surprised that the company's assets could not be realized: the demand for agricultural land is still high, the supply of large allotments is limited, and in the central part of Chernozem is virtually nonexistent. The source of Kommersant in the industry believes that the transactions could be prevented by any legal reasons. At one time, many lands were issued with irregularities, not necessarily intentional, he explains.

Obviously, the lands of Rostagro will be looking for a new owner, but before selling to fund managers, it will first have to be audited in order to understand the structure of the asset, says Ilya Zharskiy, managing partner of the Veta expert group. If everything is normal with the asset, there should not be any special difficulties with selling land in the future, Mr. Sizov believes, plant growing as a whole remains an interesting business, and lands are an attractive asset. But if Rostagro plans to create a new company and sell it already, it can be a non-trivial task, he argues. Estimate the value of the entire land bank "Rostagro" is impossible due to the lack of information on the distribution of allotments by region. According to the estimates of "Sovecon", the average cost of land in the Penza region is 20 thousand rubles. for 1 hectare, in Voronezh - 50 thousand rubles. for 1 hectare. According to Mr. Zharskiy, up to 15-20% of the best quality assets of Rostagro can be sold by mid-2019, but the process of selling all the land can take a long time. To throw out on the market 377 thousand hectares at a time is meaningless: such volume can bring down the prices for the earth, he points out.

"Rostagro" may not be the only major agricultural holding, which will transfer to a fund of non-core and bad assets. Earlier sources of Kommersant did not rule out that the fund will receive a major broiler producer, the White Bird, which is owned by ex-shareholder Promsvyazbank Dmitry Ananyev. Mikail Shishkhanov, who in June 2018 became the owner of the Urals agricultural holding "Healthy Farm" (produces meat, eggs, milk, etc.), also stated that he was ready to transfer the company to the fund if necessary. In the "White Bird" and "Healthy Farm" did not answer the questions of "Kommersant".

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