On the Russian fish market, the largest transaction since 2013 was closed. Associated with ex-senator Alexander Verkhovsky, "Sakhalin Island" bought the Transfiguration Base of the trawling fleet from the family of Sakhalin Governor Oleg Kozhemyaki. The purchase, whose value is estimated at $ 430 million, led Mr. Verkhovsky's business to the second place in terms of fishing quotas after the Norrebo group Vitaly Orlov.

ZAO Sakhalin Island became the owner of 96.38% stake in PJSC "Preobrazhenskaya trawl fleet base" (PBTF), the seller said. The contract of sale was concluded on July 5. Former owners of PBTF were Irina Gerasimenko and Olga Kravchenko. Sources of Kommersant in the fish market called Mrs. Gerasimenko the wife of the governor of the Sakhalin region Oleg Kozhemyako, and Ms. Kravchenko - his sister. Among the shareholders of PBTF was also the son of Governor Nikita Kozhemyako. The parties did not get a comment.

Based in Primorye, PBTF is one of the largest fishing companies in the country. According to the All-Russian Association of Fishermen (VARPE), PBTF has quotas for catching 150 thousand tons of fish. According to its own data, the company manages ten vessels, a ship repair facility and a fish processing plant with a capacity of more than 90,000 cans per day. In 2017, the proceeds of PBTF decreased from 6.89 to 6.49 billion rubles, net profit fell 4.2 times, to 243.08 million rubles. (data from SPARK-Interfax).

"Sakhalin Island" is considered a structure close to the ex-senator from the Sakhalin region Alexander Verkhovsky. He also owns the holding company "Gidrostroy", which owns quotas for the catch of 277.4 thousand tons of fish. Forbes placed Gidrostroy on the second place in the list of Russian fishery producers in terms of revenue ($ 331 million in 2016).

The fact that Mr. Verkhovsky is interested in PBTF, it became known at the end of 2016. In April 2018, the head of the board of directors of the PBTF, Sergei Saksin, argued that the negotiations with Gidrostroy had not been successful. The head of the Fisheries Information Agency, Alexander Saveliev, said that the deal was delayed, as the PBTF was waiting for the resolution of the situation on the allocation of quotas, and also cleaned the company of burdensome investment obligations. In January 2018, the PBT reported abandonment of the project of building a trawler for investment quotas. The interlocutor of Kommersant, close to PBTF, however, claims that there were other interested parties to buy the company, including Gleb Frank, the Russian fishing company (RRPK). They did not respond to a request from Kommersant.

The cost of PBTF source "Kommersant" in the industry estimated at about $ 430 million. Mr. Saveliev believes that the sale price is comparable. Thus, the deal can be considered the most ambitious since 2013, when the RRPK purchased fish-producing "Tournament" and "Intros" for approximately $ 350 million, as well as Sovgavanrybu and Vostokrybprom for $ 190 million. Taking into account the PBT, the structures of Mr. Verkhovsky become the owner of quotas for the catch of more than 427 thousand tons of fish, follows from the WWARP data. According to this indicator, the companies associated with Gidrostroi are the second largest in Russia, overtaking the RRPK (342,000 tons) and closely approaching Norilsk, Vitaly Orlov (437,000 tons).

Sergei Sennikov, Deputy Director of the NoraBO Managing Company, expects that after this year the redistribution of the fishing quotas for the next 15 years will end, the owners of small companies wishing to quit the business will step up the sale of assets. But transactions of such magnitude as the sale of PBTF, in the near future is unlikely to repeat, believes one of the participants of the fish market.