Included in the top ten largest landowners in Russia, "Rostagro" began searching for buyers for its 377 thousand hectares. The company, which is associated with the ex-shareholder of the sanated Binbank Mikail Shishkhanov, will find it difficult to get a good assessment of its assets: due to falling grain prices, yields in crop production have declined.

The owners of the CC "Rostagro" (until the end of 2017 was called Rosagro) are looking for buyers for land assets, Kommersant was told by three market participants and a source in investment circles. According to the BEFL data for May 2018, Rostagro managed 377,000 hectares of land, which puts it on the 9th place in the rating of the largest Russian landowners. The company's assets are concentrated in the Penza, Voronezh, Saratov and Lipetsk regions, as well as in the Stavropol Territory. The interlocutors of Kommersant do not know which part of the land bank is put up for sale. One of them believes that Rostagro plans to get rid of all or most of the assets. In the "Rostagro" did not respond to the request of "b".

In March 2016 Vedomosti reported that Rostagro was controlled by the owners of the Bin group (today it is Safmar). Her representative then denied this information. According to him, the group only leased "Rostagro" about 160 thousand hectares of land and through Binbank credited the company. In September 2017, the Central Bank announced the reorganization of Binbank, 67.97% of which was owned by Mikail Shishkhanov at the time. Non-core and bad assets of Binbank, the Central Bank promised to collect in a specially created fund. The vice-chairman of the regulator Vasily Pozdyshev said in spring that the fund expects to receive rights, including for Rostagro. In "SPARK-Interfax" from the end of May, 2018, Magomed Khatsiyev was named the owner of 100% of Rostagro MC, before that the only owner of the company was Iman Aliyeva. In the Central Bank on June 29, they did not answer the inquiry from Kommersant, they did not succeed in contacting Mr. Shishkhanov's representative.

Rostagro has already tried to sell some of the land. In 2016, the Federal Antimonopoly Service granted the petition of the YAB Khokhlov CC AS structure to purchase the Gold Agro LLC, OOO Agro Platinum, Bekovo Agro LLC and OOO Tsentr, which are members of Rostagro. The total land bank of these companies is about 150 thousand hectares in the Penza and Voronezh regions. A representative of Rostagro then explained the sale of assets by business reorganization. According to the Unified State Register of Legal Entities, "Gold Agro", "Agro Alatinum" and "Bekovo Agro" belong to Mr. Khatsiev. Khasain Umarhadzhiev owns the "Central". The fact that the deal "Rostagro" with ASB did not take place, one of the interlocutors of "Kommersant" heard. In the ASB, they did not respond to the "b" request.

Director of "Sovecon" Andrei Sizov estimates the average cost of land in the Penza, Voronezh, Lipetsk and Saratov regions in 20 thousand rubles., 50 thousand rubles., 40 thousand rubles. and 15 thousand rubles. for 1 hectare respectively, and in Stavropol - 100 thousand rubles. for 1 hectare. Thus, for example, 100 thousand hectares in the Penza region can cost about 2 billion rubles.

According to the interlocutors of "Kommersant", "Rostagro" offered land to several market participants, including Prodimex Igor Hudokormov - the largest Russian sugar producer. The "Prodimex", according to the BEFL, under the control of 790 thousand hectares of land (taking into account the associated with the holding "Agrokultury"). Leading expert of the Institute for Agrarian Market Studies Yevgeny Ivanov notes that for Prodimex, the purchase of land has become an independent direction not related to the sugar business: "To provide the factories with raw materials, the holding has more than enough, although it is still interested in convenient and fertile land in zone up to 80 km from sugar factories. " Prodimex, according to its own data, already has land and plants in the Penza and Voronezh regions. However, Mr. Khudokormov told Kommersant that there are currently no negotiations with Rostagro.

According to Mr. Sizov, 377 thousand hectares can be too large for one buyer, therefore, probably, the land will be sold to several players. In general, he clarifies, in the current season there is no such rush demand for land, as in the previous one. For crop production, the year 2017 was not brilliant: domestic grain prices fell due to a record harvest, which reduced the yield of agricultural producers. So, in September 2017, the average prices for fourth grade wheat in Russia fell to 7,300 rubles. per ton, which became a minimum of three years. On June 22, 2018, the level of quotations of this grain reached 9.1 thousand rubles. per ton, Sowacon reported.