Sberbank, as the largest creditor of the bankrupt ROSTA pharmaceutical group, expects to repay part of the debt through the sale of a drug production plant. Debt to the bank exceeds 4 billion rubles. The lender hopes that the company will leave the auction for 3 billion rubles. But market participants consider this price too high. In addition, the equipment of the plant is pledged to Nizhpharm, which may add to the problems with the sale of the property.
The pharmaceutical plant of the bankrupt GROWTH group David Panikashvili is put up for sale, a Kommersant source familiar with the situation said. According to him, we are talking about a site in St. Petersburg with an area of 2.29 hectares and a building on it with an area of 18.044 thousand square meters. m. This property is pledged to Sberbank, to which the company owes more than 4 billion rubles. At the same time, the equipment of the ROSTA plant, the potential capacity of which reaches 1 billion tablets or capsules per year, is pledged to the drug manufacturer Nizhpharm (the Russian structure of the German Stada CIS).
The press service of the Savings Bank told Kommersant that the bank is cooperating with Nizhpharm in order to realize collateral to ensure the maximum repayment of the ROSTA debt to both creditors. They noted that the plant complies with GMP (good manufacturing practice) standards and is equipped with facilities for the production of solid dosage forms, and also has a license for the production of medicines. The bank was also informed that the value of the asset is estimated by experts in more than 3 billion rubles, and added that foreign and Russian pharmaceutical companies are already interested in buying it.
In "Nizhpharm" they declined to comment. According to the interlocutor of "Kommersant", the manufacturer is now trying to defend the pledge in court. In June 2017, Amik Pharm (Uzbekistan) applied to the Nizhny Novgorod Arbitration Court with a petition to Nizhpharm about the recognition of the contract of assignment of the right of claims null and void. The source of Kommersant explains that it is a question of equipping the ROSTA plant.
David Panikashvili company was established in 2002. In 2005, ROSTA was one of the five pharmaceutical distributors that launched the state program of additional drug provision. A year later the company began developing the pharmacy network "Rainbow-First Aid-Ladushka", which in 2017 was sold to the group "Erkafarm" (pharmacies "Doctor Stoletov", "Ozerki"). At the time of the transaction, the network had more than 1 thousand points with a turnover of 20.2 billion rubles. in year. Experts estimated the transaction value at 9-11 billion rubles. The then head of the group, Alexander Tarasov, explained that the deal would help ROSTA attract capital for the development of the distribution business. In 2015, the pharmaceutical distributor of ROSTA was one of the three largest Russian medicinal suppliers, behind Katren and Proteka. According to the DSM Group, its market share at that time was 10.8%.
In October 2017, ROSTA received a statement on the recognition of the group bankrupt from somebody Pavel Kostenko, and in January 2018 the company introduced a monitoring procedure. According to SPARK-Interfax, ROSTA finished in 2017 with revenues of 10.4 billion rubles. against 48.9 billion rubles. a year earlier and a loss of 13.9 billion rubles. The amount of all claims to the company in arbitration courts amounted to 8.2 billion rubles.
Interviewed by "Kommersant" market participants believe that the maximum price of the ROSTA plant, for which he could find a buyer, is 1.5 billion rubles. The proposal to consider the possibility of buying the plant was received by the pharmaceutical holding Grand Capital, told its founder Denis Remenyako. But, according to him, the cost of 3 billion rubles. is too high for this asset, so the company declined the offer.
The general director of "Colliers International St. Petersburg" Andrey Kosarev estimates the cost of the site and the building without taking into account the equipment in 450-550 million rubles. depending on the technical condition and the connected electrical capacities.