All about the management of the Prodimex company. How a former officer became a sugar king. The battle for the harvest: how billions are made

In July 2009, a small battle broke out in the Voronezh region. Several dozen strong young people, armed with baseball bats, reinforcing bars and traumatic pistols, converged at a grain storage facility (temporary grain storage point) in the steppe village of Staraya Chigla. The defenders managed to defend their positions, and the attackers - they arrived in 19 vehicles - retreated, taking their wounded. About 20 people were injured on both sides.

Gangster “showdown”? As Voronezh media wrote, only officially registered people took part in the collision security companies. As the police later found out, the “attack” was played by a private security company hired by the local company “Quail Farm”, and the defenders defended the grain of the Prodimex company, one of the largest Russian agricultural holdings and the country’s largest sugar producer. Having bought an agricultural enterprise in Staraya Chigla, the owners of Prodimex discovered that the previous owners had saddled it with huge debts, and began to go to court, and the courts soon escalated into military clashes. Six months later, the criminal case about abuse of power by employees of both private security companies was closed, but rumors about the battle did not subside for a long time in the district.

War is the main, “by education”, profession of the main owner of Prodimex, Igor Khudokormov. A graduate of the Leningrad Railway Military School controls the Cypriot offshore Prodimex Farming Group. There are many former officers in the company: two co-owners - Vitaly Tsando and Vladimir Pchelkin, CEO Victor Aleksakhin, other managers. The military spirit and moral and psychological training probably came in handy in the wars for land and enterprises Food Industry, in no way inferior to the much more widely covered aluminum and oil wars in the press. Former officers won most battles, and the prize was a company ranked 69th in the list of the largest private companies in Russia according to Forbes with revenue in 2011 of 39.7 billion rubles. And Khudokormov (he occupies 177th place in the Forbes list of the richest Russians, his fortune is estimated at $550 million) is one of the largest Russian latifundists: Prodimex controls at least 570,000 hectares of arable land.

How did a former officer become a sugar king? Khudokormov refused to meet with Forbes. Although his company planned to hold an IPO in 2012, the businessman's current and former managers and partners remain silent. Forbes tried to understand the history of construction private company, which now occupies a quarter of the Russian sugar market.

Importer

Sugar is both a raw material and retail product, needed by everyone and always. Trading in it is an activity that does not require highly complex equipment and large capital. All this made the sugar business in the early 1990s one of the most attractive occupations for first-wave merchants, along with trading in computers, imported electronics and clothing.

In Russia, after the collapse of the USSR, there were about a hundred sugar factories, recalls Artur Chernikov, the former general director of Prodimex’s competitor, the Razgulay Sugar Company, in an interview with Forbes. The beets grown by collective and state farms were enough to load a quarter of the capacity of these factories. Working capital there were no enterprises; barter reigned in the economy. Future oligarchs quickly appreciated the new opportunities: Mikhail Fridman’s Alfa-Eco and Mikhail Khodorkovsky’s Menatep-Impex began importing Cuban raw sugar in exchange for supplies to the “island of freedom” Russian oil. Sugar was imported from Ukraine and Europe by 500-600 small companies, recalls Chernikov.

One of these small companies was AOZT Prodimex, registered in 1993 at the address of a private Sochi apartment. Khudokormov’s first deal was the purchase of sugar for the Penza Regional Consumer Union in Ukraine, in Odessa - at least that’s what he claims former manager one of Khudokormov’s major competitors. What was the barrier to entry into the market? “There was no threshold,” recalls Chernikov from Razgulay. - Is there a carriage? Sold. Do you have a bag? Sold." A person with $30,000 was considered a serious market player. Razgulay, founded simultaneously with Prodimex, in the first quarter of 1994 sold one carload of sugar purchased in Ukraine (60 tons), in the second - two cars, and so it went until the end of the year up to 6,000 tons. “In this way it was quite possible to create a financial and sales base that would allow the company to develop,” Chernikov recalls those times.

To the very profitable business- Cuban barter - newcomers like Razgulay and Prodimex could not be matched: these contracts were concluded through tenders of the International Foreign Economic Union, the largest importers were Nafta-Moscow together with Menatep-Impex and Alfa-Eco. But small companies found their own niche - Ukraine. In the 1990s, they exchanged Russian fuel oil for Ukrainian sugar. For every ton of Ukrainian sugar at a wholesale price of $750, $250 in profit came out, Vadim Moshkovich, the creator of another competitor of Prodimex, the food company Rusagro, said in an interview with Secret of the Firm magazine. Moshkovich refused to talk about Khudokormov and his business, but Chernikov from Razgulay recalls that he met the founder of Prodimex in Ukraine, where he was doing the same thing.

The import of Ukrainian sugar finished off Russian collective farms that grew sugar beets and ruined domestic processing plants. As a result, in 1997 the government introduced import duties on white sugar from Ukraine. Traders switched to purchasing raw sugar and independently producing finished sugar, which required buying up factories. By that time, Prodimex was already one of the largest Russian importers of sugar: it imported 270,000 tons of raw sugar per year (the same as the French giant Sucden). In just five years, Khudokormov turned from a sugar speculator into one of the largest importers of raw sugar and one of the first manufacturers: he bought factories one after another. One of the participants in the sugar market, who spoke with Forbes, claims that in the mid-1990s, money for the development of Prodimex was given by Joseph Kobzon - not only a pop star, but also an influential entrepreneur at that time, president of the diversified holding Moskovit, but Kobzon himself is denies.

Breeder

“Listen, your guys are sitting in my basement - we need to hit the mark” - this is how, according to a top manager of one of the large Russian food companies, conversations about buying and selling shares in sugar factories began in the mid-1990s. “The procedure for entering factories was always smacky and on the verge of legality,” recalls a top manager of one of the sugar companies. “They were confiscated by local bandits, heads of administrations, or various smart guys. Since Prodimex has gone through this, they are hardened.”

Not only hardening, but also the entire arsenal of techniques from the 1990s. For example, back in 1996, Khudokormov began registering his group’s companies in an internal offshore - but not in Kalmykia, like many, but in a free economic zone (FEZ) in Altai. In the 1990s, the benefits it provided were more than significant: in the first two years after registration, the company was exempt from income tax, agricultural enterprises paid tax reduced by 30% for five years, then by 20%, VAT was reduced by 25%. Residents of the free economic zone who earned foreign currency, had the right to keep 80% and pay workers foreign currency wages.

In 1998, Khudokormov registered the Akvilon company in the Altai FEZ, which had about 20 subsidiaries throughout the country. About half of them are distributors, the other are private security companies. There, in Altai, the “Prodimex Production Association”, “ Trading house Prodimex, asset manager of the United Sugar Company holding. Although this SEZ no longer operates, many of the group's companies are still registered in Altai.

In 1996, Khudokormov was one of the first on the market to begin purchasing sugar processing plants. Real wars then broke out over these assets. The owner of Razgulay, Igor Potapenko, admitted in an interview with the magazine Secret of the Firm: “They bought everything that was in bad shape... Perhaps they offended someone.” “Khudokormov did not have the gangster raid inherent in those years,” recalls Chernikov. “He and his team were always sedate, did not chase huge numbers and did not try to jump from rags to riches.” Does this mean that Khudokormov was soft and compliant? No. “They walked like a tank, crawling towards their target,” says Chernikov. They created conditions so that no one else could enter the enterprises that interested them: they provided loans to factories and surrounding beet farms, supplied equipment, and invested in “social services.” By 2003, Prodimex had the most factories in the industry - 21.

The turn of the 1990s and 2000s is remembered in the agricultural market as a time when the authorities, in several stages, sharply limited - first with duties and then with quotas - imports from Ukraine, first of sugar, and then of raw sugar (the cost of sugar from imported raw sugar was one and a half times lower than that made from domestic beets). Import quotas had to be bought at auction, and in 2000 the largest participants - Euroservice, Razgulay, Rusagro, Prodimex and Sucden - raised their prices so much that for some time they traded sugar at a loss.

Khudokormov found a secret weapon for this war as well. In 2001, customs officers noticed increasing supplies of so-called liquid sugar from Ukraine. In Ukraine, sugar was diluted with water and transported in the form of syrup containing 70% sugar at an import rate of €8-9 per ton (instead of €150 for out-of-quota raw sugar). In Russia they just evaporated the water from it.

In 2002 customs Service conducted an investigation, as a result of which it was announced that the culprit was Russian company Stealth Sugar (at least this is the only company that admitted its participation in the scheme). Stealth transported sugar syrup in tanks from the Odessa Sugar Refinery to Prodimex enterprises. According to the investigation, over the course of several months in 2002, the factories processed 14,000 tons of syrup. According to market participants, at least 70,000 tons were processed. “The appearance of this sugar collapsed the raw sugar market, pushed the industry into crisis, and the masses of small players to leave,” he believes.

Arthur Chernikov calls Prodimex’s use of syrup “a unique business solution based on shortcomings in the law.” According to him, Khudokormov turned out to be smarter than the others at that moment. “It caused me admiration: why not me?” - he says. The rest also tried to take advantage of this scheme, but it was too late - the government, quickly getting its bearings, raised duties on syrup as well.

In 2003, the protective duties worked: the import of raw cane began to decline, and it became profitable to process domestic beets. As the then director of Prodimex, Vladimir Pchelkin, recalled in an interview with the industry portal Agro.ru, if in 1999 the share of beet sugar in his company’s sales was 5%, then five years later it grew to 40%. The time has come for Khudokormov to become not only a manufacturer, but also a latifundist.

landowner

In 2001, Prodimex began buying shares in agricultural companies and leasing land in the Belgorod and Voronezh regions. The permanent governor of the Belgorod region, Evgeny Savchenko, then actively invited investors to his region, including with promises of land and tax benefits. “An enterprise is an annex to the production [of agricultural products],” the governor said and insisted that companies need their own land, that everything from start to finish should be produced at enterprises of the same group. To attract agricultural investors in the early 2000s, the regional government issued a decree partially exempting them from local taxes. Both Rusagro of Moshkovich and Euroservice of Konstantin Mirilashvili came to the region. Prodimex was one of the first to appear. “Perhaps Khudokormov was the first [who began to buy factories and lease, and then acquire land],” recalls Alexey Sevalnev, first deputy head of the Belgorod regional agro-industrial department. According to him, now Prodimex is one of the largest tenants of the regional land fund. The company also has its own land - closer to the border with the Voronezh region, in which it has the most factories and land. In the Voronezh region, Prodimex has 260,000 hectares, in Kursk - about 46,000 hectares, and also has land in other regions of southern Russia. In total, according to market participants, Prodimex owns or leases approximately 570,000 hectares. This is a conservative estimate: according to one of Forbes’ interlocutors, Prodimex already has about 700,000 hectares in its assets (the company itself refused to comment on these figures). This puts the company in one of the first places among landowners in Russia. Only the agro-industrial holding “Ivolga”, the Russian division of the diversified Kazakh “Ivolga-Holding” Vasily Rozinov, has so much land - 650,000 hectares.

According to consulting company BEFL, the purchase price of agricultural land in the Belgorod and Voronezh regions is up to 20,000 rubles per hectare (estimated for individual transactions in 2010). If all of Khudokormov's land - and its area is larger than that of the Sultanate of Brunei in Southeast Asia - were owned by the company, its value would exceed $388 million. However, for now Prodimex leases a significant part of its land.

The acquisition of land did not proceed smoothly everywhere. If at first Prodimex rented land from the farms surrounding its factories, then by 2008, when it became one of the largest sugar producers, it began to act from a position of strength. Here is one story that illustrates the prevailing morals in the industry. As the Regions.ru agency reported in 2011, in the mid-2000s in one of the districts of the Voronezh region, more than ten agricultural enterprises that grew beets were unable to pay the bank. The local leadership decided that the farms could be helped by uniting them. Thus, in 2004, the Avangard company appeared, which the Ministry of Agriculture immediately included in the ranking of the hundred largest sugar beet producers in the country (at number 61): its land stretched over 110 km, and more than 1,300 hectares were occupied by beets alone. And then Prodimex appeared: as he later told reporters former director“Avangarda”, he agreed with the owners of the farm about the purchase, agreed on a deal with the creditor bank, and promised the director a “remuneration” of 35 million rubles. The director received only 3 million rubles, began to sue the Prodimex subsidiary that bought the farm, but left empty-handed: the purchasing company was promptly re-registered from Gorny Altai to the Voronezh region, and then went bankrupt. The director of Avangard, left with nothing, assured journalists that the lands of his farm had shortly before been transferred to another structure of Prodimex (the company does not comment on the situation).

Developer

Simultaneously with the purchase of land, Khudokormov began to acquire other land that cost tens of thousands of times more than rural land - plots for construction in Moscow.

The first experience that Forbes was able to record was the purchase of the Gardtex curtain and lace factory. The main wealth of the factory is not textile production, but an area of ​​more than one and a half hectares in the “golden” area near Plyushchikha in the center of Moscow. Judging by the factory’s reporting, since 2002, its board of directors included the co-owner of Prodimex, Vladimir Pchelkin, and another top manager of the company. In 2005, the Moscow government issued a decree on the construction of an office and residential complex on its territory. Investments in the construction of this facility were estimated at more than $100 million. The project did not take place: the new mayor of the capital, Sergei Sobyanin, who made the fight against “infill development” one of his tasks, terminated the investment contract on Plyushchikha along with dozens of others. But Khudokormov, who owned 92% of the factory, did not lose money in any case. " Market price such land plot(1.7 hectares), acquired in 2002, could increase by 20-30%, and if there is an agreed project on this site, then the cost could increase several times,” estimates Konstantin Lebedev, head of the Cushman & Wakefield department.

But on another piece of capital land - 11 hectares on Kutuzovsky Prospekt - Khudokormov managed to make great money. In 2004, Prodimex-Holding lent 95 million rubles to the First Moscow Instrument-Making Plant named after Kazakov (MPZ), located next to Moscow City, which once produced equipment for aviation. Two years later, judging by the plant’s reporting, there was no longer any debt, but two companies appeared among the plant’s shareholders: in 2005, Fonsiere (71.3%), and in 2006, Slavia Group. The founding companies of Fonsier were registered in Gorno-Altaisk at the same address as the Prodimex companies. The director of Slavia was the general director of Prodimex Ltd., and the telephone numbers of these companies were the same. After several simple transactions with shares and an additional issue, Slavia could have 85.1% of the plant’s shares. True, at the same time, the package of the Federal Property Management Agency, which the agency put up for auction in 2006, decreased tenfold. The participants were serious: Oleg Deripaska's Basel (No. 14 on the Forbes list, fortune - $8.8 billion), Sergei Polonsky's Mirax Group and the structure of the Moscow River Shipping Company of Roman Trotsenko (No. 104, $950 million). Basel won, paying an astronomical 5 billion rubles for what it believed was a 15% stake in the plant. When it became clear that the share could be diluted 10 times, Basel managed to cancel the auction results. Khudokormov was unable to compete with such an opponent, and he, according to Kommersant, sold his share to Basic Element and Mirax for $270 million. In 2009, Mirax withdrew from the project, and Basic Element's structures opened a Cultural Center on the territory of the plant. business activity of Kazakova.

State partner

However, Prodimex, unlike its successfully placed competitors - Razgulyaya and Rusagro, did not conduct an IPO. In 2008, the company was hampered by the crisis. And in 2012, Prodimex executive director Achim Lukas resigned from the company, explaining in a letter to the team and business partners, that “due to the situation in the capital markets... this strategic goal unattainable in the near future” (the letter is available to Forbes).

An investor in Prodimex's capital, however, appeared - small, but very influential. In 2008, the United Sugar Company (USC), which manages the holding's assets, acquired an offshore owner - Prodimex Farming Group. 3.7% of the capital of this company belongs, according to the Cyprus registrar of companies, to Globex Bank, and Globex Vice President Alexey Ivanov became the director of Prodimex Farming Group. At the same time, the former owner of the bank, Anatoly Motylev, told Forbes that “Globex’s entry into the capital of Prodimex took place after the transfer of Globex to Vnesheconombank” (“Globex,” which was one of the ten largest private banks, collapsed in the 2008 crisis and was bought by VEB as directed by the government). It turns out that one of the first operations that VEB performed after acquiring Globex Bank was the purchase of a stake in Khudokormov’s company.

The businessman unexpectedly received a state corporation with unlimited financial capabilities and administrative resources as a partner. Are you lucky? The banker, who is well acquainted with the situation at VEB, is confident that the circumstances have turned out well for Khudokormov. After all, VEB has a support program Agriculture, for which a special department was created, and the corporation was required to demonstrate results.

Does a businessman who does not strive for publicity now need to fuss with investors? As one of the investment bankers told Forbes, during oral presentation in preparation for the IPO, the company reported that in 2010, with revenue of $1.2 billion, its EBITDA was $170 million, and in 2011 it was planned at $220 million (revenue in 2011 was $1.4 billion - Forbes). The company's debt at the end of 2010 was about $550 million, that is, a little more than three times EBITDA, and, according to our interlocutor, such a load is not terrible for an enterprise in the agricultural sector, “especially effective in terms of yield.” “Moreover, their debts [like those of other agricultural producers and processors] are cheap, subsidized by the state,” the investor emphasized. So the main Russian latifundist is quite comfortable conducting business away from prying eyes.

With the participation of Elena Tofanyuk

The largest owner of agricultural land in Russia, Prodimex, owned by Igor Khudokormov, may make the first notable deal this year. The holding is going to buy about 5 thousand hectares from the Exportkhleb company, which in the 1990s was a state agent for grain imports. The Prodimex land bank has reached such a size that it is already difficult to manage, market participants believe.

Federal antimonopoly service(FAS) received an application from Agroproduct LLC (a structure of the Prodimex holding company of Igor Khudokormov) to acquire 100% of Exportkhlebagrotsentrplus LLC. This company is engaged in crop production in the Voronezh region, manages a land bank with an area of ​​4.5–5 thousand hectares, two local officials told Kommersant.

Exportkhlebagrotsentrplus is one of the structures of Exportkhleb JSC, which in the early 1990s served as a state agent for grain procurement using loans from the Russian Federation. As stated on the Exportkhleb website, in 1991–1995 it imported about 56 million tons of grain. In the past, the company has also been involved in exports and investments in crop production. Now Exportkhleb, according to its own data, grows grains, oilseeds and legumes on an area of ​​about 40 thousand hectares. Exportkhleb confirmed to Kommersant information about the upcoming deal, but declined to make any other comments. Prodimex was unable to promptly respond to Kommersant’s request.

"Prodimex" is a major sugar producer in Russia with a market share of more than 25%. According to BEFL, as of May 2018, the holding, together with its affiliated company Agrokultura, managed about 790 thousand hectares. Prodimex's revenue in 2017 year Forbes estimated at 63.8 billion rubles.

Director of Sovecon Andrey Sizov estimates the average cost of agricultural land in the Voronezh region at 50 thousand rubles. for 1 ha. Thus, for 5 thousand hectares of Exportkhleb, Prodimex can pay up to 250 million rubles. According to Mr. Sizov, the region’s lands are interesting due to their relative proximity to ports, due to which local agricultural producers can sell their products at a higher price than in neighboring regions. But, the expert adds, due to its southern location, the Voronezh region this year suffered more than others from drought in the Central Black Earth Region. According to Sovecon estimates, as of September 4, 3.86 million tons of grain were harvested in the region compared to 4.78 million tons a year earlier.

Prodimex's notable land deals have not yet been reported this year. At the end of 2017, it became known that United Sugar Company JSC (the parent structure of the holding) submitted a petition to the FAS to purchase the main assets of the Ryazan holding Okaagro of Nikita Gordeev, the son of Deputy Prime Minister Alexei Gordeev. The deal could include dairy farms with 9.6 thousand heads and 50 thousand hectares of land. As a result, these assets were acquired by Stefan Duerr's Ekonova. Kommersant's interlocutors also called Prodimex a contender for the lands of Rostagro Management Company (manages 377 thousand hectares), which was previously associated with the ex-shareholder of the rehabilitated B&N Bank Mikail Shishkhanov. However, Mr. Khudokormov then told Kommersant that there were no negotiations with the company. In August, Rostagro transferred to the Fund of Non-Core and Bad Assets created by the Central Bank.

For Prodimex, agricultural land management has already become a separate area not related to sugar business. But, as Kommersant’s source in the industry notes, the holding has already begun to have difficulties controlling such a large volume of land bank. “If you compare the arable lands of Prodimex in certain regions with the lands of other farmers, the holding is noticeably inferior in terms of productivity,” he claims.

Anatoly Kostyrev

Owners of Prodimex

The owner of the company is the Cypriot Prodimex Farming Group. Ultimate beneficiaries The group is its chairman of the board of directors Igor Khudokormov (81.25% of shares), head of the group’s agricultural department Vitaly Tsando and group general director Vladimir Pchelkin (9.375% of shares each).

Board of Directors of Prodimex

Council member

4. Lukas Achim

Council member

5. Küster Werner

Council member

News

Prodimex-Holding increased its stake in its sugar plant

In combination with the company's existing securities this will constitute 100% of the voting shares of the sugar refinery. According to the list of affiliates at the end of 2011, 80.5% of the company’s shares belonged to OJSC Association of Sugar Refineries (Altai), which is part of the Prodimex-Holding Group of Companies of Igor Khudokormov (15 sugar factories, more than 20% of sugar production in Russia).

Sugar group Prodimex has revealed its owners

The Prodimex group, the largest sugar producer in Russia, has revealed its ownership structure in preparation for the public offering of its shares. In addition to the chairman of the board of directors, Igor Khudokormov, two more top managers of the group were major shareholders. Based on what was first published yesterday financial results, the company's placement price could be $350-450 million, analysts suggest.

Prodimex goes on reconnaissance

As RBC daily learned, the Prodimex company is going to issue CLN for $100 million. Until now, Russian agro-industrial companies have not placed CLN for such large amounts. However, even this will not be enough for Prodimex to implement the investment program, within the framework of which by 2011 the company intends to spend almost half a billion dollars on modernizing its factories and agricultural production. In this regard, Prodimex continues to think about an IPO. The final decision will be made in October-November this year.

Prodimex is turning around

On March 2, at the House of Soviets, a meeting was held between Governor Alexander Mikhailov and the Chairman of the Board of Directors of Prodimex Group of Companies LLC, Igor Khudokormov, during which the prospects for cooperation between the Kursk region administration and this company were discussed.

“Prodimex” gives away excess

Preparing to enter the stock exchange, the Prodimex group is the largest Russian manufacturer sugar - sold five of its 20 factories. Getting rid of the least efficient enterprises, the group will focus on developing the remaining ones.

The battle for the harvest: how billions are made

The latest ranking of Russian billionaires, published by Finance magazine, showed the fall of some and the rise of others. Among agro-industrial tycoons, Igor Khudokormov, president and owner of the Prodimex group, has seen particularly noticeable growth. The notes to the rating indicate that the basis of his wealth, according to the magazine, could have been laid during the crazy privatization of the 90s, or the business was created with the help of certain patrons.