The company of billionaire Yevtushenkov is being lured to Saratov. Will he build a sports and recreation center, a children’s camp and a medical center under a concession?
In Moscow, Alexander Marchenko, head of the Saratov Ministry of Investments, had meetings with representatives of the Ministry of Economics, the Ministry of Industry of the Russian Federation, the Agency for Strategic Initiatives, and the System Concessions company, which is part of AFK Sistema, billionaire Vladimir Yevtushenkov. In just two years since its inception, it has obtained several billion-dollar concessions, including in Bashkiria with the participation of family members of the prime minister of the republic. Will they also build a children’s camp in Saratov for 3 billion rubles?
Who are they?
“System concessions” were registered in Moscow in 2020. However, despite its young age, the company is already positioning itself as a “consolidated center of competence in the field of public-private partnership.”
There seem to be two main benefits. Firstly, the LLC “professionally structures and implements turnkey PPP projects, managing each stage of the life cycle.” Secondly, it is part of the AFK Sistema holding, one of the largest investment companies in Russia. 49.2% of the shares in this company belong to billionaire Vladimir Yevtushenkov, who ranks 51st in the Forbes rating, with an income of $1.7 billion in 2022. Another 10% stake in AFK belongs to his son Felix.
“System Concessions” is interested in projects in the field of medicine (construction of clinics), education and sports (schools, children’s recreation centers, educational campuses), intelligent systems (“Smart City”), transport (infrastructure).
The company’s operations cover several regions, including the Volga Federal District, even though it only implements projects in a few of them, and none of them are recorded in the portfolio.
Yakutia and the Far East
The LLC entered into the first concession agreement in 2021 in Yakutia and is now designing and building a multifunctional complex of secondary vocational education, together with the National PPP Center, part of the VEB.RF group. This is the first such project in the field of secondary education.
The proposed complex will bring together 10 SPO institutions on one site, will be located in a free economic zone near industries, which will create a common universal training and production base. Its educational facilities are designed to train 6.5 thousand people a year, with facilities for 4.5 thousand students and teachers to live there permanently. The investment volume will be about 14 billion rubles.
In the same year, a cooperation agreement was signed with the Ministry of the Russian Federation for the Development of the Far East and the Arctic, and the National Operator of Children’s Recreation LLC (Roscamps) for the construction of a year-round children’s recreation and creative development center near Khabarovsk using the Far Eastern Concession.
The center is designed for 350 people per shift or 5,000 people per year. The investment amount is 1.6 billion rubles. The plan was to complete it by 2022-2023, but it's currently in the stage of getting the construction road map approved. By September 2022, the project cost has risen to 4.5 billion rubles.
Bashkiria
In September 2021, a contract was signed with Roscamps to construct a similar center in Bashkiria. Initially, the investment amount was estimated at 1.9 billion rubles, but later it increased to 3 billion rubles (on the Roscamps website – already 3.5 billion rubles). The capacity remains the same – 350 people per shift, 5 thousand per year. Despite the fact that vouchers to camps controlled by Roscamps in the Krasnodar Territory, Crimea are not cheap, the site mentions a 50% cashback.
According to the System Concessions website, the Bashkiria project includes the creation of technological, educational, sports and medical clusters. The medical cluster will feature a salt cave, a bath complex, a phytocenter, and medical offices for magnetic and laser therapy, electrophoresis, phototherapy, etc.
As part of the educational cluster, the camp will accommodate an exhibition “The Economy of the Republic of Bashkortostan”, an online school for 150 cars, a multifunctional transformable hall, a career guidance center, a media center, a video studio and a foreign language class.
However, this particular project has already become scandalous. Bashkir TG channels believe that the private founders of System Concessions are close to the authorities of Bashkiria. The foundation stone of the future center was laid back in 2020, and the design company Art-status LLC became known at the same time. Its founder, Larisa Nazarova, is the wife of Andrey Nazarov, the Prime Minister of Bashkiria.
Its portfolio includes several dozens of companies, which generate significant income, including from participation in public procurement. Nevertheless, 1 billion rubles out of the planned three will be allocated for the design.
– 755 million rubles will be allocated from the region’s budget for the construction of a children’s camp. Additionally, Bashkiria will provide a land plot in Sibay with an area of up to 250 thousand square meters without bidding, and will undertake the construction of roads and communications, – as reported by the tg-channel “Case for kurai”.
Arkhangelsk, Nizhny Novgorod and others
In 2021, System Concessions also made an agreement to work together with the government of the Arkhangelsk Region. There are two projects involved. The first one is building a high-quality student campus called “Arctic Star”.
This will have four versatile educational and research structures, sports facilities, cultural and leisure areas and dormitories. The total area of the campus will be 128 thousand sq.m.
The partners also plan to construct a backup bridge over the Kuznechikha River and build a children’s camp in the FOC region. The total investment in these projects will be about 40 billion rubles.
At SPIEF, it was revealed that System Concessions is partnering with the Tyumen Region. They are looking to expand the sports complex “Pearl of Siberia” (2 billion rubles.
and construct a medical center with departments for radiation, endoscopic, ultrasound diagnostics and a day hospital (4 billion rubles), as well as developing tourism infrastructure.
Officials expect that Muscovites will bring in 32 billion rubles to the economy and social sector of Tyumen. Later, there was talk of building a high-quality intercollegiate campus.
In July, it was reported that the LLC was serving as a financial and legal advisor on a project in the Nizhny Novgorod region. The Medsi clinic chain affiliated with AFK Sistema intends to construct a medical complex in Vyksa on a PPP basis worth more than 5.2 billion rubles.
Saratov
Saratov was already mentioned in conjunction with System Concessions in June last year. At SPIEF, Governor Roman Busargin and General Director Valery Eremin signed an agreement, although it had rather vague wording.
This was regarding “cooperation in the field of development and implementation of projects for the creation of sports facilities, facilities used for organizing recreation for citizens and tourism, health care facilities.” Moreover, on the website of the regional government there is no information about future cooperation with these Muscovites at all.
In principle, the System Concessions projects announced in Saratov and other regions are directly linked to the areas of interest of the companies that are part of AFK Sistema. Remember that its portfolio includes the Detsky Mir chain of stores, the Medsi medical clinic chain, and 21 hotels in 14 cities, including those managed under the international brands Park Inn by Radisson and Holiday Inn Express.
In Saratov, the territory and surroundings of the Space Conquerors Park may be suitable for potential projects. Officials have repeatedly mentioned the development of infrastructure here for the entertainment of children and adults. Additionally, the authorities leased the regional psychiatric hospital, the camp “Beryozka” on Kumysnaya Polyana and many social facilities, including a sanatorium, in various parts of the region into concession. And in September, the head of the regional Ministry of Health, Oleg Kostin, announced the construction of a new psychiatric hospital for 1,000 people in Saratov.
