Andrey Kosilov is trying to get rid of the asset by demolishing the poultry house.
The troubled “Sredneuralskaya Poultry Farm” from the “Ravis” holding of Ural businessman Andrey Kosilov is finally being offered for sale. Potential buyers are more interested in the land it sits on than the production itself, and it's likely to be sold for a very low price.
The factory has been at the center of various scandals that have had an impact on the region's politics in recent years. The Moscow Post correspondent in the Sverdlovsk region has the details on how the situation with the factory unfolded.
The owners of the poultry farm have not disclosed the value of their asset and will negotiate this with the buyer. However, there are rumors that they expect to receive around 1.3 billion rubles for the asset, which seems quite modest given that about one and a half billion rubles have been invested in the factory in recent years alone.
The Sverdlovsk region government, to which the factory belonged, almost brought the production to a standstill. Due to extensive debts and subsequent bankruptcy, the decision was made to sell the facility.
In 2015, a major bank in the country auctioned the Sredneuralskaya poultry farm, which owed the bank, for 556 million rubles. The property comprised a land plot and 40 poultry houses. The bankrupt enterprise was acquired by the Ravis agricultural holding.
Dispose of the “toxic” asset
Many people still hold the belief that the administration of Governor Yevgeny Kuyvashev crippled the factory. It was previously owned by the Sverdlovsk Region's Ministry of State Property Management (MUGSO).
The sale of the factory, even at a very low price, occurred amid criminal proceedings. There's an assumption that by selling the factory, Kuyvashev may have shielded members of his own team from consequences.
Since 2015, the top management of the factory has been under investigation for allegedly causing damage of over 76 million rubles to the poultry farm. The investigation was closed at the end of 2019 due to the absence of evidence of wrongdoing. This information was reported by Kommersant.
The investigation suggests that the damage of 76 million rubles was a result of the responsible individuals at the enterprise providing benefits to several companies – Agropremium LLC, Project-A LLC, Sibtranscom LLC, and others.
Specifically, the poultry farm purchased raw materials for compound feed from these companies at inflated prices, and sold the finished products to its business partners at lower prices, resulting in the poultry farm receiving less than 31.7 million rubles.
According to experts, the former management of the enterprise, specifically Sergey Shirokov and Alexander Vinogradov, who are reportedly close to Kuyvashev, might escape secondary liability for the poultry farm’s debts due to the investigators halting the investigation.
This benefits the Kuyvashev officials themselves. The industry in the mid-10s was overseen by Alexander Sambursky, the former deputy head of the MUGISO, who later became the Minister of Natural Resources and Property Relations of the Orenburg Region.
Additionally, the then Deputy Minister of Agro-Industrial Complex Dmitry Degtyarev, who later became a minister in the government of Kuyvashev, may have been involved in the company’s questionable transactions. Learning the details of the factory's life in those years from Degtyarev will no longer work – he died in 2020 of a coronavirus infection.
In any case, if there were some frauds at the factory that led to its bankruptcy, then the situation has long cooled down. However, Mr. Kosilov obviously did not suit the leadership of the region as a new owner – often, as they say, showed his teeth.
According to rumors, the factory could have been exploited for profit, and then Kosilov was simply removed in the hope that he would not investigate what happened at the enterprise before him, but would increase production. The governor of the Sverdlovsk region, Yevgeny Kuyvashev, could personally be behind such a decision. However, if there was such an “exchange”, it brought the region much more problems than benefits.
Currently, Ravis-Poultry Farm Sosnovskaya owns 98% of OOO Poultry Farm Sredneuralskaya, with Andrey Kosilov and Igor Serbinov each owning 1%. In 2021, Sredneuralskaya Poultry Farm LLC saw an 82% decrease in revenue, amounting to 215.6 million rubles, and a net loss of 238 million rubles.
A photo: Rusprofile.en
At the same time, the assets of the company are valued at minus 655 million rubles. Thus, the company still has significant debts. Over the past years, Chelyabinsk residents have invested more than 1.5 billion rubles in the poultry farm – Andrey Kosilov mentioned this figure last summer.
A photo: Rusprofile.en
The businessman complained that despite this, the regulatory authorities did not give the factory approval. According to him, the money went to the construction of treatment facilities. Nevertheless, allegedly the administration of the city of Sredneuralsk did not agree on their commissioning – this was reported by Pravda UrFO.
“Unethical” business
There was a real need for the construction of such facilities. As mentioned earlier, the factory has been involved in a series of scandals, particularly related to environmental issues. Last spring, the factory was fined 11.8 million rubles for soil contamination. The prosecutor’s office of the Sverdlovsk region reported that the company illegally disposed of waste on agricultural land. E1 reported on this.
This is not the first time. After the acquisition by Ravis, the term “unethical” became associated with the factory. In November 2019, the Ravis poultry farm and Andrey Kosilov were held accountable for violating environmental and atmospheric air protection laws. Consequently, the company was fined 120,000 rubles, and its head was fined 12,000 rubles.
In January 2020, the Sredneuralsk Poultry Farm was accused of releasing sewage into the forest, and locals noticed violations of sanitary standards. Experts discovered that the contaminated area was two hectares, and the damage was estimated at over 10 million rubles. Hazardous substances like ammonium nitrogen, potassium, sulfur, and phosphorus were found in the soil.
The business owner faced charges for unlawfully storing hazardous waste and polluting the environment. Regulatory authorities instructed him to set up treatment facilities, which were eventually done, but the factory offered no assistance.
At the same time, Kosilov can criticize the decisions of environmental departments all he wants. After all, local residents themselves claimed that Kosilov allegedly ignored the orders of law enforcement officers. They said that in 2020, the factory allegedly continued to discharge waste. The Izvestia newspaper reported on the situation.
Andrey Kosilov denied the violation in the case of an 11.8 million ruble fine for soil pollution. Furthermore, he claimed that it was the authorities who created problems for the factory, with unbearable working conditions. E1 wrote about it.
UMMC is close
It is not clear for what purpose Kosilov may be hindered, however, there is an assumption that large developers who support the current governor Yevgeny Kuyvashev could covet the land of the factory.
Even now, the main asset of the factory is considered the land under it, which may end up in the hands of major players. Various structures are named as possible buyers, but one name comes up most often – the UMMC of the Ural oligarchs Iskander Makhmudov and Andrey Bokarev. E1 also reports on the possible interest of these entrepreneurs in Kosilov’s asset.
UMMC has a separate development division – a subsidiary of UMMC Developer. The factory itself has long been viewed negatively by the region's authorities, not to mention the reluctance of Kosilov himself.
Bokarev and Makhmudov remain key industrial players in the region, alongside Dmitry Pumpyansky’s Sinara group and Viktor Vekselberg’s structures. It's possible that unbearable working conditions were indeed created for Kosilov in order to sell the asset to UMMC.
The current beneficiaries of the factory openly acknowledge that the land under the asset holds the greatest value, not the production itself.
Andrey Kosilov believes that his business was deliberately hindered. Photo: ekaterinburg.bezformata.com
For this decision, Messrs. Bokarev and Makhmudov might support Yevgeny Kuyvashev in the upcoming elections in September, while also resolving issues with regulatory and law enforcement authorities who frequently visited the factory. The fate of the staff, currently dispersed, is probably a low priority.
However, the factory still needs to be sold. And taking into account Kosilov’s former requests (about 10 billion rubles), the epic with chicken and eggs in Sredneuralsk will most likely continue.
