Inter RAO in talks to buy Khimprom from Renova Group division - paper

MOSCOW. July 8 (Interfax) - Russian energy group Inter RAO is holding negotiations to buy PJSC Khimprom, a division of Renova Group's chemicals division Orgsintez Group, national daily Kommersant reported on Monday, citing sources.

Talks are at an advanced stage, but a final decision has not been made yet to buy the company, which is valued at 60 billion-70 billion rubles, the paper reported. The paper's sources attributed Inter RAO's interest in Khimprom to its "search for profitable assets on the market."

Khimprom, one of Russia's largest chemical companies, produces more than 150 types of chemical products. The company closed 2023 with an IFRS net profit of 2.9 billion rubles on revenue of 17.5 billion rubles.

Kommersant's sources said Khimprom and its products are interesting, but this asset is outside of Inter RAO's core business. Inter RAO has been buying up power engineering companies in the past two years and has said that this will become a key segment for the group in the near future.

In the spring of 2024, Inter RAO closed the acquisition of the Ural Turbine Plant (UTZ), which was previously also owned by Renova Group entities. In 2022, it bought Siemens Energy's 65% stake in Siemens Gas Turbine Technologies LLC, a joint venture with Power Machines, as well as Siemens Energy's Voronezh plant, Voronezh Transformer LLC (formerly Siemens Transformers LLC). In 2021, the group spent 46.9 billion rubles on the acquisition of 11 engineering companies and information technology company Sigma.

Nonetheless, Inter RAO was still sitting on an impressive cash pile of 357.3 billion rubles at the end of the first quarter of 2024.