Grain shipper Eurasia Logistics buys grain terminal in Taganrog

MOSCOW. July 26 (Interfax) - Eurasia Logistics, a Russian grain shipping company, became the owner of 90.59% stakes in Taganrog Grain Terminal LLC (TZT) and TSRZ LLC on July 25, the Unified State Register of Legal Entities (USRLE) showed.

These stakes were previously owned by Redward Invest, a commerce and management consulting company whose beneficiary is Alexander Rappoport. Rappoport also owns Taganrog-based Grain Trade through Redward Invest. Its revenue grew to 29.6 billion rubles in 2023 from 21.2 billion rubles in 2022.

Eurasia Logistics, which was registered in November 2022, belongs to Ilya Zhelnov. The company closed 2023 with a net profit of 110.1 million rubles on revenue of 352.4 million rubles.

Kommersant, which first reported the deal, said that, according to market insiders, Rappoport is trying to get out of the grain business, so he is selling these assets.

Investment banker Ilya Shumov estimated the deal was worth 3.5 billion rubles taking into account debt. If Eurasia Logistics does not lose the export volumes that the terminal has, it could become one of Russia's top ten grain exporters in the 2024/2025 agricultural season, he said.

Rappoport has been considering selling his terminal in Taganrog for several years already, Shumov said. There were reports about the possible sale of TZT as far back as the end of 2021, when Russkiye Fondy Group was named as the buyer, he recalled.

Grain Exporters Union CEO Eduard Zernin was reported as saying by Kommersant that the buyer of the terminal will have to develop trading in order to recoup the cost of the acquisition, if this was a cash deal. The main possible market for exports from such terminals is Turkey, which has temporarily halted wheat imports, he said.