RusAg group mutual fund becomes owner of pork producer Agrofirm Ariant

CHELYABINSK. Jan 19 (Interfax) - RSHB AgroS, a closed-end mutual fund controlled by a Russian Agricultural Bank (RusAg) entity, has acquired Agrofirm Ariant LLC, a major Russian pork producer and processor from the Chelyabinsk region once controlled by the former Ariant winemaking holding company, which the government expropriated in 2024.

The Unified State Register of Legal Entities (USRLE) was amended accordingly on January 16.

RSHB AgroS is managed by the Moscow-based RSHB Asset Management LLC and was established by the Central Bank of Russia on December 18, 2025.

Agrofirm Ariant was previously owned by Moscow-based Capital LLC, owned by RSHB Capital JSC. Last November, Capital LLC also acquired Agrofirm Yuzhnaya LLC, Kuban-Wine LLC, and Ariant Food Industry Center LLC, as well as several assets of the former Makfa, also expropriated following a lawsuit filed by the Prosecutor General's Office.

These former Makfa assets later became owned by RSHB Asset Management LLC, and in January this year by the closed-end combined mutual fund.

Agrofirm Ariant says on its website that, as of early 2025, it had nine pig farms with a total of 550,000 pigs, three feed mills with a capacity of 717,000 tonnes of feed per year, a slaughterhouse with capacity of 800,000 pigs per year, five grain elevators with storage capacity of 326,000 tonnes of grain per year, a biowaste processing plant, three meat processing plants, a logistics center with over 70 vehicles and a network of retail stores. The company sold 75,700 tonnes of meat products in 2026.

The Chelyabinsk Region's Agriculture Ministry said Agrofirm Ariant was carrying out an investment project between 2025 and 2030 to increase pork production capacity to 100,000 tonnes per year or more through reconstruction and modernization.

Agrofirm Ariant was expropriated in 2024 following a lawsuit filed by the Prosecutor General's Office seeking 105 billion rubles in unreasonable gains from the former owners of the ChEMK industrial group. Ariant's assets were transferred to the Russian Federation on April 10, 2024, and placed under to the management of RSHB-Finance on May 22.