Delo Group founder Shishkarev intends to buy out Rosatom's stake

MOSCOW. Feb 24 (Interfax) - The founder and co-owner of Delo Group, Sergei Shishkarev plans to buy state corporation Rosatom's 49% stake in Delo Management Company LLC, the parent company of the Russian transport and logistics group, newspaper Kommersant reported, citing a source.

"The process is already irreversible. I will buy. Develop and build," Shishkarev, who owns 50% of the company, said on his Telegram channel, commenting on the Kommersant report.

The paper reported its source as saying that Shishkarev held a meeting with management on February 23 at which he said "there is one decision - to buy."

Rosatom said earlier that, in light of differences with Shishkarev, it was launching a "Russian roulette" mutual buyout offer process at Delo Group. Under this mechanism, Shishkarev has 60 days to either buy out Rosatom's stake in the company or sell his own. Then another 120 days are given to secure the necessary regulatory approvals.

The paper's source said Shishkarev plans to formalize and send his intentions to Rosatom within the next two weeks and solve the issue of financing the deal within two months.

Shishkarev also discussed the company's key metrics at Monday's meeting with management. As a result, the EBITDA target for 2026 was raised to 74 billion rubles from the 55 billion rubles initially presented in the draft budget, the source said.

At an upcoming shareholder meeting, Shishkarev will again attempt to elect a new CEO for Delo Management Company, but Rosatom does not plan to replace management before a deal is completed, the paper reported. "We plan to discuss the terms of management until the completion of the deal with our partner," the paper reported Rosatom as saying.

Rosatom's proposal values all of Delo Group at about 150 billion rubles, Kommersant said. RBC, citing a source, reported earlier that the state corporation proposed that Shishkarev sell his stake for 77 billion rubles or buy out Rosatom's stake for 74 billion rubles. A second RBC source familiar with the terms of the offer said the proposed "price is the same, only the parties' stakes are different."

Shishkarev owns 50% of Delo Management Company, Rosatom holds 49% and R-Alyans LLC owns the other 1%.