Regulator clears United Grain Co to up Novorossiysk Grain stake to 100%
MOSCOW. Aug 16 (Interfax) - The Russian Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS) has granted a request by United Grain Company (UGC) to allow it to acquire 49.01% of the shares in Novorossiysk Grain Plant (NGP) and boost its stake in the latter to 100%.
UGC, in which Ziyavudin Magomedov's Summa Group owns 50% minus one share and the state the rest, is the controlling shareholder in NGP.
Acquisition of the stake is aimed "at raising the effectiveness of business and securing a yield on UGC investments," the company said in a press release. "NGP is a key UGC asset, a strategically important export-oriented grain terminal located in Krasnodar territory," it said.
NGP shares gained more than 7% to 287 rubles each on Tuesday, boosting the company's capitalization to 19.4 billion rubles. In other words, the stake UGC has filed with the FAS to buy is worth about 9.7 billion rubles.
NGP owns one of the largest grain terminals in Russia and handles 3.5 million tonnes of grain a year at present. Capacity should rise to 6.1 million tonnes a year by 2018 as the result of upgrades that are currently in progress.
NGP's sales revenue grew 2.2-fold in 2015 to 6.6 billion rubles, and net profit rose 30% to 1.7 billion rubles.