Avangard Asset Management boosts stake in Razgulay Group to 29.99%
MOSCOW. June 1 (Interfax) - Avangard Asset Management, which acts in the interests of direct investment fund AVG CIS Agricultural Opportunities Fund, increased its stake in OJSC Razgulay Group to 29.99% and therefore is now the biggest shareholder in t he company, the group said.
Avangard Asset Management became the owner of 21.42% of the shares in the group from Razgulay founder Igor Potapenko, who sits on the group's board of directors.
Both sides agreed then that Avangard Asset Management might acquire an additional 8.56% in the group.
The managing partner of Avangard Asset Management, Rustem Mirgalimov, was quoted as saying in a statement: "Since the start of the year, there has been significant turnover with the company's shares. We are getting to know other shareholders and discussing options for the group's development. The interest in Razgulay's shares might be driven by the fact that Russia's agricultural sector generally has seasonal potential over the mid and long-term. The company, bearing in mind the concentration in key areas of business (rice, sugar), their synergetic effect from the approved midterm strategy, as well as the leading position in total rise and sugar production, is an attractive asset for the market".
Avangard Asset Management is a private company that manages direct investment funds. The company was founded in 2007 and operates in Russia and the CIS.
Razgulay is a major Russian agribusiness group that includes farming, grain and sugar divisions. The holding has 12 elevators, seven flour mills, three mills for processing groats and a dairy plant. It also controls 460,000 hectares of farmland, including 332,000 under cultivation in 2010.
Razgulay has capacity to process 4 million tonnes of sugar beets and 1.4 million tonnes of raw sugar a year at 10 sugar refineries in Krasnodar territory, the Belgorod, Kursk and Orlov regions and Bashkortostan and Karachaevo-Cherkessia.
Razgulay's charter capital comes to 474.279 million shares. The value per share on the MICEX stood at 58.16 rubles on Wednesday, June 1. Therefore, the value of an 8.56% packet (40.598 million shares) at current quotations comes to around 2.36 billion rubles.
Mirgalimov told Interfax that Razgulay might hold an SPO in 2012-2013 and raise 3 billion-6 billion rubles.
The company will look at the possibility of placing shares in 2012-2013, Dmitry Shteinsapir, a member of Razgulay's board of directors, said in April. He said that the decision to hold an SPO largely would depend on the company's ability to sell off noncore assets.
The company plans to earn between 7 billion and 12 billion rubles from the sale of noncore assets. This amount might increase to 20 billion rubles. Razgulay plans to sell off 32 enterprises, largely elevators and flour mills.
The holding's new five-year strategy foresees exiting the trading business and developing priority areas such as production of sugar, rice and dairy goods. The company's investment in priority areas come to 20 billion-22 billion rubles.
