“Ferroni” relies on insurance

In total, the holding hopes to restructure its loan portfolio in the amount of about 4.5 billion rubles. If the bankers do not meet him halfway, the situation will obviously begin to develop according to the most unfavorable scenario.

Ferroni Holding specializes in the production of doors. Ferroni LLC, the parent company of the holding, is based in Krasnodar, the main production assets are in Togliatti (Ferroni Togliatti LLC) and Yoshkar-Ola (Ferroni Yoshkar-Ola LLC). The group’s consolidated revenue is estimated at 14.8 billion rubles. The group’s total production capacity is 3 million doors, including 1.8 million in Togliatti.

On May 13-14, 2023, a large-scale fire actually destroyed the Ferroni plant in Togliatti. The amount of damage is still unknown, but, apparently, there is no talk of restoring local production.

Ferroni plans to get out of the crisis through insurance compensation. The company hopes that “the funds received under the insurance can be used to organize the restart of production in Yoshkar-Ola, which ultimately will allow us to continue servicing the existing debt to banks, leasing companies and bondholders.”

However, obtaining insurance (even if it happens) still needs to wait. And the company’s loans need to be serviced now. In this regard, Ferroni offered creditor banks to provide credit holidays in order to receive a deferral of interest payments and repayments provided for by payment schedules for up to 6 months.

Some of the creditors have already responded to Ferroni’s pleas. Roseximbank provided credit holidays for two months. According to the company, preliminary agreements have been reached with Sberbank PJSC, Sberbank Factoring LLC, Yug-Investbank PJSC, Rosdorbank PJSC, Metallinvestbank PJSC, Russian North Factoring Company, AK BARS BANK PJSC “. So far no understanding has been reached with Promsvyazbank PJSC, Rossiya Bank and Sovcombank Factoring LLC.

Disagreements with creditor banks can sink the entire campaign built by Ferroni to get out of the crisis. “Most creditors are interested in the continued functioning of the Ferroni group,” Oleg Knyazkov, one of the top managers of the holding, assures SO. Ferroni “is afraid of further escalation with credit institutions, since this issue is key along with relationships with suppliers.”

The total loan portfolio of the Ferroni Group is about 4.5 billion rubles. Another almost 2 billion rubles from the enterprises of the holding is trying to recover Deltalizing LLC through the arbitration court – in the recent past, the main leasing partner.

Ferroni also explains that they are negotiating with the Federal Tax Service “with a view to a possible deferral of tax payments to Ferroni Togliatti LLC.”

It is on the position of creditor banks that the fate of Ferroni largely depends. At the time of preparing the issue, it was not possible to receive comments from these credit institutions “SO”.

Rely on insurance

“Ferroni” expects that insurance payments can cover the damage incurred. As the company explained, “the insurance payment will cover losses in terms of affected raw materials and finished products, compensate for losses under contracts to leasing companies and partially the cost of the property itself.”

Ferroni explains that “the funds received under the insurance can be used to organize the restart of production in Yoshkar-Ola, which ultimately will allow us to continue servicing the existing debt to banks, leasing companies and bondholders.” The equipment insured is Ingosstrakh, real estate is insured with RESO, inventory items are insured with Sberbank Insurance. In “Ingosstrakh” SO reported that “they have not yet received access to the site of the Ferroni Togliatti plant.” “The decision on the event can be made only after receiving all the necessary documents in accordance with the terms of the insurance contract. The incident is under investigation,” the company said in a response.

Lawyers suggest that getting “Ferroni” insurance may be delayed for a long time. Marat Rakhmatullin, a partner at the Yablokov & Partners law firm, claims that “everything indicates the protracted nature of the decision to pay. Also, litigation in arbitration on recognizing the case as insured or additional payment of the amount of unpaid insurance compensation, lasting for years, is not excluded.

The staff went out

The rate of dismissal of personnel from Ferroni Togliatti LLC is increasing – after the fire, the average headcount of the Togliatti plant has already decreased by 12%. And this, apparently, is not the limit.

Ekaterina Shulga, Deputy General Director for Corporate Culture at Ferroni LLC, told SO that more than 200 people left the company in a week. “About 20 companies work with employees, job fairs are held, our bulletin boards contain information about where you can find a job,” says Shulga. She says that “part of the staff is working, for example, employees were taken to a warehouse that was not damaged in the fire, the administration of the enterprise is working.” As of December 31, 2022, the average headcount was 1612 people, the outflow of personnel in just a week exceeded 10%.

At the time of submission of the material to the press on the portal “Work of Russia” of the Federal Service for Labor and Employment, the vacancies of “Ferroni Togliatti” continue to be open. The company allegedly continues to look for welders, movers, locksmiths and forklift drivers.

IGOR IVANOV, Deputy General Director of RESO-Garantia

So far, RESO-Garantia has received only a statement from the insured about a fire on the territory of the enterprise, where, among other things, the property insured by our company is located. As far as can be judged by indirect signs, the main fire was located in another building on the territory of the plant.

Our experts have not yet received access to the scene. At the moment, an examination of state bodies is being carried out there in order to establish the cause of the fire, it has not been completed. The Ministry of Emergency Situations issued an order to the enterprise not to let anyone into the territory until the result of the examination is ready, so as not to endanger people in case of destruction of the remains of structures.

MARAT RAKHMATULLIN, Attorney at Law, Partner at Yablokov & Partners Law Office

All three Ferroni insurers have quite complex and voluminous insurance rules. The rules provide for the provision of insurers not only with procedural documents from the competent authorities (a act on a fire, a decision to refuse to initiate a criminal case or its initiation, a court verdict), but also a rather impressive list of other materials. Only the formation of such a list will require significant time costs. And if they were lost as a result of a fire, then their restoration will take a long time.

In addition, without exception, all insurance rules provide for the obligation of the insurer to make a decision only after receiving the last necessary document, which implies that the parties to the contract go into a long correspondence to provide materials.

In the process of interaction between the parties to settle the loss, the amount of compensation, as a general rule, is determined by the insurer, but in the event of a dispute, the insured has the right to conduct its own assessment.