Billionaire Roman Trotsenko continues to increase his presence in the agricultural sector of the economy. Over the past six months, companies associated with him have bought agricultural enterprises whose land is available in the Saratov and Penza regions. In the near future, his agro-portfolio will replenish the asset in the Stavropol Territory.
Prior to this, Trotsenko’s business was associated with construction, fertilizer production, river transport, and airports. Penza airport is also in the sphere of his interests.
Penza assets
December was marked by the purchase of two agricultural assets for Roman Trotsenko. As BV wrote, on December 13, it became known about the acquisition of Aeon Agro affiliated to it from Trust Bank of a pool of five companies included in the Rostagro holding, which originally belonged to Mikail Shishkhanov and then ceded to Trust Bank.
At the end of 2018, the total loss of companies associated with Rostagro reached 5 billion rubles, so, first of all, Trust was engaged in the restructuring of legal entities and property relations between them. At the same time, 60% of the land, according to Forbes, was “packed” into shares of closed-end investment funds, and scattered crop areas were combined into larger plots.
The bank invested 2.5 billion rubles in Rostagro, and then put up a pool of companies for sale for 14.4 billion rubles. Roman Trotsenko bought them for 18.4 billion rubles. At the end of 2021, the revenue of the Rostagro group of companies amounted to 5 billion rubles, EBIDTA — 2.7 billion rubles.
It is curious that earlier it was reported that Rostagro owns 300 thousand hectares of arable land in the Penza and Saratov regions, as well as an elevator on the border of these regions. At the same time, the Forbes article for October 2022 indicates a smaller area of arable land – 240 thousand hectares.
However, the lot purchased by Trotsenko did not include Balashov’s LLC TrastAgro-Niva-4, which had previously accumulated about 48 thousand hectares of land in the Balashovsky and Fedorovsky districts. The company still remains in the ownership of Trust Bank, and it is possible that it will be sold as a separate lot. In April last year, the authorized capital of the LLC was increased from 1.3 billion rubles to 2 billion rubles, the amount of assets amounted to 1.4 billion rubles.
Stavropol
On December 12, it became known about the intention of Aeon Agro to buy the Stavropol agricultural enterprise Paris Commune. The Federal Antimonopoly Service gave the green light to the deal, although the change of the founder has not yet been reflected in open sources.
“Commune” specializes in the cultivation of grain crops, mainly wheat. under which 10 thousand hectares are allocated from the 16 thousand hectares available to the enterprise. In addition, the company grows sunflower, peas, zucchini and watermelons. Vegetables, industrial crops, as well as elite seeds are grown on irrigated land plots, the area of which exceeds 900 hectares. It also provides harvesting services with its own grain harvesters with full technical support. and is engaged in cargo transportation throughout Russia.
The peak of LLC revenue was in 2018 – 557.7 million rubles. The company ended 2021 with a revenue of 330.4 million rubles (a decrease of 27%). Net profit increased by 128% to RUB 36.8 million. The company’s assets amount to 1.4 billion rubles.
At the same time, on the eve of the deal, Kommuna fell into bankruptcy: a lawsuit was filed by the Moscow-based Soyuzagrokhim LLC in the amount of 7 million rubles. Only at the end of December, the debtor’s representative announced that the debt had been repaid and asked that the applicant be denied bankruptcy. The court adjourned the hearing to January 25.
Interestingly, “Commune” is the sole founder of the “Preobrazhenskaya” poultry farm. A year before the sale, its revenue skyrocketed, increasing by 24 thousand percent to 261.9 million rubles. the loss grew by 6% – up to 118.3 million rubles.
fertilizers
For Roman Trotsenko, the agricultural sector is a new business, although he is indirectly connected with it through the producer of nitrogen fertilizers, the Azot group of companies. It includes 8 enterprises in Kemerovo, Tatarstan and Bashkiria.
In Russia, the company is focused on the supply of fertilizers to Siberia, abroad – to the countries of the European and Asia-Pacific regions, Africa, North and Latin America. At the same time, the lion’s share – 2.6 million tons out of 4 million tons – in 2021 was sold on the domestic market. At the end of last year, Trotsenko announced that Azot was investing more than 115 billion rubles in its enterprises in Kuzbass.
The billionaire is also going to invest in the Volgograd chemical cluster. The amount is 1.2 billion dollars. The cluster will appear on the site of the bankrupt Khimprom enterprise (more than 152 hectares). It is planned to launch the largest plant for the production of methanol in Russia, as well as plants for the production of acetic acid and industrial gases.
In Siberia, Aeon’s subsidiary, the Severnaya Zvezda company, is investing 100 billion rubles in the development of a coal deposit in the Krasnoyarsk Territory.
Airport owner
However, in the Penza region, Roman Trotsenko is much better known for the Novaport company. part of Aeon Corporation. It operates airports in 22 cities including Volgograd, Stavropol, Kemerovo, Perm and Saransk.
Novoport operates airports in Elista, Orsk, Blagoveshchensk, Magadan, Magnitogorsk and Orenburg as part of a joint project with Airports of the Regions affiliated to Viktor Vekselberg (airports of Saratov, Rostov-on-Don, Samara, Nizhny Novgorod and Yekaterinburg). At the same time, companies are implementing, for example, in Volgograd, programs for the expansion and reconstruction of passenger and cargo terminals at third-party airports.
One such long-range program also affects the Penza airport. In 2019, Ivan Belozertsev, then governor, signed an agreement with Novaport Holding on the construction of a new air terminal. However, the case stalled, although last year Trotsenko-Rotenberg’s interest in him was again mentioned.
…and steamboats
Roman Trotsenko, through Aeon, also owns the Moscow River Shipping Company and the yacht port, as well as the Volgograd river port.
– The investment portfolio includes production and port centers, transportation and service companies, as well as yacht clubs and social facilities. Shipping companies and ports have hundreds of cargo ships and dozens of passenger fleet units, as well as reloading and mining equipment. AEON river transport enterprises provide a wide range of services: from river tram rides to the transportation of oil and petroleum products and the construction of luxury yachts, the corporation’s website says.
Over the years, the media talked about the fact that these shipping companies and ports went to Trotsenko in the 90s, were in a deplorable pre-bankrupt state, and now they are thriving enterprises.
In the piggy bank “Aeon” and the seaport of Indiga in the Nenets Autonomous Okrug. It is still being built on a PPP basis, but already now it threatens to become a driver of Russia’s economic interests in the Arctic. The total investment in this project may exceed 300 billion rubles.
It is noteworthy that in the 2000s, Mr. Trotsenko owned the Moscow Shipbuilding and Ship Repair Plant. In 2005, the company, together with Dutch shipbuilders, registered the Timmerman Yachts brand, under which the production of private yachts for individual orders was launched.
Moreover, the media to a large extent associated the success of the enterprise with Gleb Frank, the son of the former Minister of Transport Sergei Frank, for whom Mr. Trotsenko worked as an assistant in the late 90s.
The company produced vessels ranging in length from 26.5 to 46.5 meters, among the superyachts there were boats capable of overcoming transatlantic distances.
However, in 2014 it was closed under the program of renovation of industrial zones, and a residential complex is being built on its premises.
Development
A similar story is about the Southern Riverport in Moscow. The port is functioning, but the territory next to it has been given over to Trotsenko’s promising development project – River Park South.
The businessman generally prefers to build near the river: all six of his projects in Moscow are located near water bodies. The exception is four metropolitan business centers.
The total area of land plots for building “Aeon-Development” is 147.2 hectares, the area of the building itself is 2.7 million sq.m.
However, perhaps the most famous deal in the real estate market with Mr. Trotsenko was in 2013. Then Aeon acquired the Federation complex in Moscow City from the structures of Sergei Polonsky. Moreover, two years later, it was Trotsenko who offered to make a bail of 20 million rubles for the businessman, but the court left him under arrest. In 2017, it was introduced into the Vostok Tower, at that time the tallest skyscraper in Europe (374 m, 101 floors).
In the ranking of the richest businessmen in Russia for 2021 by Forbes magazine, Roman Trotsenko ranked 63rd with a fortune of $2.4 billion. A year earlier – 75th place (1.3 billion dollars). In the 2013 ranking, he was ranked 117th with a fortune of $950 million.
Moscow-born Roman Trotsenko is now 52 years old. He graduated from the Faculty of Economics of the Institute of Asian and African Countries at Moscow State University with a degree in Economics of Japan (1992), Faculty of Law of Moscow State University (2001). He completed an internship at Yale University, USA and the University of Coimbra, Portugal (1987–1988). He worked as the director of the Kazakh television company “Asia TV”, in the early 1990s he was the chairman of the board of the bank “Al Baraka Kazakhstan”. Since 1991, he worked as financial director of the International Medical Exchange in Moscow, then for two years – its general director. From 1994 to 1996 he was the chairman of the board of the Moscow Platinum Bank, then its co-owner. In 1999-2000, he worked as an assistant to the Minister of Transport of the Russian Federation Sergei Frank, then worked in the directorate of the state customer of the ministry. In 2007, he merged all his assets into the AEON corporation, in which he heads the board of directors. Since 2009, he has been President of the United Shipbuilding Corporation. In 2012, he became an adviser to the head of Rosneft Igor Sechin, curator of the company’s offshore projects, then until 2015 led a subsidiary of Rosneft, registered in Switzerland. Mr. Trotsenko is married to former model Sofia and the couple has two sons. The wife is the founder of the Winzavod Center for Contemporary Art.