The company says it has the ambition “to become the largest player in the sugar market in the Commonwealth of Independent States”. Rusagro claims to be “a leading Russian sugar producer”, and reports that it accounts for 16% of the domestic sugar produced, processed and sold in the Russian market. But in the latest report for 2010, sugar accounts for 66% of the group’s sales, and 57% of its earnings (Ebitda). In addition to sugar growing, processing and refining, Rusagro has a meat division, an oil and fats division, and other agro-businesses.
What can have lifted the valuation of Rusagro so strongly, and what reason would a creditor bank, or state lender like Sberbank, have for accepting this liftoff in Moshkovich’s share value, unless that is already pledged and collateralized for Rusagro’s current debts of more than $735 million? Who else would gain from a premium-priced share, apart from Sberbank and Alfa Bank, as Rusagro’s biggest creditors? This month, almost a year later, the irrepressible Bloomberg reported (according to “two people with knowledge of the sale”) that Rusagro was valuing itself at between $1.8 billion and $2.2 billion – a 37% to 50% premium over last year’s IPO attempt. It reports assets worth a total of about $1.4 billion, and last year, when Sberbank was reportedly intending to buy most of the shares for sale, the market was asked to value the company at between $1.2 billion and $1.6 billion. He and Moshkovich thus valued their company at $300 million.īut Rusagro is reported in the trade media to be the third, possibly the second largest sugar producer in Russia (after Prodimex and Razgulay). Basov bought his stake from Moshkovich a few days before the listing began, paying $15 million.
Vadim Basov, their employee and chief executive of Rusagro, owns 5%. Don’t miss the last chorus line: “I’ll never ever let you go…Oooooo, Oooooo, Ooooo” Rusagro is 94% owned by Moshkovich until the initial public offering (IPO) which was implemented in London last week his wife, Natalia Bykovskaya, owns another 1%, both of them through Shiny, a British Virgin Islands-registered company.
Vadim Moshkovich – Senator from Belgorod, owner of Rusagro (aka Ros Agro Plc), which sold its shares in London last week - has been singing this golden oldie from The Searchers (1963).