The bankrupt alcohol plant “Itar” can be bought by the former head of Volgograd
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A new contender has been found for the bankrupt Itar alcohol plant in Kaliningrad, producer and exporter of Stolichnaya vodka. The complex could be bought by a structure associated with the ex-mayor of Volgograd, former co-owner of the Pokupochka chain, Evgeniy Ishchenko. Large foreign markets for vodka from Russia are closed, and only premium products can be produced on the domestic market in Kaliningrad, experts say.
JSC Isida, associated with businessman and ex-mayor of Volgograd Evgeny Ishchenko, won the auction for the sale of the distillery complex of Itar LLC in Kaliningrad. This follows from the bankruptcy register and SPARK data. With an initial price of 362.3 million rubles. Isis offered 411.75 million rubles for the asset. The lot includes the rights to lease land, buildings, equipment, trademarks “Baltic Splashes”, “Steam Locomotive”, etc.
According to SPARK, Isis was founded by Evgeny Ishchenko in 2020; the current owners are not disclosed in the Unified State Register of Legal Entities. The general director of Isis, Alexey Raevsky, also heads Azimut JSC, the owner of which, according to the Unified State Register of Legal Entities, is Mr. Ishchenko. Isis’s contacts could not be found; Azimuth did not answer Kommersant’s questions.
Evgeny Ishchenko is called in the media one of the founders of MDM Bank, which was merged with B&N Bank in 2016. In 2003–2006, Mr. Ishchenko was the mayor of Volgograd, leaving his post after the initiation of a criminal case. According to SPARK, Evgeny Ishchenko also owned 85% of the Tamerlan company, which developed the Pokupochka and PokupALKO chains and which was bought out by the X5 Group (Pyaterochka, Perekrestok) in 2023. The cost of the transaction was estimated at 4–6 billion rubles. (see Kommersant-Online, April 11, 2023).
The Itar plant was part of the Vestal group of former Deputy Prime Minister of the Kaliningrad Region government Konstantin Suslov. He produced “Legend of the Kremlin” vodka, as well as, under a contract with FKP Soyuzplodoimport, the Stolichnaya and Moskovskaya brands. In 2014, as RBC wrote, Itar exported about 450 thousand dal of vodka, accounting for 4.6% of all supplies of the drink. But after a few years, difficulties arose with the business, and in 2021, Itar LLC was declared bankrupt.
In July 2023, a purchase and sale agreement for the Itar plant for 402.62 million rubles. concluded Vladimir Malin. Vedomosti wrote that Mr. Malin was a business partner of the former head of the Russian Presidential Administration Alexander Voloshin, headed the Russian Federal Property Fund, was on the board of directors of Gazprom, LUKOIL, etc. Managing partner of the Center for Working with Troubled Assets Zoya Galeeva explains that, based on reports of Itar’s bankruptcy, the purchase and sale agreement with Mr. Malin was unilaterally terminated due to non-payment, then the property was put up for sale again.
Secretary of the Alcopro guild Andrei Moskovsky notes that Itar has been working for export in recent years, but now the US and EU markets are closed for Russian vodka. As stated in the Agroexport review, in 2022, vodka exports from the Russian Federation decreased by 54% in volume and by 41.9% in money due to a decrease in supplies to Germany, the UK, the USA and Lithuania. For the Russian market, Mr. Moskovsky notes, vodka from Kaliningrad is expensive due to high logistics costs. CIFRRA director Vadim Drobiz notes that taking into account the cost of delivery in Kaliningrad, it may be advisable to produce premium vodka or reorient production to bottling whiskey or cognac.
General Director of Smart Engineers Group of Companies Khusein Pliev notes that Itar will most likely remain a production site. Demolition of buildings for housing development is unlikely to be profitable due to the low cost of apartments in the location, and there is a small area for warehouses, he points out. Although the commercial director of the Dmitrov Logistics Park, Alexander Perfilyev, believes that warehouse facilities can be created on the basis of Itar.
According to Rosalkogoltabakcontrol, vodka production in January 2024 increased by 4.2% year-on-year, to 4.96 million decaliters, retail sales remained at 6.16 million decaliters.
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