Rostov on bet

Rostov on bet

Alexey Schemelev, General Director of “Agrocom”, managing company of “Primary Don”, which owns 52,52% of the capital of the Rostov-on-Don airport, wrote to Vasiliy Golubev, Governor of the Rostov Region, and to Andrey Belousov, Minister of economic development on the preparedness of “Primary Don” to invest into the modernization of the asset and the construction of the new airport complex “Yuzhny” (“Vedomosti” have the text of the letter).

The letter says that the regional government attracts investments into the reconstruction of the airfield infrastructure in the amount of at least 800 million roubles, and into the construction of “Yuzhny” – of at least 15 billion roubles, and “Primary Don” is ready for cooperation “within the framework of a public-private partnership on mutually beneficial conditions”. No details are given.

The regional authorities, when queried by “Vedomosti”, provided no statement regarding the suggestion. The representatives of the Ministry of economic development refused comments.

It is that the region has already chosen the investor for the project – the “Renova” company of Viktor Vekselberg. The company has signed a memorandum with the region on creation of a joint venture – “Rostovaeroinvest” (75% owned by “Renova”, and 25% - by the region). The Region planned to contribute to the JV with 38% of the airport’s capital (50,7% of common shares), as soon as it received this stock from the federal government. Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev has recently signed the decree of assignment of the stock to the ownership of the region. “Renova” undertook to invest 600 million roubles into the reconstruction of the existing airport and another 6 billion – into the construction of “Yuzhny”. It is planned for completion by the World Football Championship of 2018.

A source in the Ministry of Transport told “Vedomosti” that the authorities had negotiated with several investors and chosen the best one, Savvidi not showing interest. The source says that they wanted to buy out the share of “Primary Don”, but the seller was not satisfied with the price (Savvidi confirmed that). “Renova”’s employee states: “He showed no interest in the investments into the airport. He said no one needed that”.

Savvidi told “Vedomosti”: “We see no urgency in making such large investments into the Rostov airports right now”. He claimed the eventual new wave of the crisis as the reason for that. However, he has no intention of losing the asset: “If the regional authorities keep insisting, we are ready for large investments. At least, an open tender of the investors is required”.

“Renova”’s representative stated that the group’s plans remained the same, and that it was going to construct “Yuzhny” in the partnership with the region. Arthur Rokhlin, Partner of the Firm, notes that Savvidi will be unable to hamper “Renova” in this, but he can block the decisions on the reconstruction of the existing airport. The Rostov-on-Don airport pays no dividends (including the 2011 dividends), therefore its privileged shares are not voting shares, and “Primary Don” owns 52,52% of the votes. A.Rokhlin surmises that “Primary Don” in fact controls the airport: it may replace the General Director or block the investments. The expert believes that negotiations are the best option for the parties in this situation.

Savvidi said: “We will avail ourselves of all the legal ways to maintain the control over the airport, but we would prefer avoiding a confrontation”.