In order not to give away "Iskitimcement"

Eduard Taran's RATM holding is trying to maintain control over its main asset - Iskitimcement, 51% of which Sberbank is ready to take back to pay off the debt, which has reached 2.5 billion rubles. RATM is going to receive almost half of this amount from its sworn competitor Sibcement as compensation for a number of transactions; a claim for 0.75 billion rubles has already been filed. If Sberbank manages to repay at least part of the debt, there will be a chance to restructure the balance - this was discussed on January 20 at a meeting of Iskitimcement owners and managers.

As Kommersant reported on January 11, the Federal Antimonopoly Service at the end of December registered the application of Sberbank of Russia OJSC to acquire 51% of Iskitimcement OJSC, which owed the bank 2.5 billion rubles. (approximately $82 million at the Central Bank exchange rate as of January 1; the company’s entire debt is 4.3 billion rubles, or approximately $142 million). It was assumed that these shares would be ceded to RATM, which controls Iskitimcement.

RATM, which produced, according to preliminary data, more than 1.95 million tons of cement in 2010, ranks eighth among Russian producers. Owns two factories - Iskitimcement (67%; another 25.1% is owned by Vladimir Palikhata's Rosenergomash, the rest is owned by private individuals) and Angarskcement (50.52%; the rest is owned by Sibcement). The production volume of Iskitimcement in 2010 could exceed 1.4 million tons (11th place in the list of the largest cement enterprises), Angarskcement - 0.55 million tons.

On January 20, a working meeting of the owners and managers of Iskitimcement was held, at which Mr. Taran stated that the company “has money to pay off debts and operate,” so the transfer of control to Sberbank could be avoided, two meeting participants told Kommersant. We are talking about approximately 1 billion rubles, which RATM intends to recover from the competing holding company Sibcement (the fifth largest producer), they clarified.

According to them, about 500 million rubles. This amount may constitute compensation for Angarskcement. Since the fall of 2004, RATM and Sibcement have been challenging each other for control of the plant; in 2007, Eduard Taran managed to regain control of the plant. A year later - on September 17, 2008 - he signed a settlement agreement (a copy is at Kommersant's disposal) with the chairman of the board of Sibcement, Oleg Sharykin: according to clause 2.1, Sibcement undertook to pay compensation based on the results of the work of Angarskcement for 2006 in in the amount of 250 million rubles. This money has not yet been transferred, but now RATM intends to receive twice as much - taking into account the plant’s profits in 2004 and the first half of 2007, one of Kommersant’s interlocutors clarified. General Director of RATM Cement Holding Viktor Belyaev confirmed this. “We conducted an independent audit and found out that the total amount of funds owed to us exceeds 500 million rubles. We are not yet pursuing a settlement agreement in the courts and hope to reach an agreement,” he explained.

We will sell everything. I hope this year, maybe even. We will either sell or negotiate a sale. The faster the better... This applies not only to oil or gas assets

— German Gref, President of Sberbank, commenting on April 7, 2010 on the fate of non-core assets that the bank received for debts

In addition to this amount, RATM is seeking from Sibcement to transfer another 750 million rubles - a fine associated with the acquisition of the same Angarskcement. In the fall of 2007, before the signing of the settlement agreement, RATM transferred 149.7 million rubles to Sibcement. for a share in Quarry-Pereval LLC, to which part of Angarskcement’s assets was transferred. But by the decision of the Fourth Arbitration Court of Appeal dated December 29, 2009, transactions for the contribution of property to the authorized capital of Quarry-Pereval and transactions for the purchase and sale of property by the company were declared invalid. Now RATM is going to not only return the transferred money, but also receive a fine: in accordance with clause 5.1 of the agreement concluded with Sibcement, in the event of such a failure of the transaction, the buyer has the right to recover from the seller compensation five times the amount paid, that is, about 750 million rub. The Arbitration Court of the Irkutsk Region accepted the claim of RATM against OJSC Holding Company Sibirsky Cement and LLC Cascade (a structure of Sibcement) for the recovery of such compensation on September 10, 2010. On January 13, 2011, a ruling was issued to assign this case to trial; a trial court hearing was scheduled for February 16 (copies of the statement of claim and court rulings are available to Kommersant).

Sibcement refused to discuss relations with RATM.

If RATM manages to receive a total of about 1.25 billion rubles from Sibcement, then the need to give control of Iskitimcement to Sberbank will be partially removed, says a source close to Iskitimcement. If part of the debt is repaid, it will become easier to negotiate on restructuring the balance, since the main reason for collecting the collateral was Sberbank’s doubts about the borrower’s solvency, he explains. According to him, Eduard Taran has already notified the management of Sberbank of his desire to pay in cash instead of shares in Iskitimcement. New parameters of the agreement with the bank are now being discussed, Mr. Belyaev confirmed. Sberbank declined to comment.

Anton Belykh

RATM is looking for money for Sberbank