Chelny developer buys FC KamAZ left without financing

The construction company EXPO-region Zakamye, owned by Chelny City Council deputy Yuri Shein, intends to buy the football club of the same name from KamAZ OJSC. The automobile plant decided to stop financing FC KamAZ in the amount of up to 150 million rubles. in year. The deal is valued at only 10 thousand rubles. However, according to Mr. Shein’s calculations, he will have to spend more than 9 million rubles just on organizing the team’s participation in the Russian Championship this year. He intends to raise funds with the help of local patrons. Mr. Shein does not rule out that in the future he will cede the club to a strategic investor.

The future owner of FC KamAZ intends to at least retain the players and allow them to participate in the Russian Championship
Photo: Nikolay Tsyganov, Kommersant

Auto giant KamAZ is preparing a deal to sell its football club of the same name. It is expected that 90% of FC KamAZ will go to the Chelny construction company EXPO-region Zakamye LLC (the developer of the Mezhdurechye residential complex), 10% will become the property of its owner, Naberezhnye Chelny City Council deputy Yuri Shein. As Mr. Shein told Kommersant, the transaction amount is equal to the authorized capital of KamAZ FC LLC - 10 thousand rubles. According to him, it is being done with the goal of preserving the club’s players and giving them the opportunity to continue playing in the Russian Championship. To participate in this tournament, the new owner will have to invest at least 9.5 million rubles in the FC.

The KamAZ club was created in 1981 under the name “Trud-PRZ”. The name "KAMAZ" has been worn since 2001. 100% of the LLC belongs to OJSC KamAZ. According to the portal Kartoteka.ru , in 2011 the club’s revenue amounted to almost 9 million rubles, net profit - 4.7 million rubles.

The club has been experiencing problems for a long time due to insufficient funding - back in 2009, to solve them, it was proposed to merge FC KamAZ with the Samara Wings of the Soviets and the Tolyatti Lada, which exist at enterprises, like KamAZ, controlled by Russian Technologies. However, the merger did not take place - the management of the Chelny club then considered it unpromising. In the summer of 2012, the club was forced to withdraw from the first division tournament and move to the second due to financial difficulties. In December, the general director of the club, Gennady Makarov, said at the reporting and election conference of the Football Federation of the Republic of Tatarstan that the club could cease to exist at the end of 2013. He also said that for the sake of his salvation, negotiations were held with Rubin, CSKA, Dynamo, and even with representatives of Roman Abramovich, but without result.

Yesterday, Oleg Afanasyev, director of the public relations department of KamAZ OJSC, confirmed that the team would pass into the hands of Yuri Shein. He said that “in the context of cost reductions in all areas,” it would be wrong to spend 90-150 million rubles annually on the club.

Mr. Shein plans to develop the club through collective investments. “Starting from April, the professional team plans to become citywide and nationwide. Any resident of the city, entrepreneur, or manager of a city enterprise can become its owner (investor). An open budget is expected, accessible to every interested party,” says the club’s official website. Mr. Shein compares the project with the financing scheme of FC Barcelona; it was developed by a specially created initiative group. Yuri Shein said that 1.7 million rubles have already been collected for FC KamAZ. He believes that the change of ownership will allow the club to at least retain its players and continue to participate in the Russian football championship. At the same time, he expects that in two or three years the club can become self-sufficient.

“Our company is buying shares for the transition period so that FC KamAZ can continue to participate in the tournament,” says Mr. Shein. Investors, in his opinion, can be “many who went through KamAZ, are now business leaders and are worried about the fate of the club.” It is planned to work with investors under an agreement for the provision of services (advertising, organizational—“Kommersant”). Mr. Shein announced his readiness to sell the share of FC KamAZ in the future, if necessary.

Investcafe analyst Andrey Schenk believes that a football club can become a source of income, but this requires an experienced specialized manager. “In terms of return on investment, it can be quite high, but the source of income is usually variable and costs are unpredictable. The source of income can be either advertising or a portion of ticket sales. I think that for a small club to function at the regional or city level, about 30-40 million rubles are needed. per year, however, in order for the club to grow and develop, acquire players and prepare its own, the volume of investment must be significantly greater,” he says.

Maxim Klyagin, an analyst at Finam Management, notes that “in principle, there are quite a few commercially profitable football clubs - even in the broad context of world football, this is a very modest shortlist of the top teams.” He says that “even in the structure of income of top clubs, the share of revenues from the sale of advertising, licenses, broadcast rights and other commercial activities accounts for no more than 50-60%. In the expenditure side of the budget, traditionally about half of the costs go to the salary fund.” The analyst notes that “the budgets of Russian Premier League clubs vary over a fairly wide horizon from several tens to several hundred million dollars; the budgets of first division clubs, as a rule, are formed within $10 million, the second - do not exceed the level of $1.5-2 million."

Dina Valiullina

Defense is being built for the club