On November 23, NKHP decided to extend the deadline for accepting applications for participation in the IPO until the evening of November 24, and the announcement of the placement price and the start of trading to November 25 / D. Abramov / Vedomosti

The owner of Russia's largest grain handling terminal, PAO Novorossiysk Bread Products Plant (NBP), has postponed the start of its IPO on the Moscow Exchange by a week, the company and the exchange reported. "The start date of trading <...> will be announced additionally," the exchange said in a statement.

Initially, NKHP collected investor applications from November 17 to 23 inclusive. But on Monday, the company announced an extension of the application deadline by 24 hours, until 18:00 Moscow time on November 24, "in connection with requests from potential investors." Trading was scheduled to begin on November 25. Now the book closing has been postponed to 18:00 Moscow time on November 30, and the trading to December 1, NKHP said in a statement. There are no other details in the statement.

This time, geopolitics also influenced NKHP's decision to postpone the deal's closing date, a person close to one of the parties to the deal notes. Yesterday, a Turkish Air Force F-16 fighter shot down a Russian Su-24 bomber. At least one of the two crew members was killed. Then, Turkomans controlling the area where the plane crashed shot down an Mi-8 helicopter that was participating in a rescue operation to find the pilots. Another serviceman was killed (for more details, see the article on page 01). NKHP is the largest grain terminal in Russia. The grain shipped from it is delivered to foreign markets through the Black Sea straits, which are controlled by Turkey.

Financial investors could have withdrawn their applications due to new risks, says another source close to one of the parties to the deal. A major investor refused to participate in the placement, Interfax writes, citing its sources. A person close to NKHP insists that none of the investors who submitted applications withdrew them. In addition, not all investors who showed interest in the plant's securities managed to go through the necessary internal corporate procedures and approve participation in this deal, notes one of Vedomosti's sources.

NKHP announced its intention to hold an IPO on November 11, and a week later announced the price range – from 444 to 518 rubles per share. It turned out that the entire company was valued at 30-35 billion rubles. The plant’s shares are being sold by its minority shareholder, the Cypriot Belcarra Services, NKHP reported earlier. According to its documents, as of August 22, 2015, this company owned 10.79% of the terminal’s shares, and its beneficiary was Marianna Gevorgyan. During the IPO, Belcarra Services planned to completely exit NKHP’s capital.

Based on the price range, its entire stake in NKHP could cost between 3.2 billion and 3.8 billion rubles.

51% of the shares of NKHP are owned by the state-owned United Grain Company (UGC). Among the major shareholders of the plant is the owner of the Summa Group, Ziyavudin Magomedov (18.49% through Ivianto Services Limited). He also owns 50% minus 1 share of UGC.

Representatives of VTB Capital, Moscow Exchange, NKHP, OZK, and Summa declined to comment.

According to a representative of Summa, Belcarra Services is not associated with the group’s structures: “Gevorgyan is a private investor and partner of the group in NKHP, she is not affiliated with the group.”

Turkey is traditionally the second most important importer of Russian grain, notes Dmitry Rylko, CEO of the Institute for Agricultural Market Studies. Last year, exports to this country amounted to about 5.5 million tons of mostly high-quality wheat. Russia accounts for about 70% of Turkish grain imports, recalls Uralsib analyst Denis Vorchik. However, even if relations between the two countries remain tense, this is unlikely to affect the business of NKHP, says Andrei Sizov, Executive Director of SovEcon: the main deliveries of Russian grain to Turkey are carried out by low water, i.e. from the ports of Rostov, Yeysk, and Azov. In this case, one of the reasons for the postponement of the deal was the increase in general geopolitical risks for Russian companies, Vorchik believes.

As for the possibility of Turkey closing the main channel – the Bosphorus and Dardanelles straits, if it comes to that, this will mean the final stage of the escalation of the conflict, Sizov believes. And this seems unlikely to him.

Investors will live without grain