Vneshtorgbank Turns Perm Motors On
// By buying 50 percent of it from Guta Group
Motor building
Kommersant has learned that Vneshtorgbank has acquired stock in Perm Motors, a conglomerate of several motor-building companies in Perm, from Guta Group. The legal transaction will take place in the beginning of May. According to the information obtained, Guta will receive at least $350 million for the corporation. That money will most likely be used to finance the building of the Moscow City International Business Center.
Guta Group became co-owner of the companies that make up Perm Motors in the spring of 2003 when it bought a number of blocking and controlling stock packages from Interros. Almost immediately, the new owner decided to renew the project began by Interros to found a Perm motor building center. The group set up the Perm Motor-Building Complex managing company, which served a a general director for about ten companies in the holding. The second stage of the project was the unification of the stock in the Perm Motors Corp.
ZAO Perm Motors (PM) was founded in March 2003 with authorized capital of 5.4 billion rubles. It included 71.577 percent of the stock of Perm Motor Plant, 75.5 percent of Reduktor-PM, 79.9 percent Energetik-PM, 24.5 percent of Iskra-Aviagaz, 49 percent of Metallist-PM, 100 percent of Instrument Plant-PM, 100 percent of Remos-PM, 100 percent of Zheleznodorzhnik, 57.6 percent of Motorservis, 100 percent of Nedvizhimost-PM and 80 percent of Perm-Energetika. ZAO Reforma-PM controls 76 percent of the stock, and Profit-Servis and Dekstra control 12 percent each. But de facto control is held by Guta. It is assumed that the state will also contribute a share to the corporation (45 percent of the stock in Aviadvigatel, 60 percent in Star and 55 percent in Iskra), but that has yet to take place.
In October 2004, Guta Bank, which became a subsidiary of Vneshtorgbank last summer, announced the beginning of negotiations with Guta Group to buy Perm Motors. Guta president Artem Kuznetsov told Kommersant at that time that the sale of about 50 percent of the corporation was under discussion. Guta did not specify the price of the transaction, but said that “it will be market value.”
Kuznetsov was counting on the transaction to be completed by the end of 2004. It was delayed by several months, however. Kommersant has information that the bankers needed time to audit the companies that make up the corporation. Before the transaction was completed, Guta began to place Vneshtorgbank managers on the boards of directors of the subsidiary companies. The first one of them was Vneshtorgbank vice president Igor Zavyalov, who joined the board of directors of Proton-PM in December 2004.
On Sunday, acting governor of Perm Region Oleg Chirkunov told Kommersant that Vneshtorgbank had obtained “practically a controlling package in the Perm motor-building complex.” He had been informed of this last week by first vice president of the bank Vadim Levin and chairman of the board of Guta Bank (Vneshtorgbank-retail) Mikhail Kuzovlev. Chirkunov said that the legal transaction would take place in the beginning of May and, before the end of April, Vneshtorgbank head Andrey Kostin would come to Perm to familiarize himself with the plants personally. Chirkunov also informed Russian President Vladimir Putin of the deal during a meeting with him on April 15. The acting governor reported that “the president approved” the deal.
Sergey Permyakov, an adviser to the head of Vneshtorgbank told Kommersant that the deal is nearing closure, but it is too early to disclose its details. Guta Group is not officially commenting on the deal. A Kommersant source in Guta said that the deal would insurance Guta against any deprivatization of the Perm enterprises. “Now all large owners are one way or another insuring themselves against claims by the state,” he said. “Guta is doing that by transferring its share to Vneshtorgbank, which has a guarantee of immunity.” The source added that the total price of the stock in PM is estimated to be worth about $700 million, so the transaction should be worth about $350 million. Guta is seriously in need of funds for its five large real estate projects at Moscow City. The source suggested that the money received from Vneshtorgbank would be used to complete those projects.
Another Kommersant source familiar with the details of the deal stated that the bank will continue the unification of the Perm plants into a motor-building center. In the near future, it will hold a shareholders meeting of the companies under the control of PM to reelect a new board of directors. That source said that Vneshtorgbank has already nominated three of its representatives for election to the board of directors of Aviadvigatel at the annual shareholders meeting in June. They are manager of the Perm branch of Vneshtorgbank Sergey Karasev, senior vice president of Guta Bank Vladimir Sobolev and representative of the president of Vneshtorgbank Sergey Permyakov. Permyakov nominated the candidates personally, as the holder of 3 percent of the stock in Aviadvigatel.
Vyacheslav Sukhanov, Perm; Nataliya Grib
All the Article in Russian as of Apr. 18, 2005
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