Igor Khudokormov remains the largest latifundist
The consulting company BEFL has released the traditional rating of the largest latifundists in Russia (data as of April 2016).
Infographics of the Vedomosti newspaper
1. Agroholding Prodimex and Agrokultura
Agricultural land area: 790,000 ha
Owner: Igor Khudokormov
Interesting fact: Last year, Khudokormov acquired control of Agrokultura, a Swedish company with Russian assets, and BEFL counted their land together. The representative of Prodimex does not agree with this: Agrokultura is Khudokormov's personal project and is not included in the perimeter of Prodimex's business.
Agricultural land area: 594,000 ha
Owners: the Linnikov brothers
Interesting fact: In the first quarter of 2016, ABH Miratorg acquired about 100,000 more hectares for cow pastures (beef production project). Thus, now the agricultural holding controls about 500,000 hectares of pastures and 200,000 hectares of agricultural land for grain production.
Agricultural land area: 594,000 ha
Owner: Vadim Moshkovich
Interesting fact: Rusagro recently purchased 90,000 hectares from the Razgulay agricultural holding. At the end of 2015, the group also bought 20% of this company, along with debts, from Vnesheconombank.
Agricultural land area: 511,000 ha
Owner: Vasily Rozinov
Interesting fact: in the Kursk region, the assets of the bankrupt holding "Ivolga" of a Kazakh businessman are claimed by "Prodimex".
5. Holding company "Ak Bars"
Agricultural land area: 505,000 ha
Owner: Ivan Egorov
Interesting fact: within the framework of the complex, a closed production cycle has been formed, uniting blocks of enterprises operating on the principle “from field to counter”. Sales of products are carried out through their own distribution networks (more than 200 stores in the territory of the Republic of Tatarstan).
6. Agrocomplex
Agricultural land area: 456,000 ha
Owners: family of Alexander Tkachev
Interesting fact: among the newcomers in the top 10 companies was an agricultural holding owned by the family of the former governor of the Krasnodar Territory, and now the Minister of Agriculture Alexander Tkachev. In 2015, the Agrocomplex acquired the lands of the large South Russian agricultural holding Valinor.
Agricultural land area: 400,000 ha
Owner: Vadim Moshkovich
Interesting fact: In 2016, the company plans to launch a soybean processing plant (soybean extruder) with a capacity of 10 thousand tons per year. A deodorization and oil refining line is also being prepared for installation, which will make it possible to bring the finished product to customers.
8. Vanguard-Agro
Agricultural land area: 370,000 ha
Owner: Kirill Minovalov
Interesting fact: Avangard Agro is part of the Avangard Bank structure of Kirill Minovalov. Land bank - 352.6 thousand hectares. It specializes in the production of grain and industrial crops in the Voronezh, Oryol, Kursk, Belgorod and Lipetsk regions, and the holding also has a meat and dairy business.
9. Krasny Vostok Agro
Agricultural land area: 350,000 ha
Owner: Airat Khairullin
Interesting fact: Krasny Vostok Agro was created on the basis of 64 agricultural enterprises of the Republic of Tatarstan. The holding has 8 mega-farms in the Republic of Tatarstan, the area of each exceeds 86 thousand square meters. m.
10. Cherkizovo and Napco
Agricultural land area: 340,000 ha
Owners: family of Igor Babaev
Interesting fact:“GK Cherkizovo and Napko are managed and controlled by the same group of beneficiaries,” the explanatory note to the rating says. Both companies are controlled by members of the family of the founder of Cherkizovo Igor Babaev, it follows from the group's statements.
The "Big Seven" of the agro-industrial complex showed a 25.1% increase in revenue in 2015. On the first lines of the rating are holdings engaged in crop production and processing of vegetable raw materials, as well as producers of beef and pork meat. In 2016, the leaders of the agricultural sector increased the volume of production and continue to develop investment projects.
The action of the food embargo maintains favorable conditions for the development of the Russian agro-industrial sector. The locomotive is large agricultural holdings that have access to state subsidies and are confidently attracting additional investment.
According to the Ministry of Agriculture, in 2015, in all categories of farms, including personal subsidiary plots, the average index of agricultural production was 103%. At the same time, the revenue of the first "seven" for the same year increased by a quarter, and the operating results of the companies for 2016 indicate the continued growth of the industry leaders.
Registration region: Belgorod.
Owners: the main share of the holding (72.5%) is owned by Vladimir Zotov, Deputy Chairman of the Belgorod Regional Duma, included in the Forbes rating "200 richest businessmen in Russia 2016".
Specialization: pig breeding, dairy farming, plant growing, feed production.
Source: Expert AC
In 2016, the holding launched investment project by 9.7 billion rubles. for the construction of new pig complexes and auxiliary production (the direction is considered one of the most promising in terms of import substitution in the Russian Federation). Full capacity is planned for 2018. Pork production in live weight will increase to 217 thousand tons (+35% to current volumes).
Registration region: Efremov, Tula region; Cargill Inc. - USA, Minnesota.
Owners: Cargill is owned by the Cargill and MacMillan families (88% of according to Forbes), the dynasty ranks 4th in Forbes ranking"Wealthiest Families in the US 2016".
Specialization: production of starch and starch products, animal feed, sugars and sugar syrups, trade in grain and oilseeds.
Source: RBC http://rbc.ru/.
Cargill Inc. in 2015 fiscal year generated revenue of $120.393 billion and net income of $1.58 billion, demonstrating sales and profit declines of 11% and 19%. However, in Russia, the holding continues to invest in a growing market: in 2016, a new feed concentrates project was launched (planned capacity of 50 thousand tons per year by the end of 2017), the volume of investments is 1.74 billion rubles. The company announced plans to invest in 2017-2018. USD 10 million in the development of oil products
Registration region: Moscow city.
Owners: the head structure of Ros Agro Plc (Cyprus), the main beneficiary Vadim Moshkovich, owns 70.7% of the holding's shares.
Specialization: cultivation of sugar beet, cereals and other agricultural crops, breeding of pigs, production of sugar from sugar beet, production and processing of vegetable oil.
Source: RBC http://rbc.ru/.
Registration region: Moscow.
Owners: MB Capital Partners Ltd - 61.01%, Norges Bank - 4.89%; beneficiaries: the Babaev-Mikhailov family (controlled by MB Capital Partners Ltd).
Specialization: production of meat products (chicken and pork meat, meat processing products) and animal feed.
Source: RBC http://rbc.ru/.
Registration region: Voronezh; Moscow.
Owners: information about the beneficiaries of the group is not disclosed; according to various sources, the largest share belongs to Valery Kustov (at the beginning of 2016 - 34.4%), the chairman of the board of directors of the holding.
Specialization: animal husbandry, crop production, processing.
Agricultural crops in all farms of the country over the past ten years have increased from 75.3 million hectares to 80 million hectares for the 2016 harvest. At the same time, the number of agricultural organizations working in the industry during this time decreased from 59.2 thousand to 36.4 thousand, calculated Rosstat. Agricultural land remains an attractive investment, with companies expanding and consolidating crop production assets. However, it is very difficult to figure out how efficiently the largest latifundists use the land and whether the strategy of buying up land plots with the expectation of an increase in their value and further resale is relevant for the industry is very difficult, since the sector is extremely non-transparent. Nonetheless " Agroinvestor” tried to evaluate the work of agricultural holdings and ranked them by the size of the sown area. It included 22 companies, which, according to calculations, together sowed more than 6.5 million hectares for the 2016 harvest, or 8% of the all-Russian indicator. The total land bank of the players was not taken into account - only the land in cultivation was counted; the final figure for each company does not include fallows and pastures, with the exception of cultivated ones (for more on the methodology, see the sidebar “How the rating was compiled”).
Top leaders opens the holding " Prodimex» Igor Khudokormov with 690 thousand hectares. This figure is only an estimate for Prodimex: Agroinvestor"did not combine its arable areas and the lands of Agrokultura, another asset of Khudokormov's structures. They are not part of the same group, are not connected by a common management company and do not constitute a single operational entity. " Prodimex”is a non-public company, therefore it does not announce the size of its land bank and crops, said its CEO Viktor Aleksakhin. It is estimated that last year the latter approached 700 thousand hectares, in particular, about 130 thousand hectares passed to the company from the Ivolga holding, which lost its cluster in the Kursk region due to financial problems. Also " Prodimex"works in the Stavropol Territory, Voronezh, Belgorod, Penza regions and in Bashkortostan, according to its website. According to Soyuzrossahar, the company is the largest sugar producer in the country with a market share of about 22.5%. In addition to sugar beets, she grows wheat, corn, barley, sunflowers and soybeans. The holding is also engaged in dairy farming. The total herd, according to the company in July 2016, consisted of 30 thousand animals.
In the second position - Miratorg”, which, according to another Agroinvestor rating, is in the top 3 largest Russian meat producers. The company was unable to provide accurate data on the size of its crops, which is also due to the peculiarities of accounting, since cultural pastures predominate in the structure of the land bank - somewhere annual crops are sown, somewhere perennial. The representative of the holding specified that all lands are cultivated and sown. Last year " Miratorg” reported that his grain company sowed 243 thousand hectares, and the size of pastures in the first quarter of 2016 exceeded 500 thousand hectares. If only crops for commercial crops were taken into account, then the holding would take only 13th place, however, according to experts and market participants surveyed by Agroinvestor, the company sowed 500-600 thousand hectares last year.
15th place in the ranking of the holding " AgroTerra”, which sows about 200 thousand hectares. The company has 33 farms in the Tula, Ryazan, Penza, Kursk, Tambov, Lipetsk and Oryol regions. The main cultivated crops are wheat, barley, rapeseed, soybean, sunflower, buckwheat and corn. The company has 18 bases and elevators with a total capacity of more than 500 thousand tons. The company's strategy does not involve increasing its own cultivated land. However, when requests for the supply of agricultural products began to exceed its production capacity, she decided to integrate neighboring enterprises into her work, creating an agribusiness development center " AgroTerra Integrator. During the first year, 71 households from Central Russia, together they cultivate 120 thousand hectares of land. By 2022, the land bank of the holding's partners will reach at least 1 million hectares, which will make it possible to form batches of products for sale of almost any volume, the director said. AgroTerra Integrator" Alexander Dashchenko. Investments in the project in the next five years will amount to 10 billion rubles.
On the 16th line - the Pokrovsky concern, its agricultural holdings Kanevskoy, Yeysky and Labinsky unite 25 enterprises in 13 districts of the Krasnodar Territory. They are engaged in the cultivation, storage and processing of grain and industrial crops, vegetable growing, horticulture, milk production and pig breeding. The total land bank of the holding is 210,000 ha, the sown area is 190,000 ha. The structure of the company also includes the sugar factories "Kanevsksakhar", "Timashevsky Sugar Plant" and "Sugar Plant" Kurganinsky "". Over the past five years, the concern has invested 8.5 billion rubles in the Kuban economy. In addition to agriculture, Pokrovsky invests in the production of electrical equipment, and is also one of the leaders in the South Russian premium residential real estate market.
The 17th position of the rating is occupied by GAP "Resource", which last year sowed 175.4 thousand hectares. The land bank of the holding at the beginning of 2016 was 209.9 thousand hectares, at the end - 210.6 thousand hectares, by mid-September 2017 it increased to 213.4 thousand hectares, the representative of the company specified. Crop assets are located in Rostov region, Stavropol Territory and the Republic of Adygea. The gross harvest of wheat, corn, sunflower and soybeans amounted to 521 thousand tons last year. The main activity of the group is the production of broiler meat, in 2016 it produced 343 thousand tons in live weight.
The next participant in the rating is Agrokultura with an estimated figure of 160,000 hectares. The company was founded in 2007 by Swedish investors, in November 2014 the offshore companies Steinord Ltd became the owners of 94.2% of its shares. and Magna Investments Limited. The beneficiary of the first is Nikolai Fartushnyak, the founder of Sportmaster. Magna belongs to the owner of Prodimex, Igor Khudokormov, Agrokultura reported at the time. In 2015, Magna began a forced buyback of shares from minority shareholders, on May 18, 2017, the arbitration board decided that the buyback price of the remaining shares would be 4.5 SEK per share plus interest - 0.22 kroner per share. According to kartoteka.ru, now 99.93% of Agrokultura Management Company is owned by the Yenisei company, which is headed by Khudokormov, 0.07% by Agrokultura Kursk, which, in turn, is also owned by Yenisei. The only participant in the latter is the Cypriot Arlf Agrokultura Limited, among whose directors Khudokormov is listed. Now "Agrokultura" is engaged in crop production and animal husbandry in the Voronezh, Lipetsk, Tambov and Kursk regions. The total land bank is 200,000 hectares, according to agrokultura.com.
In 19th place is " EkoNiva» Stefan Duerr. Last year, he had 184 thousand hectares of arable land, including 156 thousand hectares occupied by crops, commercial director of the company Sergey Lyashko cites the data. The difference of 28 thousand hectares is fallows, pastures, meadows, land under construction projects and fallow. The main amount of land " EkoNiva» - 86.5 thousand hectares of arable land, of which 79 thousand hectares were sown for the harvest of 2016, is located in the Voronezh region. In Novosibirsk last year, 33.5 thousand hectares were sown out of 42 thousand hectares. This is followed by Kaluga (23.2 thousand hectares of arable land and 19.2 thousand hectares of crops) and Kursk (15.5 thousand hectares of arable land and 14.5 thousand hectares of crops) regions. In the Orenburg region, the sown area was at the level of 8 thousand hectares, in the Tyumen region - 3.7 thousand hectares. Arable land in these regions was 11.7 thousand hectares and 4.5 thousand hectares, lists Lyashko.
According to him, the company has plans to expand its land bank, first of all, it is interested in assets in the regions of presence and neighboring ones. “We try to grow organically,” Sergey Lyashko explains. At the same time, further geographical diversification of the business is not excluded, in particular, “ EkoNiva» entered into agreements with the administration of the Ryazan region on the possible development of dairy farming and land acquisition there. “So far, everything is at the level of an agreement, we are negotiating with the authorities of the region and land owners,” Lyashko clarifies.
According to him, in terms of legal issues— allocation of shares, their execution and redemption — there are no problems, since the company has been operating on the market for a long time and knows what and how to do. More relevant are the problems of finding suitable sites in regions of interest to the company. “For example, it is easier to expand in Siberia: the concentration of large players is small there, and interest in agricultural production is limited,” says the top manager. “And in the regions of the center of the country it is more difficult, because there is high competition between different buyers.” At the same time, in favor of EkoNiva» is a social factor, since the company specializes in the development of dairy farming, and this provides jobs. However, in the end, the question of buying a particular land asset is determined by its usability and price, he adds.
On the 20th position is the group " South of Russia”, which, both last year and this year, cultivated 190 thousand hectares, crops occupied 145 thousand hectares. The company's land is mainly concentrated in the Rostov region (134 thousand hectares), it also operates in the Volgograd region (34 thousand hectares) and in the Krasnodar Territory (21 thousand hectares). The holding's farms grow grain, leguminous and oilseed crops, including sunflower, camelina, flax, safflower, milk thistle, a company representative lists. According to the Oil and Fat Union, “ South of Russia» At the end of last year, it became the largest sunflower processor in the country: from 1.19 million tons, the company accounted for 12% of the total Russian volume. It is also the country's leader in the production of bottled sunflower oil with an indicator of 362 thousand tons (27% of the market).
Head of the Center economic forecasting Gazprombank Daria Snitko believes that agricultural holdings are investing in the expansion of land banks as actively as they can. “The only pity is that the land in this sale and purchase turnover is mostly the same, which passes from one legal entity to another,” she adds. “But the registration of new plots for sale is far behind, as is the transition of land from collective, share and state (all levels) ownership to company ownership.” Therefore, it is still too early to talk about market consolidation - it is highly fragmented, she notes.
At the same time, we will also not reach the net secondary land market for a long time, at least in the next three to four years, “wars” in the sector will continue, Romanova believes, especially since not all regions have gone through them yet. “Now there are a lot of lawsuits. Companies that have strong legal services are restoring deadlines limitation period, long-term purchase and sale transactions are being canceled,” she says. “For example, if it turns out that the land was bought by a person who was not actually a shareholder, but acquired the right to a land share through collateral obligations.” In many regions, the following schemes were used: a loan was formally formalized with one of the co-shareholders, and a land share was pledged as security for the fulfillment of an obligation. Then they did the so-called "crossbow" (self-bankruptcy), went to court, recognized the debt and, as a compensation, transferred the rights to the land share. Having received a court decision, according to which the right to a land share was registered, they began to buy up land for a “pseudo shareholder”. But the rules for foreclosing a land share are different; foreclosure can be levied only after it has been allotted in kind, that is, having formed land plot, emphasizes Romanova. The court decision, according to which the “psedo shareholder” appeared, can be canceled and all transactions made can be declared invalid. “Such wars are now going on everywhere, people are suing for any hectare that can be taken,” she knows. The problem is that many small farms are not competent enough in the issues of land registration, they believe that since they have registered their right in Rosreestr, then nothing can be done, however, it is possible to expand the deal and cancel the record with good legal preparation, and there are now many such cases. Romanov notes.
According to Daria Snitko, large holdings will continue to buy land and invest in it. But the market still remains very small, because in Russia the bulk of those used in agriculture land is still not formalized properly, she says. “Companies that are unsuccessful in operational terms, those who could not establish production, will leave this business,” the expert predicts. “In my opinion, without investments in production and agricultural technology, one should not count on an increase in the value of agricultural land, which will make it possible to recoup the investment.” Growing a crop is now a very profitable business, but it requires a substantial outlay, of which only a fraction is for the purchase of land. Significant investments in technology and the acquisition of equipment are also needed.
According to Sheremet, investing in land in terms of capitalization of value is rather risky in the conditions of falling profitability, because there is no understanding when the land will rise in price and how the investor will be able to wait out this time. Especially if this is a non-core investor who will not be able to effectively manage assets and receive acceptable returns in this time interval. “At the same time, the market has a consolidated position that land should cost more in the long run and can be used more efficiently,” the expert continues. - We have already seen such sharp jumps in South America: in Uruguay, in Brazil - a long stagnation in land prices has been replaced by a multiple increase. Obviously, this is what many investors today are hoping for.”
At the first stage, Agroinvestor analyzed the rating of the largest landowners compiled by BEFL companies, selecting potential participants with a land bank of 150 thousand hectares or more, operating in the European part of the country. Companies operating only beyond the Urals were not the subject of a separate analysis. Agroholdings from the long list were sent requests with a request to clarify the volume of the land bank and the sown area (land in cultivation, excluding fallows and natural pastures). The companies were also interviewed by phone. In parallel, requests were sent to the agricultural departments of the regions with a request to provide indicators for companies. In addition, open data was analyzed: company websites, their reports, documents posted on the portals of administrations, ministries, departments and departments of the agro-industrial complex of the regions and areas where companies operate, publications in the media, etc. The data obtained were compared, then to a pool of experts, into which, in In particular, representatives of companies supplying means of production (machinery, seeds, plant protection products) and other market participants were included, it was proposed to evaluate the sown areas of those players who did not respond to requests and did not provide data. If the experts' assessments differed, then the arithmetic mean was taken into account, when two or more people named the same numbers, while others were close to them, then the one that was voiced by the majority was taken into account.
The rating does not pretend to completeness and unconditional reliability of the information. It is possible that due to possible confusion in definitions and wordings, some companies and experts announced or estimated the size of arable land or land bank, and not the area under crops, or provided data for this year, which may differ from the figures for the spring accounting of 2016. Companies operating only beyond the Urals were not the subject of a separate analysis. In the final table, the numbers are rounded to the nearest integer.
The level of technology has become higher
Suppliers of means of production note that the level of development of agriculture among the market leaders has increased markedly over the past ten years. Although when compared with advanced countries, then we still have room to grow and improve, says Alexander Kozachkov, General Director of DuPont Pioneer in Russia. “Companies have become much more careful in choosing the means of production - seeds, fertilizers, pesticides, some holdings are even developing their own services that test new products before putting them into production,” he knows. At the same time, economic issues are becoming more and more relevant. Since product prices are unstable, agricultural producers are trying to manage production costs and reduce costs. Nevertheless, the share of using high-quality, and therefore more expensive seed material is increasing, Kozachkov notes.
It is quite obvious that, in general, the culture of farming in Russia has grown in recent years and continues to develop steadily, agrees Igor Bruevich, General Director of KWS in Russia. This is confirmed both quantitatively - an increase in the harvest of grain, sugar beet, meat production, and qualitative indicators: for example, an increase in the yield of sugar per hectare. “But it should be noted that in a number of relative indicators we lag behind the US and EU countries,” he agrees with Kozachkov. “If we talk about agricultural holdings, they also demonstrate both extensive development, which is expressed in increasing the land bank, and focus on the intensification of production.” In recent years, when crop production has shown steady growth rates and has become a truly profitable and more or less predictable business, there has been an understanding that land is a full-fledged asset that can bring a steady income, subject to technology, Bruevich is sure.
According to him, customers have become more careful and conscious in choosing suppliers of means of production. At the same time, a “buyer's market” has now formed, when there are several suppliers for almost every item - seeds, equipment, plant protection products, fertilizers. “The level of competition is growing, we have to fight for each customer, offering not only high-quality products, but also service support,” says Bruevich. — For example, some clients check the quality of sugar beet seeds in Russian laboratories for the presence of the declared amount of active ingredients in disinfectants (insecticides and fungicides). Many demand training programs for employees in sugar beet cultivation technology. Constant agronomic support is necessary, starting from harvesting the predecessor and preparing the soil and ending with the completion of the collection and laying of root crops for storage. This requires our company to continuously develop its agronomic service.”
According to Vladimir Alginin, Deputy General Director of the August company, in recent years, agricultural producers have become more serious about the use of plant protection products: the increase in the level of their use is evidenced by the fact that the PPP market is growing by an average of 10% per year, while the sown area is significantly do not change. At the same time, most large companies often conduct preliminary trials of drugs, tenders to determine price preferences. “In the first place in terms of the culture of agriculture, I would put Agrocomplex named after. N. Tkacheva, - comments Salis Karakotov, General Director of Schelkovo Agrohim. - Close to them is the Rusagro group. Miratorg is about the third in terms of technological level in the country, then I would mention EkoNiva, then AgroGuard and Dominant are at a similar level in terms of agricultural technology.”
Is there a limit to growth
In recent years, several large latifundists, such as Ivolga-Holding, Razgulay, SAHO, Emerald Country, have completely or partially lost their business, which many experts explained, among other things, by inefficient management: when a company is too big, it is difficult to control. However, according to Alexander Kozachkov, the problem of managing an agricultural enterprise is not always connected with the size of its land bank. “In my opinion, there are large agricultural holdings that are managed efficiently, and small farms with inefficient management,” he says. “Probably, there is some limit to the possible expansion of land banks, but it all depends on the structure of the company, on how communication chains are built between departments and people.”
Among large agricultural holdings, there are both successful examples and not very successful ones, however, this is also true for farms of other forms and sizes - from medium-sized enterprises to farms, Igor Bruevich agrees. Effective management requires a clear and understandable strategy, a strong team and well-organized processes, he notes. At the same time, in his opinion, in Russian conditions, it is easier for agricultural holdings to work in many issues: they can accumulate large financial resources, they have better access to borrowed funds, if the business is diversified, then it is more resistant to price fluctuations on selected markets. With the development of technology, there are more tools for the effective management of large land banks, Bruevich is sure.
If we talk about risks that increase with the growth of the land bank, then, according to Vladimir Alginin, the maximum amount of land concentrated in one company without loss of management efficiency depends on its model. If the holding has direct management, then the working option is up to 150 thousand hectares. If it is divided into divisions, the general strategy refers to the parent company, and smaller divisions are directly controlled, then the scale of the land bank may be larger, Alginin believes.
Salis Karakotov also thinks that the maximum land bank under the control of one company for effective management should be within 150 thousand hectares, provided that the holding is divided into separate legal entities, which have no more than 15 thousand hectares. “At the same time, subdivisions with general legal subordination should have relative economic independence, in particular, in terms of procurement, resources and technology alignment,” he says. — Integration should not be vertical, but horizontal. When a company has no more than 150 thousand hectares and individual structural units - it is well managed, when the land bank becomes larger - risks already arise.”
As for the assessment of the maximum volume of the land bank, which the company can effectively control, then, according to Olga Romanova, the main thing is the issue of management, and not the size of the enterprise. “First of all, you need a perfect control system, but I have not seen anyone like this,” she says. “No one canceled the human factor, the problem of theft is also relevant, people even find ways to bypass all kinds of GPS sensors, etc. In large companies, the risks are always higher in this regard.”
In the short term big players will continue to grow, mergers and acquisitions will take place in the industry, but now more and more market participants are beginning to focus on increasing production efficiency, increasing returns per hectare, and not just consolidating land banks, Kozachkov draws attention.
New Consolidation Model
According to Vitaliy Sheremet from KPMG, market participants remain interested in land deals and asset consolidation. “At the same time, we see new trends in the market: the use of a model that involves the consolidation of smaller players around one large one, which can provide them with agricultural technologies, cheaper resources through pooled purchases, and most importantly, the purchase of products. Thanks to this, it is possible to form large commercial lots of grain, to have a strong position in negotiations with traders, or to become a trader yourself,” the expert says. — An example of such cooperation is the Agroterra Integrator project. We have already seen three or four similar projects in Russia, and even more in Ukraine.” According to Sheremet, this model can become a challenge and a serious threat to large holdings, because in terms of the amount of land under management and the volume finished products such blocks of enterprises can compete with the largest landowners. At the same time, given that the land bank is not concentrated in one hand, and small owners are usually more prudent about production efficiency issues, this may lead to the fact that the economy of such enterprises will be better than that of large vertically integrated holdings. “And this, in turn, will help them win in the competition, to the point that large arrays land will be leased to small players or will be sold in parts,” Sheremet suggests.
The main goal of the project is to identify the largest agricultural companies and food processing enterprises that have a serious impact on the development of the country's agro-industrial complex, as well as to analyze the effectiveness of their work.
Data collection was carried out in three stages. At the first - preparatory - based on the study of open sources, a list of 300 applicant companies was formed. At the second stage, they were surveyed. At the third stage, missing information was filled in by analyzing statistics, corporate reporting, assessments of sectoral ministries and research organizations, as well as data from the SPARK-Interfax system.
The main ranking criterion is the amount of sales revenue. Subsidiaries, whose indicators are consolidated in the statements of parent holdings, were not included in the main list in order to avoid "double counting".
Additional criteria for compiling sub-ratings were labor productivity and dynamic development. Under the productivity of enterprises in the field of animal husbandry and processing of agricultural products, one should understand the proceeds from sales per employee. Under the productivity of enterprises in the field of crop production - sales revenue per 1 hectare of land. Companies with positive net profit for 2014 and the area of the land fund is more than 80 thousand hectares.
The list of ten dynamically developing companies is ranked in descending order of revenue growth rate. Companies with positive net profit for 2014 were selected.
