"Russian-Vysotskaya poultry farm" will continue to work

The decision of the owners of the bankrupt Russian-Vysotskaya Poultry Farm to terminate its activities has been canceled. The Governor of the Leningrad Region, Alexander Drozdenko, announced in his TELEGRAM channel that the enterprise could be transferred to temporary management. To whom exactly, he did not specify. Last week, the owners of the company announced the closure of production and the dismissal of workers.

According to the governor, despite the fact that the owners of the poultry farm Mikhail Osipov (28%), Dmitry Kozharsky (36%) and Lyubov Belous (36%) have already announced its closure and dismissal of employees, an interested investor was found who is ready to save jobs and work with a poultry farm. “The owners decided that they could use the land for other purposes. For example, housing construction. We got lost,” said Drozdenko. According to him, the enterprise plays an important role in providing the Leningrad region and St. Petersburg with food, so he was forced to use the additional powers granted to the heads of regions by presidential decree.

The possibility of transferring the assets of the poultry farm to the temporary management of the Russian company was considered at the operational headquarters for the sustainable development of the economy. An appeal is also being prepared to the prosecutor's office with a request to respond to the intention of the owner, who planned a deliberate bankruptcy, Drozdenko said.

According to the press service of the government of the Leningrad Region, the Russian-Vysotskaya Poultry Farm is in the top 5 agricultural enterprises in the region in terms of production volumes. In 2021, it produced 15 thousand tons of broiler MEAT. The company employs about 400 employees. The total revenue of the factory last year amounted to about 1.5 billion rubles.

On March 17, the property complex of the enterprise was put up for auction with an initial cost of 2.7 billion rubles, Kommersant writes. According to the publication, the auction is organized by Serenity LLC on behalf of the bankruptcy trustee Sergei Shokarev. According to cadastral data, the land plot under the poultry farm occupies 35.9 hectares.

“Most likely, the planned transfer of assets under the control of a Russian investor means plans to sell the enterprise of an insolvent debtor at an announced auction,” Oleg Permyakov, partner at the law firm Rustam Kurmaev and Partners, told Kommersant. “If the sale goes through, then the amount of money raised could cover the claims of all the creditors of the insolvent factory.” According to him, subject to the preservation of production capacity, the enterprise can continue to work under the leadership of a new owner.

Dmitry Markov, financial analyst and author of Finam's auto-tracking strategies, suggests that the most likely applicants for the poultry farm are large local players: Sinyavinskaya, Severnaya, and Roskar. The expert estimates the value of the Russian-Vysotskaya poultry farm business at 300-400 million rubles. given the high debt load. The general DIRECTOR of the Sinyavinskaya poultry farm Artur Kholdoenko said that the company is not interested in buying the Russian-Vysotskaya poultry farm.

“Poultry farming could potentially suffer from sanctions, as there is a dependence on the import of part of the hatching eggs, vitamins, veterinary drugs, and feed,” Markov told Kommersant. “In general, the demand for chicken meat in RUSSIA is saturated, EXPORT opportunities are limited, so a significant increase in domestic production is not expected.”