Moscow, Russia-based fishing conglomerate AFK Sistema has purchased a stake in two companies in Russia’s Far East, the company announced in a second-quarter 2022 report.
AFK Sistema has acquired a 75 percent stake in Kristall Fish and a 10 percent stake in Khangar, both located in the Kamchatka region of Russia, Interfax reported. Both companies primarily catch and process salmon. AFK Sistema representatives said the company is considering further purchases to build a larger, vertically-integrated corporation.
“Sistema plans to establish a large fishery holding in Kamchatka,” the conglomerate said in its Q2 report.
The deal was made through Kamchatka Project, a Sistema subsidiary specially created for fishing company asset management. Its stakes in Kristall Fish and Khangar were purchased from individual owners for an undisclosed sum, Sistema representative Sergey Kopytov told Interfax.
Kopytov said Sistema plans to increase its ownership stake in Khangar to above 50 percent, without providing details of when that would occur.
The operational headquarters of both Kristall Fish and Khangar are located close to another company called Zarya, in which Sistema holds a 90 percent stake. Sistema acquired Zarya, which also specializes in salmonids, in 2021.
Kopytov said the company's plan is to create a vertically-integrated company called Voskhod (sunrise in Russian). With an annual catch of between 27,000 and 35,000 metric tons (MT) the company will have a range of operations including catching, processing, cold-storage, and transport.
Kristall Fish currently owns four ships. Its revenue in 2021 was RUB 592 million (USD 10.2 million, EUR 10.8 million), with a net profit of RUB 341 million (USD 5.9 million, EUR 6.2 million).
Khangar operates five vessels, and has a processing plant under development with a daily capacity of 180 MT, which is expected to open at the end of 2022. The company’s revenue in 2021 was RUB 348.5 million (USD 5.8 million, EUR 6.3 million), with a net profit of nearly RUB 60 million (USD 1.03 million, EUR 1.09 million).
Zarya’s sales were RUB 4.43 billion (USD 76.4 million, EUR 80.6 million), with a net profit of RUB 1.92 billion (USD 33.1 million, EUR 34.9 million).
The Finmarket agency reported that AFK Sistema has started to raise money for its planned development of Voskhod. The National Settlement Depository reportedly registered a 10-year bond prospect for the Kamchatka project for RUB 20 billion (USD 344.8 million, EUR 363.6 million).
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