Moscow, Russia-based ZET Holdings – a subsidiary of the Antey Group, owned by Igor Mikhnov and Arkady Pinchevsky – has acquired Murmansk-based Zigrand, a subsidiary of the North-Western Fishery Consortium.
ZET-Holdings was established earlier this year, with Mikhnov and Pinchevsky each holding 49 percent stakes in the company, and company director Evgeny Fedorenko having the remaining two percent stake. Its acquisition of Zigrand was reported by Russian media, with the purchase price not released publicly.
With ZET’s purchase of Zigrand, it acquires the snow crab quotas the company possesses in the Barents Sea. Zigrand had rights to fish 3,290 metric tons (MT) of snow crab, and in 2020, the company used that right to fish nearly 3,300 MT of crab, worth RUB 3.2 billion (USD 42.9 million, EUR 38 million). The company’s quotas will remain valid until 2033.
Since 2020, Mikhnov and Pinchevsky have also owned Antey Upravlenie Aktivami (Antey Assets Management), which has stakes in Antey Sever (Antey North) – which won five lots during the crab auctions in late 2019. The company paid RUB 18.2 billion (USD 246 million, EUR 218 million) for the five lots, and in 2021, its quota came in at more than 6,000 MT.
Antey Upravlenie Aktivami also has a stake in Alestar, which has 1,100 MT of crab quota, according to Russian business publication Vedomosti – and stakes in TRK, which owns 2,100 MT of quota. Additionally, the North-Western Fishery Consortium won five lots during the 2019 crab auctions, equivalent to almost 5,800 MT of crab, business paper Kommersant reported. All told, if the numbers are accurate, the Antey group of companies could now have direct or indirect control of over 10,000 MT of crab quota – a sum that approaches the totals owned by the “crab king” Gleb Frank, who put in the winning bids on 10 lots during the crab-quota auction.
According to an anonymous source cited by Kommersant, the sale of Zigrand to ZET-Holdings may be related to the owners of North-Western Fishery Consortium wanting to reduce overhead costs and invest the new capital in other projects – such as the second investment-quota program, which is likely to take place in 2023.
Kommersant valued Zigrand’s business at RUB 15 billion to RUB 20 billion (USD 201.6 million to USD 268.6 million, EUR 178.6 million to EUR 238.2 million), based on its calculations of the company's earnings and industry multipliers.
According to the All-Russian Association of Fishing Industry (VARPE), Russia has exported 38,100 MT of crab worth USD 866 million (767.63 million) in 2021 through August.
Photo courtesy of Antey Group
