Chinese COFCO intends to purchase a share in the grain terminal in Novorossiysk

The Chinese corporation COFCO has started negotiations on acquisition of 25% of KSK from the Group «Delo» of Sergey Shishkarev in Novorossiysk, as reported by the newspaper Commersant.

The source of publication on the grain market estimates the cost of KSK approximately at 100-150 million dollars. Consequently, the corporation may pay 25-37.5 million dollars for 25%.

KSK is the third in terms of the grain terminal size in the Black Sea region of Russia. It is incorporated in a holding company «Deloports» owning stevedoring assets of the Group «Delo» of Sergey Shishkarev.

According to the information of the newspaper «Vedomosti», 5 million tons of grain was shipped for export through the terminal during the season 2017-2018. The proceeds of KSK under IFRS in 2018 made 6 billion rubles, while the net profit exceeded 4 billion rubles.

In 2013 the partner to the project was the American Cargill company which purchased a 25% share of «Deloports» plus one share. Cargill do not participate in the negotiations with COFCO. 

The state-owned company COFCO was founded in 1949. It is a top supplier of agricultural products: grain, sugar, oil and cotton. The company proceeds in 2017 made 69.7 billion US dollars, while the net profit made 393.5 million US dollars. At this, more than half of the company’s revenue is yielded by foreign business. So far COFCO has no port capacities for grain transshipment in Russia.