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Eastern Europe
September 8, 2017 www.intellinews.com I Page 18
The vodka business' outstanding debts were restructured, and Tariko's share in the company declined to 61.4%.
Also in 2016, Tariko was forced to sell the group’s pension fund to cover the obligations. The pension fund was taken over by Mikhail Shishkhanov's B&N Bank after it was pledged
to them as collateral for previous loans. Tariko was scrambling to sell assets in a bid to stave off his lender's bankruptcy and pay its bondholders, including offloading a management company
to BCS Financial Group. The pension fund has assets of about RUB5.5bn ($70mn) representing about 139,000 clients, according to RBK.
However, the worst now seems to be over for Tariko thanks to soaring vodka sales. His drinks holding, Roust, is the world's second largest vodka producer and saw its US GAAP revenue jump 16.8% to $131.5mn in January-March,
the company reported on September 1. The company's Ebitda was also up 8% to $7.9mn.
At the same time retail credits have been growing this year after more than two years of contraction, which will also bolster the bank’s bottom line.
"The January-March 2017 period saw a record growth in [vodka] sales in all markets," Tariko said in a press release.
Roust's growth comes against the backdrop of the Russian vodka market's recovery. In 2016, vodka production grew 16% y/y to 73.2mn decalitres (daL), and retail sales increased by 0.5% to
81mn daL. In January-June 2017, vodka output continued to grow, adding 24% y/y.
The government's crackdown on illegal vodka production thanks to the EGAIS excise duty system is among the main factors benefiting the industry, Vedomosti reported. Previously illegal vodka production accounted for an estimated 40% of
all sales, but Vedomosti reports that illegitimate vodka sales in Russia are now insignificant.
Russia's RusHydro to invest $1bn in Far East solar power
Vadim Dumesh in Paris
Russia is getting the renewables bug. Dubbed
a petroeconomy by many, the Kremlin has for several years now been chipping away at policies designed to diversify away from hydrocarbons. Leading utilities company and hydropower major RusHydro will invest $1bn into developing solar power projects in the Far East region, deputy head of the company George Rizhinashvili told the press at the Eastern Economic Forum.
RusHydro has a three- and a five-year plan, but the company "absolutely commits to 40-50MW of solar output at least" in the Yakutia region right in the geographic middle of the country, Rizhi-
nashvili said. In the mid-term the programme could grow to 250-300MW and about $1bn, he added.
The nascent renewable energy sector has seen other deals recently, such the state-owned high- tech promotion agency Rosnano teaming up with Finland's power company Fortum to set up a wind power development fund.
Over the next five years the partners plan to invest RUB30bn ($526mn) into wind farms projects across the country that can generate several hun- dred megawatts of power. The investments will be