Miratorg who is the owner. Who owns Miratorg? The history of the creation and development of the company

Since 2005, the Miratorg agricultural holding has turned from an importer of Dutch meat into a practically monopoly in the production of pork in Russia - not without the help of aggressive expansion into the regions and multi-billion subsidies from the state. However, it seems that instead of a civilized production of meat by farms, the state has raised a monster, the collapse of which will lead to the collapse of the entire agriculture of the country. And this should not be ruled out.

The owners of the Miratorg agricultural holding are the twin brothers Linnik Victor and Alexander. The official president of the holding is Viktor Linnik. The one that recently initiated the proposal " strengthen controls on luggage and hand luggage at the border and increase liability for illegal imports of products of animal origin". That is, to completely ban the transport of jamon and parmesan across the border, including for personal use.

In an interview with Forbes, Viktor Linnik explained his initiative as follows: I have never imported: jamon should be eaten in Spain, bresaola in Italy, parmesan in France. If I need something in Russia, I go and buy local products". Well, his legendary saying, which outraged many: “ The public needs to think about the development of their own country, and not about jamon and parmesan, which is what we are constantly doing. They threw a tantrum out of nothing, balabols».

It is strange to hear these words from the owner of a company that started a business importing meat from Holland and Brazil. To simplify the work, 2 years after the opening of the business (in 1997), Linnik's company founded a branch in the Kaliningrad fishing port, through which it imported meat into the country. So they worked for about 10 years.

Success story for the public account

Miratorg's success story began in 2005 with the purchase of shares in two BelgoFrance pig farms in the Belgorod Region. So the importer began to turn into a meat production monopoly in Russia. After Belgorod, the company becomes a co-founder of a farm in the Kaliningrad region. A little later, the Linniks entered Bryansk.

Since 2008, Miratorg has been fortunate enough to integrate into the state program for the development of agriculture. And, using his status, he confidently walked around the country. In the regions, the agricultural holding often received land in temporary free ownership by order of the government, with the personal signature of Dmitry Medvedev.

According to the data of the Kontur.focus service for checking counterparties, ABH Miratorg LLC is the founder of 36 operating organizations in eight regions of the country. The Linnik brothers especially swung in the Kursk region - their company operates in 13 districts of the region. It includes a pig farm " Pristenskiy", AF " Blagodatenskaya», « Pristenskaya Grain Company», « Oboyan grain company", company " rebirth", OOO " Fatezh lamb"and LLC" Miratorg-Kursk". Not far from Kursk, Miratorg is building Europe's largest slaughterhouse with a capacity of 4.5 million heads of pigs, or 400,000 tons of meat per carcass weight. In two more districts of the Kursk region, Miratorg is building 7 pig farms.

According to Miratorg statistics, from 2009 to 2017, more than 17 billion rubles of investments were directed to the agro-industrial complex of the Kursk region. However, it is worth clarifying that the Linnik brothers mainly use state money.

Since 2015, due to sanctions on the import of imported meat into Russia, Miratorg has become a strategic enterprise. These regalia allow companies with Cypriot roots to receive preferential loans from Vnesheconombank.

The Russian budget sponsors domestic enterprises of the agro-industrial complex through subsidies and subsidies. In Russia, there are no restrictions on subsidizing a certain agricultural holding. Using subsidiaries opened in different regions, the agroholding can also receive regional subsidies. For example, in the same Bryansk region in 2016, the Bryansk Meat Company received 98% of all subsidies sent to the region from the federal budget for the development of agriculture. What did the local farmers, left without funds, think?

Only one subsidiary of Miratorg received subsidized loans in one year 33.6 billion rubles. But the more branches - the more credit lines. That is, since 2005, subsidies received by Miratorg can amount to hundreds of billions of rubles. It turns out that instead of supporting competition and meat production by farms, the state has raised a monopoly monster, the collapse of which will lead to the collapse of the entire agriculture of the country. And such a scenario is quite possible.

Where is the profit?

In 2017, Miratorg produced 415 thousand tons of pork, 114 thousand tons of poultry meat and 82 thousand tons of beef. Last year the numbers were about the same. Agroholding is the main supplier of meat for huge fast food chains like McDonald's and BurgerKing. He also develops his cafes, and even launched a supermarket chain.

According to data from open sources, in 2016 Miratorg's profit decreased by 5 times and amounted to only 5 billion rubles. Things didn't get any better in the years that followed. And this, by the way, with multi-billion dollar subsidies from the federal budget. It seems that the scheme is suspiciously similar not to supporting the country's agriculture, but to a possible withdrawal of budget funds from Russia to Cypriot offshores?

It is known that the accounts and founders' shares of the agricultural holding of the Linnikov brothers are located outside of Russia. 100% of Miratorg's shares are controlled by Cypriot offshore companies: LLC Agromir" (despite the Russian abbreviation, the company is registered in Nicosia) and " Southade Enterprises Ltd". You can talk about the development of your own country as much as you like, but it would be nice to pay taxes in Russian jurisdiction.

For jamon on a personal Gulf Stream

In the meantime, Viktor Vyacheslavovich Linnik is thinking about Russia, only in 2018, the enterprises that are part of his agricultural holding received dozens of fines from Rospotrebnadzor: for staphylococcus bacteria in products, for using regulated food (animals are fed with prohibited products, and then this meat gets to to your table). And also for unsanitary conditions and storage of waste next to finished products.

And last year, Roskontrol found antibiotics, dangerous bacteria and traces of salt injections in the thighs of Miratorg chickens. The last injection is to increase the weight of the products.

On the Roskontrol website, you can find information about several Miratorg products that are not recommended for purchase. In particular, homemade meatballs and nuggets with cheese are considered insufficient quality. Violations are associated with the contamination of products with microbes, with a mismatch in the composition, the presence of antimicrobial chemicals.

Whether the Linnik brothers eat their products stuffed with antibiotics and dangerous bacteria is a big question. Unlike most Russians, the owner of Miratorg does not need to import jamon and parmesan: he always has a personal Gulfstream GIV-X G450(issue 2014).

The jet purchased in January 2017 for $20 million, according to the information of the Baza online publication, is registered with V&A AERO INC (USA, Delaware). An interesting coincidence: V and A in the name of the company coincides with the names of the owners of Miratorg (Viktor and Alexander Linnik).

Last year alone, the plane took off 100 times. The annual maintenance of a business jet costs its owners $ 3-5 million. But the brothers can afford to go "for jamon to Spain, for bresaola to Italy, for parmesan - to France." In this situation, it is really bad manners to bring overseas products to Russia.

The current political and economic situation in the country turned out to be unfavorable for some business sectors, but the position of other players in the food market proves the opposite. A striking example of this is Miratorg, whose name evokes ambiguous emotions, but the main question is who owns Miratorg?

The history of the creation and development of the company

The history of its creation begins in the early 90s of the last century. Engineers by education, two brothers Alexander and Victor decided to improve their finances and went into the tourism business.

One of the tourists recommended that the brothers bring a machine with powdered milk from the Netherlands and sell it in Russia. He also financed Victor and Alexander in the form of a loan. As a result, the Linnik brothers made good money on this and continued to import imported products, including meat, into the country. The business turned out to be profitable and in 1995 they founded Miratorg.

It was much easier to get loans for goods from Western producers at that time, because the huge country was a large-scale untapped market. However, three years later there was a crisis, after which many importers simply could not repay loans to their Western counterparts, explaining the current situation by force majeure.

Nevertheless, the brothers got out of this situation, and from that moment in the West they gained a reputation as reliable and worthy partners. Having an analytical mindset and well-coordinated work in tandem, the Linniks come to the conclusion that it is more promising to bring other varieties of meat into the territory, not chicken legs.

The risk was that, unlike others, they imported meat not from the West or the United States, but from Brazil. A little later, they entered into an agreement on very favorable terms with one of the largest beef producers Sadia, a little later they began to cooperate with another large Brazilian concern.

This cooperation allowed the Linniks to be one of the first to import good quality meat at an affordable price into the country. A little later, together with their Latin American partners, with the financial support of Vnesheconombank, the Concordia plant was opened. A quarter of the production went to meet the needs for meat products of the McDonald's network. A little later, Miratorg became the owner of 60 percent of the enterprise.

Development of activities and production base

The risk of importing Brazilian meat into the country was justified, and the introduction in 2003 of quotas for the import of meat products from abroad was another bonus. The norm of allowed products was regulated for each country separately. It was not considered possible to bring chicken meat in excess of the limited norm, and beef and pork could be imported, but at high customs tariffs.

Miratorg initially supplied pork and beef in excess of the norm in order to bring the same volume next time, but already within the quotas. The priority of the founders was uninterrupted large volumes, ensuring further long-term cooperation with their foreign partners. Unlike their competitors, who sold a batch within a week, they sold the goods in just a few days.

Rosselkhoznadzor granted the company the authority to supply meat to processing enterprises. Despite the activity of import (import), the Linniks understood that the further development of their company depended on the production of their own meat products.

Importing allowed them to become owners of their own pig farms. They came up with a global business development strategy:

• A transport and logistics structure was created (transport company, including transport and storage warehouses);
• Production of pork, as well as animal feed;
• Creation of an agro-industrial holding that controls all stages from the supply of raw materials, their production and to the sale of finished products.

In 2005, the country's leadership took the direction to develop its own agricultural production.

Financial support was allocated in the form of subsidies for loans taken for the development of agricultural production. In the same year, Miratorg acquired 40 percent of two pig farms located in the Belgorod region, most of which belonged to a French company. Two years later, the brothers became the sole owners of the enterprise.

In 2006, together with the company of the deputy governor of the region at that time, a facility for slaughter and primary processing of meat "Korocha" was erected. However, the partnership did not last long and, with the onset of another crisis (2008), Korocha was bought from partners.

The production was almost ready, but there was not enough investment to complete it. In 2009, after the visit of the Prime Minister and Deputy Prime Minister, the issue of funding from Vnesheconombank was resolved. VEB gave the brothers a loan.

• The state supported the holding in connection with its ability to provide the country with worthy products;
• Strict control of all departments of the supply chain;
• Increasing our own production base;
• Decrease in imports of meat products;
• Retail network development.

All this brought the agricultural holding to the first positions in its segment.

The direction of the holding

Having chosen a full-cycle development strategy, from growing to selling products, the owner is obliged to carry out his activities in several directions at once.

1. The company grows crops for the purpose of their further use. It buys land from owners and develops the sector. The approximate volume of investments is 165 billion rubles.
2. Production of our own high-quality feed. The main enterprises are located in the Belgorod and Bryansk regions.
3. Pig complexes are fully automated and equipped with modern technologies. This allows you to breed and maintain a huge tribe of sows.
4. Beef production provides its own farms and slaughter facilities, respectively equipped with advanced equipment.
5. Own poultry farms, which produce about 75 thousand tons of chicken.
6. The construction of a plant for the production of semi-finished products makes it possible to produce about two hundred items of a wide variety of products.
7. Approximately the same amount is produced by the plant of frozen fruits, berries and vegetables. Thanks to the shock freezing method, all of them retain their properties.
8. Own logistics, the turnover of which is about three million tons. In the presence of a fleet consisting of specialized vehicles for transporting goods.
9. Retail network. Initially, there were about 50 stores located in seven regions of the country, but due to unprofitability, some stores had to be closed. The same outlets that have remained specialize in the sale of the holding's goods, which include about three hundred product items.

Competitive advantages

Miratorg production has a high productivity, which is ensured by the following criteria:

• Quality control of products at all stages of production is achieved through a full cycle;
• All production facilities of the holding are automated due to the installation of only modern equipment;
• The holding staff consists only of qualified specialists. Managers recruit trained and trained personnel. Miratorg cooperates with 30 higher educational institutions of agricultural and technical orientation;
• The quality of products is due to the strictest observance of environmental standards;
• Good value for money product, plus a wide range.

Assets and revenue figures

The holding's assets are impressive. This is the data given in Wikipedia:

1. Companies for the cultivation and processing of grain in the amount of two objects occupy a total area of ​​​​about 400 thousand hectares.
2. Four feed mills, on average, produce about 1.5 million feed per year.
3. 33 cattle farms.
4. 27 pig farms.
5. 19 poultry farms.
6. 14 fully automated warehouses for product storage.

Elevators, slaughterhouses and primary processing of meat, production facilities for the manufacture of products, a logistics and distribution company, a network of retail stores can be added to the assets.

Since last year, a chain selling burgers of its own production has been launched. According to the Forbes magazine rating, in 2016 the holding ranked 70th in terms of revenue, which amounted to 108 billion rubles.

Miratorg and Dmitry Medvedev: connection

And yet, most of the officials are concerned about the question of who is the real owner of Miratorg. And this is reasonable, given the global assistance to the holding from the Government of the Russian Federation. Collecting dirt on the company and its founders, the experts revealed an interesting feature. The wife of Dmitry Anatolyevich Medvedev was nee Linnik, but the general director of the holding denies this relationship and considers it just a coincidence.

On May 3, 2019, the press service of the Government of the Russian Federation issued an official denial of family ties between the Linnik brothers and Svetlana Medvedeva.

Founders and owners

And yet, Miratorg, whose firm? The owners of the agricultural holding are both brothers. The post of President of the company is held by Viktor Linnik, and his brother Alexander is Chairman of the Board of Directors.

Many do not believe in the unprecedented success of ordinary engineers due to the fact that Miratorg received loans from state-owned banks VTB and Vnesheconombank.

On the other hand, Russia has been under sanctions for a long time and has introduced counter-sanctions on the supply of European products. Thus, a course was taken for import substitution and development of own production for food security purposes, and such lending is understandable.

Now the holding is developing a new direction, breeding a special beef breed of cows, whose meat is known as marbled. The price for each head of cattle is rather big, and at the initial stage, the leaders hired real cowboys from the United States.

vertically integrated agro-industrial holding, the largest pork producer. Shareholders: Viktor and Alexander Linnik (50% each). Financial indicators (IFRS, 2012): Revenue - 48.1 billion rubles, Net profit - 11.2 billion rubles.

Two large investment projects of Miratorg - poultry farming and cattle breeding - are not included in the business of the group: formally they belong to the owners of Miratorg, brothers Viktor and Alexander Linnik. “These projects are structured as a parallel business of shareholders, not directly related to financial flows, assets and liabilities of the ABH Miratorg group,” the bank’s presentation says. Zenith”(he, together with Gazprombank and Sberbank, is the organizer of the issue of three series of exchange-traded bonds of the company for a total of 13 billion rubles). Miratorg Vice President for Finance Vadim Kotenko confirmed this information. These projects, he explained, are not consolidated into the company's IFRS perimeter, so as not to burden the group responsible for obligations to investors with additional debt. At Miratorg itself, according to Kotenko, there are no significant guarantees and pledges for cattle and poultry breeding projects. These projects are in the investment stage and do not yet generate revenue, but at the same time they have a debt burden secured by the pledges of the projects themselves, Kotenko explained.

Miratorg is one of the largest vertically integrated agricultural holdings in the country. It combines the production of grain, feed, pork, its own processing, the production of semi-finished products, storage facilities and distribution. Miratorg is the largest pork producer in Russia: the company has 23 pig complexes with a total design capacity of 340,000 tons in live weight per year. According to the company's own estimates, it accounts for about 30% of industrial pork production.

Until now, it was believed that both beef and poultry meat were also going to be produced by Miratorg. It was not known that these businesses were not part of the group. The beef production project is the largest in the country: it is assumed that only the mother herd will number 112,000 head, 33 farms will be built in the Bryansk region. As Viktor Linnik, the president and co-owner of Miratorg, said last year in an interview with Vedomosti, investments in this project should amount to 24 billion rubles. and mainly bank loans (VEB and Gazprombank). Investments in the poultry project (it is also planned in Bryansk) should amount to 22 billion rubles, according to the Zenith report.

The debt burden of Miratorg itself, excluding two projects under construction, at the end of 2012 amounted to 58.5 billion rubles. The group's revenue for the past year amounted to 48.1 billion rubles, EBITDA - 15.2 billion rubles. (i.e. the debt was 1.2 of the company's revenue and 3.7 of EBITDA). Almost 60% of Miratorg's debt, according to Kotenko, is long-term and subsidized loans.

When these projects reach design capacity and start producing beef and poultry, they can be included in the group, Kotenko says. According to Miratorg's plans, the poultry project should reach its design capacity in 2015, and beef production in 2017.

Miratorg's debt-to-EBITDA ratio is high, but agricultural enterprises can afford a higher debt burden than producers from other sectors by subsidizing interest rates on investment loans, says VTB Capital analyst Mikhail Galkin. The producer receives subsidies from the moment the loan is issued: beef producers receive a 100% refinancing rate from the federal budget, and poultry producers receive an 80% rate (they can receive another 20% from regional budgets). Miratorg shareholders' projects receive subsidies, says Miratorg ABH General Director Alexander Nikitin.

The head of government, as if by chance, decided to personally get acquainted with the implementation of the investment project of the Miratorg company in the field of beef cattle breeding, implemented in the region. To this end, Medvedev went straight to visit the American Miratorg cows at one of the farms in the Trubchevsky district.

Lobby at the government level

This is not the first time a high rank from the government performs a dance with a tambourine around the interests of Miratorg.

Recall that a month earlier, on April 18, First Deputy Chairman of the Government of the Russian Federation Viktor Zubkov visited Bryansk, who held a meeting on the development of beef cattle breeding in the Russian Federation. He also held a separate meeting with the President of the Miratorg agricultural holding Viktor Linnik and Governor Nikolai Denin, where they discussed the engineering and technical support of the Miratorg project and, attention, “issues of interaction between regional authorities and the agricultural holding.”

What can we say, when looking at this “interaction” between the Denin administration and Miratorg, the proverb involuntarily comes to mind: “make a fool pray to God, he will hurt his forehead.”

So Governor Denin, in an effort to please Miratorg, by his order deprived 40 farms of the Bryansk region of state assistance, which was promised to them by the administration and documented. Farmers who took out loans in anticipation of government subsidies, in simple terms, were "thrown" and found themselves on the verge of survival.

All the money - 625 million rubles - allocated under the program "Development of beef cattle breeding in the Bryansk region" went to Miratorg's daughter - "Bryansk Meat Company", which, judging by extracts from the Unified State Register of Legal Entities, is 99% owned by the Cyprus offshore company "MAHOE INVESTMENTS LIMITED" ( MANOE INVESTMENTS LIMITED). The newspaper BRYANSK.RU wrote about this in the article “The administration of the Bryansk region withdrew 625 million offshore”.

About the support of Miratorg at the level of the first persons of the state, Nikolai Denin himself awkwardly blurted out at a meeting with the then Prime Minister Putin on December 24, 2010:

“Thanks to your support, the largest beef cattle breeding project in Russia is now being implemented. Already received - the decision was made by you - 260 million, the first tranche of Vnesheconombank," Denin reported.

Even state-owned companies never dreamed of such attention from the side of the "tendem", they are no longer talking about private, even large, business. An inquisitive mind is haunted by a reasonable question: Where does such love come from?

Deliberately dizzying takeoff

Miratorg is one of the largest producers and distributors of meat and semi-finished meat products in Russia. The holding ranks 60th in the ranking of the 200 largest non-public companies in Russia according to Forbes magazine.

The owners of Miratorg in Russia are the brothers Viktor and Alexander Linnik. The story of the rise of "their" business is like a fairy tale.

During the shortage of 1993-1994, the Linniks took up the distribution of food products. At first they supplied powdered milk, importing it from Holland. Then they started importing meat. They brought pork, poultry and beef from Europe. After some time, Miratorg created its own production and built 12 pig farms in the Belgorod region.

After the success with the pigs, Miratorg easily and naturally took out multibillion-dollar loans from semi-state banks - Vnesheconombank and VTB. As we wrote above, according to Governor Nikolai Denin, the issuance of these loans on fabulous terms for the borrower was personally authorized by Vladimir Putin, being Prime Minister.

Miratorg is in debt, like in silks. The volume of investments only for the "beef" project in the Bryansk region is 24 billion rubles. The main part of this money is loans.

Viktor Linnik, answering journalists' questions about the reasons for such obvious support from the government, complains about the efficiency and importance of his company, which "there" see and realize...

Uncomfortable questions: what is Miratorg hiding?

It is difficult to believe in the official success story against the background of several curious facts. ABH Miratorg is a non-public structure established in Russia, judging by extracts from the Unified State Register of Legal Entities, by several offshore companies from Cyprus.

The actual beneficiaries of Miratorg, the owners of the Cypriot parent firms, are unknown.

The arguments of the Miratorg representatives that the founders in Cyprus are an attempt to protect the company from threats inside Russia are designed for fools. What threatens such a beautiful, "white and fluffy" business, which, moreover, is lobbied by Medvedev and Putin?

By the way, investments in Russia come from Cyprus as from a cornucopia and, according to official information, account for 41% of the total number of foreign investments. Russia is the only country that agreed to provide financial assistance to Cyprus, which is experiencing difficulties due to the global financial crisis. In December last year, Russia allocated 2.5 billion euros to Cyprus.

Why? Yes, because there, in particular, in addition to Miratorg, there are registered subsidiaries of VTB (Russian Commercial Bank), Promsvyazbank, Alfa-Bank, representative offices of Renaissance Capital, Troika Dialog, and Otkritie. Most of the Russian assets of Evraz are owned by the Cypriot Mastercroft. Rosneft owns a 51% stake in Shell Caspian Ventures Ltd. Lukoil's assets include LukOil Cyprus Ltd, K&S Baltic Offshore (Cyprus) Ltd, LukOil Overseas Cyprus Ltd and Bitech Cyprus Ltd. Cypriot subsidiary of Norilsk Nickel - Norilsk Nickel Cyprus Ltd. And this is just the tip of the iceberg. If Cyprus goes under, it will cost someone dearly.

Companies come to Cyprus with quite understandable goals. Offshore business is a way to minimize taxation and hide the ownership structure. In addition, it is an opportunity for companies to profitably play with transfer prices and loans. And, of course, get out of the jurisdiction of the judicial system of the Russian Federation - one of the most corrupt and controlled in the world.

It is also believed that a huge amount of corrupt money stolen in Russia is concentrated in Cyprus. Dirty money that is returned to Russia under the guise of investments and thus laundered.

Family contract or government corruption?

Another curious fact: the maiden name of the wife of yesterday's Russian President Dmitry Medvedev is Linnik. There is a version that the formal owners of Miratorg, Viktor and Alexander Linnik, are cousins ​​to Svetlana Medvedeva. Miratorg - Medvedev's project?

However, Viktor Linnik rejects the version of kinship with Svetlana Medvedeva: “I can assure you: this is just a coincidence. We are not related,” he says, quite expectedly. And is there anything else to say? Pure lies, they make idiots out of the people. And the point here is that in the regulation on entrepreneurial activity, approved by the government and the State Duma, there is such a clause that it is forbidden to engage in entrepreneurial activity for all officials, regardless of rank, their relatives, friends , which they have long ignored and create family contracts where possible and where not. Russia is rotten in theft and corruption because such bastards sit on the neck of the people in power.

We are more than twice ahead of the nearest competitor in the production of pork with an indicator of more than 420 thousand tons and came out on top in Russia in the production of beef - over 100 thousand tons in 2018. These achievements are based on advanced technologies, highly qualified employees and well-organized business processes.

High
production
indicators

We annually increase the volume of manufactured products. In 2018, we produced 114,000 tons of poultry meat, 423,000 tons of pork, and 108,000 tons of beef. Beef production volumes have almost tripled since 2015.

Conformity
world environmental
standards

We care about the environment, comply with biosecurity standards and adhere to the principles of ethical business conduct. The environmental friendliness and naturalness of the product remain one of the obvious competitive advantages of Miratorg - we raise animals without the use of antibiotics and growth hormones, our products do not contain GMOs.

Modern
technology and
innovative approach

We are actively developing in the field of modern technologies: automatic maintenance of the microclimate, lighting level, automated feed and water supply, the use of robots and automated lines allow us to guarantee consistently high product quality.

Full cycle
production:
from field to fork

We carry out the entire production cycle ourselves: from the production of animal feed to retail sales in retail outlets. This allows us to control the quality of products at all stages, and also ensures the optimal cost of the product and its affordable price on the store shelf.

Qualified
personnel and professional
employee growth

We create new jobs, provide stable work with decent wages, all social guarantees and opportunities for professional growth. Miratorg today is one of the largest employers in the agricultural sector of the economy; more than 37,000 people work at our enterprises. We cooperate with 40 major agricultural and technical universities, have introduced our own scholarship program for promising students and have opened up wide opportunities for internships.

quality
products
at affordable prices

We offer Russians a wide range of safe and affordable meat thanks to a modern quality management system.