Tavros Group acquires stake in Leningrad Region meat processing plant

MOSCOW. Jan 17 (Interfax) - Tavros Group, a major Russian diversified agribusiness group has acquired a 33% stake in Tosnensky Meat Processing Plant LLC (MPK Tosnensky) in Leningrad Region, the Unified State Register of Legal Entities shows.

Law firm JSC Winner and Andrei Shutilin are also listed as the owners of 33% stakes each. The plant was previously owned by a number of individuals.

National daily Kommersant, which first reported on the acquisition, cited investment banker Ilya Shumov as saying that 100% of the Tosnensky plant is valued at about 300 million rubles. He also said Tavros might be exploring the possibility of acquiring other assets nearby, as the profit margin in livestock slaughtering is near zero and this business is a supplement to livestock farming and subsequent processing. Tavros does not have such businesses nearby other than the Oredezh poultry plant.

Tavros Group, whose main operations are in Bashkortostan, is one of Russia's top 40 owners of farmland, with 179,000 hectares, according to auditing and consulting firm BEFL. The group also includes nine pig farms for almost 30,000 breeding sows, poultry farms, meat processing plants, and compound feed, sugar and confectionary production facilities.

Tavros led the agribusiness sector in mergers and acquisitions in 2023, with six acquisitions totalling $118 million, Russian Agricultural Bank reported. The group is 99.01% owned by closed-end mutual fund Agro Capital.