bankruptcy symptoms
Rusnano Group cannot pay all its debt obligations using its own money, the company is showing signs of bankruptcy, says In the report published on the website of the organization’s Corporate Disclosure Center.
As stated in Rusnano, as of June 30, 2023, the volume of creditors’ claims against the company, excluding loan interest and accumulated coupon income from issued bonds, significantly exceeded the value of Rusnano’s assets. According to the Bankruptcy Code terminology, the company is in bankruptcy.
“Given the size of accounts payable in the form of loans and bond issues that must be repaid by the end of 2023, it is objectively impossible for Rusnano JSC to fulfill its debt obligations entirely at its own expense,” the report says.
According to data in the same document, the company’s net debt in the first half of 2023 exceeds RUB 95 billion. Since December 2022, the figure has increased by almost 5 billion rubles. The reason given was “the decrease in short-term financial investments” in the first half of this year. The organization did not disclose revenue and profit data.
In December, the company will have to repay 10 billion rubles worth of publicly traded bonds.
Questions since 2013
On October 19, 2022, the Vedomosti newspaper, citing three federal officials, wrote that the government was discussing the issue of disbanding Rusnano. The company itself called for changing the financing model of new projects by increasing the share of private capital, which is the most suitable option for restructuring.
At the same time, Deputy Chairman of the State Duma Committee on Economic Policy Artem Kiryanov noted that Russia should develop the high-tech sector of the economy and ensure a high level of import substitution in this segment. He proposed to accomplish this task by increasing Rusnano’s financial support.
The Accounts Chamber actively discussed the unprofitability and ineffectiveness of Rusnano projects in 2013-2016. In 2020, the company’s losses amounted to approximately 53 billion rubles and its debt amounted to 146 billion rubles. True, in 2021 the company made a net profit of 0.7 billion rubles. However, according to Rusnano, more than 82 billion rubles have been spent on debt servicing since 2021. The development agency’s problems have worsened following sanctions imposed on Russia. In March 2022, the European Union imposed personal restrictive measures against Rusnano’s management.
Why did he run away?
In April 2022, Rusnano’s head, Sergei Kulikov, asked Prosecutor General Igor Krasnov to audit the organization’s work in the period from 2010 to 2020, when it was headed by Anatoly Chubais. As Kulikov noted in his letter, at the end of 2020 Rusnano’s debt was over 146 billion rubles.
Chubais led Rusnano from 2008 to 2020, after which Russian President Vladimir Putin appointed him his special representative for relations with international organizations. According to Bloomberg sources, in March 2022, Chubais left Russia.
Speaking at the Eastern Economic Forum in September, Putin linked Chubais’ departure from Russia to the “financial hole” in Rusnano.
“I don’t understand why he is running away? Maybe it is because of the complex processes taking place in this nanotechnology structure, which he has been heading for many years, and the fact that there is a huge deficit, a huge financial deficit, and huge numbers there,” he said.