Next articleWhat will Rosatom do with logistics assets

On October 7, Rosatom closed a deal to buy a stake in the transport and logistics group Delo from businessman Sergey Shishkarev, the parties said. After the acquisition of the entrepreneur’s share (51% of the capital of the management company), the state corporation received 100% ownership of Delo Group.

The parties completed Russia’s first “Russian roulette” procedure, launched at the beginning of the year after a corporate conflict between Shishkarev and the leadership of Rosatom. Sources of RBC said that the parties estimated Shishkarev’s share at 77 billion rubles. Now Rosatom, in addition to Delo Group, has 92.5% of the transport and logistics group FESCO (Far Eastern Shipping Company). Thus, the state corporation controls the largest transport and logistics holdings in Russia with railway, port and shipping logistics assets.

How the parties commented on the deal

“Over seven years of cooperation, we managed to do a lot together, but at the same time insurmountable differences about the future of the group have brought us to a point where our paths diverge today,” Shishkarev said. He thanked the team of the Delo group, the people with whom he managed to grow "from a small forwarding company of the national logistics champion." He noted that the company remains a leader in the industry, despite the fact that it is going through a difficult period.

“I intend to continue to serve my country where my experience and knowledge can bring the greatest benefit,” Shishkarev said. I still associate my future with Russian logistics, sports and, of course, my native Novorossiysk. I will focus on projects in the field of transport sovereignty, handball support, adaptive sport and demographics. As promised, a significant part of the amount received from the transaction will be spent on national security.”.

Rosatom CEO Alexei Likhachev said that the state corporation will now begin to complete the consolidation of all logistics assets under its control. The result will be the creation of the largest national logistics company. Our strategic goals are to strengthen the transport sovereignty of our country, ensure sustainable international transportation and develop the Northern Sea Route, and with it the Trans-Arctic Transport Corridor. We are grateful to Sergey Shishkarev for almost seven years of partnership. His professional view, experience and competence seriously helped the formation of the logistics division of the state corporation, Likhachev said.

He noted that the formation of a common control center for Delo Group, FESCO and other transport assets of Rosatom will allow to build a unified system of multimodal logistics, including road, rail and sea transportation, ports, forwarding and seamless service. The consolidation of assets will eliminate duplication of investment investments, which in the next ten years will potentially save up to 100 billion rubles.

How Rosatom and Shishkarev became partners

Delo Group was established in 1993 in Novorossiysk, Shishkarev’s hometown (125th place in the Forbes ranking with a fortune of $ 1 billion in 2024).

The holding actively expanded in the 2010s. In 2017, he acquired 30.75% of the Global Ports port holding from Transportation Investments Holding Ltd (H-Trans holding). On the London Stock Exchange, where Global Ports traded, the package was worth about $238 million. After the start of the special operation in Ukraine in 2022, Delu managed to buy the share of Danish A.P. Moeller – Maersk A/S in Global Ports – 30.75% of the shares. After the purchase of other shares, the group consolidated more than 90% of the port holding.

In 2019, Delo Group became the largest railway container operator in Russia, buying 50% plus two shares of TransContainer from Russian Railways for 60.3 billion rubles.

Soon after, 30% of the Criminal Code Delo through Atomenergoprom was bought by Rosatom. The purpose of the transaction, the parties explained, is the development of a new logistics direction and the creation of a platform for the global international transport and logistics business, including on the Asia-Europe-Asia route and through the Northern Sea Route (NSR; the state corporation became the infrastructure operator of the project in 2018). The share of Rosatom in the Delo Criminal Code further increased to 49%.

In 2023, the revenue of the Criminal Code "Delo" under RAS amounted to 41.4 billion rubles, net profit - 37.6 billion rubles. Group revenue under IFRS in 2024 decreased by 8%, to $ 3.12 billion, EBITDA rose to $ 1 billion from $ 998 million in 2023. These data Shishkarev indicated in November 2025 in the presentation of the company.

How the co-owners of the case quarreled

The corporate conflict started a few years ago. At the end of 2024, the parties agreed to involve Transmashholding (TMH) to resolve differences. TMH was to receive a 49 percent stake in Dela in exchange for a stake in Rosatom. After that, the state corporation would continue to control the share in Dele through TMH. At the end of 2025, Shishkarev announced that the deal between TMH and Rosatom would not take place, since the parties did not agree on the price of shares to be exchanged.

In the first quarter of 2026, Rosatom announced the launch of the Russian roulette procedure. Under the terms of the corporate agreement, the party that announced its launch gave the second shareholder the right to choose whether to buy the share or sell. Sergey Shishkarev decided to buy the stake of Rosatom, which was estimated by the parties at 74 billion rubles, but in the summer announced that he could not raise funds.

The right of redemption passed to the state corporation. The first attempt to close the deal at the end of August did not take place, as Shishkarev declared incomplete compliance with the conditions prescribed in the shareholder agreement, notified Rosatom and did not come to the meeting dedicated to the deal.

Sources close to the parties to the deal say that the outcome of the procedure on October 7 was not obvious until the last moment. “There was a possibility that Sergey Nikolayevich (Shishkarev. – RBC) just will not come to the scheduled meeting”, — said one of the interlocutors.

Consolidation prospects

A source close to one of the parties says that the consolidation of the capital of the Delo group under the control of Rosatom will increase its revenues. He explained that before the redemption of Shishkarev’s stake, FESCO did not transship cargo at the railway container terminals of Dela, as due to contradictions between the co-owners of Dela, it was afraid to disclose information about its customers. The transaction will allow the terminals to be reloaded and turn FESCO costs into intra-group calculations. According to the source, the consolidation will also allow to deal with the debts of the Delo group for several years, which was unlikely in the context of a conflict of co-owners.

The second source, close to one of the parties, says that in the coming year, the legal merger of FESCO and Dela is not planned - the groups will work in cooperation. “Rosatom sees the risks of a sharp consolidation of business and management of such a large structure,” he explained. Further consolidation is possible, but its parameters have not yet been determined.

Mikhail Burmistrov, CEO of INFOLine-Analytics, says that Rosatom’s redemption of the stake completes the process of creating a “national logistics champion,” an “international caliber” company. He noted that the potential for synergy of Rosatom’s logistics assets is associated with management consolidation, optimization of capital investments and operating expenses, as well as with an increase in the shareholder value of the business.

The expert believes that a joint-stock partnership between Shishkarev and Rosatom at a certain stage was the only possible one. But at a certain point, due to the difference in approaches, it began to form contradictions. With 51% in favor of Shishkarev and 49% in favor of Rosatom, neither side could claim full implementation of the plans, especially where the positions of the parties looked different.

At the rate of 85 rubles per dollar, this transaction looks very profitable for the buyer, even taking into account the significant debt burden of Delo Group. As a result of the current consolidation, the multiples will immediately change upward, especially given the current recovery in the container market. I think we can say that the purchased share can already cost at least one and a half times more than the amount appearing in the media, Burmistrov said.

President of the National Research Center for Transportation and Infrastructure Pavel Ivankin believes that Rosatom now has no competitors with equal opportunities in Russia. Subsidiaries of the state corporation concentrate a significant share of the container business in the country. It is important that the state corporation does not monopolize the Russian market. And at the same time, it was competitive in the world market, the expert stressed.

Analyst of the investment bank Advance Capital Maxim Kuroedov believes that 77 billion rubles is a fair payment for Shishkarev’s share in Dele. The main reason is that the entrepreneur has long and scrupulously collected his assets. “Delo” is a good, invested business, which has further opportunities for development and expansion of potential, as well as for further consolidation of the market, he said.

Kuroedov is confident that Rosatom will recoup its investments in Shishkarev’s share. Several significant assets of the group are located in the southern regions, they were damaged as a result of military strikes, he recalls: “The payback period depends on how quickly these capacities can be revived and put into operation.”.

The analyst believes that funds from Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia can invest in Rosatom’s logistics assets. “These countries in terms of location today are hubs for transshipment of various goods. But we cannot exclude Chinese investors, because they also have good expertise in the port infrastructure and have already successfully implemented business cases.