MOSCOW, May 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --
PhosAgro CEO and President of the Russian Association of Mineral
Fertilizers Producers (RAPU) Andrey Guryev took part in televised
debates organised by the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) and
Rossiya 24, titled 'Investment Breakthrough: Infrastructure and
Technology of the Future'.
During the televised debates, participants noted that
Russia has established an
infrastructure that unites investments from leading sovereign funds
from around the world and leading Russian companies. This makes it
possible to combine best global expertise and practices with unique
opportunities and progressive developments by Russian
companies.
One of the main issues discussed by the participants was the
effect of investments in creating competitive advantages for
companies in the Russian market and abroad.
Over the past five years, PhosAgro has invested RUB 160 billion into its development using best
available technologies. As a result, production volumes during this
period increased by 40%, to a record 8.3 million tonnes, while
labour productivity per employee increased by 2.5 times, which
helped the Company win in a Vedomosti rating.
For the last three years, PhosAgro has achieved annual growth in
fertilizer output of 10%, with a similar trend for phosphate rock
production. This year the Company plans to maintain the same pace
of growth.
Last year, the PhosAgro completed a large-scale investment into
the construction of new, high-tech production facilites. PhosAgro's
new ammonia plant is currently the highest-capacity in Russia (760 thousand tonnes per year), as is
the granulated urea line with a capacity of 500 thousand tonnes per
year. Investments in the project exceeded RUB 65 billion. These will enable PhosAgro to
continue to produce phosphate-based fertilizers that are naturally
low in potentially-harmful impurities, helping to support national
and global food security. The new production facilities will also
create significant potential for increasing production capacity and
improving the Company's self-sufficiency in key inputs.
In the next two years, PhosAgro plans to invest at least
RUB 50 billion, which will enable it
to open three new production facilities (sulfuric acid, nitric acid
and ammonium sulfate) at the production complex in Cherepovets by
2020, and to expand the capacity of the third apatite-nepheline
beneficiation plant. PhosAgro is also considering options for the
development of the production complex in Volkhov.
PhosAgro CEO Andrey Guryev said:
"At present, we are working on a long-term strategy for the
development of PhosAgro until 2025, which will be aimed at further
improving efficiency, strengthening the Company's positions in
domestic and foreign markets, increasing shareholder value and
profitability."
"The Company, whose shares have traded on the London Stock
Exchange and Moscow Exchange since 2011, last year conducted its
second SPO in recent years. Shareholders successfully placed 4.5%
of the shares of PhosAgro. RDIF together with five sovereign funds
from China, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain and the UAE participated in the SPO,
as well as international investment funds from the UK, continental
Europe and the United States."
"The Company benefited significantly from the SPO with RDIF,
increasing its free float to more than 25%, helping the liquidity
of PhosAgro shares traded on the Moscow Exchange to grow 5-fold.
The company's weighting in the MSCI Russia index also grew, while
the geography and structure of its investors became more
diversified, and the share price broke records."
"RDIF has built an effective mechanism for attracting financing
from foreign sovereign funds to the Russian equity market, and this
contributed to high demand for PhosAgro shares. The order book for
PhosAgro shares was fully subscribed within an hour, becoming
oversubscribed thereafter. The volume of the transaction exceeded
RUB 15 billion."
"We also expanded the Board of Directors of PhosAgro to ten
people from eight, and an absolute majority of those are
independent directors. In addition, through our cooperation with
RDIF, we have gained invaluable insight into communication with and
decision making by sovereign funds."
"I believe that RDIF provides a certain assurance of quality.
Trust in Russia, inspired by this
fund, is extremely unique."
Responding to a question from the moderator about the
possibility of an investment breakthrough, Andrey Guryev noted
that, "an investment breakthrough is not only possible and
inevitable, but we have already entered this investment cycle,
investing about USD 500 million
annually into production development."
About PhosAgro:
PhosAgro (http://www.phosagro.ru) is one of the world's
leading vertically integrated phosphate-based fertilizer producers
in terms of production volumes of phosphate-based fertilizers and
high-grade phosphate rock with a P2O5 content
of not less than 39% (according to IFA, Fertecon and CRU).
PhosAgro's main products include phosphate rock, over 35 grades
of fertilizers, feed phosphates, ammonia, and sodium
tripolyphosphate, which are used by customers in 100 countries
spanning all of the world's inhabited continents. The Company's
priority markets outside of Russia
and the CIS are Latin America,
Europe and Asia.
PhosAgro's shares are traded on the Moscow Exchange, and global
depositary receipts ("GDRs") for shares trade on the London Stock
Exchange (under the ticker PHOR). Since 1
June 2016, the Company's GDRs have been included in the MSCI
Russia and MSCI Emerging Markets indexes.
SOURCE PhosAgro