CRIMEAN WINERY "MASSANDRA" WILL BE SOLD AT AUCTION

The legendary Crimean winery "Massandra", founded by Prince Golitsyn in 1894, will be sold at auction. The republican authorities decided to privatize the enterprise by selling the entire block of shares. The largest wine-making company is put up for auction in a single lot, and the auction itself will be held online on December 14.

Who will become the owner of the largest wine collection (about a million bottles) stored in the cellars of the plant is still unclear. At the same time, experts agree that there are practically no risks of losing the collection included in the Guinness Book of Records. It is protected by several federal laws that require the preservation of reference samples of wine products, and a regulation adopted by the SRO of winegrowers and winemakers.

It is planned to start trading at a price of 5.3 billion rubles, followed by a step of 26 million rubles.

Thus, the Crimean authorities hope to receive about 6 billion in cash receipts to the budget. Those who wish to buy "Massandra" will be able to submit applications through the electronic portal until 18:00 on December 8. The amount of collateral for participation in the auction is just over 1 billion rubles (20% of the initial cost).

The fact that the company would be privatized became known last year, when the State Council of the republic was drawing up a privatization plan for 2020. Currently, the Crimean budget is subsidized, about 75% of funding comes from the federal budget. It is quite understandable that the sale of Massandra shares can make a certain contribution to it.

On the other hand, the winery itself also needs modernization. As noted by the head of "Massandra" Yanina Pavlenko, it is necessary to re-lay about 2.5 hectares of land occupied by vineyards.

This is impossible without investments of 5 billion rubles.

At the same time, the equipment of the plant and its production facilities also require renovation.

Yanina Petrovna Pavlenko, who admitted that the enterprise would become private back in 2017, had already received an offer to get the position of head of the Yalta administration from the head of the republic, Sergei Aksenov. Pavlenko will most likely become the new mayor of the city instead of 59-year-old Ivan Imgrunt, who recently died of pneumonia.

We should recall that the change in the legal status of Massandra from SUE to JSC took place more than a year ago. It happened when the the plant, which was under federal control, became the property of the Republic of Crimea. Then the speaker of the legislative body of the republic, Vladimir Konstantinov, began to talk about the possibility of a complete transfer of the enterprise into private ownership, stating that it was necessary to attract investments for the modernization of equipment.