ICT Group (Russia)

ICT Group
Группа компаний ИСТ

Type	Private
Industry	Private equity, financial services, precious metals and mining, heavy engineering and logistics, Construction, industrial development
Founded	1991[1]
Founder	Alexander Nesis
Headquarters	Moscow, Russia
Key people	Alexander Nesis - President Alexei Gudaitis Nikolai Dobrinov Konstantin Yanakov Alexander Malakh
Total assets	approx $8bn
Owner	Alexander Nesis
Website	www.ict-group.ru

The ICT Group (Russian: Группа компаний ИСТ), also spelt IST Group, is an investment and holding company based in Russia.^[1] The company owns a number of Russian businesses including NOMOS-BANK, a precious mineral extraction company Polymetal, and a metal engineering plant in Tikhvin.

Key shareholder of the ICT Group is its president, Alexander Nesis.^[2][3]

Overview

The company was founded by Alexander Nesis and five other colleagues. Nexis is president and major shareholder of the group (2011). In 2011 the group's assets were estimated to be worth around $8 billion.^[4]

Finance

The group established NOMOS-BANK in 1993, a 49.99% stake was sold to PPF Group and the Slovakian J&T group in 2007/8.^[5] Khanty–Mansi Bank, an investment bank operating in the Khanty–Mansi Autonomous Area came under the groups control in 2009.^[6]

The company acquired a stake in road vehicle and industrial equipment leasing company Balting Leasing Company in 2010,^[7] a rail wagon leasing company "Rail1520" (ООО «Рейл1520») was formed in 2011 which received financial backing by Sberbank,^[8][9] a rail leasing joint venture with Mitsui was formed in 2012.^[10][11]

Mining and extraction

Precious metal extraction company Polymetal was founded by the group in 1998, sold to Nafta-Moskva Group in 2005, and a controlling stake reacquired by ICT group together with Alexander Mamut and PPF Group in 2008. The ICT group increased its shareholding to 40% in 2009.^[12]

In 2010 ICT group acquired a 13.2% stake in potash mining company Uralkali.^[13]

Engineering

In 2001 the group acquired an engineering plant specialising in rail vehicle component and tank track manufacture based in Tikhvin, Leningrad Oblast, Russia. The factory site was extensively restructured, and the ICT owned Titran-Express Assembly Plant (Титран-Экспресс) was formed.

ICM (Инвестиции Строительство Менеджмент Investment Construction Management) was founded as a joint venture in 2006 with Israeli civil and manufacturing engineering company Baran Group (in which ICT also acquired a 22% stake, 2006) to provide engineering services to the group.^[14]

In 2008 the group began construction of a rail wagon manufacturing plant Tikhvin Railway Car Building Plant (Тихвинский вагоностроительный завод TVSZ), at its Tikhvin manufacturing site,^[15] the plant, representing an investment of over $1billion (36billion rubles), became operational in 2012.^[16] TVSZ is managed by one of the assets of the ICT Group - United Wagon Company.^[17]

Other

The company is also involved in real-estate development in Moscow and St. Petersburg, as well as at the former Transmash site in Tikhvin.^[18]

The group became majority shareholder in Italian national wireless communication company ARIA in 2011.^[19]

Former investments

ICT acquired shares in Alexander Nexis's former employer "Baltic shipyards" (Baltiyskiy Zavod) in 1999 (15%) and 2000 (raised to 50%+1). (Nexis was also director of the plant from 1993-7).^[20] ICT's stake in Baltic Shipyards was sold for ~$1billion by 2005.^[21]

In 2001 the group acquired a majority stake in the development company for the Tikhvin Ferroalloy Plant.^[22] The company was merged into vertically integrated ferroalloy producer Oriel Resources in 2006,^[23] and was sold to the Mechel Group in 2008.^[24]

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to ICT Group.

• Группа "ИСТ", www.ict-group.ru (in Russian and English)  CS1 maint: English language specified (link), company website