TogliattiAzot

TogliattiAzot

Native name	ТольяттиАзот
Type	Private
Industry	Chemicals
Founded	1974
Headquarters	Tolyatti, Russia
Key people	Sergei Makhlai
Number of employees	6000
Website	http://www.toaz.ru/eng/

TogliattiAzot (Russian: ТольяттиАзот) is a Russian chemical company, sometimes described as the world's largest ammonia producer.^[1][2] It is headquartered in Tolyatti, Russia.

The main ammonia plant in Tolyatti was constructed as a joint project of the Soviet government and Armand Hammer and started operation in 1979.^[3] The company's subsidiary Transammiak operates the Tolyatti-Odessa ammonia pipeline, the longest ammonia pipeline in the world. A marine ammonia terminal is under construction at Port Taman near Taman, Russia.^[4]

The company's former president is Vladimir Makhlai, who "acquired a big chunk of it when it was privatized in 1992".^[1] In the mid-2000s the company was "hit by legal challenges and criminal probes"^[5] supposedly instigated by Viktor Vekselberg in an attempt to take over the ownership.^[6]

Sergei Makhlai, Chairman of the Board of Directors, has emphasized the role of the company in being socially responsible^[7] and providing not only jobs, but taking part in developing the social infrastructure, this being an integral part of doing business in Russia.

Following the severe financial difficulties experienced during the past 10 years by the city’s other major employer, AvtoVAZ; TogliattiAzot has been responsible for providing most of the services and social programs to Tolyatti, a city of 720,000 inhabitants.

In 2011, TogliattiAzot contributed more than 3 billion rubles (US$100 million) in taxes to the economy and according to Russian newspaper RBC Daily, was awarded the “Best Taxpayer” award.^[8]

TogliattiAzot is one of the largest taxpayers in the Samara region. In 2011, TogliattiAzot revenue was 32 billion rubles.^[9]

Management

Sergei Makhlai was appointed Chairman of the Board of Directors in 2011.^[10][11] He replaced his father, Vladimir Makhlai, as Chief Executive of TogliattiAzot.

On Sergei Makhlai's watch, the company's employees organized a rally^[12] related to the court hearing of the famous Russian punk-collective Pussy Riot. At the rally, TogliattiAzot workers suggested that members of Pussy Riot group should be assigned to work at TogliattiAzot instead of serving prison sentence. The rally has gained international media coverage. In 2014, Chairman Makhlai told a Russian newspaper: “Togliattiazot has always been and remains a Russian company".^[13]

Conflicts with Minority Shareholders

In 2008, the chemical company Uralchem acquired 9.7% shares of TogliattiAzot. Since 2010, the new minority shareholder began a corporate conflict with major shareholders and the management the Tolyatti plant. In the media and online, a smear campaign was unleashed against TogliattiAzot.^[14] The plant was accused of violating environmental regulations, tax evasion, violation of safety standards, sponsoring the Russian opposition, purchase of foreign football clubs, and conducting sale negotiations of the plant to Chinese businessmen.^[15] Fake interviews with TogliattiAzot’s Chairman of the Board of Directors, Sergei Makhlai, containing discrediting statements were published online.^[16] The PR attacks also included rallies against the plant in Tolyatti.^[17]

In July 2012, representatives of public organizations in Tolyatti, the Deputy City Council and the Council of the Samara region sent an open letter to the Envoy of the President of the Russian Federation to the Volga Federal District Mikhail Babich, General Prosecutor of Russia Yuri Chaika and the Chairman of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation Alexander Bastrykin.^[18] In the open letter they claimed that Dmitry Mazepin, Uralchem’s owner, was behind the smear campaign and asked the authorities to find and punish those responsible for violations of the law and to help Togliatti and local authorities to return peace to the city.^[18]

In March 2013, Samara-based members of the activist group Anonymous released an exchange of emails by black PR specialists which had organized the campaign against TogliattiAzot.^[19] In the emails were details including the amounts spent on the PR war, and the websites and media involved in the attacks. The correspondence presented additional evidence that Dmitry Mazepin, owner of Uralchem, was behind the PR attacks. The Russian newspaper Nezavisimaya Gazeta claimed that the escalation of the corporate conflict by Dmitry Mazepin could be related to his solvency issues and his attempt to solve his financial problems at the cost of TogliattiAzot’s major shareholders.^[20]

In April 2013, the Chairman of the Municipal Duma of Tolyatti, Alexander Denisov, and Deputy of the Regional Duma of Samara from Tolyatti, Alexander Drobotov, asked law enforcement agencies to carry out a criminal investigation.^[21]

Since February 2012, Uralchem has initiated several criminal cases against unknown plant employees claiming that they refused to provide documents for a shareholders' meeting, sold TogliattiAzot products at low prices and withdrew assets.^[22]

In another case brought against TogliattiAzot, according to the investigator, two TogliattiAzot lawyers failed to provide a certified copy of the list of persons allowed to attend the general shareholders' meeting of TogliattiAzot held on September 13, 2011. Uralchem claimed damages of $250 million. The two lawyers became the defendants in the case. It was closed in November 2013 for lack of evidence.^[23]

There are still criminal proceedings against TogliattiAzot’s General Director, Evgeny Korolev. TogliattiAzot considers the initiation of these criminal cases meritless and has asked for their termination.^[24]

In a late 2014 interview, the company’s Chairman Sergei Makhlai said that he perceived comments made by Dmitry Mazepin in a personal conversation, threatening to bring criminal charges against TogliattiAzot’s management, as “a real threat”.^[25] With that said, he also presented TogliattiAzot’s position as strong and stable at this time: “Our holding employs 10 thousand people and we have no program of the stuff crisis optimization – on the contrary, we are going to employ more workers”.^[13]

References

External links

• Official website