Nanotechnology will ruin anyone

Mega-surpluses of nanotechnology
Investigations against Rusnano are coming to an end

Grigory Shugaev, "Russian Planet"

If you have too much money, don't invest it in a venture business anyway. At least because there is one wonderful company in Russia that does this – it is Rusnano, headed by the legend of domestic business and public administration Anatoly Chubais. Who else but he could lead such a complex case. After all, the concept of "venture business" comes from the English venture – which means risky. And Anatoly Borisovich did nothing but take risks during the period of privatization, and later, as head of RAO UES of Russia. But risk, as you know, is a noble cause, and Mr. Chubais is not one of the timid ones – that's for sure.

It is believed that venture capital is of particular importance in the processes of creating an efficient and competitive modern economy. And, moreover, "it is the basic sector of the post-industrial and new economy that determines the country's ability to maintain a competitive global position in advanced technologies." The success of Silicon Valley enterprises in the United States is due to the venture approach.

But there is one "but". Out of 100 venture projects, a maximum of 10 reach industrial serial production. Naturally, the lucky ones who have invested money in earned projects have a huge profit. But losers have only losses. It should be noted that usually the effect of investments is detected somewhere in a year or three, payback comes in a maximum of five years.

Since the main investor of Rusnano is the state, the fact that since its creation in 2007, the company has made a profit only once, in 2014, 8 billion rubles, and even then because of the devaluation of the ruble, speaks both about the general state of economic management in the country and about efficiency "Rusnano" in particular. In 2012, the loss amounted to 24 billion rubles. In 2013 , it was already 39.9 billion .

Over the past nine years, Rusnano has managed to open 22 plants. Let's see how they will continue their activities, because only Anatoly Borisovich knows how many projects did not survive to the stage of industrial production. However, only at one plant, Liotech, recently, by decision of the Novosibirsk court, bankruptcy proceedings were initiated, and external management was introduced. This story vividly characterizes the corporate style of Mr. Chubais.

The plant – the only manufacturer of lithium-ion batteries in the country – was built in 2009-2011. Chinese investments of Thunder Sky Group were attracted. The total volume of investments reached 14.8 billion rubles. And since it was the largest industrial investment project in Novosibirsk, the regional government laid out more than half a billion budget funds.

Liotech was supposed to reach its design capacity of 400 million ampere-hours by the end of 2013, and by 2015, the annual sales volume of batteries, as Anatoly Chubais swore, was supposed to exceed 35 billion rubles. But the plant's products turned out to be of no use to anyone. In 2013, the Chinese side abandoned the project. Pavel Segal, first vice-president of the public organization of small and medium-sized businesses "Support of Russia", commented on the situation as follows: "Battery manufacturers operate in a very competitive market, where Chinese manufacturers are also active, offering extremely attractive prices. Thus, with billions of investments, the state and structure of the battery market in Russia, the cost of production, the conjuncture and the competitive environment were not taken into account. All this has led to the fact that, in fact, since its foundation, the plant has been operating at a loss."

So the management of Rusnano in 2009 did not know about these features of the market? As a result, Liotech received 55.2 million rubles in revenue, and 3.2 billion rubles were recorded at a loss. The Novosibirsk region, having spent 615.4 million rubles on state support of the enterprise, received only 115.6 million rubles in taxes over the years. The region eventually managed to get its money back through the court. Business was less lucky: it turned out that the company owes 8.6 million rubles to various enterprises. So there will still be courts. But one thing is unclear: and the federal treasury, the main investor, how will it react to a mediocre failure? Meanwhile, Rusnano stubbornly continues to insist that "they are interested in the further development of the plant and the preservation in Russia of competencies in the field of production of modern lithium-ion batteries." So they're hoping for something there?

Our heads were flying for much less gross mistakes. But the management of Rusnano in this situation made a truly innovative decision – the company "Liotech" was renamed "Energy Solutions" and the CEO was replaced. Of course, things will go uphill now – who would doubt it.

A company with a brand new name "Energy Solutions" is unlikely to leave old habits – if it survives, of course. Because it again demonstrates the style of "Rusnano". In 2009-2013, the state corporation took care of the creation of the first large-scale production of polysilicon in Russia, which is necessary for the production of solar panels. Rusnano has allocated 4.5 billion rubles to the Usolye-Siberian Silicone company, which is part of the Nitol group. Together with Sberbank Capital, in 2011 it invested about 16 billion rubles more. And then – oh, horror! – it suddenly turned out that from 2008 to 2012, world prices for polysilicon fell from $ 300-400 to $16 per kilogram. But pay attention: prices began to fall back in 2008, and Rusnano thought about the project exactly a year later.

The collapse of the project finally came when the Chinese side of the Trina Solar project completely terminated the contract. The Chinese said that, they say, the quality turned out to be so low that it was more profitable to refuse cooperation than to expect over-deliveries in accordance with the agreed standards. Losses on withdrawal from the project are estimated at $ 11 million, prepaid to Nitol after the conclusion of the contract. The Chinese wanted to sue, but, it turned out, there was no one – at the end of 2013, Mr. Chubais closed Nitol due to unprofitability.

At the end of 2015, the Accounts Chamber began checking the activities of the Rusnano Corporation for the use of funds raised under state guarantees in 2010-2015. In addition, the inspections and investigations initiated in the last visit of the Accounts Chamber of the Chubais institution – in 2013 - are continuing. Including in relation to his closest associates in nanotechnical miracles with money. The term of the preliminary investigation in the case of Malamed and Ponurov will end on March 11 – there is not long to wait.

In front of the astonished public, Rusnano again received state guarantees from the government for 70 billion rubles. And from 2016 to 2020, the state-owned company can add more than 50 billion rubles of subsidies to its nanocube as part of state support for the nanoindustry. That's why Anatoly Borisovich was so happy and frank at the New Year's corporate party, when he shouted loudly and joyfully almost shouting: "We have a lot of money! There are quite a lot of them!".

And then, from the master's shoulder, he promised to pay the managers a "second premium" at the expense of the proceeds received in excess of the plan, assuring employees that the threat of financial failure was in the past. Then Anatoly Borisovich added with gusto: "We are responsible for the bazaar." In general, it seems that we are dealing not with a state-owned company, but, judging by the manners, with the organized criminal group "Rusnano".

Everyone paid attention to this show. Both in the government and in the State Duma. Yes, then they said in Rusnano that the banquet was paid for from the funds of top managers and for each guest there were only 5 thousand rubles - what nonsense! And some 2 million 238 thousand rubles were spent. They also found something to inflate the scandal out of.

Back in 2013, the issue of inefficient spending of public money was investigated by the Accounting Chamber – then it checked the activities of Rusnano for 2007-2012. Loans to project companies for 34 billion rubles were issued against illiquid property, and its value was overstated. More than 47 billion, or 35% of the total project financing, went abroad.

"At the time of verification, the presence of any documents confirming the effectiveness of the investments made has not been established. At the same time, some leading Russian scientific organizations in basic sectors of the economy were denied funding for joint projects," the materials of the joint venture noted.

The agency also drew attention to another curious circumstance: budget money was invested in unprofitable projects, Russian and foreign companies in a pre-bankruptcy state, and sometimes even transferred to one-day firms.

The head of Rusnano, Anatoly Chubais, then agreed with all the charges brought by the Accounting Chamber. So what? And nothing. He even repented before the State Duma. He recognized the lack of a cost control system, inadequate risk assessment, and management inefficiency – and everything returned to normal.

As recently as January 28, at a meeting with Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, it was decided to create a new state corporation - the Agency for Technological Development, which should monitor innovations and review the state's relations with all existing development institutions, including Rusnano. Deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich, who, apparently, will head it, does not rule out that part of the structures will be abolished, and part will be merged. Many are talking about the imminent resignation of Anatoly Chubais – the government is clearly dissatisfied with him.

"A country that is in a deep economic crisis cannot afford the luxury of scattering billions of rubles for no one knows what," says Boris Shmelev, head of the Center for Political Studies at the Institute of Economics of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

"Rusnano, although it has a mention of future technologies in its name," Mikhail Remizov, president of the Institute of National Strategy, continues the thought, "was created simply as a kind of financial institution with rather conservative requirements for investment policy. The projects he financed were not of a breakthrough nature from a technological point of view. We can say for sure that our development institutions are not focused on any technological breakthroughs."

But here comes a wonderful and curious news. Rusnano Corporation, it turns out, is "ready to interact and coordinate its actions with the Technological Development Agency being created in Russia." Andrey Svinarenko, General Director of the Rusnano Educational and Infrastructure Projects Fund, said this with conviction: "If a new development institute appears, then, of course, all existing development institutions will coordinate their actions. The mandate of Rusnano was defined by the presidential initiative, and it remains – we work in the field of nanotechnology." According to him, the Agency for Technological Development is likely to deal with a wider range of issues, but the tools there will be different than those of Rusnano. So, maybe it's too early to write off Anatoly Borisovich? We'll find out soon.

Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru 26.02.2015