Roskhim, a company chaired by Igor Rotenberg, son of billionaire Arkady Rotenberg, has taken over management of the Transbunker group's assets, according to data from the SPARK-Interfax database, as reported by Agentstvo and noted by The Insider.
Roskhim became the managing company of Transbunker Holding LLC on July 24, and on July 30 took over Transbunker Capital and Transbunker Management. Russian media covering the preceding nationalization did not notice the change of management company.
Transbunker, operating since 1991, is the largest supplier of fuel and petroleum products at major Russian ports, including Novorossiysk and Kholmsk, and provides ship refueling services worldwide. The holding's structures own vessels, oil depots, refineries, and fuel terminals, including Vistinsky, Kubansky, Sakhalinsky, and Novorossiysky. The combined revenue of the three companies last year was about 6 billion rubles.
In late April, the Prosecutor General's Office filed a lawsuit against the holding's founders, Iosif Sandler and Sergei Pugachev, accusing them of controlling a strategic enterprise through a network of foreign companies and transferring over 19 billion rubles abroad as dividends. The agency called the owners residents of "unfriendly" Cyprus.
In early July, the Moscow Arbitration Court turned the holding's assets over to state ownership. On July 17, Transbunker Holding was transferred to Rosimushchestvo, and on July 22, Transbunker Capital and Transbunker Management followed.
Roskhim is not the first recipient of state-seized assets. In 2023, the company took management of a 47% stake in Bashkir Soda Company (later increased to 57%), and also Dalnegorsky GOK. In 2024, Roskhim gained control of Metafrax and Volzhsky Orgsintez. In July this year, it also received 55% of the St. Petersburg Oil Terminal.
The official link between Roskhim and the Rotenberg family was confirmed only this year: in May, information that Igor Rotenberg chairs the board appeared on the Kremlin's website, and in June he spoke in that capacity at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum. Earlier, Kommersant and Forbes sources had reported the company's ties to the family of Vladimir Putin's friend as early as 2023.