Retail and food production sectors
In April 2007, UCP acquired from Vladimir Gruzdev a 10% stake in Fashion Continent, a clothing retailer operating a chain of stores under the Incity brand.[10] By the summer of 2010, UCP’s stake amounted to 27.75%.[11][12][13]
UCP was a shareholder in a leading Russian juice producer Lebedyansky and owned a minority stake in its baby food manufacturing division, Progress, which was spun off from Lebedyansky prior to its sale to PepsiCo in 2008.[14][15][16]
Financial sector infrastructure
An investment in Russian Trading System (RTS), Russia’s leading stock exchange, was the fund’s first successful project. The holding was sold at a significant profit in 2008.[3][17][16] In 2011-2013 UCP completed a series of acquisitions of shares in the St Petersburg Exchange.[18]
In October 2013, UCP acquired a corporate pension fund from Norilsk Nickel. Later the pension fund was renamed ‘NPF Nasledie (Heritage)’ and UCP concluded a partnership agreement with the Alor group of companies. Alor was also appointed manager of the pension fund.[19][20]
Natural resources and infrastructure companies
As a result of three transactions with Novatek in 2007 and 2010, UCP sold three companies holding geological exploration licenses in the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug.[21]
In 2008, UCP acquired the diamond producer, Severalmaz. The business was sold to Alrosa at the end of 2011.[22]
In June 2010, UCP acquired from the Integra group of companies a 100% stake in Uralmash-Drilling equipment (URBO), a producer of heavy drilling rigs.[23] During the same year, UCP and Uralmash established a joint holding Uralmash-Drilling equipment (Uralmash NGO Holding), which included URBO and several drilling rig servicing companies. UCP increased its share in this joint venture to 85% in 2012.[24]
Technology
In 2010, UCP acquired 5% in Monocrystal, one of the world’s leading manufacturers of synthetic sapphire for high-tech applications in electronics, optical devices and metallization pastes for solar cells. UCP increased its stake in 2011. In 2012, UCP exited the investment by selling its stake back to the founding shareholder.[28]
Online Services
In April 2013, a consortium of investors led by UCP acquired a 48% stake in VK.com (VKontakte) from Vyacheslav Mirilashvili and Lev Leviev, co-founders of the social network. In August 2013, a dispute arose with Pavel Durov, another co-founder, CEO and 12% shareholder of VKontakte. UCP alleged that Durov had a conflict of interest as he had developed his own internet messenger, Telegram, using the resources of VKontakte and required him to transfer Telegram to VKontakte’s ownership. In December 2013, Durov sold his shares to Ivan Tavrin, the then CEO of MegaFon (a subsidiary of USM Holdings), and in March 2014 Tavrin sold this stake to Mail.ru Group, another subsidiary of USM Holdings. Pavel Durov stepped down as CEO of VKontakte in April 2014. In September 2014, UCP sold its stake to Mail.Ru Group for $1.4 7bn while VKontakte as a whole was valued at $2.917 bn. As a result, Mail.Ru owned 100% of the social network, while UCP was reputed to have made a profit of $470-570 mln over the 17-month period.[29][30][31][32]
Oil transportation and oil refining
Forbes magazine previously reported that, since 2011, UCP had been accumulating preferred shares of Transneft, the Russian oil pipeline monopoly. By mid-May 2016, UCP was the largest minority shareholder of Transneft. According to Forbes, as of May 2016, controlled Transneft stake with a total value of c. $1.3 bn.[41] Later that year, UCP became involved in a legal dispute with Transneft management. UCP were demanding equal distribution of dividends for ordinary and preferred shares, that management should stop understating the profits and a full report on the company’s derivatives transactions which had caused multibillion-dollar losses for Transneft in 2014-2015.[42][43] As a result of UCP’s shareholder activism, in December 2016 Transneft adopted a dividend policy setting dividend payouts at 25% of IFRS net income, i.e. substantially higher than historical payouts.[44] In March 2017, in line with UCP’s demands, Transneft amended its charter to guarantee equal distribution of dividends to preferred and common shareholders.[45]
Oil chemicals, oil refining, energy
In 2009-2011, UCP acquired a 24.99% stake in the petrochemical and oil refinery Gazprom Neftekhim Salavat. In May 2011, UCP exited the investment.[48][49]
In December 2015, UCP acquired a 9.7% stake in the utilities company Inter RAO from Norilsk Nickel for $152.6 mln. In March 2016, Inter RAO bought back from UCP 1.1% of its shares. In October 2016, UCP sold the remaining 8.6% for $497 mln.[50]
In October 2016, a consortium of investors, which included Trafigura, an international commodities trader, UCP and Essar signed a sales and purchase agreement to acquire a 49% stake in Essar Oil. Essar owns the second largest private
