The assets of one of the largest Russian shipping companies are being consolidated under a new name. River cruises of the Volga and Kama region Samara River Shipping Company

Volga ships, steamships (and motor ships) and other vessels. funds on old photographs and postcards. Part of the photo from the archive of Vladimir Samartsev.


A little from the history of shipping on the Volga:
For centuries, ships traveled along the Volga only exclusively under sail or with the help of the draft power of animals or people, that is, barge haulers. But in the end, the time of steam-powered ships came on the great Russian river. The first steamships on the Volga appeared in the late 1810s - early 1820s; they belonged to the landowner D.P. Evreinov. There were also two Volga steamships that belonged to Prince Vsevolod Vsevolozhsky, who in 1817 personally traveled on one of them to Kazan. The designer of one of the ships was Pyotr Sobolevsky. The development of shipping on the Volga was slowed down due to the monopoly of the Scottish entrepreneur Charles Bird until 1842, and during this period only 16 steamships were built on the Volga.

In 1843, by decision of the government, the Volga Shipping Society was created with its center in St. Petersburg, and regular steamship navigation has been organized since 1846. Subsequently, other large shipping companies were organized on the Volga - “Airplane”, “Along the Volga”, “Caucasus and Mercury”, as well as many small companies that competed with each other. Passenger river transportation has long been considered unprofitable, primarily due to the length of travel on steamships and the high cost of travel. Only after a significant increase in the power of steam engines did steamships appear on the Volga, fast enough for that time. In Samara the first regular passenger flight took place on April 16, 1860.

Each shipowner company had its own separate group of ship names. This was done so that by the name of the vessel one could easily find out which company they belonged to. In particular, the shipping company “Along the Volga” had the ships “Tsar”, “Tsarina”, “Tsarevich”, “Tsarevna”, “Sovereign” and “Government”. The Druzhina society named its ships after saints - “Alexander”, “Pavel”, “Mikhail”, “Vladimir”, “Oleg” and “Igor”. Names closer to the theme of travel were invented by the Samolet shipping company - “Traveler”, “Wanderer”, “Tourist”, and even “Telegraph” and “Despatch”. Some owners assigned their own surnames to the ships - “Subbotin”, “Chernov”, “Lev Sorokin”, “Korolev” and “Ivan Lyubimov”. In Nizhny Novgorod there were steamships with the names "Mississippi", "Colorado" and "Niagara".

However, soon a crisis arose in the steamship industry on the Volga. In 1875, there were about 600 steamboats operating on the river, and passenger companies began to suffer greatly from mutual competition. Many companies began to operate at a loss, barely covering fuel costs. As a result, the cost of steamship transportation fell, some companies went completely bankrupt and were forced to sell ships and other property for next to nothing.

In 1918, the ships of private shipping companies were nationalized. IN Soviet time Various state shipping companies operated, and ships of pre-revolutionary construction were used for a long time. Many ships were renamed. During the Great Patriotic War, the Volga Flotilla operated on the Volga, which carried out military transportation, and on Upper Volga and at Stalingrad she cleared mines and took part in several battles.

01. Kosovaya on the Volga

02. Crossing the Volga, No. 35

03. Volga, in tow, published by K. Golovkin in Samara

04. Samara, view of the Volga, No. 60

05. Zaton in Samara

06. Volga, steamship "Mezhen" No. 16 (year of construction - 1884, year of decommissioning unknown). Emperor Nicholas II and his family visited it.

07. Volga, steamship "Mezhen"

08. Volga, steamship "Mississippi"

09. Volzhskaya No. 8 bottom cleaning machine "Gryaznukha"

10. Volga, at the pier of the "Caucasus and Mercury" society

11. Volga, steamship of the company "Airplane" "Prince Vladimir the Saint"

12. Volga, a group of passengers on a ship

13. Volga, passenger ship Society K and M ("Caucasus and Mercury") No. 30

14. Views of the Volga, departure of the steamer

15. Volga, steamship "Peter the Great", No. 5

16. Volga, tugboat, No. 13

19. Volga, past Zhiguli, No. 67

20. Volga, “in the mountains”

21. Barges on the Volga

22. Volga, steamship "Goncharov" of the "Airplane" company

23. Caravan on the Volga, No. 20

25. Samara, shore near Annaev’s dacha

26. Volga, steamship of the "Caucasus and Mercury" society "Field Marshal Suvorov"

27. Volga, steamship of the "Caucasus and Mercury" society "Field Marshal Suvorov", No. 62

28. Volga, steamship "Alexander II", photographer A.P. Vasiliev in Samara

29. Volga, steamship "Gennady Ratkov Rozhnov" of the "Airplane" company

30. Volga, steamship "Alexander" of the "Rus" society

31. Samara, steamship "Nizhegorodets", No. 66

32. Volga, steamship of the "Airplane" company, No. 17

33. Volga, steamship "Pushkin", photographer A.P. Vasiliev in Samara

34. Steamship "Tsarevich"

35. Steamship "Emperor Nicholas II"

36. Volga, steamship of the company K and M

37. Motor ship "Tsargrad", later renamed "Uritsky"

38. Volga, steamship "Tsarevich Nikolai", No. 2

39. Volga, steamship "Peter the Great" No. 9

40. Tugboat "Samara"

41. Volga, steamship "Dvoryanka"

42. The steamship "Paris Commune", and on the left the tugboat "Bednota"

43. Steamship "Kremlin"

44. Volga, tugboat "Ukrainets" near the village of Batraki (now Oktyabrsk), 1927

45. Steamship "Vasily Lebedev-Kumach"

46. ​​Volga, steamer near the village. Morkvashi (now Zhigulevsk), 1930s

47. Volga, steamship "K.S. Stanislavsky", photo by Semyon Fridlyand, 1950s (built in 1909, decommissioned in 1973)

48. Volga, ships near Nizhny Novgorod, photo by Semyon Fridlyand, 1950s

49. Volga, ships near Nizhny Novgorod, photo by Semyon Fridlyand, 1950s

50. Volga, steamships "Pavel Bazhov" and "Vera Figner" river station Kazan, photo by Semyon Fridland, 1950s

I invite everyone to the group "History of the Volga Region and the Volga River"

The second largest river cruise market in Russia, after Moscow and St. Petersburg, is the Volga region, the third is Krikamye. Which, in general, is natural, and quite fair. Volzhsky and Kama markets river travel formed a long time ago and has not undergone significant changes this season. As before, their leaders are both local companies - Samara Sputnik-Hermes, Nizhny Novgorod GAMA, and capital companies - Moscow Vodohod and St. Petersburg Infoflot. Kama, a relatively small but numerous Perm operator, also lives an active cruise life.

It should also be noted that during the current navigation they have to work in difficult conditions, taking into account the fact that the water situation on the Volga in the Nizhny Novgorod region turned out to be extremely tense. Limited depths do not allow the largest 4-deck motor ships to pass through the Gorodets locks today. However, there are not many cruise ships of this class operating in cities down the river, and therefore the majority of operators did not have to seriously change their planned cruise routes.

Samara

Samara has long been the trendsetter of cruise “fashion” on the Volga. Of the capital's operators, the company operates here "Vodohod". This time she sent her four-deck liner here "Konstantin Korotkov"(project 301). In addition, residents of Samara and Kazan are served by another Vodokhodovsky motor ship - "Semyon Budyonny"(project 92-016). The Samara branch of the St. Petersburg company has been operating for several years now. "Infoflot". This year, he, acting as the general agent of two shipowners - Bashkir River Shipping Company and Volgograd “Cruise”, organizes tours on their two- and three-deck ships "Salavat Yulaev" And "Alexander Nevskiy" projects 305 and 588, respectively. The Perm operator company also intensified its activities in Samara "Express tour", which has its sales office here. Her ship "Great Rus'"(project 588, former “General N.F. Vatutin”) will be in this city at the end of the season, from where it will go to Rostov-on-Don and Kerch.

Among the local operators is a travel agency "Samara Travels". This year it operates two ships: Kabargin (project 588) and "Pallada"(project 305). A month ago, Kabargin became the property of the company and was renamed "Prince Donskoy". The ship departs on 2-6-day voyages, and will also go on long tours of 1-2 weeks to Astrakhan, Goritsy, Moscow, and has already visited Rostov-on-Don. The second motor ship "Pallada" is planned to be used from July to mid-September both on short routes to Kazan, Ulyanovsk, and on longer routes to Murom, Nizhny Novgorod, Astrakhan, Perm.

Company "Volgaples" this season it operates two of its own ships: “A.I. Herzen"(project 588), which also serves tourists from Kazan and Saratov, and "Dmitry Pozharsky"(project 588), covering a wider client geography, which includes many cities of the Volga region and St. Petersburg. Other operator vessels are on lease: "Captain Pushkarev"(project 26-37) - in Perm at VolgaWolga, "Cosmonaut Gagarin"(project 588) - in Nizhny Novgorod at Infoflot. Another veteran of the Samara river cruise market, Aquarius-Tour, seems to have ceased its cruise activities after last year’s failure with the Caesar ship.

The presenter cruise company The Volga region still remains "Sputnik-Hermes". Its fleet today includes four ships: four-decker "Fedor Dostoevsky"(project 301), "Surgeon Razumovsky", “F.I. Panferov"(projects 588) and three-deck "Valery Chkalov"(project 26-37). Of these, Chkalov is the company’s own ship, and the rest belong to the Kama Shipping Company and are located at Sputnik-Hermes in long term rental with the crew. This means it tells CEO Natalia Denisova, that the shipowner has a license for transportation, and the charterer is entirely responsible for the cruise service of the ship. It is also assigned to the re-equipment and repair of motor ships, of course, at its own expense, which, in accordance with the requirements of the river register, must be carried out regularly. Let us note one more fact, which is very important for a certain contingent of travelers: all of the company’s ships have their own wi-fi.

As Ms. Denisova told us: “Since last year, the company has somewhat changed the usual schedules of its cruise ships. And now if, for example, we go to Astrakhan, then we go overnight. This allows those who wish to go fishing to the Volga delta, and then catch up with the ship on the way. On the Kama, we paid special attention to the parking lot in Sarapul. From here it is possible to organize interesting excursions to Izhevsk, which is only 60 km away. We are trying to introduce other innovations into the existing programs of our cruise tours. So, they began to build a slightly different weekend flight from Samara to Kazan, which seemed to be well known to everyone for a long time. Now our ship departs on Friday and comes back on Sunday not in the morning, as before, but in the evening, which allows tourists to stay in Kazan longer.”

Nizhny Novgorod

The company acts as the leading cruise operator in Nizhny Novgorod, the former capital of the Volga region GAMA. It again manages 6 cruise ships passenger ships. One of them, three-decker "A.S. Popov"(project 588), again went to St. Petersburg - the place of his permanent summer deployment, where he continued to operate numerous 3-day flights to Valaam. Two other ships, double deck "Alexander Sveshnikov" And "Aldan", travel throughout the Volga, taking on board tourists both from Nizhny and from other centers of the Volga region.

But the main concern and pride of the company is, of course, the transport and passenger line Moscow - Astrakhan, which operated back in Soviet times. GAMA was able to preserve and restore it, although in a slightly different form than before. Nevertheless, the same surviving three-deck motor ships of Project 26-37 continue to sail along the well-trodden water route according to schedule: "Afanasy Nikitin", "October Revolution", "Ivan Kulibin".

In addition, for many years comfortable Vodokhod liners have been based in Nizhny Novgorod: four-deck "Georgy Zhukov" And "Mikhail Frunze"(both projects 92-016). During the 2014 navigation season, they will again travel along their usual Volga routes, as well as to the Don, Kama and Belaya.

Kazan

There won’t be many direct river cruises originating directly in Kazan this year, since there are only two ships left, compared to last year’s four based in this city of a million people. And among them is a modernized 4-deck liner “F.I. Panferov", which is operated by the company "Sputnik-Hermes". Several years ago, by the way, Parfenov was chartered by the local company Volzhskie Travel. And she organizes this navigation cruise tours on 2 deck passenger ship "Boris Polevoy"(pr. 305), which is going to be bought from its former owner - another Kazan travel agency "Admiral". “Polevoy” goes on weekend tours and long hikes along the Volga, will reach Bolgar and Tver, and visit Perm, Astrakhan and Elabuga. In addition, a number of operator companies will perform several tours directly from Kazan for navigation. Among them will be ships of the companies GAMA, Vodokhod, Infoflot and some others.

Permian

A significant number of cruise operating companies have long been firmly established in this regional center on the Kama River. Although for some reason not many people, even in the tourism industry, know that Perm and its surroundings, primarily the Urals, lead a very intense cruise life. As a natural result, the region’s river market is regularly expanding. This summer, more passenger ships are operating here again than a year earlier.

In particular, a motor ship comes here for the first time "Anatoly Papanov"(project 588) Rostov travel agency "Voyage", which opened its branch in the city. The Papanova cruise schedule from June 20 includes both 3-day voyages to Tchaikovsky and back, and 17-19-day voyages to St. Petersburg and Rostov. Also began work in Perm new company "Kama Tour Fleet", affected with OJSC Shipping Company Kamskoe river shipping company» - the main shipowner of this river basin. Together with the company "Kama-Travel", she is engaged in servicing the motor ship “Pavel Bazhov” (project 588), which during navigation 2013 was under the supervision of the VolgaWolga company.

In turn, the Perm operator "VolgaWolga"- cruise division of the local travel company Sputnik RMK charters two passenger ships for navigation 2014: "Mikhail Kutuzov" And "Captain Pushkarev", three-deck ships, but of different projects - 588 and 26-37, and shipowners - Kama Shipping Company and Volgaples (Samara), respectively. Moreover, if the company had already worked with the first ship for ten years, then it was the first time that it chartered the second one.

Operator company "Hunter" organizes cruise programs on two Project 588 ships: "N.V. Gogol", with which this is not the first season and "Ural", the company is working with him for the first time. The last ship was previously called “Taras Bulba” and belonged to the no longer existing IC “Ural”. “Hunter”, as the leading specialist of the company said Konstantin Kletskov, pays increased attention entertainment program during cruises. Accordingly, its main clientele are young people or those who consider themselves as such. For more than five years, another operator company, Kama-Travel, has been chartering the ship "Kozma Minin"(project 588) from the Kama Shipping Company - its official partner. This year, the ship under her command operates cruise tours from Perm from June 23 to October 10. Routes - from Tchaikovsky to Astrakhan and Yaroslavl.

Another Perm company "Kuban" has been operating a three-deck motor ship since the mid-90s "Alexander Fadeev"(project 588), renting it again from the Kama Shipping Company. And from May 30 to September 27 he continues to work with him in the navigation of the 14th year. The main cruise contingent on board this ship are people of middle age and above and of corresponding income. It is interesting that “Kuban” refused short tours lasting 2-3 days, largely because people often, and quite rightly, call them “drunk flights.” This was done, according to the deputy director Anna Gulyaeva, so as not to harm the image of the company, “positioning itself as a serious river operator.” So this season, Fadeev operates cruises lasting 6-18 days to Kazan, Volgograd, St. Petersburg and other destinations.

Company "Express Tour"(aka « Cruise fleet"Rusich") acts as the owner of motor ships "Native Rus'"(project 26-37, former names “Clement Gottwald”, “Catherine the Great”) and “Great Rus'”, which has already been mentioned. “Native Rus'” carries tourists from Perm mainly along the Kama, middle and lower Volga, and also goes on long journeys. "Rus the Great", which has seaworthy status, operates flights to the Solovetsky Islands with direct passage along White Sea, besides, with the current navigation it will begin to reach the Azov and Black Seas. However, this ship will spend the upcoming season not on its native Perm soil, but mainly in Moscow and St. Petersburg.

It remains to be said about cruise shipping on the largest tributary of the Kama - the Belaya River. Here in Ufa, for the second year in a row, tourists are served by a small double-decker motor ship "Bashkortostan" project 305. Its navigation this time will last from May 25 to September 17. The operator and at the same time the owner of the vessel is based directly on Belaya. In navigation, “Bashkortostan” announced cruise trips to Nizhny Novgorod, Moscow, Astrakhan, as well as on a new route to Cheboksary lasting from 7 to 17 days.

Prepared by Igor Gornostaev

Distribution of cruise ships during river navigation in 2014.
(Volga region and Kama region)

Shipowner/Charterer

Motor ship

Project

Samara

"Sputnik-Hermes"

"Fedor Dostoevsky"

« Surgeon Razumovsky»

“F.I. Panferov"

"Valery Chkalov"

"Vodohod"

"Konstantin Korotkov"

"Semyon Budyonny"

"Infoflot"

"Salavat Yulaev"*

"Alexander Nevskiy"

"Express tour"

"Great Rus'"

"Samara Travels"

"Prince Donskoy"

"Pallada"

"Volgaples"

“A.I. Herzen"

"Dmitry Pozharsky"

Nizhny Novgorod

GAMA

"A.S. Popov"

"Alexander Sveshnikov"

"Afanasy Nikitin"

"October Revolution"

"Ivan Kulibin"

"Vodohod"

"Georgy Zhukov"

"Mikhail Frunze"

Kazan

"Sputnik-Hermes"

“F.I. Panferov"

"Volga Travels"

"Boris Polevoy"

Permian

"Hunter"

"N.V. Gogol"

"VolgaVolga"

"Mikhail Kutuzov"

"Captain Pushkarev"

"Voyage"

"Anatoly Papanov"

"Kama Tour Fleet"

"Pavel Bazhov"

"Kama-Travel"

"Kozma Minin"

"Kuban"

"Alexander Fadeev"

« Express Tour"

Bashkir River Shipping Company

"Bashkortostan"

The bankrupt OJSC Volga Oil Shipping Company Volgotanker may be given a chance to save the company. The bankruptcy trustee of the enterprise, Vitaly Shemigon, initiated a procedure for replacing the company’s assets, within the framework of which the fleet and other assets of the shipping company can be transferred in full to the successor company. Experts believe that in this way the manager is trying to preserve the once largest central Russia shipping company


The bankruptcy manager of the bankrupt OJSC Volga Oil Shipping Company Volgotanker, Vitaly Shemigon, intends to launch an asset replacement procedure at the enterprise. The corresponding issue is included in the agenda of the meeting of creditors scheduled for January 26. This is stated in the message of the manager dated January 11, published in the Unified Federal Register of Bankruptcy Information.

OJSC Volga Oil Shipping Company Volgotanker was registered in Samara in 1992. According to the SPARK-Interfax system, 73.85% of the company’s shares belong to Trinfico CJSC, and another 20% is controlled by the Federal Property Management Agency. The company's revenue in 2016 amounted to 209.5 million rubles, net profit - 97.6 million rubles.

By the beginning of the 2000s, Volgotanker was the largest oil shipping company in the central part of Russia. The company owned 353 vessels with a total carrying capacity of more than 1.2 million tons and accounted for about 10% of the total Russian fuel oil exports. Until 2000, the shipping company belonged to YUKOS structures, but subsequently changed owners several times. In 2007, the Federal Tax Service initiated bankruptcy of the company, which continues to this day. The procedure was led by Alexander Volzhanin, in February 2014 he was replaced by Vitaly Shemigon, a member of the Moscow NP “SRO NAU “Delo””. The company has introduced bankruptcy proceedings.

When the monitoring procedure was introduced, the debt to the fiscal authorities amounted to 3.3 billion rubles. By 2011, according to SPARK-Interfax, accounts payable increased to 6.02 billion rubles. According to information from the minutes of the creditors' meeting in April 2015, the debt dropped to 1.3 billion rubles. The register of creditors includes the Federal Tax Service with claims for 1.29 billion rubles, Samara CJSC Nefteflot (3.8 million rubles) and PKP Tanker-Service LLC from Astrakhan (350 thousand rubles).

It was not possible to find out why the manager decided to begin the replacement procedure: in a telephone conversation, Mr. Shemigon stated that he had just returned from vacation and “needed a time out to immerse himself in business.”

As told “Kommersant-Volga” lawyer Dmitry Natarius, asset replacement is one of the types of satisfying the claims of creditors and restoring the solvency of the company, which is used if the manager is faced with the task of preserving the enterprise as a single property complex.

In this case, a new joint-stock company is created on the basis of the bankrupt’s property, the shares of which are sold by open subscription. The proceeds from their sale are used to pay off creditors' claims. If this allows the bankrupt to fully repay the debts, the company’s solvency is considered restored and the bankruptcy procedure is terminated.

“Typically, asset substitution is used if the entire property complex of an enterprise has more value than the sum of its assets. Splitting up property and putting it up for auction could mean devaluation of the property,” said Mr. Natarius.

From the very beginning of bankruptcy, Volgotanker's assets were put up for auction, so the company's fleet was significantly reduced. According to the Russian River Register, the company still owns 46 vessels for various purposes. A significant part of the company's fleet was transferred to its subsidiary from Ufa - CJSC BashVolgotanker Shipping Company, which has a fleet of 147 vessels.

It was the shares of BashVolgotanker that were considered the main asset of the bankrupt company. The position of the Ufa subsidiary strengthened in 2017, when the company became the winner of a large contract of Rosneft PJSC for the transportation of petroleum products in 2018–2022 for a total amount of almost 11.6 billion rubles.

As Dmitry Natarius explained to Kommersant-Volga, the asset replacement procedure makes it possible to transfer intangible assets to a new legal entity: licenses, trademarks, company names and shares of subsidiaries.

Also, the assets of the shipping company that were previously sold under the hammer may be transferred to the balance sheet of the new legal entity if Vitaly Shemigon manages to return them to the bankruptcy estate. At the end of 2017, he filed a lawsuit with the Moscow Arbitration Court to challenge the results of the 2009 auction, during which ten courts different types and appointments were sold to LLC “Multi-profile company “Consultservis”” from Astrakhan. Then the oil tanker barges of the Belskaya type, the pusher tugboat Shlyuzovoy-47, the traveling motor ship Volna, stations for pumping oil and fuel oil and other vessels went under the hammer. There is no information about their value in court documents, experts from the area river transportation note that the cost of a ship depends on its condition: ships of the same type can be sold both at the price of scrap metal and as a working asset.

However, on December 20, the court supported the manager’s demands to impose interim measures on the disputed assets, prohibiting the Federal Budgetary Institution “Administration of the Volga Basin of Inland Waterways” from registering the transition, termination or limitation of property rights or changing the port of registration of ships.

General Director of the consulting group "DSTS Finance Consulting" Dmitry Tsibizov believes that the manager's attempt to return assets to the bankruptcy estate is a logical step to increase the liquidity of the enterprise before starting the procedure for replacing assets. By returning part of the sold-out fleet to the enterprise's balance sheet, it increases the company's attractiveness for future shareholders.

“By returning liquid assets to the company and restoring its solvency, he can not only satisfy the demands of creditors, but also save the company,” says Mr. Tsibizov.

It was not possible to find out the position of the creditors on this issue: the press service of the Federal Tax Service of Russia was unable to provide an immediate comment. Representatives of Nefteflot and Tanker-Service refused to discuss this topic. Nevertheless, Dmitry Natarius believes that the bankruptcy trustee has probably discussed the replacement of assets with creditors and there is a high probability that they will support his proposal. The lawyer believes that the value of the shares of the enterprise that will be created in the process of replacing assets should cover the claims of creditors.

“The manager should have studied this issue and probably knows what value the company’s assets represent in order to initiate the process,” the expert sums up.

None of Kommersant-Volga’s interlocutors began to predict which structures could bid to purchase the enterprise, which would receive the fleet of one of the largest Russian shipping companies. However, given the presence of long oil contracts and the solid property base of Volgotanker, it will certainly arouse interest among potential investors, experts say.

 

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