Gennady Timchenko: Gunvor takes control of Kolmar Coal

Energy trading company Gunvor of Finnish businessman Gennady Timchenko, recently took control of Russian mining company Kolmar Coal (51%) for approximately $400 million, according to media reports.

Mr Torbjorn Tornqvist, Gunvor's chairman, said in a statement that "This deal marks our first entry into Russian coal mining".

Intergeo is a mining subsidiary of Onexim group, which is controlled by Russian billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov.

Kolmar coal, which was founded in South Yakutia in 2004, was bought in April 2010 by Intergeo. The coal mining company processes coals reserves from Yakutia and has a production capacity of 1,200,000 mt of coal per year.

According to analysts Gunvor’s move to control Kolmar Coal is a bid to curb the company’s reliance on oil and gas, which currently represent most of Gunvor’s turnover. In 2010, Gunvor appointed for the first time two vice-presidents in a new "Gunvor Coal" department, and made clear it intended to strengthen its presence in the global coal market.

Gennady Timchenko created Gunvor in 1997, an oil trading company originally focused on Russian market. Timchenko’s vision was to modernize Russian oil export facilities and infrastructures in order to sell Russian oil at a competitive price.

Gunvor notably owns its own railway company, several port facilities as well as its own oil tanker fleet, allowing them to be very attractive and reliable on Russian oil exports. The infrastructure bet also allowed Gunvor to become in little more than ten years one of the top players in the oil business.

During the last weeks, there have been intensive media speculations about Gunvor’s interest in acquiring Russian coal miner Raspadskaya. A spokesperson for Gennady Timchenko had to deny any interests from the energy trader.