‘For Bars Group management it is a great success to be repurchased so soon’

'Perhaps, the purchase of BARS Group is related to the upcoming World Cup'

Efim Klimov, Director General of Etton, in conversation with the correspondent of Realnoe Vremya, commented in details the deal of the year in Tatarstan IT-market. We provide his point of view:

'Bars Group is engaged in automation projects for the public sector, there are a number of industries that require automation. Of course, this company is important. But regional informatization is in decline now, regional budgets on information technology are decreasing, so now it is not very rosy in this part of the market. In the first place, I believe the sale of the company NCI is associated with it. As for the size of the company, there are few in Tatarstan, this is one of the largest. In addition, we have ICL, if to consider it partially as a software company, the company 'Center', our company. We are incomparable on turnover, but on officially declared profits we can be compared, one that they reveal is extremely low.

You said that IT specialists estimated the company at 1-2 billion – in my opinion, this cost is overestimated. Now, the market is shrinking, and for Bars Group management it is a great success to be repurchased so soon. When the majority of gross revenue is tied to the state regional segment, and this as we know, non-system sale – it is based on some possibilities of lobbying, integration things. I would estimate at much less than one billion, because this company under the current conditions, in the absence of a strategic investor, according to my forecasts, would have incurred losses this year.

Probably, purchase of Bars Group is related to the upcoming World Cup. There is a number of system projects that have been shoved on Rostekh. It is, for example, healthcare, the FIFA World Cup. But just at the beginning of this year, Vitaly Mutko officially declared that there are big cuts to the championship. Those funds that were originally stated probably will not be.

Efim Klimov: 'IT specialists estimated the company at 1-2 billion – in my opinion, this cost is overestimated. Now, the market is shrinking, and for Bars Group management it is a great success to be repurchased so soon'. Photo: Maksim Platonov

Besides, now Rostekh acquires the competencies. Given that in the next 5-10 years the policy of import substitution will continue, there will be no indulgence for foreign developers. Not only that, now there is the law restricting on buying the foreign IT products by government agencies, this year a law will be that will restrict them to buy state corporations and companies with state participation. Of course, everyone will be buying Russian products. And Rostekh is a huge company that has hundreds of different departments and subsidiaries. All of them will need to purchase the software. They are gaining these skills now with the expectation that they will need in the future.

From the perspective of a long-term strategy, it is, probably, correct. The problem is that Bars Group company does not have these competencies. Here's the biggest irony of this situation. They buy some major developer with the absence of competencies in the corporate segment, having a multitude of disparate individual projects in the public sector.

If there is 100% sale of the shares, it will affect Bars Group sooner or later. All will depend on who will be the direct head of the company. Now, a lot of processes depend on top management, the Director General of the company. It often happens that in the process of absorption the key people who created the company are dropping out, but the director of Bars Group Timur Akhmerov stood at the origins of the company. Without him, I don't know how it would work – I cannot predict.'

The contract with Rostelecom and the Ministry of Health

Realnoe Vremya has analyzed the work of Bars Group in the system of state order through the open data. It turned out that the bulk of the state contracts Bars Group has gone through major face – JSC BARS Group. The company became the owner of 928 state contracts. Another 104 contracts were signed with PLC BARS-Group.

The largest of the contracts, at 175 million rubles, was signed with PJSC Rostelecom on complex service for the operation of the medical organization within the regional segment of the unified state information system in healthcare in Rostov region. The term of the contract is from September 2015 to March 2018.

The company became the owner of 928 state contracts, most part of which are related to health care system. Photo: Maksim Platonov

In 2013, the company got almost the same amount from the Department of Informatization and Development of Telecommunication Technologies of the Novosibirsk region. The order, apparently, was for the same system: on the provision of services on updating and implementing of components of the regional fragment of the unified state system of healthcare in state institutions of healthcare of Novosibirsk region.

The same system was ordered by Rostelecom for the Saratov region in 2012. The total order amounted to 87 million rubles. JSC BARS Group gained the similar order for the Novosibirsk region from Rostelekom at 68 million rubles in 2012.

In far Yakutia

The largest order that is not associated with the system for healthcare was signed by JSC BARS group in 2014 with the Information Centre headed by the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) – on the implementation of a system for charging and collection of payments for housing and communal services. The cost of this order amounted to 59 million rubles.

The company received 58 million rubles form the contract for 2014-2017 for the creation and implementation of the information system 'Electronic budget' in the Kaliningrad region from the Ministry of Finance of this region.

BARS Group received 53.5 million rubles from the Department of Information Technology of Moscow in 2015, for the 'scientific research and experimental design works on development of the information system 'Regional system of major repairs of apartment houses of Moscow''.

BARS Group surpassed itself in 2015. Last year, BARS Group gained 139 state contracts totaling nearly at a billion rubles. Photo: Maksim Platonov

About how Bars Group was developing

BARS Group gained its first state contracts in 2010. There were only two, and the total cost amounted only to 488 thousand rubles. In 2011, the amount of contracts increased almost seventyfold — to 36 million rubles for 16 contracts. Half of them – three orders at 16 million rubles — were received from the Ministry of RT.

In 2012, BARS Group managed to get 43 contracts at 277 million rubles. 81.5 million of them – from the Department of Construction of Moscow, another 44 million rubles — from the Ministry of Health of the Chelyabinsk region.

In 2013, the company continued to increase its number of contracts: they were 82 in total, at 452 million rubles. 237 million rubles of them brought from six orders of Information Technology Department of the Novosibirsk region, 62 million rubles – two orders from the Department of Information Technology of Moscow, 50 million rubles – 14 orders from the Ministry of Information and Communication of Tatarstan.

In 2014, the amount of the contracts slightly decreased to 395 million rubles for 79 orders. 62 million rubles of them – from two orders from the Information Center at the head of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia), another 58 million rubles – due to the order of the Ministry of Finance of the Kaliningrad region, 55 million rubles — from seven orders of Rostelecom.

However, in 2015BARS Group surpassed itself. Last year, BARS Group gained 139 state contracts at nearly a billion rubles. The largest customer was PJSC Rostelecom with 48 orders at 462 million rubles, the Department for Informatisation of the Novosibirsk region with 15 orders at 115 million rubles, the Information Technologies Centre of Tatarstan with seven orders for 67 million rubles.

For two and a half months of 2016, BARS Group gained 9 orders at 65 million rubles. 30 million rubles of them – due to the order of Fund of Assistance to Reforming of Housing and Communal Services, 15.5 million rubles – due to the two orders from the Department of Construction of Moscow.