In 2021, the grain harvest in Russia is projected at more than 127 million tons. Cereals are grown by more than 39 thousand enterprises. An assessment of the return on cost ratio of the largest grain producers indicates an increase in income per ruble spent in 2020. All TOP 10 companies have increased their revenues and net profit this year. The same result is likely to be achieved by the end of 2021.

Information agency Credinform has selected the largest agricultural producers of wheat, barley, rye, corn, oats, buckwheat, legumes and oilseeds with the highest annual revenue (TOP 10 and TOP 100), according to the data from the Statistical Register and the Federal Tax Service for the latest available periods (2018 – 2020). They were ranked by the return on costs ratio (Table 1). The selection and analysis of companies were based on the data of the Information and Analytical system Globas.

Return on costs (%) is the pre-tax profit to the total sales and production costs. The ratio indicates the volume of income from one ruble spent.

For the most complete and objective view of the financial condition of the enterprise, it is necessary to pay attention to the complex of indicators and financial ratios of the company.

Table 1. Net profit, revenue, return on costs and solvency index Globas of the agricultural grain producers (TOP 10)

Name, INN, region	Revenue, million RUB		Net profit (loss), million RUB		Return on costs, %		Solvency index Globas
	2019	2020	2019	2020	2019	2020
1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8
LLC AGROFIRMA TSELINA INN 6136009530 Rostov region	511	3 780	147	1 897	41,84	104,30	179 High
LLC AGROHOLDING IVNYANSKIY INN 3109003728 Belgorod region	5 362	7 343	2 249	3 684	73,38	99,91	175 High
LLC AGROINDUSTRIAL CORPORATION YUNOST INN 5708006707 Oryol region	1 788	3 913	516	1 865	48,16	93,92	157 Superior
LLC RANENBURG INN 4813012610 Lipetsk region	2 299	4 528	607	1 992	40,03	85,09	214 Strong
LLC KRASNOYARUZHSKAYA GRAIN COMPANY INN 3113001402 Belgorod region	4 563	5 853	825	2 415	24,85	80,34	166 High
LLC PRISTENSKAYA GRAIN COMPANY INN 4619004632 Kursk region	4 196	6 381	1 036	2 711	33,53	72,70	189 High
JSC STUDENETSKY FLOUR MILL INN 5815000308 Penza region	2 170	4 328	275	1 659	15,72	65,77	147 Superior
LLC ROSTOV GRAIN COMPANY RESURS INN 6148003452 Rostov region	2 782	8 637	71	3 170	3,59	63,46	218 Strong
JSC ISKRA INN 2439001597 Krasnoyarsk region	3 357	4 007	882	1 144	34,19	38,73	135 Superior
LLC DOBRINYA INN 4804005574 Lipetsk region	3 499	6 060	507	1 576	17,82	36,82	195 High
Average value for TOP 10	3 053	5 483	712	2 211	33,31	74,10
Average value for TOP 100	1 271	1 881	285	674	33,53	59,53
Industry average value	44	60	7	13	18,69	31,15

growth of indicator to the previous period, fall of indicator to the previous period

The average 2020 value of return on costs of TOP 10 and TOP 100 companies was above the average one. None of TOP 10 companies had decrease in 2020. However, the fall was recorded for three companies of TOP 100.

At the same time, all companies gained revenue and net profit in 2020.

The increase in revenue was near 80% and 50% for TOP 10 and TOP 100 respectively, while the industry average value climbed almost 36%.

The average profit of TOP 10 have increased 3 times, TOP 100’s one jumped more than 2 times, and on average in the industry, the growth was recorded by almost 86%.

In general, the industry average return on costs values have raised for three periods during the past 5 years. The highest value was recorded in 2020 and the lowest one was in 2011 (Picture 1).

Picture 1. Change in the average return on costs values of agricultural grain producers in 2016 - 2020

In the second quarter of this year, the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation made an important decision on the possibility of bringing CEOs of the LLCs excluded from the Unified State Register of Legal Entities of LLC as inactive legal entities to subsidiary liability for the debts of companies. However, this is possible only by the court order.

Subsidiary liability is liability for the debtor company if its property is insufficient to settle accounts with its creditors.

Currently, the legislation provides for the imposition of subsidiary liability on individuals or legal entities controlling the debtor for no longer than 3 years prior to appearance of the signs of bankruptcy in the company, and controlled (i.e., had the opportunity and right) decisions made in the company, entered into transactions on its behalf and determined their terms after the occurrence of signs of bankruptcy, before the bankruptcy petition was accepted by the court.

Recall that the procedure for bringing to subsidiary liability is enshrined in Art. 399 of the first part of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation.

In pursuance of the decision of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation, the legislative bodies will have to make appropriate changes to the laws in force.

According to the Information and Analytical system Globas over the past period of 2021, arbitration courts of all instances considered 54 bankruptcy cases of a debtor to be dissolved or absent debtor, which ended in satisfying claims for a total amount of more than 191 million RUB.