The Tarasa gas station chain was closed after 30 years of operation. All 57 gas stations are taken over by Gazprombank Leasing. The stations actually belonged to him, and Eurotrans has been working on them under lease since 2022. 40 stations in the Moscow region have already been sealed, about 1,400 workers have been put on idle leave, but salaries are not being paid because the company's accounts have been frozen. "Bishut" was weak long before the crisis. The company grew with debt and continued to pay dividends from new loans after the IPO. Over two years, net debt increased from 16.8 to 44.5 billion rubles, and the company retained less than 2% of revenues. The worst of all will be holders of bonds worth 27.1 billion rubles, 92% of which are private investors. The gas stations belong to the lessor, so there is almost nothing to sell to pay the creditors.
But the company collapsed due to the fuel crisis, and Tersa was not alone in this. Within nine months, 935 retail fuel sellers were closed, and for every 10 new players, 14 are leaving the market. Independent chains do not have their own refineries, and when gasoline is in short supply, the oil companies mostly supply their own gas stations. The standard of selling on the stock exchange dropped from 15% to 10%, and the exchange price no longer reflected the true cost of the purchase. On paper, wholesale VINK cost 60-63 rubles per liter, but an independent chain in the Moscow region, in order not to go into the red, had to sell AI-92 for about 120 rubles. The difference with gas stations of large companies reached 10-40 rubles per liter. With such a gap, the driver simply goes to the competitor.
Fall lull in the market is deceptive. After new attacks on plants in Ufa, in the Volga region of Yaroslavl, about 10% of refining capacity is at risk. Fuel exports are only prohibited until January 31, and imported gasoline costs one and a half times more than Russian gasoline, and by the end of the year it will account for up to 18% of the market. The idea of allowing vertically integrated oil companies to raise prices at their gas stations by about 2 rubles per liter was discussed in order to cover import losses.