At the end of August, the Cabinet of Ministers issued an order to merge “Plant Electrotyazhmash” with “Turboatom”. What will the merged enterprise be called? Will the staff of “Electrotyazhmash” be reduced? The General Director of “Turboatom” Viktor Subbtin told Suspilny about the reorganization and further plans.
This will be the decision of the Cabinet of Ministers. I think it will be a person who knows the issues of the market of turbine generators, turbines, power engineering. I think it will be a person from our two enterprises.
There has never been such a merge in Ukraine. And, of course, this is a complex process that we prescribe and solve, which is called “from the wheels”. The company will be one; the legal entity will be one. This will be done by joining “Electrotyazhmash” to “Turboatom”, that is, “Electrotyazhmash” as a legal entity will be canceled. There will be two industrial sites. The production process will be fully preserved both at “Turboatom” and “Electrotyazhmash”.
Of course, this is due to the merger, since the newly created enterprise will produce not only turbines, but also generators and other products that are in the range of “Electrotyazhmash”. The name is our common proposal from both plants as it represents the entire product line.
According to the official website of “Turboatom”, the company supplies products to 44 countries of the world. Your customers know you by the name “Turboatom”. Aren't you afraid of losing clients?
Of course, there will be certain inconveniences. We already feel them when we give information to our regular customers that there will be such a name change. But this is not critical, since these plants produce single-part products for a specific customer, production cycles for both turbines and generators take months, and sometimes years. We know every existing and potential customer. They deal with us not because the name is beautiful, but because we are serious manufacturers.
As far as I know, today there are arrears of wages for July at “Electrotyazhmash”. There are no debts at “Turboatom”. In the first half of this year, the accounts payable at “Electrotyazhmash” are higher than the accounts receivable by one billion three hundred or four hundred million. This is undoubtedly a lot of funds; these are debts that will need to be paid to the already merged enterprise. According to “Turboatom”'s balance sheet, the opposite is a bit: accounts receivable are higher than the creditor's by just 1.3 billion UAH. This evens out the balance of “Turboatom” and “Electrotyazhmash”.
We are now fruitfully working on the general structure of production, planning, supply, and product sales. In my opinion, a certain bias among colleagues took place in terms of a large number of engineers and technicians and a reduced number of industrialists. I see that there are large reserves for optimizing the management vertical. We gave our suggestions and our colleagues generally approved them.
We made suggestions on the example of “Turboatom”. We have a vertical of economic service, both planning and management, centralized technological services and control services. All this is subordinated to a member of the Directorate - the Deputy General Director, who is responsible for this area. In workshops, there is no duplication of these functions and this reduces the number of people who deal with papers. This should be reduced [at “Electrotyazhmash”]. This is the first component.
Further: on our end the designers sell turbines, because this is a complex technique, and the customer must understand that he will be offered exactly the product that he needs. Economists, marketers will then formalize all this in a contract. We united designers and marketers into one service 10 years ago. At “Electrotyazhmash”, the designers are still subordinate to the chief engineer.
This is a social issue. I understand that the employees of “Electrotyazhmash” will also watch us. I would like to say this: first of all, we need to start production. This requires contracts, and they must be cost-effective. This means that salaries and other expenses must be included in the price of the contract. If we have a staff overage, then we will not fit into the pricing in any way. Therefore, I ask that the employees of “Electrotyazhmash” be calm. Let's start up the enterprise, load the machines, then there will already be work for economists. I understand what this figure is. The number of engineering and technical workers can be cut in half. And production workers must be returned to the plant.
We have 16,000 UAH, at “Electrotyazhmash” it is about half less. But the situation is different there. Most of the people who need to be paid wages are unemployed who have to be paid two-thirds of their wage. We pay for the work, but at “Electrotyazhmash” it is still down time. Of course, after the merger, wages will rise to the level of “Turboatom”, because this is the only staff, a single team, and a single responsibility.
We have a stock of orders this year - more than 2 billion UAH. Next year we plan not to reduce it for our products. “Electrotyazhmash” has a stock of orders, let's say, lower. I think about half the size.
The stages are already underway. Meetings of [shareholders] were held at “Turboatom” and “Electrotyazhmash”. Then, based on the results of nine months, according to balance sheet indicators, the balances will be merged. Then two directors will sign the deed of assignment from “Electrotyazhmash” to “Turboatom”. And that's all – this is the moment when the merged company starts – a merger agreement will be signed, which will regulate the par and value of shares, part of the two joint-stock companies. October, mid-November – the actual merger procedure will take place.