Losses of Rotenberg-linked company in Kazakhstan rise 1.5 times

In 2025, the Kazakhstan subsidiary of Bashkir Soda Company posted a loss of 76.1 million tenge, more than 1.5 times the previous year's loss of 49.6 million tenge, according to the website infohub.kz.

According to the financial statements, in 2025 Bashkir Soda Company-Kazakhstan had no revenue, whereas in 2024 it amounted to 347 thousand tenge. The company's accumulated uncovered loss reached 878.5 million tenge by the end of 2025.

The sole owner of the Kazakh subsidiary is Russia's Bashkir Soda Company from Sterlitamak. Its main activity is wholesale trade in chemical substances and chemical products.

In open sources, Bashkir Soda Company is called the largest producer of baking soda in Russia, controlling 85% of the market. Since the company's products are widely available in Kazakh stores, it is likely that supplies now go directly from Russia, bypassing the Kazakh subsidiary.

In June 2025, the government of Bashkiria sold 53% of shares of Bashkir Soda Company to the holding Roskhim. However, taking into account the transfer of 11.7% of this stake into trust management to the Bashkir authorities, the latter control 50.1% of shares.

Earlier, Kommersant and Forbes reported that Roskhim is managed by the family of billionaire Arkady Rotenberg, who ranks 34th in the Russian Forbes list with a fortune of $5.3 billion, but the entrepreneur's press service denied this information.

In 2020, protests by environmentalists and local residents began in Bashkiria over the company's plans to start soda mining in a new location. The conflict was resolved after the intervention of President Vladimir Putin, who ordered to check the legality of the privatization of BSC.

The authorities of Bashkiria estimated the damage from privatization at 34 billion rubles (197.9 billion tenge at the NBRK exchange rate at the time of publication), and the Prosecutor General's Office filed a lawsuit, stating that the change of ownership occurred against the will of the state.

In March 2021, the court transferred 95.72% of BSC shares to Rosimushchestvo. However, in March 2025, Putin excluded BSC from the list of strategic enterprises, after which another privatization took place.