A group of major IT investors plans to invest several billion rubles in creating a production facility for industrial controllers based on the Penza-based enterprise Electromechanics Atom LLC (EMA). This was reported by an Interfax source.

Deal and ownership structure

In 2023, investors created the company CR LLC, which at the end of the year acquired 100% of the shares in EMA from Penza's Electromechanics JSC and Natalia Zaritskaya. EMA itself specializes in the design, development, and production of controllers for automated process control systems (APCS).

Among the owners of "CR" are well-known representatives of the IT sector:

• Alexander Kalinin (25%), co-founder of the former "National Computer Corporation" (NCC);
• Alexey Abramov (25%), co-owner of the "Merlion" holding;
• Sergey Belkin (20%), former vice president of "Lanit";
• Dmitry Tikhonov (20%), co-owner of Informtechtrans JSC;
• Vadim Podolny (10%).

Plans for production development

Specific details of the project have not yet been disclosed, but it is known that "CR" intends to create a full-cycle enterprise for the development and production of industrial electronics for APCS and communication systems. The production capacity should be 100 thousand devices per year.

According to the company's estimates, the Russian market for industrial controllers is estimated at more than 200 billion rubles, and "CR" plans to occupy at least 15% of this segment.

Prospects for the industrial automation market

According to a study by company B1, in 2024 the volume of the Russian market for equipment for industrial automation and telecommunications reached 642 billion rubles. It is expected to exceed 1.15 trillion rubles by 2030, with an average annual growth of 10%.

Main market segments:

• Industrial automation (relay automation, variable frequency drives, etc.) - growth from 83 billion rubles (2024) to 207 billion (2030);
• Telecom equipment (cabinets, cables, SCS components) - from 99 billion to 202 billion rubles;
• Electrical engineering and lighting engineering - from 461 billion to 750 billion rubles.

Sergey Belkin, one of the investors, confirmed that "CR" is already developing a line of controllers and has the first contract for implementation.

"We will assemble controllers at the Penza enterprise, configure them, and install software. Moreover, it will not be one controller, but a whole range of products," he noted.

The project should strengthen import substitution in the industrial automation segment, where dependence on foreign solutions is still high. If successful,"CR" could become one of the key players in this market.