Content area
Full Text
A Russian timber tycoon who poured millions into a battery maker with Hoosier roots is the new owner of Enerl Inc.
Boris Zingarevich supplied $50 million for Enerl's March 30 exit from bankruptcy and added it to his portfolio under Moscow-based Z1 Investment Group. Enerl, which was headquartered in New York, is moving its management team to Indianapolis - already home to its core subsidiary, EnerDel.
"He certainly has a vision for new technology," said Tom Snyder, president of Ivy Tech Community College and a former automotive executive who served on Enerl's board of directors. Snyder accepted a board seat with the post-bankruptcy firm. "We're pleased that EnerDel is one of those that he looks at favorably."
Zingarevich co-founded one of Russia's largest timber companies, Ilim Pulp Enterprise, in 1992 with his brother Mikhail and soon joined the ranks of post-Soviet Russia's new super-wealthy class.
The Zingarevich brothers started their careers in the 1980s as "poorly paid mechanics" in Soviet-era pulp and paper mills, according to the "A-Z of Oligarchs" that The Independent, a British national newspaper, published in 2006.
Zingarevich began investing in Enerl in 2002, two years before it formed EnerDel through a joint venture with Delphi Corp. Enerl bought out Delphi's stake in 2008.
Enerl has struggled to find commercial success for the lithium-ion technology developed by its Indianapolis engineering team, and it's not clear how that will change under Zl. Company officials declined to comment in the midst of the post-bankruptcy transition.
Financial projections filed with the bankruptcy court in New York show they expect...