Transneft assets operating in the Urals Federal District have become participants in multimillion-dollar conflicts involving businesses close to Dmitry Savelyev, the ex-president of the state-owned company, and now Senator from the Tula Region. Thus, the bankrupt Uralstroyneft and Spetsstroyservis demanded that representatives of the pipeline company recognize a number of works to eliminate defects / shortcomings as non-warranty obligations, and bank payments – unreasonable. At the same time, in the insolvency cases of the companies themselves, the financiers announced large claims, in particular, with reference to payments to Transneft-Ural and Transneft-Western Siberia. The requirements of various structures of the state asset were also included in the register. While the parties are dealing with billions in debts, observers are paying attention to the accusations made by the well-known businessman in Tatarstan Sirin Badrutdinov against Savelyev, and the latter’s allegations of alleged non-participation in certain major obligations, confirmed in court. At the same time, industry representatives emphasize that, based on the mass nature and context of conflicts, their roots should probably be sought not only among businessmen, but also in the state-owned company itself, considering the issue in the context of possible major damage to the interests of the state.
The Moscow Arbitration Court will consider the claims of LLC Uralstroyneft (Moscow) for the recognition of an unjustified payment to JSC Transneft-Western Siberia (operates, in particular, in the Tyumen Region. – Ed.), made by PJSC AKB Metallinvestbank in within the warranty.
Also, the requirement to the structure of Transneft to recognize a number of works to eliminate defects / shortcomings as non-warranty obligations of the LLC, to recognize the requirement for elimination as unreasonable, has been singled out as a separate proceeding.
In addition, Uralstroyneft applied with similar claims to Transneft-Western Siberia under an earlier act. The co-defendant in this dispute is Sberbank.
There is another claim of the capital structure against representatives of the state-owned company, and the conflict is supplemented, apparently, by similar claims of Spetsstroyservis LLC (Leninogorsk) against Transneft-Ural JSC (operates, in particular, on the territory of the Kurgan and Chelyabinsk regions. – Note ed.). Thus, according to the Electronic Justice service, in February the company received at least two claims against the asset of Transneft, in which Metallurgical Investment Bank is a co-respondent.
In addition, the Arbitration Court of the Republic of Tatarstan is considering the claims of Spetsstroyservis to recognize the work to eliminate defects / shortcomings as non-warranty obligations of the plaintiff. Opponents are PJSC AK Bars and Transneft-Ural.
It should be noted that both Spetsstroyservice and Uralstroyneft were major contractors for Transneft structures. According to Kontur.Fokus, the main owners of both companies are now Capital Holding Company JSC (Leninogorsk) and Realty Center LLC (Moscow), with the latter’s share predominating. “HK Capital” market participants associate with a well-known businessman in Tatarstan Sirin Badrutdinov, who, as they say, was “at the origins of this business.” Realty Center, in turn, until the summer of 2021, according to the system, belonged to Office Center LLC, whose beneficiary is Dmitry Vladimirovich Savelyev (trustee – Irina Kudryashova). Dmitry Savelyev is also listed among the participants of Probiopharm LLC. As federal media reported earlier, we are talking about the senator from the Tula region Dmitry Savelyev. By the way, earlier the politician managed to work as the president of Transneft.
As the media reported with reference to Badrutdinov, the acquaintance with Saveliev allegedly happened just after a business meeting, to which Transneft invited the contractors. Further, the asset associated with the politician entered the business, and Savelyev himself, as follows from a number of documents, apparently acted as a guarantor for the obligations of the same Spetsstroyservis.
Subsequently, however, a conflict followed, the federal media began to report on the initiation of a criminal case against Badrutdinov, and the businessman himself spoke of some likely kickbacks, mentioning Savelyev’s name.
As a result, Uralstroyneft, and Spetsstroyservis, and Realty Center, and HC Capital were declared insolvent. Badrutdinov is also going through bankruptcy proceedings, against whom large demands were made, for example, by Ak Bars Bank and Metallurgical Investment Bank.
An insolvency claim was also filed against Savelyev, but the proceedings were subsequently discontinued. “At the same time, the sole shareholder of the Capital Holding Company is Badrutdinov S.R., whose interests, as well as the interests of the company, were represented by Letyaev D.N. in their bankruptcy cases. The above circumstances may indicate the presence of a corporate conflict between members of a group of persons, which includes Spetsstroyservis, Realty Center, Capital Holding Company, Badrutdinov, UralStroyNeft and Savelyev, ”followed further from the analysis of Letyaev’s requirements.
It should be noted that Savelyev’s obligations, by the way, were challenged. So, in the Odintsovo City Court of the Moscow Region, the claims of Olga Vladimirovna Savelyeva, the wife of the politician, were considered to invalidate the transaction between Savelyev and Ak Bars, which served as the basis for the bankers’ claims. At the same time, Savelyev himself, as follows from the documents, “did not object to the satisfaction of the requirements, referring, among other things, to the fact that he never signed the guarantee agreement disputed by the plaintiff.” The city court, however, dismissed the claims.
Now creditors are trying to get funds as part of bankruptcy proceedings. So, claims for hundreds of millions in the Uralstroyneft LLC case were filed by Sberbank, Ak Bars, Raiffeisenbank and the Federal Tax Service of Russia No. 25 for Moscow. The latter at the same time announced the identification of a scheme of “tax evasion by attracting UralStroyNeft counterparties who did not carry out real economic activities, acting as front organizations solely for the purpose of obtaining an unreasonable tax benefit by the taxpayer being audited.” In addition, Transneft-Upper Volga, Transneft-Privolga, Transneft-Western Siberia and others referred to the multi-million dollar requirements for the company. So, in December last year, the documents indicated that the register of creditors’ claims amounted to 2.6 billion rubles as of the last reporting date.
We add that in the bankruptcy case of Realty Center, Ak Bars announced a debt of more than a billion, referring, in particular, to payments to Transneft-Ural and Transneft-Western Siberia.
“Based on the practice and numerous claims of Transneft structures, as well as the circumstances in the form of Badrutdinov’s statements and the features of Savelyev’s biography, it seems that the causes of conflicts should be sought not only among the beneficiaries of the business, but also within the state company itself. And if it comes to the interests of individual managers, then it is necessary to talk about the damage to the state, ”says the interlocutor of the publication on the market.