Ino “Magnit”
Magnit announced the purchase of the KazanExpress online store. On its basis it is planned to launch its own marketplace – “Magnit Market”. This deal is interesting because among the sellers is a foreign entity associated with the Chinese AliExpress.
This year, Magnit has already made its foreign shareholders happy by repurchasing their shares. 37.4 billion rubles were spent on this, which probably immediately left the country in the form of dollars, which, of course, accelerated the depreciation of the ruble. Now, as you can see, money will flow towards China.
Magnit has money. At the end of last year, retained earnings of PJSC “Magnit” amounted to 132.7 billion rubles. On the accounts of the subsidiary Tander JSC, according to some data, was another 230.7 billion rubles. In this case, a strange picture is observed. We haven’t heard anything about dividends for 2022. And the main beneficiary of Magnit, the Marathon Group company, has been getting deeper and deeper since 2020. leaves in minus. Judging by published reports, last year its losses exceeded 750 million rubles. Against this background, multibillion-dollar payments to foreign shareholders and purchases of assets from foreigners raise questions. Isn’t it possible that money is being taken out of the country under this sauce, instead of investing it in the Russian economy?
Unprofitable startup
What is interesting about KazanExpress? The online store website looks like a clone of the well-known AliExpress. The only difference for the buyer, perhaps, is that KazanExpress has its own network of delivery points, while AliExpress mainly relies on Russian Post.
The Kazan clone “Ali” is owned by the legal entity Kazanexpress LLC. 56.27% of it is recorded on Aggregator-S Online LLC. The founder of this legal entity is the foreign company Aliexpress CIS Holding PTE LTD. This easily explains the similarity of the KazanExpress website with AliExpress. There are also Russian co-owners. These are three individuals. Linar Khusnullin is considered the ideological founder of this business – he has about 8%. Almost 34% of Kazan-express LLC is registered in Sergei Eremeev. He is also the founder of Fix. In its job advertisements, the company tells, which is engaged in attracting Internet traffic for such well-known brands as Mail.ru and AliExpress. Another 2% is recorded on Kevin Handu, head of the unprofitable company Marketplace Technologies (minus 200 million last year). This company, which has not achieved obvious financial success, may also fall under Magnit’s burden, since Kazanexpress LLC was established. And now the most interesting thing: the annual loss of Kazanexpress LLC exceeds 1.5 billion rubles with revenue of almost 4 billion rubles. Apparently, by continuing to work in the same format, the company will only increase its losses. Question: Can this financially ineffective startup be worth any money? Especially considering that its main owner, Aliexpress Holding, who knows a lot about online trading, gave up on him? Magnit managers decided that the Kazan online store, which was generating billions in losses, was worth paying for. The transaction amount is not officially disclosed. However, through “market experts” a figure has already been thrown into the press – 10 billion rubles.
Marathon Group Oddities
The deal is explained in Magnit’s press release as follows:
And already in the next paragraph, the “purchasing power” of Magnit is called into question. It turns out that as a result of the transaction, the retail giant expects to receive “an established pool of 12 thousand Russian marketplace sellers.” Also mentioned are 500 KaxanExpress pick-up points in 120 cities. But what is this compared to 28 thousand full-fledged Magnit stores, many of which, by the way, also offer online orders? In general, the deal looks strange in itself, and given the announced price of 10 billion rubles, it looks suspicious.
Especially against the backdrop of the processes taking place around the owners of Magnit. Let us remind you: in 2021, VTB Bank withdrew from the capital of Magnit. Then 29.2% of the retailer’s shares were concentrated by the Marathon Group Alexandra Vinokurova, businessman and son-in-law of Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov (*international criminal). 66% of the shares were then in free float. Already this year, Magnit has repurchased shares from foreign holders for 37.4 billion rubles. According to calculations, return 16% of the retailer’s shares were supposed to go home. However, the changes are still not reflected on its official website in the “capital structure” section. At the same time, the news about Marathon Group is alarming. Alexander Vinokurov’s company is selling off its Russian assets. For example, this summer it exited the capital of one of the largest exporters of Russian grain, the Demetra-Holding company. Business press wrotethat the buyer was the Omani company Southern Sea Investment LLC. At the same time, the ultimate beneficiaries of the Marathon Group are hidden from the registers. Previously, there were rumors that ultimately the assets of Alexander Vinokurov were recorded in the Cyprus MG Marathon Group. But a lot of water has passed under the bridge since then. And current information is kept secret at the official level. That is why suspicions arise that something is unclean here.
