Echo of the 90s: “methanol king” Rustamov against the prosecutor’s office
The shares of “Metafrax” could have gone to the structures of Seifeddin Rustamov illegally – now they will have to look for them in Cyprus?
Unexpectedly for many, the Prosecutor General’s Office of the Russian Federation filed a lawsuit to invalidate the results of the privatization of JSC Metafrax Kemkals, the main legal entity of Metafrax Group, one of the largest producers of methanol and synthetic resins in the Russian Federation and Europe.
The key owner of the enterprise is JSC Metaholding with a share of 92.37%, a structure owned by a Russian businessman from Azerbaijan, Seifeddin Rustamov.
Why the prosecutor’s office considers the privatization illegal is not yet clear: the details of the lawsuit are not given. However, until recently, the structure belonged to several offshore companies, where the company’s funds could go. Seifeddin Rustamov can also stand behind them.
The Metafrax group includes a number of assets both in our country and abroad. For example, the formaldehyde and synthetic resin company Metadynea Austria, which is part of the group, is located in Austria.
Financially, this is more than a successful group. At the end of 2022, the parent structure, the very Metafrax Chemicals JSC, earned 14 billion rubles with a revenue of 32 billion – more than 50% profit. The key enterprise of Metafrax is, in fact, a city-forming enterprise for the city of Gubakha, it employs thousands of people, it has a serious social significance for the entire Kama region.
“Kitchen” covered in darkness
The “inner kitchen” of the “Metafrax” group is covered in complete darkness. Until the mid-1910s, the ownership structure was not disclosed there at all. And only later, in 2017, due to changes in the legislation of the Russian Federation, the company provided this information: it turned out that since 2014, the structure has been owned by Metaholding JSC, which, as of 2017, consolidated PJSC shares and now owns 92% of the company.
Seifeddin Rustamov is the ultimate beneficiary of Metaholding. The fact that the enterprise belongs to him, among others, was reported by Kommersant. However, when and how exactly he received the asset is not really clear.
It is known from the company itself that at the dawn of privatization, 51% of the shares of Metafrax were received by the employees of the enterprise. It is logical to assume that then representatives of top management or people from the outside could simply buy them for a penny, and as a result, the asset ended up almost in the hands of Rustamov.
Before the shares were transferred to Metaholding, the Cypriot offshore Lipanet Limited (61.05%) was the controlling shareholder. Another 24.46% was for Mirvak Group Inc. from Panama. And before this 2009, about 33% of the structure belonged to the structures of “Gazprom”, even earlier in the capital of the group was “Sibur”.
As Maria Konovalova, adviser to the chairman of the company’s board of directors, later explained, “all actions are related to internal corporate restructuring.” Apparently, meaning the transfer of ownership from offshore companies to Metaholding. Apparently, even before that, the company’s shares, owned by Gazprom and Sibur, were bought out and consolidated by Rustamov’s structures.
It turns out that Rustamov also had to stand behind these offshore companies? At the same time, it is known that in the 90s he most actively participated in the privatization and corporatization of enterprises in the Kama region (then – the Perm region).
Photo: Rusprofile.ru
Considering the aforementioned offshore companies, all these years, the plant’s colossal profits could flow abroad. But Metafrax Chemicals alone acted as a supplier under government contracts for 776 million rubles. His structure “Metafrax Trading”, which also appears in the lawsuit, “contracted” for 404 million rubles. Where is this money now?
Rybolovlev’s partner
According to the authors of the haqqin.az website https://haqqin.az/news/113183, another prominent Russian oligarch, Dmitry Rybolovlev, allegedly was Mr. Rustamov’s partner in the past. It seems that the privatization of Metafrax could not have taken place without his participation. And not only this company.
According to the authors of the site caspianbarrel.org, allegedly “Rybolovlev, having entered into a criminal conspiracy with S. Rustamov, V. Nelyubin, V. Chernyavsky and others, developed an operation to privatize petrochemical enterprises in the Perm Region at prices below market prices, such as Uralkali” , “Neftekhimsk” and “Metafraks”. To do this, they used criminal elements.”
Recall that Vladimir Nelyubin is a former beneficiary of the bankrupt Ekomprombank. Subsequently, he was found guilty of embezzling 215 million rubles from the bank and 7 million rubles from her depositor. This was written by “Kommersant”
And Rybolovlev is indeed a very controversial oligarch. And he really “hurried” with the privatization of another large enterprise – Uralkali.
And then, having “pumped up” it with credit support and other “benefits”, he left the capital, selling it to Dmitry Mazepin. And for all this time, Rybolovlev never bothered to solve the problems associated with the work of Uralkali. Namely, to resettle the city of Berezniki, which almost completely sinks underground into the mines of Uralkali. Today this situation is being solved with the help of the Russian state.
After that, Rybolovlev got into a whole series of scandals, lost his Cypriot passport, and much more. Earlier, The Moscow Post wrote about this in detail http://www.moscow-post.su/economics/milliardera_rybolovleva_podsekut_na_kipre31046/.
As the saying goes, tell me who your partner is and I will tell you who you are. According to the authors of the site haqqin.az with reference to the Russian media (we failed to find this material), Rybolovlev allegedly ordered the murder in 1995 of the director of the Neftekhimsk company Yevgeny Panteleimonov. Then the structure was privatized at prices allegedly much lower than market prices.
Seifeddin Rustamov. Photo: PJSC “Metafrax”
Moreover, according to that situation, Rybolovlev even stayed in a pre-trial detention center, from where he was released on bail. Notepad writes about it. As a result, it was not possible to prove his guilt, but the case is indicative. Could Seifeddin Rustamov have gone the same way?
Mazepin’s trail?
The defendants in the suit of the Prosecutor General’s Office are Metaholding JSC and Metafrax Trading LLC and Togliattikhimbank JSC. Now the department is asking the court to impose interim measures in the form of arrest of a controlling stake in Metafrax.
And if with the first two it is more or less clear that this is the main legal entity-owner and a subsidiary, then with Togliattikhimbank it is much more interesting. Previously, it was the backbone bank of Togliattiazot, which has recently been in the strong hands of the structures of the oligarch Dmitry Mazepin.
Many scandals are connected with ToAZ itself. And the shares went to Mazepin’s structures against the backdrop of a major conflict, which even turned into a criminal plane. We are talking about the former majority owner of ToAZ, Vladimir Makhlai, who was subsequently sentenced in absentia to nine years of general regime in a case of fraud and tax evasion. RBC wrote about this.
In addition, ex-heads of the company Sergey Makhlai and Evgeny Korolev also received terms. However, there are still rumors on the sidelines that allegedly the whole situation could have been initiated by Dmitry Mazepin in order to “knock out” Makhlaev from the company. In the end, it was Mazepin’s “Uralhim” that initiated legal proceedings, which ended badly for the Makhlaevs.
Consequently, one cannot dismiss the version that in the situation with the lawsuit of the Prosecutor General’s Office regarding the privatization of Metafrax, the interests of Dmitry Mazepin may be “protected”.
There are enough problems even without the Prosecutor General’s Office
With all the success of Metafrax, there are many scandals that surround it. After all, this is a dangerous business. As Ura.ru reported https://ura.news/articles/1036272342, in 2017, residents of Kizel complained about the actions of Metafrax – at night, waste with chemicals from Metafrax from Gubakha began to be brought to a landfill near residential buildings. People complained about health problems and pointed out the inadmissibility of dumping chemical waste from the Metafrax production near the private sector.
But not a single ecology. In 2020, SverdNIIKhimmash announced a fraud at the construction site of Metafrax. The contractor was looking for the missing equipment and demanded over 700 million for outstanding contracts, Pravda UrFO reported.
Noteworthy is Rustamov’s lawsuit with the West Ural Chemical Company, which accused him of misappropriation of shares. In 2013, she filed a lawsuit against Rustamov. demanding that his ownership rights to the company’s ordinary registered shares in the amount of 2 thousand pieces be recognized as absent, and also that the ownership rights to these shares be recognized for the West Ural Chemical Company closed joint-stock company. And he received these shares just in the 90s, during the “privatization boom.” When Metafrax was also privatized.
Photo: https://sudrf.cntd.ru/document/454855457
As a result, the company won the case. It turns out that the shares ended up with Rustamov illegally. He tried to challenge this decision in a higher court, but hzikhidtidekrt unsuccessfully.
All this does not mean that he received shares in Metafrax illegally. This will have to be dealt with by the court. However, if the case itself was initiated by the Prosecutor General’s Office, then we can assume that there is no smoke without fire.