Gutseriev will improve his affairs “Intecom”

It seems that the beneficiary of the development group Sminex (“Sminex”) Alexei Tulupov bit off a piece that he cannot swallow. Or he was not going to swallow it at all. It became known that he is selling a significant part of the assets of Inteko, which he recently bought out – namely the Patriot group, a business for housing construction and the production of reinforced concrete products in Rostov-on-Don.

According to our publication, the Patriot may go to Alexei Tulupov’s longtime colleague and partner, Sergei Gordeev and his PIK Group of Companies and Mikhail Gutseriev’s structures of the Safmar Group of Companies, drowning in debt.

In this case, there is a high probability that initially the deal with the Trust to acquire Inteko was built for one of these players, and Tulupov acted only as a “layer” – it is unlikely that Trust, which had business with the same Safmar, would have sold it with the same Gutseriev directly.

Details – in the material of the correspondent of The Moscow Post in the Rostov region.

“Uncle Misha” will not miss his

Recall that the Bank of non-core assets “Trust” long and hard tried to sell the former business of the widow of the ex-mayor of Moscow, Elena Baturina. There were enough applicants, including the Safmar Group of Companies Mikhail Gutseriev, who owned this business until 2017. Then, after the collapse of Binbank and the many debts of Safmar, Inteko went to the Trust. Since then, according to evil tongues, the Gutserievs allegedly dreamed of returning Inteko back.

Recall that as of 2019, Safmar’s debts were estimated at about 1 trillion rubles. Moreover, 320 of them accounted for “Trust”. Even then, Gutseriev actively discussed with Trust the settlement of debts for 140 billion rubles, RBC wrote about this. Apparently, they did not come to an agreement. But a little later in the same year, Gutseriev was able to agree on the restructuring of debts to Sberbank in the amount of 170 billion rubles – he received an installment plan for 10 years, much needed by Safmar.

As for the Inteko business, the same Gutseriev could block its implementation by Trust, realizing that at the moment he simply cannot return the assets.

Recall that in the end Tulupov bought Inteko for only 38 billion rubles – an amount that could be greatly underestimated (according to various estimates, the cost could be up to 100 billion rubles). Even under such conditions, this M&A transaction (“merger and acquisition”) became the largest in the development market since 2015.

Moreover, initially Inteko, whose revenue in 2021 amounted to at least 60 billion rubles, wanted to sell it at auction: the auction was announced in 2021. However, at the very last moment it was canceled due to the position of a potential buyer – an offshore company from Cyprus, Morden Finance Limited.

Then it was said that this was done in the interests of a potential buyer – this meant an offshore, which, according to rumors, previously had 5% of the structure, and the management of the company itself was called the ultimate beneficiaries.

However, it can be assumed that in reality, structures of Mikhail Gutseriev and his nephew Mikail Shishkhanov could stand behind the offshore. The essence of blocking the auction could be that the asset eventually went to the “right” person, who could then resell it to the Gutserievs in parts. Isn’t that what could happen now?

In addition, Gutseriev’s people have already performed a similar “somersault”. We are talking about the A101 company, which recently received a large plot for the construction of almost 3 million square meters. meters of housing in Moscow.

A101 structures of the Gutserievs were purchased back in 2015. But in 2017, in connection with the same events around Binbank, this asset went first to the state, and then to the state-owned Trust. As a result, A101 was bought out by Bilan Uzhakhov, a relative of Mikhail Gutseriev, and now continues to work quietly. Moreover, it was bought at a very attractive price for Gutseriev. And the oligarch himself and the debtor-Safmar turned out to be nothing to do with it. The Moscow Post wrote about that story in detail.

Interested Gordeev

We cannot rule out the interest of Alexei Tulupov’s longtime colleague and former partner in the PIK Group of Companies – Sergey Gordeev, who has recently somewhat withdrawn from his core business.

Reasons for this, too, may be enough. PIK, being one of the largest developers in the country, is also one of the most scandalous and also indebted to banks. In September 2022, Gordeev resigned as CEO of PIK, saying that he would deal with corporate issues.

At the same time, the largest divisions of the holding have big problems. Back in 2021, a bankruptcy lawsuit was filed against PIK-Comfort, an organization that stands on all PIK management companies. Then, however, the situation was resolved. But today, at the end of 2021, PIK-Comfort showed a loss of 2.7 billion rubles. The company announced the sale of its business, in particular, in Voronezh – the local water utility is eyeing it.

This is not to mention the mass of complaints about the quality of the work of the structure. Earlier, Governor Andrei Vorobyov called for her to be removed from work in the Moscow region, The Moscow Post wrote about this. The ill-wishers want to present PIK itself as almost a financial pyramid – allegedly, the State Corporation is recruiting new projects in order to “close” debts on old ones.

In addition, PIK has entered into a serious confrontation with other large structures, such as Samolet, which may be backed by the same governor Andrey Vorobyov, and the Kievskaya Ploshchad Group of Companies, which, it is believed, may be close not only to Vorobyov (the owner of the Group of Companies God Nisanov – adviser to the governor), but also to the Moscow mayor’s office.

In this situation, Gordeev can lay eggs in different baskets, going into business, as it were, outside PIK, for which it will be possible to obtain new loans. After all, PIK itself had debts at the end of 2021 under 450 billion rubles, Versiya wrote about this.

Gutseriev may not have enough resources now to acquire the group, which is why he needs Gordeev.

And Alexey Tulupov and Sergey Gordeev will always agree. Both of them stood at the origins of PIK, and before that they worked together in the “forge of Russian raiding”, the Rosbuilding company. Unfriendly seizures and various intrigues were attributed to the latter, as a result of which a huge number of businesses turned out to be in their hands.

Often these businesses were simply destroyed, employees were driven out into the street, and the territories were given for construction to odious structures. There is a known case when at one time the mayor of Moscow, Yuri Luzhkov, kept Rosbuilding from dismissing 900 women from a closed factory, which went to Gordeev’s structure. Forbes wrote about it.

The work of the company and its key representatives Gordeev and Tulupov caused so many complaints and questions that in 2007 it ceased to exist. According to rumors – “away from sin.” That is, away from law enforcement officers. And the two partners divided the assets of the structure. Tulupov alone allegedly got about $300 million.

Among the “achievements” of Tulupov is the liquidation of such structures as the Scientific Research Institute of Vitamins LLC, which he bought out in 2011 for 491.5 million rubles. At that time, Sminex said that the facility was of interest to the company in terms of building an office center on its territory, however, in 2018, the institution that specialized in preclinical study of drugs and examination of scientific and technical documentation of vitamins was liquidated.

Bread – Tulupov’s head?

It seems that development itself is not very interesting for Alexei Tulupov at all. For more than ten years, Sminex has implemented less than 20 projects. At the same time, the structure itself can hardly be called successful in financial terms.

At the end of 2021, one of its main legal entities, Sminex Holding LLC, showed a loss of 1.6 billion rubles. The value of the company’s assets is minus almost 7 billion rubles. In the same year, the company changed its name to Investproektholding LLC. At the same time, such a negative situation has been observed at least since 2015. Aleksey Tulupov himself remains the only founder of the company.

In this regard, it is not clear how Sberbank even gave Tulupov a loan to buy out Inteko (yes, he bought it with credit money). Perhaps part of a wider arrangement in which the Gutserievs or Gordeevs could participate?

In another Tulupovo structure – Sminex Asset Management (it will be the company that will sell part of Inteko’s business) the situation is formally better – a profit of 1.1 billion. Only all 100% of the shares are pledged to the same Sberbank. It turns out to develop business Why does he need Inteko if he doesn’t partially solve his financial problems by reselling his “old acquaintances” at a good margin?

It seems that all Mr. Tulupov’s funds go to his other project, it seems that they are much more beloved – the bakery business. For example, the bakery and confectionery holding (BKH) Kolomensky, which he owns, has accumulated assets worth 673 million rubles.

Recall that Sminex became the owner of BCH only in 2020. Moreover, he got the enterprise for only 70 million rubles. Given that this is one of the largest players in the Moscow grain market, the amount is negligible.

Then he also got the territory between the Warsaw and Kashirskoye highways of 3 hectares. The territory of the plant was initially considered from the point of view of development: after renovation, several production buildings were sold for offices. The bakery business was also planned to be sold, negotiations were held, but no buyer was found.

Returning to Inteko, the sale of its assets to the right hands will certainly help Tulupov in his own endeavors. But such mediation is unlikely to have a positive impact on the market, not to mention the fact that with another interested party, Trust, a state structure, would certainly be able to raise much more money.