Company “SKB Kontur“, known for its close friendship with the main region, Kuyvashev, bought back the shares of the Yekaterinburg Municipal Bank on the eve of the gubernatorial elections. This can hardly be called a coincidence …
The SKB Kontur group of companies, which (at the suggestion of the company’s PR people) among the Yekaterinburg elite is called “Ural Google”. For which she got a 34.5% stake in PJSC Bank Ekaterinburg, which serves many municipal institutions, as well as enterprises and the population of the Sverdlovsk Region, and moreover, the governor Evgeny Kuyvashev correspondent understood The Moscow Post in the Sverdlovsk region.
Let’s start simple
Note that after February 2022, banks may not disclose either reporting or shareholders. Therefore, information about the founders and incomes is very problematic to trace.
Photo: rusprofile.ru
However, as he writes “businessman“, the chairman of the board of directors is the first vice-mayor Igor Sutyagin, the municipal property management department he oversees, is the holder of the largest share – 29.29%. Another part of the shares belongs to the son of the former mayor, and now the vice-speaker of the Sverdlovsk legislature Arkady Chernetsky Stanislav (29.13%), Geoniks LLC and businessmen close to the team of Chernetsky Sr. The credit institution in business circles was often called the “bank of the Chernetsky family.”
The former mayor of Yekaterinburg Arkady Chernetsky himself supported Kuyvashev in May of this year. So he may have played a part in this story.
“The experience that he has gained over these 10 years in the Sverdlovsk region has given him the opportunity to immerse himself in many problems, and to be honest, the results of the work are impressive. There is something to report on,” said Chernetsky.
An interesting fact is that in April Andrei Koryukov, deputy head of Yekaterinburg for finance, ruled out the possibility of selling the shares of Yekaterinburg Municipal Bank (EMB) owned by the municipality until 2025. Then he even said that the EMB is an important part of the financial system of Yekaterinburg, and at the same time it is quite stable as a financial and credit institution. So what suddenly changed from April to August? It is most likely that the sale of shares is connected with the gubernatorial elections, and then it can be considered as a kind of “present” from Kuyvashev.
It is worth adding that SKB Kontur has received more than a third of its shares, and wants to buy out the rest of the package. It is possible that the company will succeed.
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The fact is that it was in 2022 that the governor himself began to provide active support to SKB Kontur. So, on July 5, Evgeny Kuyvashev and Mikhail Srodnykh, General Director of SKB Kontur, on the sidelines of the International Exhibition INNOPROM-2022, secured agreements on joint support for intellectually gifted schoolchildren in the region.
A photo: kontur.ru
And in August, the Head of the Sverdlovsk Region, Evgeny Kuyvashev, visited the headquarters of SKB Kontur. He talked with IT specialists and got acquainted with the import-substituting products of the Kontur.ID and Kontur.Access companies.
At the meeting, the governor and top officials of the company discussed the construction of “Kontur-Park” – an IT cluster with offices, an educational center, a climbing wall and a park for walking. The first objects should appear in 2026. All these innovations from SKB Kontur were discussed right before the elections. All of this looks too pretentious.
A photo: kontur.ru
Boost Arrow
SKB Kontur has been operating in the market of IT solutions for business since 1988. Initially, the company appeared through the efforts of three like-minded people Alexander Davydov, Vladimir Vasilyev and Andrey Mikhailov. Key business areas are EDI, accounting, electronic signature and online cash registers. Revenue for 2021 amounted to 18 billion rubles. All three who founded the company play an important role in the Sverdlovsk region, therefore they are important for the governor.
Photo: rusprofile.ru
A small Yekaterinburg company in 30 years has become one of the largest firms in the country and a major employer in Yekaterinburg. The company has gone through a lot, back in the 90s, the first Soviet millionaire Artem Tarasov “overturned” the company by 100 pieces of equipment.
Let’s take a closer look at those who founded SKB Kontur. Let’s start with Alexander Davydov. In 1988, he became co-founder and CTO of Firm A. In November 2001, he created and headed Naumen. And in 2018, the authorities of the Sverdlovsk region created a working group for the development of the digital economy in the region, saying that this is beneficial for the region told Davydov.
“We must turn the Sverdlovsk Region into a ‘smart region’,” Evgeny Kuyvashev noted at the time.
Is it profitable for Kuivashev to give the bank to SKB Kontur? Photo: Mikhail Tereshchenko / TASS
Also, Vladimir Konsulnikov stands behind SKB Kontur to this day. On January 21, 2019, he left the post of chairman of the board of directors, which he had held since 1998, but remained in the company as a consultant.
Another face of SKB Kontur is Dmitry Mramorov. In 1996, he joined the company as a programmer and software implementation specialist. From 2001 to 2007, he headed the Chelyabinsk branch of the company, Kontur-Chelyabinsk LLC, then became the head of the customer service department, since 2009 he has been the company’s general director. And here’s what’s interesting, he is a member of the expert council under the Ministry of Telecom and Mass Communications of the Russian Federation, the expert council of the Internet Development Institute. In addition, Mramorov is the chairman of the commission of the Sverdlovsk Regional Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs on digital and information technologies.
Now Yekaterinburg remains a “home region” for SKB Kontur. All key employees work there – both developers and top managers. In the company we generate a lot of activities in educational activities, which were started by the “founding fathers” of the company in the 1990s. The governor of the Sverdlovsk region, Yevgeny Kuyvashev, personally calls the company “our Ural Google”.
The acquisition by SKB Kontur of shares in PJSC Yekaterinburg Municipal Bank looks more like Kuyvashev is trying to strengthen his position in the elections and enlist the support of large players. Apparently, for his own purposes, Evgeny Vladimirovich does not shy away from veiled bribery, which this deal between the municipal bank and SKB Kontur looks like.