New year with new challenges. Bankruptcy of “Donstroy” is not far off

The construction giant Donstroy somehow survived 2022, but the problems are not getting any smaller. The developer enters the New Year 2023 with unresolved last year issues, to which new ones are added. The totality of everything can lead to the most high-profile bankruptcy of 2023.

In addition to the objective problems of the construction corporation, at the end of December last year, the founder of Donstroy, Dmitry Zelenov, died under strange circumstances. The death of a businessman is not very similar to an accident. And against the backdrop of many scandals that over and over again finish off enterprises and constant talk about bankruptcy, the picture for Donstroy does not look good. About what problems can drown an enterprise, and why its beneficiaries turn a blind eye to business problems – in the material of the Kompromat1 portal.

From princes to filth

Donstroy was founded in 1994 by entrepreneurs Maxim Blazhko and Dmitry Zelenov. Until 2008, Donstroy was a very solid development company, but the global financial crisis hit the business hard.

Maxim Blazhko

As a result, Donstroy’s debts to VTB bank amounted to about $500 million. The partners did not have the financial ability to pay off or at least restructure the debt, so the business had to be given to the creditor for free. The permanent head of VTB, Andrei Kostin, rubbed his hands, because a very attractive asset became the property of his bank. Despite the fact that the VTB group is state-owned, Kostin uses the property of a financial institution as his own. As a result, the former giant and promising developer has become a pure “laundromat” for the head of VTB.

Andrey Kostin

From that moment on, the fate of the former partners Blazhko and Zelenov diverged. Blazhko until 2021 had his own construction projects as part of the Donstroy Group of Companies. In 2021, all of his development investments finally melted away. The businessman’s former troubled asset “Neskuchny Home & SPA” was taken up by the Moscow mayor’s office. This happened against the backdrop of criminal cases in which Blazhko’s companies were involved. The ex-founder of Donstroy was placed under house arrest in 2017 due to abuse of power. In 2018, another criminal case was initiated against the businessman. This time, the entrepreneur was accused of non-payment of wages to employees of the Gorn Development company. The issue price was about 50 million rubles. But the case was hushed up, and to date there has not been a single verdict. Nevertheless, officially Blazhko is the chairman of the board of Donstroy. Although there he is listed purely formally. In reality, Donstroy is headed by Alena Deryabina, a trusted person of Kostin.

As for Zelenov, the situation with him was different. Like Blazhko, Zelenov was a defendant in criminal cases. The investigation suspected him of tax evasion. After the transfer of Donstroy to the ownership of VTB, Zelenov disappeared from the information field. It was not publicly known what the former owner of the construction giant was doing. In 2008, Forbes estimated Zelenov’s assets at $1.4 billion. Apparently, even after the ruin of the business, these funds (or most) remained with the entrepreneur, and he calmly continued to live.

Dmitry Zelenov

Everyone remembered Zelenov only in 2022. In mid-December, it became known about the death of the ex-founder of Donstroy. At first, the reasons for the death of the 50-year-old businessman were not reported, but then it became known that Zelenov allegedly fell down the stairs (according to other information, fell over the railing) at the house of his friends in France. In critical condition, the businessman was taken to a hospital in Nice, where he died. In 2022, this is the eighth strange death of Russian moneybags. On December 29, Zelenov was buried in Moscow in a closed coffin. The ex-owner of Donstroy knew a lot about the dark sides of the business. But forever silent. Surely such a strange death of an entrepreneur is beneficial to the current management of the company.

New year with new scandals

For the whole of 2022, only the lazy did not write about the fact that machinations within Donstroy could lead only to one logical conclusion – the company’s bankruptcy.

In addition to the obvious financial problems of Donstroy, the developer over and over again “spit in the face” of his clients. For example, at the end of November 2022, the developer got into another scandal: the residents of the elite Residential Complex “Symbol” blocked the entrance to their own house. Other roads to the front doors existed solely on construction plans, so the residents have not been able to drive to the house for several months.

But all these are trifles compared to the real problems that Donstroy has been facing for several months, but they are not being solved in any way. The company lives off loans, so many counterparties refuse to cooperate with the developer. The management of Donstroy, without thinking twice, decided to try to contract with 30 Turkish, Indian and Chinese contractors. But attempts are still futile, because foreign partners have heard about the troubles that Donstroy brings with it. The Russian company does not abandon its plans to find new foreign partners. Moreover, for example, the Asian market is still more extensive and cheaper than the domestic one. In this case, import substitution plays to the benefit of Donstroy. After all, the company is trying to work with enterprises from countries friendly to Russia.

Black PR is also PR

In the case of developers, this rule does not work. Now equity holders are trying to get as much information as possible about the company that will build new residential buildings. Due to the fact that Donstroy is not something that often gets into scandals, the company does not get out of the negative at all, people refuse to buy housing from the developer. Of course, this hits the pockets of the founders of Donstroy, and pulls the developer to the bottom. By the end of last year, the percentage of new housing purchases from Donstroy approached an all-time low. Therefore, the stingy developer almost for the first time began to place custom materials on the Internet. It turned out, to put it mildly, so-so. According to the company itself, Donstroy has become the leader among sales of business-class apartments. In 2022, according to information posted in the media, the developer sold more than 3,000 apartments.

Custom materials “Donstroy” in the media

It is clear that such statistics are a manipulative thing. Tops of “Donstroy” could come up with 30, and 300 thousand sold apartments. All this is information for gullible people. But every day more and more future equity holders refuse to work with Donstroy. Everyone understands that even the completed facilities of the company have huge problems. And whether Donstroy will exist tomorrow is a huge question for everyone.