Semenenko returned to the chair of the Kirovsky Zavod general director in order to sell offshore cheaply what was left of the enterprise during the previous period of his leadership?

Georgy Semenenko, its co-owner, will again become the Chairman of the Board of Directors of Kirovsky Zavod PJSC. This decision was made by the board of directors of the structure. At the same time, this is hardly good news for the plant itself: in recent years, under the leadership of the same Semenenko, the enterprise was rocked by scandals, a major corporate conflict took place there, and the financial condition and fulfillment of its obligations to customers left much to be desired.

PJSC “Kirovskiy Zavod” is one of the largest Russian industrial companies of the machine-building profile with a developed metallurgical base. Until recently, the holding included 17 enterprises, including the Petersburg Tractor Plant, the Petrostal Metallurgical Plant, the Universalmash Plant, Kirov-Energomash, Vagonmash, and others.

About 42% of the plant’s shares are controlled by various offshore companies, including Banvorad Holdings Limited and RMG Holding Limited. Georgy Semenenko formally has only 1.2%. Minority shareholders collectively have about 20% of the company, but earlier they tried to prove that it was the Semenenko family that was behind the offshore companies, and the shares that turned out to be in these companies could be sold to them at a non-market price.

If this is so, then it will turn out that Semenenko himself could take a significant part of the assets abroad with his own hands, and even for mere pennies. At the same time, other offshore companies can stand behind it.

Among other things, he is the beneficiary of Tango Vision LLC with a 7.25% stake. Semenenko’s partner in this company is Frenchinvest LLC, which, in turn, belongs to the Frenchinvest offshore company from Estonia. The same Estonia that imposes sanctions and dreams of almost destroying our country.

However, something is still recorded personally on Semenenko – while previously it belonged directly to the Kirov Plant. For example, OOO “ZBT” with a volume of government contracts of almost half a billion rubles. Part of its shares belongs to PJSC, however, Semenenko personally transferred a substantial amount of capital from the Kirov Plant through an entrepreneur named Kondratyev. Less than 50% remained behind the plant. Now Roman Kondratiev is the general director of ZBT.

But “Kirovskiy Zavod” is one of the largest contractors of the Russian state for the production of heavy engineering products.

The total amount of state contracts of the parent company is not large – about 60 million rubles. However, numerous former “daughters” of the structure are much more successful in this field. For example, OOO “Vagonmash” contracted with the structures of Smolny for 11 billion rubles – mainly, delivering cars for the metro.

Photo: Rusprofile.ru

And here is an important point. In all recent years, including the previous period when Georgy Semenenko was the general director (2005-2022), and the current one, when he continued to sit on the Board of Directors of the enterprise, the plant surprisingly lost its assets – those very large machine-building plants.

In the period from 2020 to 2023, KSP CJSC, MKS JSC, Petersburg Tractor Plant JSC, Metallurgical Plant Petrostal JSC and many others were sold, including the aforementioned Vagonmash.

Photo: Rusprofile.ru

Until 2020, the latter partly belonged to the Czech Skoda, partly to Sinara, and the Kirov Plant had the main stake. And now, for all three years, the process of its complete transfer to a foreign jurisdiction has been going on. It was completed in the summer of 2023, when the company completely departed from ŠKODA TRANSPORTATION A.S.

Everyone knows what Skoda is, a large Western auto concern. The Czech Republic has imposed a number of sanctions against Russia, it is one of the most unfriendly countries in Europe to our country. And the owners of the company, where Semenenko should have the greatest weight, sold the asset to them, and even in such a difficult period?

Photo: Rusprofile.ru

At the same time, Vagonmash continues to receive government contracts, the funds from which may go to the West. And then – to support the Ukrainian army?

Other assets were transferred, including to Russian owners. And something and state structures – “Kirov-Energomash” went to “Rosatom”. We will talk about this enterprise later, but here’s what is interesting: basically, these are just quite profitable assets. For example, at the end of 2022 JSC “Petersburg Tractor Plant” earned 654 million rubles of net profit. At the same time, the head PJSC itself was at a loss of 1.8 billion rubles.

In addition, one gets the impression that part of the assets could simply be “dumped” from the balance sheet, like a debt burden. MKS JSC, from whose capital PJSC withdrew on January 1, 2022, is in a state of bankruptcy, the value of its assets is minus 691 million rubles. The only year the company made a profit was 2019 (56 million). Before and after – one zero. Why is such a structure needed, except to conduct dubious financial transactions through it?

Factory battle

This situation has developed rapidly over the past three years. And before that, for about 14 years, there was a corporate conflict in the PJSC itself, which was more or less settled only by 2020.

Georgy Semenenko became the general director of the enterprise in 2005, after the death of his father, Peter Semenenko. By the way, according to “Version”, there are still rumors that they could help him die. Here one could think in the direction of Semenenko Jr., but this is hard to believe. Rather, minority shareholders could think of such an option, hoping that Georgy would turn out to be obedient and manageable. But it turned out differently.

In the context of Semenenko’s actions as CEO, minority shareholders tried to prove in court that Semenenko Jr. and his relatives had illegally established control over the enterprise.

They filed a whole series of lawsuits, where, among other things, they tried to prove that Georgy Semenenko sold 35% of the plant’s shares, transferring them to the balance of Cypriot companies controlled by him and his family. We are talking about the already mentioned “Banvorad Holdings Limited” and “RMG Holding Limited”. RBC writes about it.

In addition, minority shareholders tried to recover from the general director about 20 billion rubles in losses allegedly caused to the plant and its shareholders. However, as a result, they withdrew their claims, the conflict was, at least outwardly, settled. And it seems that there was one extremely interesting character here – Yegor Noskov, Chairman of the Board of Directors of PJSC “Kirovskiy Zavod”, Managing Partner of the law firm “Duvernoix Legal”.

Noskov’s phenomenon

As far as is known, Noskov does not own any shares of the plant. However, back in 2012, he was elected Chairman of the Board of Directors of the company. This happened just against the backdrop of a corporate conflict, in which Noskov and the related Duvernoix Legal practically specialize. It is possible that the big sale of PJSC assets took place just under his strict guidance. And maybe in his interests.

Noskov’s entry into the board of directors almost coincided with the moment when the Supreme Arbitration Court published a ruling in a case related to a corporate conflict, which supposedly was supposed to simplify the task of the company’s shareholders in disputes with management.

As recalled by Versiya, Noskov previously served on the board of directors of the Arsenal defense plant, which allegedly led to the fact that the majority shareholder Mikhail Sapego was arrested on charges of fraud. Another member of the board of directors, Oleg Rifert, who also ended up in a pre-trial detention center, was forced to plead guilty to stealing 16% of Arsenal’s shares by signing a pre-trial agreement.

Perhaps Yegor Noskov joined the board of directors of Kirovsky Zavod just to help resolve a corporate conflict. And in the end, he himself could be among its (conflict) beneficiaries.

Previously, our publication has already covered the activities of Yegor Noskov and his partner in Duvernoix Legal. Then it was about a strange situation, when the property of the founder of JSC “International Bank of St. Petersburg” (IBSP), former senator from the Ulyanovsk region Sergei Bazhanov strangely passed to his lawyers. Yes, including that same Noskov.

The essence of the story is quite simple – the bank lost its license, and Bazhanov transferred his assets to lawyers – as if only in temporary management. However, there is nothing more permanent than temporary. Read more about this in the material “The Adventures of Lawyers Noskov and Gushchev”.

Egor Noskov. Photo: http://www.provocator.org/pohozhdeniya-advokatov-noskova-i-guscheva/

Maybe it is Noskov who makes real decisions at the enterprise today? And Mr. Semenenko may be very afraid of sanctions. Recall that he has a “golden” yacht for 300 million rubles, the confiscation of which he clearly does not want. And no one has canceled Western offshore companies. Apparently, it was precisely for fear of sanctions that Semenenko left the post of CEO in 2022.

However, as far as is known, neither his assets nor his property abroad have been confiscated. And so he came back to continue the big sale with Noskov? It is clearly easier to control such processes as a CEO than from the position of a simple member of the board of directors.

At the same time, back in 2020, The Moscow Post suggested that assets and money could be withdrawn from the enterprise through the purchase of Magnit shares by the structures of Alexander Vinokurov. Then Natsbioprodukt LLC, which is part of Alexander Vinokurov’s Marathon Group, acquired a 0.4% stake in PJSC Magnit for 1.16 billion rubles.

The founders of “National Bioproduct” were the Cypriot offshore “EMG Marathon Group (Cyprus) LTD” and “Pharmakontur” LLC. The founder of the latter is the same “EMG Marathon”. The same Cypriot offshore is the founder of Marathon Group LLC Vinokurov, as well as Zdravmarket LLC and Marathon Marble LLC.

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Apart from National Bioproduct, Pharmacontour also has another subsidiary – LLC Bentus Laboratories. But among its other founders, the offshore “RMG-Holding Limited” is easily found. If it really was a process of withdrawal of assets, then in the next three years it could become almost a collapse.

It should be noted that Bentus Laboratories is a major supplier for Russian government agencies, including the Ministry of Defense. The amount of government contracts is almost 400 million rubles. And some of them can go to the Cypriot shores for the benefit of Semenenko and his family?

“And the slinger, and the operator, and the loader”

These processes are taking place against the backdrop of scandals at the plant. Delivery delays, employee issues, and more. At the beginning, we mentioned the Kirov-Energomash Plant JSC, which later went to Rosatom. And while it was in the PJSC, the plant missed the deadlines for the supply of equipment for the Arktika icebreaker, for which the company was presented with a claim of 90 million rubles.

Rosatom felt that they could do much better if they themselves controlled the plant supplying equipment for their projects. As a result, he went to the state corporation. And isn’t that humiliating for Semenenko and his managers? Didn’t cope, got fined, and were forced to give the “toy” to serious people?

The deal was estimated at 12 billion rubles. And now the big question – where is the money? At the factory, in Russia, or already far abroad?

At the same time, the constant financial swings of PAO and scandals led to conflicts with the work team. In 2015, the labor inspectorate found there, just think, 651 violations of labor laws. Basically, this concerned incorrectly drawn up employment contracts, in which the functionality of employees was not prescribed, there were other points.

This usually happens when the management and owners of the enterprise are going to “get smart” with the workload and wages of their workers. And what is more interesting is that the order of the labor inspectorate was not fulfilled for a long time: Georgy Semenenko went on sick leave, and this, in fact, justified his inaction. This was written by “Business Petersburg”.

Photo: https://ocompanii.net/reviews/detail.php?id=776545

At the same time, the workers themselves complain on the Web about the alleged delay in wages, and at its extremely low level. They say that there are supposedly problems even with tools. And this is a PJSC with billions of dollars in turnover and a bunch of government orders. And among other things, “you are a slinger, and an operator, and a loader.” Those. this is a clear reference to the same questions asked by the labor inspectorate. But we are not talking about 2015, but already about 2020 hzikhidtidekrt year.

It seems that the well-being of employees has long receded not even into the background, but into the background. And on the first – the sale of assets and the desire for a comfortable life in the West? In this context, it is easy to assume that the plant under the current owners will not last long.