Scandalous businessman Dmitry Mazepin attracted a businessman close to A1 and an old partner in the Tyumen oil company to get close to the assets of Inteko.
According to The Moscow Post correspondent, the Federal Antimonopoly Service approved the application of Arkada Holding LLC to acquire 100% of Inteko, now controlled by Trust Bank. Arkada Holding was established in June of this year, among its founders are the main shareholder of Uralchem and Uralkali Dmitry Mazepin, a partner of former A1 top managers Denis Izbrekht and Felix Lyubashevsky, president of Integra Group. The names of all three businessmen appeared in stories with attempts not quite friendly entry into the business. Now this trio will take on Inteko?
There really is something to fight for: we are talking about assets belonging to the Otkritie tank, headed by Mikhail Zadornov. Now the bank is trying to sell the last valuable asset of Trust Bank – property and land previously owned by Inteko Group. According to some information, Otkritie is trying to sell several large objects – residential complexes Vrubel, West Garden, Ilyinka, Garden Quarters and some others. Moreover, he is allegedly trying to sell at an initial price of 38 billion rubles, which is considered quite low for such a portfolio.
Arkada Holding LLC appeared in June of this year, or to be more precise, two of them appeared at once. A firm with the same name appeared with a difference of one day – June 24 and 25, but the first one was liquidated due to the recognition of the organization’s registration as erroneous by decision of the registration authority. What are those weird movements?
At the same time, both LLCs have the same composition of founders – Dmitry Mazepin (50%), Felix Lyubashevsky (25%) and Denis Izbrekht (25%). The main activity of the enterprise is wholesale trade in solid, liquid and gaseous fuels and similar products, which echoes the main business of Mr. Mazepin.
Dmitry Mazepin is the beneficiary of two giants of the potash and chemical industries at once – PJSC Uralkali and JSC UCC Uralchem. The last enterprise is a minority co-owner of ToAZ, which it became back in 2008. Then the plant was run by father and son Vladimir and Sergey Makhlai, who were convicted in absentia for fraud in 2019 and are now hiding from Russian justice abroad.
Actually, the name of Mazepin is now increasingly appearing in the information field just in connection with the situation around Togliattiazot. As The Moscow Post previously wrote in detail, it was Mazepin who became the author of the statement against Makhlaev. According to law enforcers, in the period from 2008 to 2011, ToAZ created a scheme in which the company exported ammonia and urea at reduced prices to the majority shareholder-affiliated companies Nitrochem Distribution and Ameropa, owned by Makhlaev’s business partner Felix Zivy (died in 2010) and then to his son Andreas.
Remarkably, the creation of the scheme attributed to the Makhlai coincided with the entry of Uralchem into the capital of ToAZ. Later, another case appeared against them, this time about the organization of a criminal community, fraud and tax evasion. Allegedly Makhlai tried to seize the property of the enterprise.
There is an opinion that Dmitry Mazepin, who wants to gain full control over the asset, is behind all the misadventures of Makhlaev. And now this is especially important for him, since last year there was talk that Uralkali, one of the world leaders in the potash industry, was almost on the verge of bankruptcy.
Against this background, Mazepin’s desire to take over Inteko raises concerns – judging by the example of ToAZ, then in the struggle for the asset, he may use not quite friendly methods.
On the “Pickup” at A1?
It becomes even more disturbing if you look at Mazepin’s partners in Arcade Holding. In 2020, the name of Izbrecht appeared in the story of CJSC Demetra, which is building the Lyublino industrial zone in Moscow. In the spring of that year, Izbrekht held a general meeting of shareholders of CJSC Demetra in order to increase the authorized capital through an additional issue of shares. However, for this it was necessary to “neutralize” an independent shareholder – APK LLC, which could interfere with decision-making. That is why the classic scheme was used: the meeting of shareholders was held at the wrong address, which was indicated in the notice of the event. This was attended by the holder of the register – JSC “Industriya-REESTR”, which changed another registrar 2 days before the meeting.
As The Moscow Post previously wrote in detail, as a result of an independent shareholder, it decreased from 33% to 5%. In response to this, the company went to court with a demand to invalidate the decisions of the meeting of shareholders of CJSC Demetra, but the proceedings on the case were completed in October last year. By that time, ZAO had also been transformed into JSC.
And for Isbrecht, such manipulations might not be new, since he has a long trail of scandals associated with not the most friendly entries in business. Moreover, A1 also appears in these stories, which has the ambiguous fame of a “sink” on the market.
In 2015, a certain “Arcade Group” bought a third of the capital’s TSUM. The company was controlled by Yuri Shirmankin and co-owners of Alta Management Company Denis Izbrekht and Alexei Kaverin. Shirmankin is a former managing director of A1 investment company.
With the names of Shirmankin and Izbrekht, some associate the bankruptcy of Fininvest Bank. The fact is that earlier Denis Izbrekht was the general director of Finivest CJSC, which was probably related to the bank of the same name. Then hundreds of millions mysteriously disappeared from the financial institution, and three days before the license was revoked, the property of the credit institution was sold at a reduced cost, and then completely resold to another buyer. All this is very similar to the fact that the collapse of Fininvest could be controlled by someone. And the ultimate beneficiaries were Izbrecht and Shirmankin?
In 2016, having bought out the debts of SBR Corporation, Izbrekht became the owner of the Metrika chain, once one of the leaders in the Russian building materials market. The firm eventually came under the control of the co-owners of the management company of the previously mentioned Alta Izbrekht and Kaverin, which RBC connected with Alfa Group.
Another connection between Izbrecht and Alfa Group can be traced through Estate Group LLC, where Robert Topkaev, who worked in the group’s structures in 1999-2000, is a co-owner, and since 2006 Topkaev has served as vice president of the investment department of A1 company. What can I say, Izbrecht’s partners could really teach him very specific methods of work …
Together with an old friend
No less remarkable is the third co-owner of Arcade Holding, Felix Lyubashevsky. As The Moscow Post wrote, at the end of the 2000s, Integra, headed by him, began a large-scale confrontation with its parent structure, Uralmashzavod. The confrontation between these two structures began after the plant tried to prevent Integra from using its brands – Uralmash and Uralmash. However, the rights to their perpetual use were transferred to UrBO back in 2005 by the then general director of Uralmashzavod, Mikhail Matvienko, and his assistant Viktor Yavich.
Felix Lyubashevsky
According to some information, Uralmashzavod then decided to recover money from its subsidiaries to pay off losses, which, according to representatives of Uralmashzavod, were received from “unauthorized use of the brand”. In fact, in this way they could simply try to patch up the financial “holes” that could appear as a result of the implementation of some gray schemes.
In 2018, according to Pravda UrFO, Lyubashevsky’s companies were attacked by creditors. Bankruptcy claims were received by the Tyumen enterprise “Integra-Bureniye” and the management company – “Integra Management”. Alfa-Bank intended to file for the insolvency of the Vniibt-Burovoy Instrument asset. Since that year of the company, Lyubashevsky seemed to have gone into the shadows. And then, unexpectedly, he resurfaced in the information field together with his longtime partner in the Tyumen Oil Company, Dmitry Mazepin.
True, the big question is how successfully Mazepin and Co. will be able to perform in the fight for Inteko. As The Moscow Post wrote in detail earlier, anti-monopoly officials have already approved petitions to buy the developer filed by structures of the Samolet group, which is believed to have the interests of Moscow Region Governor Andrei Vorobyov, and Sminex Alexei Tulupov. In addition, Logos LLC, probably associated with Sergey Sudarikov’s Region Group of Companies, showed interest in Inteko. The latter is the managing partner of the Rossium concern Roman Avdeev, who is considered close to the head of Rosneft, Igor Sechin.
The auction for the sale of Inteko is scheduled for November 16. And it seems that the interests of several influential groups may clash on it at once. And at least one of them, in the person of Mazepin, Lyubashevsky and Izbrekht, managed to establish herself from a very ambiguous side.