PIK ran aground?
Sergey Gordeev’s developer group issues bonds to pay off debts
PIK Group will issue Eurobonds for $300-500 million. Five-year debt securities will be offered to investors. The funds raised will be used for corporate purposes, repayment of existing debt and business development, including abroad. So stated in the presentation, but in fact, all funds can be used to pay off debts.
Sergey Gordeev wanted to place Eurobonds back in 2008, but since then he has not returned to this topic. Sergey Gordeev acquired a 19.9% stake in PIK in 2013, in 2016 he bought a large construction company Morton, in 2017 for 47 billion rubles. bought shares of PIK from Alexander Mamut and Mikail Shishkhanov. In 2019, VTB became a shareholder of the group. Now the bank owns 23.05%, Sergei Gordeev owns 59.33%, and 17.62% are in free float.
In 2019, RBC wrote that the debts of PIK Group increased 20 times compared to the first half of 2018 and amounted to 50 billion rubles. Net profit from 2016 to 2020 increased from 19.1 billion rubles. up to 86.5 billion rubles. The net debt of the group in 2020 increased to 135 billion rubles, in 2019 it was 73.3 billion rubles.
The business of Sergey Gordeev is very similar to a pyramid. In order to start a new project, PIK Group lays down its structures in banks, which, at times, are shell companies with 1 employee in the state.
Serious support for PIK is its shareholder VTB, which participates in the business with its own money, and can also issue them on preferential terms.
In March, it became known about the first foreign project of PIK Group – the One Sierra residential complex in the Philippines, which is a 30-storey building in the suburbs of the capital Manila. According to Sergei Gordeev, apartments are already being sold.
On its website, PIK Group reported on the results of its activities for 9 months of this year. Naturally, everything in the report is rosy. There is no mention of any debts. And if the rate of their growth is preserved, then the amount may exceed 200 billion rubles. No wonder that Sergey Gordeev decided to place Eurobonds. The developer seems to have exhausted the confidence of the banks.
The fact that PIK Group could be a pyramid was even discussed on the federal channel REN.TV. Economist Maxim Chirkov expressed his opinion.
“I must say that the net debt of PIK, of course, exceeds the reserves. And this shows that the developer is working on credit money. Here is this method of work, perhaps very similar to a financial pyramid, at times of market growth – it is very effective. But in case of stabilization in the real estate market or some kind of stagnation, this model can be very dangerous.”
Scandalous PIK group?
Behind the dry figures of the PIK reports, which boasts of the number of housing commissioned, it is not clear what quality the apartments are offered. From the very beginning of its activity, the group was distinguished by a disregard for infrastructure. Houses are baked like pies, appearing instead of the promised ambulance station, fire station, gym.
There are a lot of similar videos about PIK apartments on the net. People claim that houses start to crumble a few years after they are delivered. This may be evidence of the use of low-quality materials, but the developer gets away with everything.
In July, something very strange happened. Someone opened fire on the apartments of the last two owners of house 22, located on Ivan Franko Street. The PIK group was going to build a residential complex here back in 2017. But the residents of the area were against it, arguing that their five-story buildings were still quite suitable for housing.
Neither the courts nor the protests helped, the authorities also did not hear the Muscovites, which, however, is not surprising. PIK Group is one of the main contractors for the renovation project, the legalized construction of human settlements, to which PIK sends migrants.
Thanks to the PIK Group, the definition of “new emergency housing” appeared. This is one that is scary to live in.
“It’s just hell. You can’t look without tears. When we first went in, visually it looked normal: here you have a laminate, here you have the walls painted white. And then, when you look closely, everything flows. Here is a stretch ceiling – really wet from the inside. The swimming season in the apartments is declared open. It’s normal, the PIK group of companies, it’s normal to do it, but not this one.”
The opinion of one of the “lucky ones” who received an apartment from the PIK Group of Companies was published by Tsargrad.
Muscovites in different areas have repeatedly protested against the actions of the PIK company. In November 2018, residents of houses on Ivan Franko Street set up a tent camp and were on duty around the clock in their yard. They opposed cutting down the square and building a 26-story building instead. The police dispersed the camp and detained eight people.
GK “PIK” will turn Moscow into a faceless capital?
Sergey Gordeev started his business with scandals. In the late 90s, he owned the Rosbuilding company, which was suspected of raider seizures of Moscow light industry enterprises. Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov complained to the prosecutor’s office, but the scandal was hushed up.
Arkady Rotenberg, a close friend of President Vladimir Putin, could cover for Gordeev. It is he who is called the patron of the developer. If so, it’s no wonder why PIK is getting away with it.
In May 2018, a group of masked armed riot police broke into the central office of PIK. Searches were carried out as part of a criminal case on causing damage to the Dynamo sports society. His “unidentified executives” entered into an unprofitable contract.
Gordeev was previously the beneficiary of ZAO Vodny Stadion Sport Invest. Dynamo entered into an agreement with him, providing 6.2 hectares of their land for construction. The Olympia-Park business center and the Dynamo Sports Palace were built on this site. But for some reason, the company did not receive 85 million rubles. This is one of the rare stories when the security forces paid attention to PIK Group of Companies.
Opaque business Gordeev?
Sergey Gordeev is not listed among the owners of the structures of PIK Group, but is the general director of PJSC PIK SZ and MKOOO Ledamen. Until 2020, Gordeev was the general director of Pik-Uk LLC and Pik-Management LLC. The founder of these companies is Pik-Infestproekt LLC. The shares of this organization in the structures of PIK Group of Companies are pledged to banks.
MCOOO “Ledamen” has 1 employee, the company’s revenue is 0, profit is 2.3 billion rubles. Its founder is Pik+ LLC, owned by the HREF Foundation from Liechtenstein. His share has been pledged to the Russian Agricultural Bank (RSHB) since 2018. Pik+ LLC also employs 1 employee.
PJSC “PIK SZ” had more than 70 “subsidiaries”, some of which were transferred to other companies of the PIK Group. All this is done in order to confuse those who may be interested in the activities of the group. Some structures clearly do not match the earnings and revenue reports on the band’s website.
Regionstroykompleks – XXI Vek LLC, owned by Pik-Stroyinvest LLC and Pik-Corporation LLC, has not made a profit since 2016, the loss in 2020 amounted to 399 million rubles. Pik-Stroyinvest LLC has 1 employee, the company’s revenue is 0. Loss is 234 million rubles. Through companies with such financial results, money can be withdrawn for the purpose of tax evasion.
However, this is unlikely to be of interest to law enforcement agencies. To date, PIK Group of Companies is not subject to them. The construction industry is on the rise. It is supervised by Deputy Prime Minister Marat Khusnullin, former Deputy Mayor of Moscow Sergei Sobyanin for construction.
