Anton Titov’s “Shoes of Russia” are compared with a financial pyramid and predicted its collapse, but it seems to him that it doesn’t matter – has the money been in the West for a long time?
According to the correspondent The Moscow Post, VTB Bank plans to bankrupt the supporting company of the former Obuv Rossii, LLC OR. But, apparently, to return the issued to the business Anton Titov billions of loans to the state bank headed by Andrei Kostin is unlikely to succeed. Titov-controlled Arifmetika, a micro credit company (MCC) controlled by Titov, already seems to have generated the bulk of its profits, is ready to merge with Navigator Acquisition Corp and hide the money offshore.
In this regard, it turns out that the sale of shoes and other goods in recent years could be nothing more than a smoke screen for Titov. Behind all these beautiful signs, trading in shares of “Obuv Rossii” on the open market, obviously, a classic financial pyramid could be hidden. Which, only for averting eyes and heightening pathos, was allegedly engaged in investment and business development.
donut hole
Via website “Fedresurs” VTB Bank announced its intention to apply to the Arbitration Court of the city of Moscow with an application to declare OR LLC bankrupt. 100% of the company “OR” belongs to PJSC “ORG” (previous name “Obuv Rossii”). In turn, 50% of the shares in ORG belong to Anton Titov. Another 48% of the shares are in free float, 2% – with other shareholders.
On March 30, Obuv Rossii announced the third technical default on bonds, wrote RBC. It was about the fact that OR failed to make coupon payments in the amount of only 9.7 million rubles. What is there to say about billions in debts on loans to VTB Bank, headed by Andrey Kostin? It should be noted that another bank with state participation, Promsvyazbank, actively participated in the purchase of Obuv Rossii bonds, which also risks losing its funds.
In 2018 alone, VTB Bank opened Obuv Rossii a new credit line of 1 billion rubles for a period of five years. In 2016, the banker Kostin did not spare another 500 million rubles for Titov’s business. Bonds were issued for comparable amounts. At the same time, it is characteristic that the “OR” of 2020 began to show a fall in key financial indicators. That year, the company operated at a loss. Where did Titov spend the loans received from state banks?
Obuv Rossii, a public company whose shares are traded on the stock exchange, demonstrated the same dynamics.
As a result, the OR company found itself in debt, like in silks. The size of its short-term and long-term debt obligations at the end of 2020 amounted to about 15.5 billion rubles. Moreover, a noticeable increase occurred in 2019-2020. In February 2022, information appeared that Obuv Rossii closed every tenth store, whose employees apparently quit, and the rest began to delay wages. The publication wrote about it ngs.ru.
horse interest
In this regard, the question arose: where did Anton Titov keep the main profit? After all, he almost worked around the clock, took loans from banks, but all, supposedly in vain, all at a loss? This, of course, is not the case. In the structure of Titov’s business, there are two micro-credit companies, a kind of capsules, where, obviously, the main wealth was hidden.
First of all, attention is drawn to LLC RNKO “Payment Standard”, which is now in the process of liquidation. December 25, 2020 Central Bank of the Russian Federation revoked the license from this credit institution. The reason for the withdrawal, according to the order of the regulator, was the repeated violation of the law on countering the legalization of funds and regulations of the Central Bank. The activities of Payment Standard, according to the Central Bank, were characterized by “high involvement in dubious transit operations” and dubious cashing out. Wrote about it “Kommersant”.
That is, the owners of RNKO “Payment Standard” – Anton Titov and the campaign, could potentially transfer funds even to their cards, even to offshore accounts. At the same time, Sberbank, VTB-Insurance, VTB-Leasing were indicated as partners of the Payment Standard – all completely state-owned companies. That is, potentially, funds from the state budget could easily flow offshore.
Well, after the “Payment Standard” ceased its vigorous activity, Anton Titov, obviously, thought that this was not a problem, since he had a microfinance organization – MCC “Arithmetic”, and with a valid license. Apparently, the Central Bank of the Russian Federation, headed by Elvira Nabiullina, did not pay close attention to this microcredit company. Was there any interest in it? Worth a look at Arithmetic.
After all, the company not only issued loans to everyone, but also provided loans when buying goods in Obuv Rossii stores. Interest is horse. Forbes wrote that the weighted average rate of Titov’s company from 2016 to 2020 was about 200% per annum.
And September 2, 2021 “Shoes of Russia” informedthat “Arithmetic” will merge with Navigator Acquisition Corp. (hereinafter referred to as Navigator), whose shares are traded on the Canadian Stock Exchange. As a result of the deal, Navigator will become part of Obuv Rossii. The new company will be called Arifmetika Financial Solutions Corp. It is easy to imagine that control over a foreign organization can allow Anton Titov to easily take to the border, let’s say at the expense of offshore companies, everything that is acquired by overwork. And there is something to bring out.
According to the information disclosed by Obuv Rossii, while the performance of this company and OR was deteriorating, Arithmetika, on the contrary, was growing. The volume of issued loans, interest and net income grew. Net income remained consistently high.
That is, Arithmetic could well end up with loans received by Obuv Rossii in banks, and horse interest, under which loans were issued to citizens and even, perhaps, funds received by Obuv Rossii during the initial placement of its shares on exchange. The story was quite in the spirit of Anton Titov.
“Kommersant” wrote that at the initial placement the cost of one share was 140 rubles. But after private investors bought shares at this price, they steadily fell in price. Now the shares of this company are traded at the level of 8.5 rubles. That is, the fall in value occurred by more than 16 times! Miracle investment, you will not say anything. Taking into account the fact that Obuv Rossii is currently valued at 1.36 billion rubles, it turns out that investors invested about 11 billion rubles in this company during the initial public offering. Which, obviously, Titov could easily send to “Payment Standard” or “Arithmetic”, and from there – wherever his soul wished.
And if the state decides to support Obuv Rossii, because it is included in the list of backbone enterprises of the Russian Federation, then Anton Titov has already created an analogue of the “black hole” in the person of Arifmetika Financial Solutions Corp., which, obviously, can digest any amount of finance. And what, I wonder, are state-owned banks going to do in such conditions? Understand and forgive Titov?
Source: The Moscow Post