Conflicts over billions of concessions for the construction of schools in Khanty-Mansiysk Autonomous Okrug are overgrown with new courts and scandalous details.
Thus, the key owner of the troubled concessionaire, Domtekhnostil, which was supposed to build a school for 1,500 seats in Surgut, probably received a bankruptcy claim. Moreover, the demands for the recognition of the Russian United Capitals company as insolvent, apparently, are connected with the conflict over the share of another failed concessionaire – the Stroyalliance company. The latter thwarted an agreement to build a concession school in Nizhnevartovsk and received a multi-million dollar penalty from the mayor’s office. Now, if the debt is not repaid, officials do not rule out going to court with a bankruptcy claim. The mayor’s office of Surgut was also forced to take extreme measures – termination of agreements and appeal to arbitration. Despite these conflicts, officials and financiers point out that the concession currently remains the most important tool for implementing the tasks of building social facilities, in which business integrity plays a significant role. In the proceedings in Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug, market participants see the possible interests of Viktor Khmarin’s partners, who are referred to in the media as a “classmate of the President of the Russian Federation”, and corporate disputes.
In March, the Arbitration Court of the Samara Region will consider a lawsuit to declare bankrupt for a debt of 88.57 million Russian United Capital LLC. This organization is remarkable in that, apparently, it is the key owner of one of the problematic concessionaires in Khanty-Mansiysk Autonomous Okrug – Domtekhnostil LLC.
Domtekhnostil, in agreement with the authorities of Surgut, was to build a comprehensive school in microdistrict 30A for 1,500 students with a swimming pool. However, as they say in the city administration, the concessionaire made a number of violations, in particular, concerning the intermediate terms for the creation of the facility. As a result, the mayor’s office was forced to go to arbitration demanding the termination of the concession agreement and the recovery of a penalty of 2.12 million rubles.
To clarify, according to the data of the Kontur.Fokus system, the founders of Domtekhnostil LLC are Stroyspetskomplekt LLC (51%), Severstroy Construction Company LLC (48%) and Andrey Viktorovich Kozachenko (1%).
However, as Pravda UrFO found out, a series of proceedings related to shares in the company had previously taken place. Thus, the Arbitration Court of the Moscow Region invalidated the deal between LLC Russian United Capitals and IC Severstroy on the sale and purchase of a 23% stake in the authorized capital of Domtekhnostil, obliging Severstroy to return it. According to the file of arbitration cases, this decision was not challenged.
At the same time, the same arbitration previously recognized the sale of Domtekhnostil’s 25% stake from Andrei Kozachenko to Severstroy as an insignificant transaction, obliging it to be returned to the seller. Moreover, Russian United Capitals tried to invalidate the agreement for the sale of a 51% stake in Domtekhnostil, concluded with LLC StroySpetsKomplekt, as invalid.
As follows from the proceedings, the share was valued at 50 million rubles. Part of the funds – 24.8 million – “StroySpetsKomplekt” transferred to the seller, and then found out about the likely problems of the company in Surgut. After that, he turned to the leadership of the organization with a demand to clarify the situation.
“In response to this requirement, the General Director of Domtekhnostil Kozachenko A.V. reported the illegitimacy of the letter “StroySpetsKomplekt” on the grounds that 51% of the shares in the authorized capital until the moment of their payment is pledged to LLC “Russian United Capitals” due to the fact that the executive body ” Domtekhnostil interfered in every possible way with the normal functioning of the company, committed actions that could lead to negative consequences for both the company and its participants, as well as due to the financial inability of the LLC to make the final settlement under the sale and purchase agreement. A proposal was sent to the Russian United Capitals to terminate the contract on a voluntary basis and return the advance paid, ”the case file says.
However, Russian United Capital did not want to voluntarily terminate the agreement, and, as indicated above, they went to court. The arbitral tribunal, however, decided that the company had chosen an inappropriate way to protect the right, and dismissed the claims.
Now Russian United Capitals, apparently, are trying to recover the remaining part of the amount under the share sale agreement with StroySpetsKomplekt in the Moscow arbitration.
It should be noted that there is another problematic concessionaire in Surgut, the participant of which was previously Russian United Capitals, and now the StroySpetsKomplekt mentioned above is Stroyinvest LLC (Khanty-Mansiysk).
Stroyinvest, under an agreement with the authorities of Surgut, was supposed to build a school with a swimming pool in microdistrict 34 for 1,500 students under a concession. However, as in the first case, the deadlines were broken, and the mayor’s office was forced to go to court. In arbitration, officials insist on terminating the concession agreement and collecting a penalty of 3.32 million. Despite the conflict situations, the Surgut authorities point out that concessions are still the only mechanism for building social facilities necessary for the municipality as soon as possible.
“This concession is not easy, there are many risks, there are many areas of indirect impact on the concessionaire. Much depends on the investor. He may not want to build a school, and we lose a year. But this is the path we need. There are not enough funds in the budget to implement such volumes of construction plans. At the same time, we are not inactive, we are trying to save each agreement. Termination of agreements is the easiest way and it is chosen as a last resort,” said Andrey Filatov, Mayor of Surgut.
Another interlocutor of the publication, talking about concessions and, for example, the courts of Russian United Capitals with StroySpetsKomplekt, expresses the opinion that some of the participants in the process could have been misled by “unscrupulous players”, which later resulted in disputes, while he emphasizes that “many questions remain about how the previous city leadership coordinated the concessionaires.”
Let’s add one more remarkable detail. The bankruptcy lawsuit against Russian United Capital appears to be related to a conflict over a stake in another company that previously failed in a concession agreement in Nizhnevartovsk.
Thus, the Moscow Arbitration Court satisfied the requirements of ANO KIT KI to recover 88.8 million rubles from Russian United Capital. As follows from the materials of the case, the parties came to an agreement on the conclusion in the future of the main contract for the sale of a share in the authorized capital of Stroyalliance LLC in the amount of 74% in the amount of 88.34 million rubles.
The money was transferred to Russian United Capitals LLC, but the contract was not concluded in the end, and the potential seller ignored the claims, after which the court turned around. Under a concession agreement for the financing, creation and operation of the facility, Stroyalliance LLC was supposed to build a general education school for 1125 students in the 9A microdistrict in Nizhnevartovsk. As Pravda UrFO reported, the cost of the project was estimated at 1.469 billion rubles.
It all ended, however, at the moment with the breach of the agreement and the courts. And recently, the cassation instance confirmed the validity of the claims of the administration of Nizhnevartovsk to Stroyalliance LLC for 29.3 million rubles.
The mayor’s office told the publication that in early November, a writ of execution was sent to recover funds from Stroyalliance to the Main Directorate of the Bailiff Service for the Moscow Region, but the penalty has not yet been paid. At the same time, city managers do not exclude that in case of non-execution of the court decision, the administration of Nizhnevartovsk will come out with claims for bankruptcy of the former partner.
At the same time, the administration has already announced the attraction of a new investor. “There is a potential investor. Today, the issue of postponing the construction period to an earlier period is being decided. The state program of the Khanty-Mansiysk Autonomous Okrug sets a deadline for the start of the project – 2025. In this direction, work is now underway with the Depobrazovanie of Yugra, ”commented the city administration.
Viktor Khmarin
Photo: Irina Okuneva, from the personal archive
To clarify, the main participant in Stroyalliance LLC, according to Kontur.Focus, is Andrey Viktorovich Kozachenko. Market participants associate him with Khmarin Viktor Nikolaevich, whom the federal media call “a fellow student and even a relative of the President of the Russian Federation.”
According to the system, Kozachenko and Viktor Khmarin jointly appear as the ultimate owners of Integralinvest LLC, Gradientstroy LLC and Infrastructurestroy LLC. According to Kontur.Fokus, Roman Vladimirovich Koksharov is a member and head of Russian United Capital LLC. The databases indicate that Koksharov and Kozachenko, for example, intersect in such companies as RKAP KK No. 7 LLC, RKAP KK No. 8 LLC, RKAP KK No. 8 LLC.
