Source Neither oligarch Stanislav Gamzalov nor State Duma deputy Alexander Strelyukhin are to blame for the bankruptcy of the newly built Engels enterprise. What 27 billion are spent on is a mystery. The Saratov regional arbitration explained why State Duma deputy and former chairman of the regional government Alexander Strelyukhin cannot be involved in a subsidy for the debts of the Engels Locomotive Plant. The reasoning part of the decision has been published.
All defendants have been relieved of the obligation to pay 27 billion rubles. In the opinion of the arbitration, in the situation in which the new, brand new plant has fallen, by and large, no one is to blame, except for a sad combination of circumstances. dual-system electric locomotives of monstrous proportions with subsidiary liability – 27.3 billion rubles. Even Alexander Strelyukhin, with his salary as a State Duma deputy, would not have had enough life to pay his share in this super-debt.
The main intrigue of the whole process – the reason for these obligations – remained unknown. The locomotive plant definitely did not supply VEB-Leasing with such money. But for some reason, the court did not begin to find out where they came from, focusing on the fate of the locomotive project.
They wanted to claim billions from the following persons: two defendants are the former general directors of ELZ, these are Alexander Strelyukhin, who was at the helm for only a few months, from May to November 2014, and Ivan Pankov, who was the leader even less – from April 1 to May 15, 2014. The rest of the firms, Stanislav Gamzalov, Vyacheslav Raidugin, Dzhakhpar Gamzalov and Valentin Nersesyan, are members of the board of directors. Almost all of them withdrew from its composition in one day, December 8, 2020, that is, on the day when bankruptcy proceedings were introduced against the debtor. The exception is Valentin Nersesyan, who has not been on the board since June 2019.
The Cyprus offshore Rafelar Holdings Limited owns 42.55% of the voting shares of the plant since December 3, 2013. Exactly the same share from the same date at the second offshore, Volkam Trading. According to the bankruptcy trustee, all these persons brought the plant to bankruptcy by allowing it to lend money to another participant in the locomotive construction project, the First Locomotive Company, and then they were not required to return it. And also by the fact that they constantly increased the debt burden of the ELZ itself.
The manager also blamed the whole group for the production of unclaimed products in the absence of orders, because no one liked the two-system locomotives. The Defendants did not re-profile their plant, nor look for additional sources of income for it.
According to the court, Alexander Strelyukhin, who stood at the origins of the project for the construction of the plant, is definitely not involved in the problems of the enterprise. More than 5 years passed from the moment of his departure from the leadership until the ELZ was declared bankrupt, and in those months when Strelyuhin was in charge of the plant, there were no signs of bankruptcy there. On these grounds, the regional arbitration excluded the ex-deputy chairman of the government of the Saratov region, now a federal deputy, from the number of controlling persons and ruled that he was not the subject of subsidiary liability.
As for the debt load of the locomotive plant, here the arbitration cited an explanation of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation in a 2003 ruling. According to him, the formal excess of the amount of accounts payable over assets does not yet indicate that the debtor cannot fulfill his obligations. And the formal signs of bankruptcy themselves give the right to initiate this process to the creditor, and not to the head of the company.
The court also did not find legal grounds for attracting members of the ELZ board of directors. Their actions, in the opinion of the arbitration, did not go beyond the usual entrepreneurial risk, and in general, the reasons for the bankruptcy of the Engels Locomotive Plant were other than the actions of its leaders and owners.
Most of all, in the motivational part of the court decision, the complex relations between the Engels Locomotive Plant, the First Locomotive Company and VEB-Leasing are described. It is known that in 2012-2013 VEB-Leasing provided ELZ with three loans, in turn, the plant entered into loan agreements with the First Locomotive Company. The court qualified them as subloans.
VEB-Leasing, which provided the funds, knew perfectly well where they would go, the court decision emphasizes. ELZ received 100 million rubles directly for the plant construction project, 750 million for a PLC subloan, which in turn would pay off the foreign project participant Bombardier Transportation under a supply agreement. Another 8.5 billion were allocated for the design and construction of the plant. Including for retribution with the accompanying construction and equipment of Bombardier Transportation. From this amount, PLC again received a subloan to pay for the development of the locomotive project and support for the organization of production.
At the same time, the production, assembly and sale of finished locomotives should have been carried out not by the forces of one ELZ, but by a joint venture created with the participation of Bombardier Transportation. Later, this person became the First Locomotive Company.
From these complex relationships, the court deduced the following: “Engels Locomotive Plant” with the money of “VEB-Leasing” was supposed to design, build and equip the plant. He gave part of the loan to the First Locomotive Company to pay off Bombardier Transportation. Then ELZ and VEB-Leasing had to sign a contract for the sale of the plant at a price that would include the costs of construction, design and equipment, as well as interest on the loan agreement. And VEB-Leasing, in turn, would lease the plant to ELZ.
But in the face of changing market conditions – read, the annexation of the Crimea, because initially it was planned to supply products to Ukraine, VEB-Leasing refused the leaseback transaction and stopped financing the plant. The PLC has fulfilled its obligations – it has fulfilled the design and engineering documentation of the plant, and the plant itself is ready for mass production of its electric locomotives.
abroad, to the domestic Russian market, the court unexpectedly called it productive. Moreover, by letter dated April 8 this year, as indicated in the court ruling, Russian Railways requested information from the PLC on the timing of the submission of terms of reference for the development of mainline electric locomotives for accelerated container transportation. And the PLC, at a meeting with the railway workers on October 25, saluted it and declared that it was ready to create a new electric locomotive from domestic (!) Components. It is unclear, however, where the bankrupt PLC will do this. However, the plant in Engels has not yet been sold.
Thus, the court considered that the ambitious project for the production of the Saratov two-system locomotive is more alive than dead. Well, where did the 27 billion subsidies come from and what this money was spent on, it seems that no one else is interested.
Source
