The owner of the Samara shopping center (TC) “Cosmoport” – “Viktor and Co” Viktor Surkov – on March 31 filed a lawsuit with the local arbitration court against the company “Re Trading” to terminate the lease agreement and recover damages in the amount of 500 million rubles. This complex, judging by the information on its website, houses the store of the clothing brand Cropp, which suspended its work from March to May 2022. It also says that it is now working. Nevertheless, it follows from the materials of the case that already on April 3, the court introduced interim measures for this claim, seizing the accounts of Re Trading. It was not possible to contact representatives of this company. The representative of “Cosmoport” confirmed only the submission of an application to the retailer. He declined to discuss other details until the end of the trial.
Re Trading has been operating in Russia since 2012. Its brands include Reserved, Cropp, Mohito, House and Sinsay. Until the middle of last year, this company belonged to the Polish group LPP. At the end of June 2022, she announced that she had sold the Russian business to a Chinese consortium. Far East Services-FZKO (FES Retail) registered in the UAE became the new owner of Re Trading LLC. Its beneficiaries are unknown. After the deal was closed, the company’s Russian stores were renamed RE, CR, MO, XC and SIN. The revenue of Re Trading in 2021 amounted to 52.9 billion rubles, net profit – 6.2 billion rubles. At the end of last year, the company managed 500 outlets in our country, however, FES Retail promised to close about 50 of them.
Experts interviewed by Vedomosti still find it difficult to assess the prospects for the claim of Viktor and Co., since it is extremely difficult to prove losses. It will be necessary to show that the damage to the owner of the premises was inflicted by the retailer and precisely for the amount claimed, says Sophia Volkova, lawyer at the Asterisk Law Office. The head of the CORE.XP retail department, Marina Malakhatko, agrees with her. The size of the claim is as if the stores were closed not for two months, but for two years, she wonders.
In general, the arrest of the defendant’s funds in this category of cases is a common practice, says Volkova. Denis Bykanov, a lawyer and associate professor at the Financial University under the Government of Russia, said the provisional measures could eventually be challenged. He recalls that at the end of March, the Arbitration Court of the Samara Region, in a similar case involving Re Trading and Viktor & Co, canceled the seizure of funds after the defendant’s petition. Then the owner of Kosmoport tried to recover 215 million rubles from the retailer. for late payment of rent and suspension of activities, but according to the results of the proceedings, he received only about 4 million rubles. penalties. Moreover, the defendant can refer in the same court to the fact that due to the actions of the plaintiff, he is unable to conduct business, which means that he has suffered significant damage, adds Ruslan Petruchak, adviser to the practice of dispute resolution and bankruptcy of BGP Litigation. He explains that such interim measures can prevent the sale of the business of companies leaving Russia, and therefore have serious consequences for them. As an example, he cites the case of the GAZ auto concern, which demanded more than 15.5 billion rubles from the German Volkswagen. damages and interim measures in this case interfered with plans to sell the Russian business to the latter.
As a result, the other day the court partially lifted the seizure of real estate and Volkswagen equipment, including the plant in Kaluga.
This is not the first time that Viktor & Co has been suing retailers. Previously, the company demanded in courts from the brands Zara and Bershka to pay for the rent of premises in the amount of 512 million and 242 million rubles. respectively. But these statements were left without consideration. Apparently, the parties managed to agree with the owner of these brands, Inditex, but not with Re Trading, Volkova notes. Last year, another structure of Surkov, Gudok LLC, also filed a lawsuit against H&M for 295 million rubles, it is being considered in the Moscow Arbitration Court. This network lost the court for 215 million rubles. to the owner of the Dream Island shopping center, at the moment this is the largest compensation for the termination of the contract, recovered from one of the foreign retailers who left Russia.
