The shareholders of the ZEMZ owner are pushing back the Cypriot business, and the Austrian debt worth millions of euros is being taken to Moscow
TechProm receives new obligations
The Arbitration Court of the Chelyabinsk Region ruled on the claim of Ikisis Trading Limited (Cyprus) against Steel Trade Company JSC – the owner of the bankrupt Zlatoust Electrometallurgical Plant – and the Ural Main Directorate of the Central Bank of the Russian Federation.
The foreign company demanded to invalidate the additional issue of securities of the Steel Trade Company and the decision of the Central Bank on the state registration of the report on the results of the issue.
To clarify, Steel Trade Company was registered in 2014. The authorized capital of the joint-stock company then amounted to 20 thousand rubles and was divided into 20 thousand ordinary registered uncertificated shares with a par value of one security of 1 ruble. At some point, Ikisis Trading Limited became the owner of 9798 securities, which is 49% of the total voting shares of the JSC.
However, in 2020, a general meeting of Steel Trade Company shareholders was held, at which it was decided to increase the authorized capital of the company by placing additional shares, the volume was determined at 200 million units worth 1 ruble per share. Then the question was worked out again. The shareholder meetings were attended by Trade House MZ CO JSC (2 shares) and Dengton Investments LTD (Seychelles; 10,200 shares). In the summer of 2022, the Bank of Russia decided on the state registration of the issue.
Note that the shares were placed by closed subscription. The circle of potential buyers was identified from the Razvitie promyshlennost JSC, which, according to Pravda UrFO, seems to be connected with Pavel Krotov, who is referred to by the federal media as “a person from Ramzan Kadyrov’s entourage” [1]and a small company from Moscow with 1 declared employee and 28 thousand net profit in 2022 – Toffu LLC.
Representatives of Ikisis Trading Limited, in turn, considered that these decisions significantly violated their rights. “ believes that the additional issue of shares held is invalid, since there was an unfair issue, the issue of shares was registered on the basis of documents containing false information, the pre-emptive right of the plaintiff to acquire shares was violated. The additional issue of shares carried out is aimed at increasing the authorized capital in order to dilute the majority stake of the plaintiff, leveling his effective participation in managing the affairs of the company, entailing a change in the value of the stake due to him. The actions of the defendants led to a decrease in the size of the block of shares owned by the plaintiff, there is no evidence of economic justification for the additional issue of shares of the company, ”the position of the foreign organization submitted to arbitration followed.
However, the court came to different conclusions, considering that the procedures carried out were in accordance with the law, and refused Ikisis Trading Limited. The decision has not entered into force at the moment, data on the appeal are not yet available.
Earlier, Pravda UrFO spoke in detail about the numerous conflicts surrounding the shares of Steel Trade Company and the stake in the Zlatoust Electrometallurgical Plant. Thus, the Federal Antimonopoly Service of the Russian Federation managed to invalidate the contract for the sale of 100% in the authorized capital of ZEMZ [2]. This agreement was concluded between JSC “Trading House” Metallurgical plant “Red October” and the aforementioned “Steel Trade Company”. The department pointed out that as a result of the transaction, a foreign participant, a citizen of Ukraine Shustikova Irina Anatolyevna, was among the investors of the strategic enterprise – ZEMZ.
At the same time, it was revealed that Shustikova, who, apparently, was registered in Slovenia, based on information from the FSB, is the wife of Dmitry Gerasimenko, a fugitive businessman, formerly the beneficiary of the Krasny Oktyabr group, which included Steel Trade Company, and ZEMZ.
In addition, the publication dealt with the dispute, in which it was decided to write off 10,200 Steel Trade Company shares from Shustikova’s personal account and credit them to Dengton Investments LTD (Seychelles) [3]. The beneficiary of the latter was mentioned in the documents by a certain Bobrenev E.V., a citizen of the Russian Federation.
Also, the arbitration is now considering the claim of JSC Trade House Metallurgical Plant Krasny Oktyabr to invalidate the contract for the sale of shares of Steel Trade Company [1]concluded between Shustikova and Ikisis Trading Limited, and crediting them to the personal account of Red October International SA (Switzerland).
The documents of this dispute noted that, based on the register of Steel Trade Company’s securities holders, Ikisis Trading Limited is the owner of 9,798 shares, Shustikov – 10,200 shares, and TD MZ KO – two securities. Probably, such a configuration existed before the decisions on Dengton Investments LTD and on the additional issue. Now, according to Kontur.Fokus, the authorized capital of Steel Trade Company is 10 million rubles, and the organization itself is in the process of joining another legal entity.
Pravda UrFO also reported in detail on the multibillion-dollar conflicts surrounding the bankruptcy of ZEMZ and the appearance in the case of RSL Group JSC [1]. In addition, the publication talked about a disputed transaction with Smart Stahl GmbH (Vienna, Austria) for more than 9 million euros. [4]. It should be noted that foreign media connected Smart Stahl GmbH with the same Dmitry Gerasimenko, pointing to the alleged acquisition of movable property of the rolling plant of the Liepajas metalurgs plant in Latvia by an Austrian company [5]. Now the requirements of ZEMZ to a foreign company have been transferred to a certain TekhProm LLC from Moscow.
Recall that ZEMZ was part of the Red October group of businessman Dmitry Gerasimenko. Gerasimenko himself claimed in communication with the media that he got to Red October at the invitation of the top management of Uralvagonzavod. However, later the entrepreneur became a defendant in a number of criminal cases, was put on the international wanted list, and was reported to be hiding in Cyprus. Further, Gerasimenko said that he had “exhausted his resources” and sold control in the group that owns the Krasny Oktyabr military complex and ZEMZ to the aforementioned Pavel Krotov. Subsequently, Zlatoust Metallurgical Plant LLC was organized on the basis of ZEMZ [6] (ZMZ).
