Who will build up the hectares of IKEA?
Are the interests of developers Tyo and Dedkov visible behind the deal in Khimki?
The Khimki Business Park office complex, which previously housed the Russian headquarters of the Swedish giant IKEA, was bought out by the KLS-Khimki company, registered in Khimki last year, owned by Grigory Sahakyan and Arkady Danielyan. At the same time, the share of the new owner is already pledged to the Dutch company Ingka Pro Holding BV, which managed the IKEA retail trade, which may continue to exercise control over the Russian legal entity. Grigory Sahakyan is known as the former owner of Sovereign Bank, which lost its license in 2016, among other things, due to participation in operations to withdraw funds abroad. The Deposit Insurance Agency filed a lawsuit to bring eight individuals who controlled the bank to subsidiary liability and recover 484 million rubles from them. Sahakyan was among them, but the arbitration held only the former chairman of the board of Sovereign Bank, Vladimir Pashin, to account. Sahakyan could avoid responsibility with the help of a well-known developer, the founder of Capital Group, Pavel Te, who was a member of the board of directors of a credit institution. The Khimki asset may be of particular interest to Cho, as the office complex is located on a 15-hectare land plot that is promising for development. Another developer, co-owner of the Spartak construction company Oleg Dedkov, with whom Sahakyan is connected through the KLS-Finance company, may have similar motives. Arkady Danielyan, the second founder of KLS-Khimki, owns the A-Basis company that sells cars; he is associated with the beneficiaries of the Avilon car dealer, Alexander Varshavsky and Kamo Avagumyan, who in May bought out the Russian assets of the German concern Volkswagen. Finally, the new general director of Khimki Business Park, Mikhail Karapetyan, a longtime business partner of Artem Kovchenkov, who, together with the Rotenberg brothers, was among the shareholders of SMP Bank, may also have their own interests.
The IKEA complex in Khimki changed its owner
The Swedish company Ingka Centres, which owned the IKEA chain of furniture and household goods stores, sold the Khimki Business Park office complex (room area – 42 thousand square meters), where its Russian headquarters was previously located. The cost of the transaction is not announced, but according to Vedomosti experts, the price of the facility can reach 6.3 billion rubles. According to one of the consultants of the publication, Ingka Centers planned to sell the asset for a little less than 4 billion rubles, but after the approval of the transaction by the government commission, the initial price could be halved.
The new owner of the facility was KLS-Khimki, registered in Khimki in July last year and specializing in real estate transactions, owned by Grigory Sahakyan (99%) and Arkady Danielyan (1%), who is the company’s general director.
In addition to the complex itself, the partners also received a land plot of 15 hectares, which is of undoubted interest to developers. Vedomosti reminds that for a long time the site was the subject of litigation between the Russian subsidiary of IKEA and the Khimki agricultural enterprise of billionaire Alexander Klyachin, but in the end the decision was made in favor of the Swedish company.
It is noteworthy that since June 14, 2023, the new owner’s share in Khimki Business Park LLC has been pledged to the former official owner, Ingka Pro Holding BV, “registered” in the Netherlands, which managed the IKEA retail trade. Thus, Western structures can not only participate in the activities of their de jure former enterprise, but also continue to control it.
Sovereign Bank and the Luck of Grigory Sahakyan
The owner of 99% of Khimki Business Park LLC, Grigory Sahakyan, is the former owner of Moscow’s Sovereign Bank, which lost its license in April 2016. The Central Bank explained the decision to apply the “extreme measure of influence” by “pursuing a high-risk credit policy associated with the placement of funds in low-quality assets.”
In addition, Sovereign Bank was involved in dubious transactions to transfer funds abroad and was convicted of violating the law aimed at countering the legalization of criminal proceeds and the financing of terrorism.
In July 2016, the Moscow Arbitration Court declared Sovereign Bank bankrupt, and the “hole” in the capital of the credit institution was estimated at 349 million rubles. In 2019, the Deposit Insurance Agency, which became the bankruptcy trustee, applied to arbitration with an application to bring eight individuals who controlled the bank to subsidiary liability and recover 484 million rubles from them. Grigory Sahakyan also appeared among the defendants, but in the end he was lucky: the court satisfied the claim of the DIA in part and brought to justice only the former chairman of the board, Vladimir Pashin.
According to the specialized portal Banki.Ru, the board of directors of Sovereign Bank included the capital developer, the main owner of Capital Group, Pavel Te, known for his ties with the leadership of the Moscow City Hall. Recall that in 2016, the businessman, through the mediation of Vice Mayor Natalya Sergunina, sold 55 thousand square meters of real estate in the Oko tower in the Moscow City business center to the municipality.
The value of the deal was estimated by Kommersant experts at 14.3 billion rubles. Officials explained the expensive purchase by plans to place three departments in the new premises: city property, economic policy and competition policy (tender committee). But the financial “benefits” for Capital Group were not limited to this: in 2018, it became known that the mayor’s office bought 135 parking spaces in Moscow City for 1 billion rubles. The seller was the Cypriot company “Fuderin Trading and Investments Limited”, which the media associated with the “Capital Group”
Did the name of Pavel Te appear in the DIA suit? With a certain degree of probability, an influential businessman could help his former colleague on the board of directors of the bankrupt bank, Grigory Sahakyan, avoid subsidiary liability. Here it would be appropriate to recall that the office center in Khimki bought out by Sahakyan is “attached” to 15 hectares of “delicious” land near Moscow. And they may well come to the taste of the developer. It is natural to ask the question: is Cho one of the beneficiaries of the deal?
“Many-faced” “Spartacus” by Oleg Dedkov
With some of the former Sovereign Bank partners, Sahakyan will continue to conduct joint business. For example, he holds the position of general director in JSC Interskol Group, which specializes in venture capital investment. To date, there is no information about the founders of this company in open sources, but until January 2022, Grigory Sahakyan himself, his brother Kamo Sahakyan, Alexander Zemlyansky and Ruslan Garin acted as such – all of them at one time “marked themselves” in the scandalous banking history.
Let’s pay attention to another commercial structure, with which Grigory Sahakyan is associated – LLC “KLS-Finance” dealing with real estate transactions (its share is 13%). At the end of 2022, the company declared zero revenue, losses in the amount of 2.3 million rubles and the value of assets “minus” 7.1 million. In 2021, the situation was not much different: no revenue, losses of 3.4 million, and assets estimated at minus 4.8 million rubles.
76% of KLS-Finance is owned by Metropolis LLC. The general director and sole owner of this company, which specializes in engineering and technical design, architectural supervision and construction project management, is businessman Oleg Dedkov, the managing partner of the LES residential complex located on Novoyasenevsky Prospekt, which was built by Specialized Developer Spartak LLC.
Initially, it was planned to build a completely different facility on the site of the residential complex, most likely a sports facility, since the developer was supposed to be the regional Spartak Volleyball Sports Club, whose president since 2014 is the same Dedkov. It was the club that acted as a tenant of a land plot with an area of 5.5 thousand square meters, at the address: Novoyasenevsky Prospekt, vl. 3. But in 2018, a new project declaration was agreed upon for the facility, and it received the commercial name of the IFC “LES”. As a result, the sports club turned into a developer, and instead of a sports complex, a residential complex was erected, the apartments in which were successfully sold out.
It is not surprising that on specialized sites and forums an opinion is voiced about the illegal nature of the construction of the LES residential complex.
In addition, commentators draw attention to the location of a residential facility “near the forest belt of the protected area of the Bitsevsky Park”, and this may result in additional problems. So, in the environment of Grigory Sahakyan, another developer “emerges”.
Will another residential complex “grow up” soon near the former headquarters of IKEA?
Mosoblbank and the Rotenberg trail
The owner of 1% of KLS-Khimki LLC, Arkady Danielyan, is the sole founder of two companies: A-Finance specializing in venture investment and A-Basis engaged in car sales. The first brings neither revenue nor profit, the second was registered no later than last week. The RBC portal draws attention to the fact that the legal address of both structures coincides with the address of the Avilon car dealer, and the Avilon domain is indicated in the email address.
Can Danielyan represent the interests of the co-owners of Avilon, businessmen Alexander Varshavsky and Kamo Avagumyan, in the Khimki project? By the way, they are confidently expanding production: last May, Art-Finance, controlled by the dealer, closed a deal to acquire the Russian assets of the German concern Volkswagen, including an automobile plant in Kaluga.
No less interesting is the new CEO of Khimki Business Park, Mikhail Karapetyan. Previously, he was the head and sole founder of the Tagansky Dairy Plant, which was liquidated in 2017. In addition, Karapetyan held a director’s position in the Moscow Aquarium LLC, which specialized in real estate transactions and was liquidated in 2019, among the co-owners of which was Artem Kovchenkov, a shareholder of Mosoblbank.
Mosoblbank has repeatedly found itself at the center of high-profile financial scandals. So, in 2016, the Izmailovsky Court of Moscow found the ex-owner of a credit institution Andrzej Malchevsky, as well as former top managers Viktor Yanin and Yulia Zedina, guilty of embezzling 68 million rubles. At the same time, Yanin had already been sentenced to six years in prison for causing damage to the bank in the amount of 580 million rubles.
In 2014, in order to avoid bankruptcy, Mosoblbank was transferred to SMP Bank, associated with the oligarch brothers Boris and Arkady Rotenberg, for reorganization, allocating 97 billion rubles for financial “recovery”. An interesting coincidence: Kovchenkov was one of the shareholders of SMP Bank.
So, the deal with the office complex in Khimki raises more and more questions. What role does the Dutch offshore Ingka Pro Holding BV play in asset management? Can the new owners represent the interests of large development structures aimed at obtaining another site in the Moscow region? Finally, the connection with the infamous banking institutions, “lit up” in stories of embezzlement and withdrawal of finances, is striking. Apparently, the Khimki business will soon receive a “second hzikhidtidekrt breath”?