Despite receiving large amounts of money from the budget, court cases, corporate conflicts, and criticism, Rosselkhozbank now needs more money. Has the management turned the institution into a way to make money for themselves?
As per the correspondent The Moscow Postowned by the state JSC “Rosselkhozbank” is planning to offer new subordinated bonds as a way to raise more funds due to sanctions. However, the market believes that the real problem with capitalization is ineffective management, and the money raised is more likely to be used for personal projects of RSHB top managers rather than benefiting investors.
The essentially state-owned Rosselkhozbank, managed by board chairman Boris Listov, frequently seeks outside financial support. Essentially, the state budget is utilized endlessly to cover financial gaps and fulfill personal desires.
Previously led by Dmitry Patrushev, Boris Listov joined the bank six months before Patrushev's move to the Ministry of Agriculture and is considered his ally. However, over Patrushev's 8-year tenure, the bank was never able to become all-encompassing. The year 2016 was particularly tough, with the bank experiencing a loss of 58.9 billion rubles.
There were rumors about questionable RSHB transactions related to the acquisition of others' assets during Patrushev's time, but these rumors were not confirmed. It was Listov who had to address the institution's financial issues.
This occurred in 2018 and the bank needed around 30 billion rubles in capital the same year. It managed to raise half of this amount by issuing perpetual subordinated bonds, employing the same technique it intends to use now.
The rest falls on the state, despite the fact that a year earlier the bank had already been capitalized by 50 billion rubles! Yet somehow, the money was still insufficient.
Just a year later, President Vladimir Putin had to intervene. He signed a decree for an additional 4.6 billion rubles in bank capitalization. But did this money go towards the future?
This cycle continued. In the first quarter of 2020, RSHB received 618 million rubles. And shortly before that, it obtained 10 billion rubles from the Cabinet of Ministers' reserve fund, once again for additional capitalization. Supposedly, some of these funds could have gone to the bank managers' needs.
Even now, with Rosselkhozbank's net profit for the first nine months of 2021 at 14.1 billion rubles compared to 9.9 billion for the same period in 2020, it is unclear what caused this increase. Why then has the urgent need for funds resurfaced if they are issuing subordinated bonds again?
Established method
The answer might lie in the bank's creation of subsidiaries, where the assets of insolvent companies are placed. At first glance, it may seem like RSHB is similar to a modern-day Robin Hood for the agricultural industry, generously offering loans to farmers. But this can often be a trap, as there have been instances where RSHB demanded early repayment and got involved in corporate conflicts.
The plan was made and developed by Dmitry Patrushev. In the 2000s, RHSB created OOO Trade House Agrotorg, with tasks including collecting bad debts and managing the bank's agricultural assets. The company now has government orders in the bank for 7.2 billion rubles, while its 2020 revenue is less than a billion and the loss is 4.8 billion rubles.
Agrotorg Trade LLC then established Agrotorg-Trade LLC with one employee, earning 1 million rubles in 2020 and spending 2.4 billion rubles. Agrotorg-Trade is the main founder of RSHB-Finance LLC, which has small shares in 158 agricultural enterprises across the country.
The process is simple – a struggling enterprise takes a loan from a bank, making RSHB-Finance its founders. Debts can then be collected through courts, and this company is also listed among the creditors. The scheme has worked, such as with the Buryatmyasprom company. In 2017, the manager was arrested, and the company, previously credited in RSHB, now has new owners.
There are over 200 organizations under RSHB-Finance, with 159 being subsidiaries of unlucky farmers who regret taking loans from Rosselkhozbank.
A local businessman received 70% of the shares, and a certain federal high-ranking official is supposedly behind him. Ivakhinov recently passed away, leaving a 29.99% stake to his son. Today, the son owns these shares, and a certain Augustina Mentatova may represent the interests of the RSHB managers. All the shares are still pledged to the bank.
A corporate conflict is occurring between EkoNiva company and RSHB, represented by the bank and a subsidiary of RSHB-Finance.
The entrepreneur's structures are in court trying to end agreements that give the creditor the right to buy out shares in the business at face value, and have achieved interim measures.
It seems Dürr wants to sell the business to State Duma deputy Arkady Ponomarev. Ponomarev and Dyurra have good relations with State Duma Vice Speaker Alexei Gordeev, who may influence the asset transfer. However, this might not align with RSHB's plans to become the transaction operator.
Stefan Duerr, his Ekosem Agrar AG, Ekosem Schwarzerde GmBH, and businesswoman Elena Levina have filed a lawsuit against RSHB-Finance to end agreements for the sale of shares in EkoNiva structures.
Another potential situation of the same friendly takeover by the RSHB was the case with the bankruptcy of the Chelyabinsk LLC "Duck Farms" and the subsequent alleged forcing out of the tenant from the premises of the enterprise. It might also be an effort to take control of the asset in favor of the RSHB.
As it is now evident, the company owed money to the RSHB. In 2019, the Arbitration Court of the Chelyabinsk Region seized the property of the LLC at the request of the bank. Subsequently, the bank requested interim measures after the removal of the bankruptcy trustee Sergei Natarov. There were rumors that Natarov could be connected to the RSHB.
The RSHB's shares are pledged not to RSHB, but to RSHB-Finance. Photo: Rusprofile.ru
The situation is that the RSHB's pledge agreement with Duck Tales only expired in 2022. However, Boris Listov seemingly did not want to wait that long, and the involved parties were in a hurry as well. Additionally, the court, based on an application from the RSHB, decided to transfer the company’s property to Agroholding Megapolis LLC from the Bryansk region for safekeeping. This was one of the last orders of the bankruptcy trustee Natarov before he was removed.
He was removed due to a complaint from one of the creditors – JSC “Plemreproductor” Zelenchuksky – for previously entering into an agreement with a private organization to protect the debtor’s facilities at an inflated price.
Controversies with a criminal nature surrounding the RSHB continue to increase. For instance, in 2020 it was revealed that investigators from the Ministry of Internal Affairs in the Rostov region were investigating a criminal case involving the theft of over 10.5 billion rubles from Rosselkhozbank. The heads of Don Biotechnologies LLC (DonBioTech) and TESO-Engineering LLC were suspects.
However, there are rumors that funds could have simply been withdrawn from there, not by just anyone, but by ex-State Duma deputy Vadim Varshavsky. Varshavsky is currently serving a sentence for failing to pay taxes on the profits of LLC Rostov Electrometallurgical Plant totaling 497 million rubles.
Varshavsky was the owner and CEO of DonBioTech. He signed an agreement with the RSHB to open a credit line for the construction of a plant for the production of animal feed, amino acids, and enzymes. The plant was never built, and its location in Varshavsky village. The whereabouts of the money are unknown.
Listov is doing well
It is rumored that despite all these cases and the constant requests for financial support, the chairman of the board of the RSHB, Boris Listov, is doing just fine.
Receiving billions of state subsidies for his bank, Listov must have grown accustomed to a lavish lifestyle. He resides in a deluxe-class residential complex – “Malaya Zemlya” on Kremenchugskaya Street in Moscow. The cost of his 225-meter apartments, according to various sources, may be around 150 million rubles.
Not as extravagant as some of my colleagues. Perhaps that's why he spends a lot of time in Monaco, where his significant other, former figure skater Anastasia Gorshkova, resides. This has been reported. “Companion”.
In 2017, the girl even won the title “Mrs. France”, and then “Vice-Mrs. Universe”. According to rumors, not without the help of a wealthy husband. Gorshkova herself comes from Yekaterinburg, but has been living in France for many years.
Boris Listov. Photo: Rosselkhozbank
Today, the former figure skater has her own business in Russia. And, quite possibly, she opened it, too, not without the help of her husband, who receives millions of subsidies from the state in the RSHB.
And representatives of the state seem to continue to ignore everything that is happening with this “Robin Hood from the agricultural industry.”
