Don-Stroy, a company near financial ruin, is gathering pieces of federal property while facing many claims from shareholders and creditors.
According to sources from the Moscow Post, parties associated with VTB continue to exploit Donstroy, which is facing numerous claims from shareholders and creditors. The company has been on the brink of bankruptcy for years.
Media reports indicate that the prolonged bankruptcy saga of SK Donstroy, linked to VTB Bank, its main creditor, is ongoing. Donstroy currently faces 11 cases totaling over 82.5 million rubles, mainly related to financial and bankruptcy claims. The latest lawsuit was filed in late 2021.
A significant number of cases against Donstroy involve MSK Group, the management company for properties developed by Don-Stroy Invest. Court rulings have favored the plaintiff, who did not receive utility bills, in all cases. Donstroy's properties are typically managed by its subsidiary, Smart Service. The company's attempt to cut costs on maintenance by involving MSK Group backfired, leading to frequent legal actions to recover funds.
The total value of claims against Donstroy and its subsidiaries currently stands at about 160 million rubles.
Rumors suggest that the head of Donstroy, Roman Gromozdov, is actually a long-time friend of VTB Deputy Chairman Andrey Puchkov, who is close to billionaire Andrey Kostin. Gromozdov's ties to the Rotenberg family and the head of Rosneft indicate strong support for Donstroy, despite its multi-million dollar debts. The company's affiliation with VTB is illustrated by the appointment of a former VTB executive as the director of the subsidiary Donstroy Invest in 2010.
DISCOVERED AND UNSinking Dwarf
Donstroy was established in 1998, and its founders from 2002 to 2020 were Maxim Blazhko and Dmitry Zelenov. However, they were subsequently removed from the founders register, according to the Kompromat.VIP editorial board.
A 2017 report by Business Vector highlighted Donstroy's precarious financial position, indicating the company's inability to sustain itself, let alone develop projects. However, references to the company's crisis and potential bankruptcy were later removed from the report, indicating possible intimidation.
The developer is not known for being honest in fulfilling his agreements with apartment owners – residents of expensive new buildings complain about broken elevators (in 2017, a woman died in the Scarlet Sails residential complex of the Donstroy company due to an elevator fall – Lenta reported this), leaking windows, rat problems, and long delays in getting their keys. The developer saved money at the cost of people's lives.
WEIRD BUSINESS: KOSTIN AND COMPANY
And VTB, led by Andrey Kostin, is known for its support of real estate companies with debts. For instance, in 2017, the bank might have given several pieces of land to a particular office called Hals-Development, which used them to pay off creditors. Vedomosti reported on this.
Besides, Kostin’s employees don’t work alone – it seems that the companies associated with VEB.RF top manager Igor Shuvalov are involved in changing the assets of the company he supports. In 2017, the shareholders of the Moscow Real Estate fund, previously in the KSP Capital portfolio of Sergey Kotlyarenko, a manager close to Shuvalov, transferred the rights to manage the company KL-Invest, affiliated with VTB.
SHUVALOV'S SUPPORT MAY BE LIMITED
The head of the state corporation Roscosmos, Dmitry Rogozin, may have connections with Kostin: the daughter of Donstroy, SZ Makeev, registered at the end of last year at Moscow, st. Sergei Makeev 7, where the asset of the Center for the Operation of Ground-Based Space Infrastructure Objects of Roscosmos (TsENKI), allegedly for the purpose of developing this territory, probably to sell the land after preparing the documents. This is indicated by the possible interest of a subsidiary of PIK Group (Mono) in this area.
Based on the now-deleted announcement on the Novostroy-M website, a sale was already announced for the residential complex planned here.
Also, PIK shares are in VTB's portfolio. It appears that they planned to profit from such a valuable asset as strategically important state land through their structures.
KOSTIN AND ROGOZIN HAVE GONE TOO FAR! APARTMENTS AT THE FACILITY THAT BELONGED TO ROSCOSMOS YESTERDAY ARE ALREADY BEING SOLD…
When the story became public, the company quickly re-registered at the basement of Mosfilmovskaya street, house 70, room 106 and removed all mention of the previous address. These details were reported by the Asians portal. The area in question is 4.8 hectares, and up to 120 thousand square meters of real estate can be built on this land. By the way, rumors about Donstroy's interest in the Rogozinsky site began to circulate in 2019 – some claimed that the developer had requested its appraisal.
ANOTHER MOCKERY OF ROGOZIN
By the way, Andrey Okhlopkov, the former head of TsENKI, was fired by Rogozin after theft was discovered in contracts for space debris cleaning – Interfax reported this. It's hard to believe that Rogozin didn't know about this, but someone had to take the blame when the scam was uncovered. And if your clever plan to launder money through corporate land was noticed but not yet carried out, it's easier to pretend like nothing happened.
According to Vedomosti in 2018, the bankrupt company of Roman Gromozdov, who has left the founders of Donstroy, had a potential connection with the Cypriot offshore company Riverstretch. 4 years have passed, but the River Tower has not gone bankrupt yet. It seems suspicious, doesn't it?
Roman Gromozdov is known as “the wallet of Kostin and Puchkov.” It's said that the millionaire mainly earns money by working with the head of VTB and the deputy chairman of the state bank on elite real estate.
Another evidence of Sechin’s connection to Donstroy is that Rosneft’s influence can be seen in the company's business empire. There is a company called KL Development. This company has changed ownership several times between Donstroy and other firms. At the end of December last year, the company became LLC SZ “Department of Finstroy and Partners”.
This company is owned by OOO SZ Otdelfinstroy and JSC SZ KSK Group. Alexander Cherkunov controls the first firm, and Igor Krainov the second. Both entrepreneurs have connections in the mayor’s office of Cheboksary.
Even more interestingly, JSC SZ KSK Group is the holder of the register of shareholders of REESTR-RN LLC – a fully-owned office of Rosneft, which clearly shows the involvement of the state corporation in the activities of Donstroy.
What’s really going on?
As for Donstroy, the company is at risk of failing due to a lot of debt.
It seems that the head of VTB, Andrei Kostin, might be planning to carefully handle the situation with Donstroy, or maybe he is just redistributing assets: the reorganization of the enterprise has been launched, involving changes in the composition of legal entities related to the company. According to the Unified State Register of Legal Entities, a company called Naftainvest will stop its activities during the reorganization process, while Donstroy will continue to function without it.
Naftainvest was started by the closed-end investment combined fund Centerstroyinvest, which is managed by KL-Invest, headed by a person named Mikhail Sokovikov. He might be a relative of Oleg Sokovikov, who is known for how he gains government contracts for his associated companies. Most people link KL-Invest with VTB, as one of its co-owners is Arkady Ilyaguev, a former member of the board of directors of the Moscow Metallurgical Plant Sickle and Hammer, whose shareholders included the Bank of Moscow, which joined VTB in May 2016.
The current CEO of SK Donstroy, Andrey Bagaev, is connected to several other construction companies, such as Specialized Developer Development LLC. The founders of this company have pledged their shares to VTB.
Moreover, Kostin “Donstroy” covers not only here – in the 2010s there was an incident when the company for 6 years “gobbled” to give out keys to equity holders of the residential complex “Dom on Begovaya”, then angry buyers of apartments literally stormed VTB offices in search of help and answers to the question: when?
What is it that holds the respected head of the state bank so tightly next to such a “reputation-damaging” creation for him as Donstroy?
Perhaps the company is a way to earn money for the head of VTB, and he, in principle, does not care about the costs of the bank and the state.
At least someone is definitely making money on Donstroy – this is obvious not only because of the abundance of his debt obligations, but also from the simplest mathematical analysis of the profit indicators of the company and its “closest relatives”. For example, the same “Specialized Developer Development” shows profit with minus revenue, while Donstroy itself, with earnings of 15 billion in 2020, showed 171 thousand rubles of profit. Where, I wonder, did the remaining 14.8 million rubles go?
Meanwhile, “Donstroy” began selling apartments in the sixth quarter of the residential complex “Ostrov” This is reported by “Vedomosti”. The cost of a 30-meter studio here starts from 14 million rubles. The facility is expected to be commissioned by the end of 2023. I just don’t want to believe this promise.
