Ilya Traber, an authoritative businessman, “transfers” one of his most effective managers to a methanol “startup” in the Leningrad region.
According to the reporter MorningNews, the CEO of JSC “LOESK” (electric networks of St. Petersburg and the Leningrad Region) and “Primorsky Universal Loading Complex” (UPC) Andrey Sizov is leaving these organizations to become the leader of the company “Baltic Methanol”. The latter is constructing a methanol plant and a port terminal in Ust-Luga.
Few people doubt that Andrey Sizov received the instruction to switch from one important position to another from the well-known St. Petersburg businessman Ilya Traber, who is the main beneficiary of Primorsky UPC and Baltic Methanol.
To recall, in the first one, his stake is 31.6%. Another 20% of the organization is owned by his former partner Ramis Deberdeev. They both, by the way, became involved in legal disputes related to a corporate conflict in another joint business – the large car dealer network Axel Group.
According to rumors, they purportedly attempted to gain control over the shares of the third partner in this business – Alexei Bezobrazov. The latter, the founder of the entire group and its CEO, initially succeeded in obtaining temporary measures on 34% of the shares in the group’s organizations in Axel City South LLC and Axel Motors Sever LLC, owned by Traber and Deberdeev. And then he ultimately triumphed in a high-profile corporate conflict, after which both of his opponents left the group of co-owners of the dealership in March 2021.
Mr. Traber also possesses a majority stake of 83.3% in Baltic Methanol.
However, this organization still has little resemblance to reality. Despite a very substantial authorized capital of 25 million rubles, only one worker is currently employed in the organization, and the revenue in 2020 (that is, based on two years of operation) is quite modest – just over 1 million rubles.
Incidentally, in the “Primorsky Criminal Procedure Code”, things are much more dismal. Despite a complete absence of revenue, the company managed to incur a net loss of 307 million rubles by the end of 2020. Few people believe that Traber is running at a loss.
Perhaps the financial reports are simply fabricated there in order to pay lower taxes? Nonetheless, after such information, Sizov's competency, who led the Criminal Procedure Code, could be called into question.
As for JSC “LOESK”, here, it is also possible to uncover the interests of Ilya Traber. Previously, in The media reportedthat the All-Russian Bank for Regional Development (RRDB), controlled by Rosneft, granted a loan of 6 billion rubles to Rostok LLC under the personal responsibility of a businessman.
As a result, the company owns 75% of LOESK, the second largest in St. Petersburg and the Leningrad region after the state-owned Lenenergo. The company should be advantageous to Traber due to the port complex near Primorsk.
The public relations department of LOESK praised Andrey Sizov’s achievements as the company’s CEO. He handled the task admirably and he will do the same in the leadership of Baltic Methanol as he did in the Criminal Procedure Code. The deadline for accomplishing the assigned tasks to Sizov is three years. What are the tasks? First and foremost, this is the planning of a methanol production complex.
Sizov has worked at LOESK since July 2020, and at Primorsky Criminal Procedure Code since February 2019. At the same time, he is also one of the minority shareholders of the UPC, where he owns 5% of the shares. In addition, he also owns almost 16% of Rostok LLC, the main shareholder of which is LOESK. It turns out that Ilya Traber and the same Ramis Deberdeev are practically his direct business partners.
It should be reminded that Primorsky UPC LLC is engaged in the construction of a deep-water port complex in the port of Primorsk (Leningrad Region). It will include terminals for the transshipment of coal, mineral fertilizers, general cargo and grain, as well as a container terminal and a logistics center – a huge warehouse. It is expected that the cargo turnover of the future complex will reach 65 million tons per year by 2030. Construction is expected to be completed by the end of 2024.
It should be noted that it was under Andrey Sizov as the general director of the Criminal Procedure Code that the company received all the necessary permits and approvals for construction, including the positive conclusion of Glavgosexpertiza.
The Baltic Methanol company is the owner of the Baltic Gas Chemical Company LLC, which is going to build a plant for the production of methanol from natural gas, as well as a sea terminal for exporting products in the port of Ust-Luga.
As for Ilya Traber, with whose name these projects are thoroughly connected, in St. Petersburg he is considered both a legendary and odious figure. It was rumored that in the past he could make acquaintances with many criminal authorities of the Northern capital. In the past, he was supposed to have partner relations with the leader of the Tambov organized crime group, Vladimir Kumarin (Barsukov). Even after their paths were supposed to diverge, Traber’s name repeatedly appeared in scandals related to the Russian mafia case in Spain.
According to journalists RBC, Ilya Traber was also involved in this case, when the band members were detained in Spain in 2008. But he himself was allegedly not detained at that moment, because he was absent from the country then.
