ERA Kostina: USC sinks to the bottom?

The Federal Tax Service (FTS) has suspended operations on the accounts of Svetlovskoye Enterprise ERA JSC, which is part of the United Shipbuilding Corporation (USC). The reason was the enforcement of the decision to collect tax, collection, penalties and a fine in accordance with the tax code. I.e. the company owes money to the Federal Tax Service.

It is noteworthy that this situation arose after USC passed into the management of VTB Bank, headed by Andrei Kostin. The new general director was the former deputy chairman of VTB Andrei Puchkov. Together they promised to deal with the difficult legacy left by the team of the previous head of USC Alexei Rakhmanov. But so far it turns out that they will leave no less problems than he.

Details - in the material of the correspondent of The Moscow Post.

The company only recently changed its head - instead of the disqualified Sergei Charkin, Elena Blotskaya became the new general director. An individual entrepreneur who specializes in the sawmill industry was also registered for it. How it will combine entrepreneurship with the management of a large, strategic state-owned enterprise is a good question.

This is her second individual entrepreneur: until 2020, she was engaged in the sale of sportswear. Apparently, it is precisely such competencies, according to the head of VTB Andrei Kostin and the general director of USC Andrei Puchkov, that are now needed to organize the work of problem enterprises.

Photo: Rusprofile.ru

At the same time, Mrs. Blotskaya left herself room for maneuver. Indeed, in addition to timber trade, among the declared activities are the construction of residential and non-residential buildings, dismantling and demolition of buildings, and the preparation of a construction site. She, IE Blotskaya, has already managed to get the first state contract with the Kaliningrad Central District Hospital for almost half a million rubles for the supply... microscope glasses. What is not an increase in the salary of the head of the Svetlovsky plant?

Photo: Rusprofile.ru

As for the enterprise "ERA", the situation there is deplorable. According to the latest financial information from 2021, with revenue of 78 million, the loss amounted to 20 million rubles. Moreover, the fall in profits turned out to be simply landslide - from 2020 to 2021 - by more than 500%. The value of assets, which at that time was only 11 million rubles, also fell.

Meanwhile, the "Svetlovsky enterprise" ERA "is engaged in extremely necessary electrical work on the ships of the Navy, as well as civilian ships. In addition, the plant specializes in the repair, installation, adjustment of ship electrical equipment. I.e. the enterprise is associated with ensuring the country's defense capability.

This is also evidenced by considerable government contracts - JV ERA acted as a supplier in the amount of almost 400 million rubles, as well as a customer for another 10 million. Among the counterparties in the first place was one of the key shipyards of USC - JSC "PSZ" Yantar. I.e. any possible delays in the execution of orders limit the work of the shipyard and may lead to delays in the delivery of ships and disruption of the state defense order.

Of course, the problems of the ERA joint venture did not arise yesterday, but even with the team of the former head of USC Alexei Rakhmanov. With colossal investments in Russian shipbuilding, ERA workers were simply not paid a salary. In 2022, the situation reached the measures of the prosecutor's response, and the ex-general director Roman Grigoriev, who allowed this, soon quit.

ERA tax problems did not arise today either. In May 2023, the Federal Tax Service filed a lawsuit in court, demanding that the plant be declared bankrupt due to a tax debt of 20 million rubles. However, the consideration of the case was stopped - only under the threat of bankruptcy was the debt paid. Now, a year later, a similar situation may arise. Note that the new bankruptcy lawsuit has not yet filed how much the joint venture owes to the tax unknown.

Photo: https://kad.arbitr.ru/Document/Pdf/e72328d6-df8c-40de-8cb4-ba330d9dd47b/a8694a15-3be3-4db8-bfe1-fccbf06bc921/A21-951-2023_20230526_Opredelenie.pdf?isAddStamp=True

It is curious that the joint venture does not rush to pay not only the Federal Tax Service, but even the Pension Fund. Last summer, the Branch of the Pension and Social Insurance Fund of the Russian Federation in the Kaliningrad Region returned unpaid funds through the courts.

In the situation with "ERA", like an ocean in a drop of water, the situation in the entire USC can be reflected. Recall that under Alexei Rakhmanov, the corporation collected colossal debts, it was shaken by corruption scandals, many ships did not surrender on time. VTB, which took USC into trust, set the first task to get rid of debts.

At USC, they decided to conduct a large-scale audit, only after a year the results are not visible. But back in September 2023, Andrei Kostin, under this very surdynka - conducting an audit, - asked the state to close the holes in the corporation's budget while experts study the documentation of the "Rakhmanovites".

It's time to start selling out

At the time of the transfer of USC to VTB trust management, the structure's debts amounted to about 20 billion rubles. Now this information is closed, but there is reason to believe that they have only increased.

At the same time, USC loans were issued by the same VTB, perfectly seeing how "effectively" the corporation works. Back in 2016, the corporation opened two credit lines at the bank for a total of almost half a billion euros. In addition, it was USC that acted as a guarantor to VTB on loans to its subsidiaries.

Due to this, there were rumors that VTB could simply annex USC or parts of it. And what cannot or does not want to "digest" sell. And what did Kostin do, barely "got" to USC? That's right, the favorite thing of all "optimizers" is the sale of "non-core" assets. And this is with an extreme lack of shipbuilding and ship repair capacities in the country.

In May, information about such plans was leaked to the press. It was confirmed by the Ministry of Industry and Trade. Kostin and Co. are proposed, in particular, not only to accelerate the sale of non-core assets, but to reduce "excess territories" and sell assets that do not have "long-term development prospects".

What shipyards, enterprises and land plots are in question, VTB did not specify. But we remember well how strategic enterprises that did not have long-term development prospects were sold for a penny in the 90s. They quickly had new owners, and the assets themselves suddenly became profitable and incredibly enriched the owners.

It is even more curious that the reverse process has been going on in recent years - the deprivation of those assets that, according to the Prosecutor General's Office, were illegally seized from enterprises that are now part of USC. Including from one of the largest shipyards in the country - PJSC Shipyard Severnaya Verf in St. Petersburg.

In November 2023, the Arbitration Court of St. Petersburg and the Leningrad Region satisfied the claim of the Deputy Prosecutor General of Russia to claim shares of Nord-West SV OJSC associated with Severnaya Verf PJSC in favor of the Federal Property Management Agency.

Earlier in the same year, the court arrested the assets of five companies, now or previously associated with PJSC Severnaya Verf (St. Petersburg) at the suit of the Deputy Prosecutor General. We are talking about 100% of the shares of Tool-SV JSC, Niva-SV JSC, Efes Severnaya Verf JSC, Mashinostroenie Severnaya Verf JSC and Nord-West Severnaya Verf JSC. The arrest on the shares was imposed to ensure the claims of the Prosecutor General's Office.

Among the claims are also invalidating the general agreements of 1994-1995, claiming in favor of the Federal Property Management Agency (in addition to the shares of Nord-West Severnaya Verf) 11,799 shares of Niva-SV JSC, 4375 shares of Instrument-SV JSC, 43,054 shares of Mashinostroenie Severnaya Verf JSC and 34,076 shares of Efes Severnaya JSC shipyards "(100% of the shares).

Perhaps the activity of the prosecutor's office is connected with the desire of Kostin himself to return these assets in order to replenish the USC treasury.

According to the Web, the ultimate beneficiaries of these structures are allegedly entrepreneurs Svetlana Kupressova, Yuri Mordvov, Boris Grinberg and Timur Abdurakhmanov.

Boris Greenberg is a longtime business partner of Alexei Vertyagin. Together they were the founders of Russian Industrialist LLC. Now Vertyagin is the general director of the Ruskhim management company, co-owned by ex-State Duma deputy Vitaly Yuzhilin.

So far, VTB has not seen positive results from USC management. Photo: https://im.kommersant.ru/Issues.photo/NEWS/2018/09/03/KMO_157941_00172_1_t218_161714.jpg

According to the Web, allegedly Yuzhilin is a longtime partner of the authoritative entrepreneur Ilya Traber, who, as recently found out, turns out to have nothing to do with organized crime, and even more so with the Spanish case of the so-called. "Russian mafia".

But "Antikvar" Traber has huge interests in St. Petersburg, and at one time participated in establishing control over OJSC "Sea Port of St. Petersburg". So it is he and the people associated with him who may be "in interest" for the purchase of "non-core" assets of USC. The main thing is that the prosecutor's office did not have to return them later.