Consolidation of Detsky Mir's assets in German Gref and Suleiman Kerimov could cause serious losses to the company's shareholders....
Detsky Mir PJSC announced its transformation into a completely private LLC. What does it mean, in fact, "chopping up" public and foreign contacts that bring the company a huge amount of financial resources. Now about 60% of the company's shares are in free float.
Against this background, the shares of Detsky Mir lost 30% of profitability in two days - November 7 and 8. And although the retailer justifies its decision with changes in Russian legislation (which presumably may further affect the company), in the context of sanctions restrictions, such measures look extremely strange, if not stupid.
The Moscow Post correspondent understood the background of the story.
Kerimov + Gref = LLC
In 2021, former top managers of the Polyus gold mining company Pavel Grachev and Mikhail Stiskin became the main owners of the fund, which owns Detsky Mir. The largest shareholder of Polyus, in turn, is the son of Senator Suleiman Kerimov - Said. Another part of Detsky Mir (about 22%) is owned by Sberbank.
By the way, Stiskin comes from the structure of Sberbank. It is logical to assume that the management of a monetary institution has a great influence on the company. And with Kerimov Sr., German Gref, apparently, has a very pleasant relationship - at least judging by how the first spoke about the second in an interview with the Financial Times. Then, by the way, Kerimov was detained in Nice on suspicion of money laundering and tax evasion.
Perhaps Gref also took part in this project: otherwise why would he zealously support Kerimov in such a situation? They seem to have been doing business together for a long time.
Accordingly, it is Gref and Kerimov who, most likely, need to be interested in the reasons for the decision to reorganize Detsky Mir PJSC into LLC.
State money for their own
Let's recall a similar story with Uralkali. In 2017, it was announced the reorganization of it into a private structure. In December 2013, Dmitry Mazepin, together with Mikhail Prokhorov, acquired Uralkali shares from the structures of Suleiman Kerimov and his partners. By 2017, the company had more than doubled in price. At the end of 2020, the total debt of Uralchem (the owner of Uralkali) and Uralkali reached almost $11 billion. And about half of this amount was given by Sberbank.
Compared to 2020, Uralkali's accounts payable increased 3.8 times. Фото: https://www.uralkali.com/upload/iblock/056/Uralkali_IFRS-FS_2021_rus.pdf
One gets the feeling that the head of the largest Russian bank gives money to "his own," albeit for unprofitable in fact, but probably very profitable projects for him. Only forgets that he is not his own means.
At the same time, German Gref himself said the other day that at the end of 10 months, Sberbank's net profit exceeded 50 billion rubles. This news has already been disseminated in the media. True, few drew attention to the fact that last year this figure was 20 times higher.
At the same time, Gref asks the Central Bank, represented by Elvira Nabiullina, to relieve banks of the obligation to have mandatory financial reserves. Everyone understands how risky it is, but Gref would free up colossal funds to make commercial transactions of this kind. The fact that this, in the end, can "bleed" the largest bank in the country, apparently, is not taken into account.
Dangers for Gref
And what kind of profit can we talk about when Gref's "left," if not, ran away, almost all the deputies. Starting from Lev Khasis, who, according to rumors, in America may try to save Gref's assets, and ending with the May outflow, when Alexandra Burik and Sergey Maltsev left their posts, as well as board member Natalya Alymova. In some circles, they have long been discussing the possible "departure" to the edges of the distant and Gref himself. But he will most likely leave only if he really feels the danger.
Not so long ago, the media learned that Sberbank sold its stake in the Croatian Fortenova Group to UAE investor Saif Alketby. Moreover, according to Fortenova, there is reason to doubt the legality of the transaction. At least because Fortenova itself found out about everything on the fact of what happened. As a maximum, the current legislation regarding sanctions involves obtaining the consent of the regulator to this transaction, which, according to Fortenova, was not. The case can smell like criminal cases and international investigations. The Moscow Post covered the story in detail.
Unprofitable Mamut
In this regard, Gref may now be trying to "get closer" even closer to the political "heavyweight" Kerimov, and, at the same time, get rid of objectionable ones that do not bring him profit and protection. The other day, a scandal thundered with the fact that the Hamleys trading network tried to expel Alexander Mamut on a formal basis (due to the fact that the price policy of Hamleys ceased to correspond to the level of this facility) from the Central Children's Store (CDM, formerly Detsky Mir), where they occupied the square.
Alexander Mamut. Photo: Ekaterina Kuzmina/RBC
CDM belongs to Hals-Development, which is associated with the interests of VTB head Andrei Kostin. The latter, like Gref, can cooperate with Kerimov structures.
If you look at the history of the relationship between Mamut, Sberbank and Kerimov, you can trace how relations between partners deteriorated. In 2013, Mamut and the former owner of PIK Group Sergey Gordeev acquired PIK shares from Kerimov's structures, and in 2017, the Cinema Park cinema chain.
But shortly after the last purchase, Trust Bank began demanding that Mamut return the debts that he had collected in the sanitized Otkritie. And "Cinema Park" also fell under the "hot hand."
Here Sberbank, although it is not characteristic of him, decided to apparently help the oligarch and in 2019 bought almost half of the Rambler Group from him, bringing it to the controlling one a little later.
But either Mamut was not satisfied with the terms of the transaction, or Sberbank was convinced of its disadvantage, but in the end they decided to slowly get rid of Mamut in a simple way - squeezing out the former Detsky Mir from the squares. It is possible that Mamut and Gref simply did not agree on the price.
So, in conditions of severe sanctions pressure, we have a reorganization of PJSC in LLC, which will allow us to consolidate all assets in the hands of the company's owners. At the same time, this decision carries losses for shareholders, who have already "sagged" in money by 30% due to the statement made. Apparently, only Gref and Kerimov will earn on this.
Читать на "The Moscow Post"