Evgeny Arbuzov, a partner at ART DE LEX, commented on the intention of Alfa-Bank to force Stroygazconsulting to bankruptcy
In April, Gazprombank and Ilya Shcherbovic’s investment fund, UCP, bought 100 percent of the shares of Stroygazkonsaltinga from Ruslan Baysarov and Ziyad Manasir, founders of the company. Once the largest contractor for Gazprom, the firm faced multibillion-dollar lawsuits from creditors. In May, the first deputy chairman of Sberbank, Maxim Poletaev, shared his impressions about the situation: “I met with the owner of Stroygazkonsalting the other day. We believe that the issue will be resolved positively. Gazprom will take control of the company; contracts, respectively, will be executed” (quoted from Interfax). Sberbank even agreed to restructure the debt of Stroygazkonsalting.
There were negotiations on a settlement with Alfa-Bank, which filed lawsuits for RUB 5.7 billion against the company. Nevertheless, negotiations failed. On Friday, Alfa-Bank announced its intention to recognize Stroygazconsulting and its subsidiary, SGK-Freeway, as bankrupt. Details about it appeared in the Unified federal register of information about the facts of legal entities’ activities.
According to its representative, Alfa-Bank repeatedly warned the borrowers, guarantors, and new owners of Stroygazkonsalting about its intention to file a case for bankruptcy if there was no progress in negotiations about the settlement of arrears. He added that, at the moment, unfortunately, the owners of Stroygazkonsalting have not submitted a clear action plan to withdraw the companies from their current financial positions. A representative of Stroygazkonsalting refused to comment on the situation.
The bank is ready to take more stringent actions. The director of Small Letters, Vitaly Kryukov, stated that the situation should motivate Stroygazconsulting to solve its problems in the pretrial period in order to improve its situation and better its negotiating position with Alfa-Bank. Having bought the company, Gazprombank had planned on settling its relations with creditors. Representatives of the bank and the fund have not responded to requests of Vedomosti for comments.
Besides Alfa-Bank, the Bank of Moscow, part of the VTB Group, is trying to collect about RUB 29 billion from Stroygazkonsalting in court. A representative of the VTB Group refused to make any comments about the matter. Earlier, the Moscow Arbitration Court upheld the claims of the bank for RUB 24 billion. The Credit Bank of Moscow requires that the contractor return RUB 500 million, and Openbank demands RUB 1 billion. Their representatives did not respond to requests for comments.
After the publication of its intent, Alfa-Bank can declare Stroygazkonsalting bankrupt in 15 days. The publication of the intention to force Stroygazkonsalting into bankruptcy does not mean that Alfa-Bank must submit the application in court, according to Evgeny Arbuzov, a partner in the ART DE LEX law firm. He noted that it is very difficult to collect debts from construction companies, since, in general, they do not have enough assets to cover all the claims of their creditors. Construction companies are highly dependent on the situation of their construction orders as well as on the timely fulfilment of their customers’ obligations, Arbuzov explained.
When relations between Manasira and Gazprom worsened, the number of orders from the monopoly decreased dramatically. The contractor tried to diversify its portfolio of orders, but it was not very successful. According to Interfax, consolidated revenues of Stroygazkonsalting in 2014 decreased 1.9 times and amounted to RUB 140 billion.
Last week, Stroygazconsulting announced an agreement with Crocus International for RUB 49 billion for the construction of the first section of the Central Ring Road. Currently, Gazprom is reducing its investment program. The monopoly is building the Power of Siberia pipeline, but it has suspended its work on the Southern Gas Corridor and has delayed the construction of the Turkish Stream. Its dwindling financial resources are forcing the gas monopoly to reduce its number of contractors, according to the director of East European Gas Analysis, Mikhail Korchemkin. However, in June, the deputy transport minister, Viktor Olersky, said that Stroygazconsulting resumed the execution of a RUB 42 billion contract on the Murmansk transport hub. Stroygazconsulting is ready to fight for the right to build the second section of the Force of Siberia, a contract that totals RUB 16.6 billion.
