The events that have been unfolding at lightning speed in recent months around the Ulyanovskenergo energy sales company are reminiscent of the plot of the unforgettable novel by Ilf and Petrov "12 Chairs". Only if the heroes of the book were chasing around the country in search of hidden diamonds, then the people who came to the city on the Volga do not hide their desire to get Ulyanovskenergo free of charge in order to then get close to more tasty municipal assets.
How to "buy" someone else's absolutely free
At the end of 2020, a little-known Moscow firm unexpectedly showed interest in Ulyanovskenergo. The owners of the Ulyanovsk company received an offer to sell the asset. Given the difficult situation in the country's energy sales market and the low marginality of this type of business, the offer received from Muscovites really looked interesting.
The main condition of the deal, in addition to a good price, was the transfer of 44% of Ulyanovskenergo shares to the future buyer for six months. This condition was explained by the desire of new potential owners to study the business in more detail. As a result of the agreement reached, OOO "Titul" suddenly became the happy owner of the shares without any payment. On behalf of this company, without a power of attorney or other official legal conventions, Igor Soglaev arrived at Ulyanovskenergo at the beginning of this year (pictured).
On January 15, 2021, the company changed its CEO - a citizen of Belarus Guram Kochiev was appointed, who was called the creature of the new owner and personally Mr. Soglaev. Literally in a few days, a personnel "cleansing" was carried out in Ulyanovskenergo, and many top managers lost their posts. To replace them, a landing force of people close and trusted to Igor Soglaev landed at the enterprise, who, according to our source in the company, immediately began to actively study financial documents. The "guests" showed particular attention to the receivables of the power industry, which is estimated at 3 billion rubles. The staff was told about the upcoming cost optimization and possible massive staff reductions. At the same time, various and incomprehensible departments and departments began to be created in the structure of the enterprise, headed by newly arrived people again. And the wage fund increased by 30%.
According to Ulyanovskenergo employees, some of the newly minted bosses did not even have an elementary idea of how the energy sales business works and how to manage it.
However, Igor Soglaev emphasizes that during the audit, multiple excesses of authority were revealed by the company's management in the person of General Director Yury Grigoryevich Osipenko under the auspices of Sergey Alekseevich Shishov, who, through work with shell companies, withdrew more than 300 million rubles from Ulyanovskenergo PJSC.
Sergey Alekseevich Shishov (pictured). Works in a senior position with the main shareholder Ulyanovskenergo.
At the same time, information began to be actively disseminated in Ulyanovsk Internet publications and on local portals that the new team of managers allegedly revealed major financial violations in Ulyanovskenergo. In the media, Igor Soglaev's entourage launched information that negotiations were underway to acquire shares, the transaction itself must go through the approval procedure with the FAS. Although the antimonopoly department stated that they did not receive any documents on the sale and purchase from anyone.
In one of his interviews, Mr. Soglaev announced that the budget owes billions of dollars to Ulyanovskenergo, noting that "various options for settling and searching for compromise solutions that will not lead to serious consequences" are being offered. Among the options, according to him, is "partial write-off and restructuring of the debt, including at the expense of some municipal assets." (Attention! We ask you to pay special attention to these words - Author's note).
Also, Igor Soglaev defiantly emphasized that he had established "good contact with the administration" and planned a meeting with Governor Sergei Morozov. According to unconfirmed reports, such a behind-the-scenes conversation with the head of the region really took place, however, it is not known for certain how it ended. Officially, the new "top managers" of the company only managed to get a protocol meeting with the chairman of the regional government Alexander Smekalin and the Minister of Energy, Housing and Communal Services and the Urban Environment Alexander Cherepan. On it, Guram Kochiev immediately proposed to formalize the transfer of debts of municipal enterprises to the region. Naturally, there was no positive response to this from the officials.
Meanwhile, events in the company itself suddenly took a completely different turn. The board of directors of Ulyanovskenergo, by its unanimous decision, removed Guram Kochiev from the director's chair and terminated the contract with him. Ole became the new CEO of Ulyanovskenergo on February 20 Mr. Ismailov, director of the enterprise, which is part of the owner. Thus, all the alien people of Mr. Soglaev and he himself were removed from control over the energy company. In other words, it was clearly shown to the "guests" that the real owners of Ulyanovskenergo did not intend to continue "cooperation".
After that, Igor Soglaev decided to take the situation to the public plane, showing it as an intra-corporate conflict. In an interview with Samara Review, he said that he suspected the former management of the enterprise of abuse of authority: “We conveyed all the information received to the representatives of the sellers. They could not believe it. We agreed to attract foreign specialists to the enterprise who would conduct their own audit. But the board of directors of Ulyanovskenergo, which included the former team of company managers, decided to terminate Kochiev's powers ahead of schedule. In connection with multiple thefts, criminal cases have been initiated at PJSC Ulyanovskenergo, operational and investigative measures are being carried out. The leaders of PJSC Ulyanovskenergo are being interrogated. Will the representatives of the shareholders of Ulyanovskenergo PJSC, including Sergey Alekseevich Shishov, be held liable, time will tell.
In the photo - Sergey Shishov, representative of the shareholders of Ulyanovskenergo PJSC
Telling reporters about the "violations and abuses" of past managers, Mr. Soglaev kept silent about his "pranks": an expensive iPhone of the latest model bought at his request at the expense of Ulyanovskenergo and a demand to pay for his visits from Moscow to Ulyanovsk. However, all this can really be considered a "trifle" in comparison with the fact that Igor Soglaev took a large amount of money in cash from the cash desk of Ulyanovskenergo. But more on that below.
What prompted the current owners of "Ulyanovskenergo" to abandon the seemingly lucrative deal? The answer to this main question lies in the scheme that Mr. Soglaev and the people behind him proposed to carry out. Namely - to get the company absolutely free of charge. An attractive factor for the "investors" who came to Ulyanovskenergo was the company's huge accounts receivable. In order to better understand the true desires of these people, we suggest that you take a closer look at the company that intends to become the owner of Ulyanovskenergo.
"Title" secret
LLC "Titul" has been leading the history since 2013. This unremarkable Moscow office with an average payroll of 5 people (data for 2019) and an authorized capital of 10 thousand rubles indicates its main activity in the field of law. Over the eight years of its existence, "Titul" managed to change the founders six times and directors eight times. The last owners of the company on the eve of the New Year holidays (December 28, 2020) were 25-year-old citizen of Ukraine Oleg Urbansky and the Panamanian offshore company Crimson ARC INC. Title is run by Russian Polina Gurlenova, who previously served on the board of directors of Modny Continent JSC (better known as INCITY clothing and underwear seller).
Oleg Urbansky, until recently, was also among the founders of M-Shipping LLC. This company "lit up" in 2020 in the high-profile bankruptcy case of the Murmansk Shipping Company. "M-Shipping", which has no credit history, but with its own fixed debt on taxes and fees, quite unexpectedly bought out more than five billion indebtedness of the Murmansk Shipping Company from the Savings Bank of Russia. According to experts, this allowed M-Shipping, now already in the rank of a creditor, to move other creditors and clean up those assets of the shipping company that were considered the most interesting and liquid.
How a young citizen of Ukraine Oleg Urbansky managed to carry out such a multi-way operation that even the main bank of Russia was not able to refuse his proposals remains a mystery. An analysis of the family ties of firms in which the name of Urbansky "lit up" will help to unravel it.
A detailed analysis of LLC "Titul", LLC "M-Shipping", LLC "Pervomayskoye-71" and many, many more companies (the list is more than three dozen, up to public organizations and editorial offices of magazines), the relationship of current and past founders, final owners, as well as all legal entities and individuals, lead us to another native of Ukraine, but already better known in wide circles - Volodymyr Palikhata (pictured).
He is known and remembered in Ulyanovsk
In 2004, the Kontaktor plant, the largest manufacturer of electromechanical switches, was in a difficult financial situation. The former director of the plant, Valentin Malafeev, was arrested on false charges, and his shares were stolen. Then "Kontaktor" became part of the concern, whose president was Vladimir Palikhata, and a little later it was very successfully resold to the French group Legrand.
Igor Soglaev acted as the shadow of Mr. Palikhata this time in Ulyanovsk.
... "poor" salesman of billions of kilowatts, nitrogen and crab
Igor Soglaev, having declared "titular" rights to property in Ulyanovskenergo and throwing in through the media formation about the accumulated baggage of business experience, "shamefully" kept silent about one fresh fact from his biography - about his own bankruptcy.
By a decision of December 3, 2020, the Arbitration Court of the City of Moscow (case No. A40-24731 / 20-185-45 "F") Soglaev Igor Vladislavovich was declared bankrupt, the sale of a citizen's property was introduced, Victoria Andreeva was approved as its financial manager. It turned out that Mr. Soglaev owed his creditors more than 400 million rubles. After analyzing the case, the financial manager reported information about the presence of signs of deliberate bankruptcy of a citizen Soglaeva AND.The.
Among the creditors of the debtor are Alfa-Bank JSC (debt claim in the amount of 4 million 651 thousand 12 rubles 50 kopecks of the main debt, 31 thousand 996 rubles 67 kopecks percent), Tisdale United S.A. (our "hero" owes them 190 million 349 thousand 670 rubles 65 kopecks). Slightly less - 148 million 534 thousand 992 rubles 68 kopecks, Igor Soglaev must pay the company Icestone Invest Ltd. by a court decision.
The man who set out to lead the Ulyanovsk power industry into a brighter future by investing billions of rubles in it turned out to be indebted to a number of creditors. Among them - Gurinov Vadim Aleksandrovich (debt - 14 million 348 thousand 925 rubles, as well as 3 million 239 thousand 236 rubles 66 kopecks of percent, plus 60 thousand rubles of expenses for the payment of state duty and 734 thousand 664 rubles 96 kopecks of a penalty ), Spiridonov Roman Vladimirovich (the "potential power engineer" owed him 14 million 336 thousand 662 rubles 50 kopecks).
Mr. Soglaev's creditors also turned out to be Darby Investments Services Inc. (debt of 6 mln N. 971 thousand 140 rubles, plus 354 thousand 319 rubles 34 kopecks of interest for the use of the loan, as well as penalties in the amount of 94 thousand 498 rubles 68 kopecks) and Moneron LLC (40 million 343 thousand rubles). 715 rubles 85 kopecks).
"Investor of the Ulyanovsk Energy" owed, in addition to all this, even his ex-wife - Soglaeva Tatyana Stanislavovna - more than 120 thousand US dollars.
A year ago, in the spring of 2020, Igor Soglaev and his current wife Elena tried to enter the crab business in partnership with Ksenia Sobchak. The desire to buy shares in two LLCs - Kuril Universal Complex (KUK) and Moneron - was not successful. The court seized the assets of both companies, after which Sobchak's mother, Senator Lyudmila Narusova, even appealed to the Supreme Court. Later, the noise "around the crab" died out, and Mr. Soglaev temporarily disappeared into oblivion. Let us point out one small fact: Soglaev wanted to acquire Moneron LLC, to which, judging by court documents, he owed more than 40 million rubles. Isn't it strange?..
By the way, Mr. Soglaev has already undertaken a trip for crab. This happened during a period when Igor Vladislavovich worked for a very short time (just over two months) as a member of the board of A1 company. Then Soglaev offered the owners of A1 to buy a crab business. However, the deal was not interested, and Mr. Soglaev hastily resigned without explanation. Note that after that he owed Alfa-Bank (part of the A1 group) millions of rubles. By the way, the authors of the Boilernaya telegram channel, who studied Soglaev's business contacts, were not surprised by anything, calling him "a man with the reputation of a rogue and a playful swindler."
The length of service of Igor Soglaev also turned out to be short-lived as an adviser to the International Projects Department of Rosneft for a little over a year. Soglaev himself at the same time positioned himself as vice president of Rosneft. The official version of the dismissal sounded trite - of their own free will. However, people closely familiar with the situation claim that the reason for leaving was a dark story with the sale of the SANORS holding (it united SamaraOrgsintez CJSC, Neftekhimiya CJSC and Novokuibyshev Petrochemical Company CJSC), which was previously managed by Soglaev. He managed to convince the leadership of Rosneft to acquire SANORS as the property of the state-owned company. The amount of the deal was estimated, according to Kommersant, at one billion US dollars. But after the purchase, it turned out that Soglaev slipped an illiquid asset to Rosneft - the enterprises of the SANORS holding in reality turned out to be empty, representing only hangars with faulty equipment.
Having "collaborated" with the sharks of big business, Igor Soglaev began to fly with a lower rank and reached the regional level. In January 2021, at Ulyanovskenergo, having not even worked for one month, he did not disdain to take 4 million rubles in cash in advance at the cash desk of the energy sales company. Whether his boss Palikhata knows about this is unknown. But if the financial manager of the bankrupt Soglaev finds out about this, then this time the case may turn into criminal prosecution for him. At present, the financial manager Victoria Andreeva initiated the procedure for the sale of the property of the debtor Soglaev. If the fact is established that this gentleman "received" Ulyanovskenergo shares through the "Title", they will also be included in the bankruptcy estate.
A chance for Igor Soglaev to "get away" from creditors and from his financial manager is not to receive money from initially personally. Apparently, for these pragmatic purposes, trusted people were invited to Ulyanovskenergo. The newly arrived "managers", who are very far from energy but very close to finances, were given salaries that no one in the Ulyanovsk company had previously received and that would amaze even the inhabitants of the capital. To these amounts, it is worth adding separately premiums and compensations for paying for expensive rental housing. As a result of such simple manipulations, the salary fund of Ulyanovskenergo grew by a third with the arrival of the "investor" Soglaev. Where and in whose pocket the money "left" - guess for yourself.
By the way, the monthly monetary reward appointed by Mr. Soglaev to himself at Ulyanovskenergo is commensurate today in size with the level of the head of a large Russian corporation.
Analyzing what is happening, we do not exclude that in the near future another person will appear in the register of creditors of the bankrupt Igor Soglaev - Ulyanovskenergo. Indeed, for our hero, it is a common thing when he remains indebted to everyone: whether it be to a former employer or former partners.
Why do we need a sale that cannot be sold?
Mr. Soglaev officially explained his desire to gain control over Ulyanovskenergo with plans to transform the Ulyanovsk enterprise into "a large company operating on the scale of the entire Volga region", investing in it from three and a half to five billion rubles. The style of presentation is extremely reminiscent of Ostap Bender's incendiary public speech about New Vasyuki in the immortal work of Ilf and Petrov.
Without focusing on the fact that Igor Soglaev himself has already been officially declared bankrupt, the question arises: at what expense was this gentleman going to "raise the Ulyanovsk energy industry"? It cannot be discounted that such a shark of business, which he presents himself everywhere, does not understand - the energy sales business today is recognized as illiquid, the shares of sales companies are considered securities of the 2-3 echelon of the market. Experts call legislative restrictions and difficult market conditions an additional risk factor.
"Ulyanovskenergo" has the official status of a guarantee supplier of electricity in the region. Accordingly, the company works at fixed rates and has only a sales allowance approved by the state. Non-payments for supplied electricity continue to be a scourge. At the same time, the current legislation prohibits energy companies from introducing restrictive measures against a number of "problem" consumers (as a rule, these are budgetary institutions, housing and communal services, water and heat supply organizations, etc.). The period of rolling blackouts of the Anatoly Chubais era is a thing of the past.
The experts we interviewed unanimously agreed that the sale of a power supply company in the realities of today is an unrealizable dream of their owners. For entering this business today is akin to guaranteed bankruptcy. Especially in the Ulyanovsk region, where there is an annual drop in demand for electricity from industrial enterprises, and where the number of subscribers of the energy sales company is declining, and the number of non-payers is growing.
Analysts say that there can be only one interest in energy sales companies, including Ulyanovskenergo - the company's accounts receivable. Today, the Ulyanovsk company is estimated at more than 3 billion rubles. This amount was accumulated by Ulyanovskenergo consumers for the supplied electricity. In the structure of this amount, the lion's share is occupied by debts of budgetary municipal enterprises. Among them, the most tasty are MUP "Ulyanovskvodokanal", MUP "City Teploservis" and MUP "UlGES", "Corporation for the Development of the Communal Complex", etc.
Mr. Soglaev and the people behind him, who have so far claimed dubious rights to own Ulyanovskenergo, do not hide the fact that they consider the settlement of the issue of budget debts to be the main task. It is not difficult to guess how - by obtaining full control over municipal enterprises that provide the city and region with water, heat and light.
And the arrival of these "investors" on Ulyanovsk land may soon be marked by a redistribution of the state (for the time being!) communal market. The result of such "investments" is visible to the naked eye - the region and its inhabitants can suddenly not only plunge into darkness, but also lose life-supporting enterprises once and for all.
P.S.
Mr. Soglaev, having received a rebuff from the owners of Ulyanovskenergo, decided to go for broke: he initiated a statement to law enforcement agencies regarding the legality of removing his protege Guram Kochiev from the company's management.
At the same time, Titul LLC is convening an extraordinary meeting of Ulyanovskenergo shareholders on May 11, at which it plans to vote with unpaid foreign shares in order to introduce its proxies to the board of directors of the company, and then its general director. Now people from "Titul" are trying in every possible way to convince other minority shareholders of "Ulyanovskenergo" to transfer their shares to them, in order to then put the right people in the company's management.
Source: www.rucriminal.info
