Burger with sanctions. Sale of McDonald’s in Russia began with a mysterious pledge
- Anastasia Stogney, Andrey Zakharov
- BBC
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Russia’s huge McDonald’s chain is about to go to Novokuznetsk businessman Alexander Govor, who primarily runs a couple of existing loss-making McDonald’s in Siberia. The BBC has announced that another participant has likely appeared in the deal: Sovcombank, which is under US blocking sanctions. This became known thanks to the confirmation of the pledge, which appeared on the website of the Federal Notary Chamber. After a request from the BBC, it was removed.
June 2, the Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS) allowed Alexander Govor’s company, the franchise managing part of the Siberian McDonald’s companies, to buy the company’s business in Russia.
The BBC’s impact on attention is that there is likely to be another party to the deal. This is Sovcombank, which supported the blocking of the US court, despite the growth of lobbyists. It is possible that the bank could structure the approach to the American McDonald’s or could be involved in its financing.
Buying McDonald’s with your own money I say, it would probably be beyond the power. Only the authorized value of McDonald’s in Russia since the second of June is 9.7 billion rubles. Over the past three years, the winnings of all Govor’s businesses, according to BBC estimates, are an advance payment of 76.6 billion rubles. Most of them worked in the red, and the net loss of all combined was 18.7 billion rubles.
What’s going on here Sovcombank
On the first of June, the Club-Hotel company and Sovcombank, judging by the data from SPARK, about the failure to fulfill the agreement on the pledge of property rights. Provides collateral “Club”, receives the bank.
Club Hotel is a small company registered in the Siberian village of Sosnovka through which Govor acquires McDonald’s. It was she who encouraged the excitement about buying to the FAS.
The most interesting thing in the published document is the subject of the pledge. It contains a “pledge of property rights under a loan financing agreement for McDonald’s LLC (since June 2 it has been renamed into PBO System”).
It is one of two legal entities that operate the chain in Russia and that trade as part of a deal with McDonalds. It is the main one: its revenue in 2021 is estimated at 75.2 billion rubles. OOO “DVRP” – 600 mln.
The deadline for fulfilling the obligations of the Govora company to the bank is December 31, 2022. Until that time, the “Club”, as stated in the document, must repay the debt to “Sovcombank”, it is not known what amounts are in question.
The main question is what is actually in the pledge.
CEO of Transparency International-R (an organization recognized in Russia as a foreign agent) Ilya Shumanov, BBC, who was advised to read about the pledge, which the participants consider possible, repeat the check due to sanctions risks. And the real consequences of the pledge can be the share of the McDonald’s business, and long-term lease agreements, and receivables, Shumanov believes.
The press service of Sovcombank told the BBC that the bank “does not provide financing for the purchase of McDonald’s.” The director of the Club Hotel, Elena Vnuchkova, told the BBC that she is not a commissioner on issues. The BBC gave her questions for Talk.
A representative of McDonald’s in Russia stated: “This is a technical error, we immediately contacted SPARK and FNP (Federal Chamber of Notaries) to collect it.”
However, on the morning of June 3, information about the pledge was both in SPARK and on the FNP website – from where SPARK, including with use, collects data. On the evening of June 3, the data on the pledge disappeared from the FNP website. Now only the history of changes is visible on it: on the first of June, the pledge message was uploaded, deleted. In SPARK, the data was still reflected.
It is clear that communication from McDonald’s and Sovcombank will be completely different. that the bank is structuring the great value of the entry,” says Shumanov.
Hearing money buys McDonald’s
A source familiar with the details claims that there are two different contracts. One, according to his definition, fixes the Club-Hotel’s obligations to Sovcombank. The other is at McDonald’s in front of the Club. And if the “Club” does not repay the debt to Sovcombank in order to obtain the right to claim against McDonald’s.
Shumanov admits that the deal can indeed be structured in such a way as to separate the sanctioned Sovcombank and McDonald’s, which are sold by the Americans.
In an interview with Forbes asked Alexander Govor about the version that he will be the registered owner of McDonald’s, and “real shares will be distributed among banks and shadow owners.” He answered without fail: they say, was the interviewer himself invited “to become a nominal owner in a business where 62,000 network employees stand behind you <...>if anything, all the demand is with you.”
It is very difficult to believe that Govor could buy a Russian McDonald’s with his own money. On June 2, the authorized capital of the main legal entity of the Russian company McDonald’s increased to 9.7 billion rubles, indicated in an extract from the Unified State Register of Legal Entities, which was studied by the BBC.
No profits, let alone net profits of other companies. They spoke without excessive figures.
The company, which he manages two dozen McDonald’s in Siberia, has never shown a profit, and its revenue is 2 billion rubles (hereinafter, the figures are based on the results of 2021). Real estate manager “Inruinvest” brought 82 million profits, 200 million rubles. “Siberian Collecting Center” shows the share of profit: 24.7 million rubles with a revenue of just under 40 million rubles.
Finally, in exceptional cases of Govor’s oil refining business (he owns 50% there), the largest profit reaches 23.2 billion rubles from ANGK. But the last three years of damage. In 2021, they amounted to 3.4 billion rubles. The entrepreneur’s wife also has several businesses, but all turnovers are in the millions, not billions of rubles.
Govor predictably did not answer Forbes’ question about the amount being closed, but instead unexpectedly praised Sergei Sobyanin, who understands that it is necessary to play restaurants as soon as possible.
According to Govor, at the end of May, that is, before the approval of the FAS, the Moscow mayor “invited him for a conversation” and reminded him: “the main thing is that people were at work.” “A business executive with a state approach, he thinks about people, we are similar in this,” the businessman remarks without undue modesty.
What is known about Alexander Govor
The businessman was born in Novokuznetsk and made a fortune in Kuzbass. Since 2000, the owner of shares in Yuzhkuzbassugol, where in 2007 there were two accidents in which 148 miners died. After the tragedy, Govor and other co-owners sold the business.
With the proceeds, the new owner of McDonald’s carries out oil refining production. The son of Govor is a member of the Kemerovo legislature as a deputy from United Russia and actively supports the war.
“Club-Hotel” was registered in 2012 in the village of Sosnovka, Kemerovo region in 2012 for Govor’s wife, Svetlana. On the thirty-first of May, the company rewrote it to Govor himself.
Apparently, she did not lead active activity – but in 2020 she managed to get alcohol. And in 2020 – 20 rubles from the Federal Tax Service, apparently as part of catering against the backdrop of thousands of covid.
Svetlana Govor is located in the same Sosnovka of the Okhota company. This is a telling name: the company owns the club-hotel “Royal Hunt”. Judging by the site, these are inexpensive Russian-style guest houses: stuffed bears, carpets, samovars.
Sovcombank and court
Sovcombank hit in the very first US sanctions package together with VTB, Otkritie and Novikombank. And in early May, the court against Sovcombank and its leadership in the UK.
At the same time, the rationale behind the inclusion of Sovcombank is still not obvious, unlike many of its neighbors on the sanctions list: they either have a large state share in the capital, or they serve the Russian defense sector.
After a few hours after being included in the sanctions list, lobbying the interests of Sovcombank in the United States, Mercury terminated its contract with the bank. This follows from the documents, which Mercury uploaded to the US FARA registry. In it, according to the Act on the Registration of Foreign Agents, the Act on the Registration of Foreign Agents, the reporting of companies with external beneficiaries is neat.
Sovcombank nuclear agreement with Mercury January 22, 2022, should from documents in FARA. Services are not cheap: $90 thousand per month, plus $5 thousand – a one-time bonus.
In early January, Mercury’s managing director converted him to US National Security Council (NSC) member Peter Harrell to “teach him about the reproducible voltage bank between US and Russian sensors.” In a letter preventionthat the fall of Sovcombank, even in the draft, worsens its reputation, so he wants to be sure that the bank will not be included in the real sanctions package.
Among the arguments, he mentions that Sovcombank is private, it employs thousands of people in the province, 73% of its employees are women, and it also cares about the environment.
In pursuit of this letter, the managing director of Sovcombank Andrey Osmos wrote Mercury with confirmation that Sovcombank has “only ten deposits of individuals that have reached $10 million each.” All of them are not under sanctions and are not responsible for power (not politically significant persons). But the letters did not have the desired result.
Mercury is a top lobbying firm with two dozen offices around the world. Her client list ranges from Uber and AirBnb to restrictions and former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych. It is Mercury pulled out business of Oleg Deripaska from under the American detained “for interference in the elections”, arguing that there are enough restrictions against Oleg Deripaska himself, her former co-owner.
On October 8, 2021, the Russian authorities entered the BBC correspondent Andrey Zakharov into the register of media outlets acting as a foreign agent. On January 17, 2022, this status was suspended by a court decision until the end of the process on the lawsuit filed by Andrei.