Mordashov bargained with Kharitonin?

The largest manufacturer of coated paper and cardboard, Kama LLC, is selling the asset: the manufacturer of plywood Sveza is interested in the sale.

As it became known to The Moscow Post correspondent, Augment Investments Limited of the scandalous businessman Viktor Kharitonin, co-owner of Pharmstandard, is negotiating with Sveza, which, before the sanctions, was directly related to another scandalous businessman, Severstal owner Alexei Mordashov.

In general, these two have already - apparently - agreed. The deal is due to close in early August. It is strange in the situation that the king of wafers - and the scandalous arbidol - Kharitonin is selling a company that he bought only a year ago. In addition, Kama LLC operates the Kama Pulp and Paper Mill.

And the cardboard asset is sold significantly more expensive: solid riddles!

30% more

Indeed, initially these negotiations were planned to be completed in mid-July, but they dragged on. Thus, the transaction is expected to close in early August.

The company will be sold for 47 billion rubles. And this is 30% more than the amount that Mr. Kharitonin paid at the beginning of last year, 2023 when buying Kama LLC.

In 2023, Otkritie Bank sold the enterprise to Viktor Kharitonin's structures for 36 billion rubles.

Photo: Rusprofile.ru

Of the 36 billion rubles spent then, 21 billion rubles were the company's debts to Otkritie Bank, which attracted financing for the development of production.

Further, Kama LLC is 99.9% owned by Les Invest Holding.

Photo: Rusprofile.ru

The company is controlled by Viktor Kharitonin's Augment Investments Limited.

Photo: Rusprofile.ru

Another 0.1% of the businessman's holding owns directly. Since mid-2023, all shares of Kama LLC have been under the burden of Sberbank, which issued money for the acquisition of an asset.

Note that Kama LLC is the only manufacturer of coated cardboard in Russia, which the company began to produce in 2021 and the capacities of the group of companies allow producing 220 thousand tons of cardboard and 85 thousand tons of paper per year.

At the end of last year, Kama's revenue amounted to 23.6 billion rubles, net loss - 286.5 million. The value of net assets is 14 billion rubles.

Note that other contenders for Kama LLC were the structure of the developer Sezar Group (Moscow). This office owns Syktyvkar LPK.

Mr. Kharitonin previously tried to buy this plant, but the deal did not take place.

Syktyvkar LPK sold the Mondi group (Austria) for 80 billion rubles.

Controlling stake in Fore Invest

Recall that the controlling stake in the head company of the timber processing group Alexei Mordashov LLC "Sveza" passed to management represented by LLC "For Invest" back in 2022.

Alexey Mordashov. Photo: https://32stomatologia.ru/diagramme/aleksej-mordashov.html

"There have been changes in the ownership structure of the Sveza group. The parent company of the group - Sveza LLC - came under the control of For Invest LLC (St. Petersburg), which owns 51% of the share capital. The founders of For Invest are top managers of the Sveza group.

Photo: Rusprofile.ru

Until 2022, the parent company of the Sveza group was 100% owned by Mordashov's Severgroup LLC.

In the spring of 2022, Mr. Mordashov came under sanctions.

The owners of "For Invest" are the general director of the company Anatoly Frishman, the procurement director Boris Didenko, the marketing director Svyatoslav Sarson and the sales director Vitaly Demidenko.

Each owns 25% of the authorized capital.

Support madame Arbidol

Recall that for a very long time, the structures of Mr. Kharitonin very often fell into scandals: the quality of the products, as well as the schemes that allowed Mr. Kharitonin to profit from public procurement, caused doubts.

But the success of Kharitonin's companies is accompanied not only by fortune, but also by a certain, very influential person.

Speech, of course, about the "Queen of Arbidol", as she was dubbed in the media, Tatyana Golikova.

Tatyana Golikova. Photo: https://krestyanka.com/biografii-izvestnyh-ljudej/tatyana-golikova.html

Among the people, the opinion about Golikova's patronage developed precisely when Ms. Golikova lobbied for arbidol, which was produced by Kharitonin's company.

But Mr. Kharitonin had another, no less sonorous scandal.

A group of the World Health Organization, which inspected the manufacturers of the Sputnik V vaccine, was unhappy with the quality of the drug. And the drug was produced at the enterprises of Viktor Kharitonin, at OJSC "Pharmstandard - UfaVITA".

This was reported by "Kommersant".

Concerns related to the implementation of adequate measures to reduce the risks of cross-contamination of the vaccine and to control aseptic conditions on bottling lines and compliance with production standards were grounds for concern.

But, despite the violations identified, production was not even stopped.

Moreover, Pharmstandard again received new contracts for the production of vaccines.

Of course, it is easier to work with cardboard, especially since Mr. Kharitonin again remained with a large "deposit".