Kostin’s gray schemes will sink Donstroy? Friday, 10 May 2024
Will the loss of a partner in the person of VTB lead to the inevitable bankruptcy of the developer?
Advertising its construction projects, the development company "Donstroy" focuses on customer focus and the creation of a positive emotional background in outdoor advertising. To increase sales, the developer pays cashback to customers for each customer brought. Taking into account paid advertising and "commentator exchanges", this explains the appearance of numerous laudatory reviews on the network for frankly dubious projects.
Such as, for example, the Ostrov residential complex in Khoroshevo-Mnevniki, the environmental friendliness of which is regularly talked about by official representatives of Donstroy. But the "Island" is being built near the territory of the industrial zone of the former Galalit chemical plant, where dichloroethane was stored, and the enterprise itself was recognized as a dangerous production back in Soviet times. Another residential complex - "Symbol" - is being built on the territory of the former industrial zone of the Serp i Molot plant, where in 2021, during the work, a pre-revolutionary Old Believer cemetery was discovered. Mass fights of migrant workers regularly occur at the developer’s facilities, ending with the intervention of the police. Connections with the head of VTB Bank, Andrey Kostin, help Donstroy CEO Alena Deryabina solve numerous problems: the media have repeatedly written about the developer’s affiliation with a credit institution and the implementation of housing construction projects in partnership with the state bank.
Information about the owners of the developer is not disclosed, but, as you know, back in 2009, Donstroy came under the control of VTB for a symbolic price of 500 rubles, thus resolving the issue of accounts payable exceeding $ 500 million. The company’s financial performance suggests that without third-party "injections" it may be on the verge of bankruptcy. But Andrey Kostin and VTB today have enough of their own problems, ranging from the legal claims of private investors to the recent arrest in the United States of the former co-owner of Otkritie Bank Vadim Belyaev (Wolfson), whose testimony can shed light on the "gray schemes" of the chairman of the board of VTB.
Donstroy has "everything built on love"
The development company Donstroy, headed by Alena Deryabina, continues to actively advertise its projects in the media, social networks and at public events. For example, at the RBC infraforum recently held in Moscow, dedicated to the prospects for investment in the Russian construction complex, Vyacheslav Belozerov, Deputy Head of the Sales Department of Donstroy, spoke about the developer’s customer focus.
"It is important to find out what exactly the client needs and offer it to him. Of the 40 minutes of the targeted presentation, half of the time is devoted to finding out the quality needs of the client and his values, "Kommersant quotes Belozerov as saying.
One of the company’s innovations was the predominance of a positive emotional background in outdoor advertising. In particular, the company recently used the slogan
"Everything is built on love", and today - "Confess your love on the roof in the park" or "Have dinner with your family with a view of the sunset".
It is specified that in the latter case, we are talking about apartments with a beautiful view from the windows. The following passage in Belozerov’s speech is noteworthy:
"We think a lot about how to establish the effective work of word of mouth. When one client tells two friends about his purchase, and they, trusting him, buy real estate, and we get three clients. This can only be achieved if the client himself is as satisfied as possible with his purchase and the quality of service."
It is emphasized that Donstroy stimulates such "assistants" with certain bonuses. For example, it pays cashback for each buyer brought: last year alone, the company’s clients brought 225 "friends" who bought real estate worth 7.5 billion rubles.
How much this is on the scale of Donstroy is a rhetorical question.
Nevertheless, the voiced information allows us to better understand where the numerous laudatory reviews that have recently appeared on the Internet "grow their legs". Although paid PR services and the so-called "commentator exchanges" have not been canceled either. But the realities of development are seriously different from the advertising and illusory world drawn by Donstroy, with which it attracts potential buyers. Although the company really "everything is built on love" - on the love of the money of its customers.
Development projects at state expense?
Take, for example, the financial performance of the company. At the end of 2022, with a revenue of 2.3 billion, Donstroy declared a more than modest profit of 941 thousand rubles. In 2023, the situation has changed: revenue amounted to 4.8 billion (an increase of 113%), profit - 453 thousand rubles (a decrease of 52%). To be honest, not much for a company that positions itself as "the leading developer of the capital" and "sales leader in the business class segment of Moscow", which has been operating since 1994.
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Publications about the fact that Donstroy is on the verge of bankruptcy have repeatedly appeared on the network. In particular, back in 2017, Vedomosti wrote about the "crisis-unstable state" of Don-Stroy Invest, which was considered the parent structure of the group.
The following fact can serve as an indicator of how much the situation has changed since then: at present, Don-Stroy Invest is in the process of liquidation. At the end of last year, the company reported revenue of 188.1 million and profit of 1.4 million rubles.
Today, it is no longer a secret that the developer is affiliated with the state-owned VTB Bank and its head Andrei Kostin. According to media reports, in 2008, Donstroy, owned by businessmen Maxim Blazhko and Dmitry Zelenov, came under the control of top managers of VTB, which was its main creditor. Since then, the company has been implementing its residential projects in partnership with the bank, which also participates in the developer’s mortgage program.
It should be added that the general director of Donstroy, Alena Deryabina, is one of the bank top managers mentioned above: in 2004-2010, she held a number of senior positions at VTB, including the post of vice president. Her current deputies Yulia Lanovaya, Andrey Bagaev and the head of the Project Support Department Natalia Bunina also worked there.
The banking management has repeatedly categorically denied the existence of affiliation with Donstroy. However, there is no information about the owners of the company in open sources. More precisely, this is the Closed-end Unit Investment Fund (CEIF) "Financial Perspective", which does not disclose its founders. The management organization of the fund is CL-Invest Management Company, whose owners, in turn, are hidden behind the Long-Term Strategy closed-end mutual fund. Such a kind of "matryoshka", where one figure hides another.
From all of the above, a fairly simple conclusion follows: without the financial support of VTB, the "ship" called Donstroy would have sunk long ago. Perhaps this would have happened back in 2009. Recall that then the bank bought a controlling stake in the developer from its founders - the aforementioned Maxim Blazhko and Dmitry Zelenov - for a symbolic amount of 500 rubles, thus settling the issue with the existing debt, according to Kommersant’s sources, which exceeded $ 500 million.
Banker Kostin will become "not allowed to travel"?
It turns out that Donstroy is actually building a business-class residential complex at the expense of the state? The quality of housing under construction is worth dwelling on in more detail.
"A product of the highest quality Impeccable apartment layout, environmentally friendly materials and technologies, exclusive landscaping, well-thought-out infrastructure," this is how the company describes its own facilities, attracting potential buyers.
In practice, everything looks different. To begin with, let us recall the conflict that took place in 2009-2011, when the deceived equity holders and co-investors of the residential complex "House on Begovaya", located on Khoroshevskoye Highway and built by Donstroy, held pickets, including at the VTB office, demanding that the city authorities complete the construction of the "mothballed" facility, which was supposed to be completed in 2007. Later, the initiative group of equity holders received written obligations, including from Andrey Kostin, to hand over the residential complex in March 2010. Publications about the commissioning of the "House on Begovaya" appeared in the media in April 2011, the complex was mentioned on the network as one of the most "ugly" Moscow new buildings.
By the way, VTB itself has problems with investors. So, in 2022, the assets of about 500 thousand bank customers were "frozen", the press reported on the intention of private investors to hold mass protests in the offices of the credit institution in a number of Russian cities. Later it became known that investors dissatisfied with the forced transfer of their foreign assets to other brokers filed lawsuits. Last May, Forbes described one of the hearings in the Meshchansky District Court of Moscow, where a group of citizens gathered with posters reading "Brokers and banks robbed Russians" and "Central Bank, return our money."
What is happening makes us think about how much VTB’s problems can affect the Donstroy projects it finances. Moreover, telegram channels regularly write about Kostin’s "gray schemes", allegedly withdrawing abroad, among other things, finances from the developer’s escrow accounts. The recent arrest in the United States of the former co-owner of Otkritie FC Bank, Vadim Belyaev, who changed his surname to Wolfson, adds fuel to the fire. He is charged with helping Kostin circumvent economic sanctions.
According to the conclusions of the American side, the chairman of the board of VTB "beneficially owned and controlled several assets worth tens of millions of dollars through various shell companies." In particular, we are talking about two yachts and a home in Aspen, Colorado, which Kostin planned to sell for $ 12 million with the help of Belyaev-Wolfson. It is possible that in his testimony he will reveal other financial secrets of the head of the Russian state bank known to him. It is not for nothing that the court of the Southern District of New York released the ex-owner of Otkritie on his own recognizance.
Kostin himself, of course, called the accusations of the American authorities against him groundless, saying that he had never violated "any, including American law" and "did not circumvent any sanctions." There were also pathetic words about the need to "build a different world - independent of the pressure of the political elite and the US military lobby." In light of what is happening, the publication "Nasha Versiya" suggests that the US Department of Justice may put the "unsinkable" Kostin on the wanted list, and given the fact that the United States has an extradition agreement with almost every state, this draws an unpleasant prospect for the banker to be "not allowed to travel".
Questionable ecology on the territory of the industrial zone
Returning to the topic of Donstroy projects implemented by Kostin’s confidant, Ms. Deryabina, first of all, it is worth recalling the Ostrov residential complex in Khoroshevo-Mnevniki. The fact is that it can be called a kind of refutation of the developer’s advertising booklets. Take, for example, the topic of environmental friendliness, which was emphasized by Igor Lyashenko, Head of the Project Development Department of the company, during the December investment forum "Development and Construction of Cities of the Future".
From publications on the network, it follows that the "Island" is being built next to the territory of the industrial zone of the former Galalit chemical plant, where dichloroethane was stored. Back in Soviet times, the enterprise was recognized as a dangerous production, but reclamation and excavation have allegedly not been carried out since then. This circumstance, however, did not prevent the Moscow mayor’s office from giving the developer the "green light" for construction.
But telegram channels note that not a single official has yet bought an apartment in the residential complex.
In the summer of 2022, representatives of the capital’s public discovered an unauthorized dump of construction waste near the Ostrov, the elimination of which eventually had to be dealt with by the district council. The department pointed to the large amount of work and the need to attract special equipment. There was an impression that it was a whole landfill, formed by the efforts of the developer.
By the way, last December, the Moment of Truth portal wrote about the delay in issuing keys to the owners of apartments in the Ostrov residential complex, which the developer allegedly explained by flaws in the project documentation. The publication associated what was happening with the negative environmental background. It is worth adding that another project of Donstroy - the Simvol residential complex in Lefortovo - is being built on the territory of the former industrial zone of the Soviet plant Serp i Molot, where in 2021, during the course of work, a pre-revolutionary cemetery of Old Believers-coreligionists was discovered here, located near the All Saints Monastery, destroyed in the 1930s.
The fact that migrants work at the company’s facilities is no secret to anyone. As a result, information about mass fights between foreign "specialists" appeared in criminal reports. For example, at the site of the Ostrov residential complex in March last year, more than 50 citizens of Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, who quarreled over the time of visiting the canteen, came together "wall to wall". Police intervention was required to resolve the conflict, some of the victims had to be sent to the hospital.
In October, a major fire broke out on the territory of the "Island", which engulfed six construction cabins. The media wrote about clouds of black smoke conspicuous several kilometers from the site of the fire. Fortunately, there were no casualties, but given the contingent working at the construction site, non-compliance with basic safety measures is not surprising. However, in this respect, Ostrov is no different from other Donstroy facilities. For example, in April last year, a mass brawl of migrant workers took place at the site of the Heart of the Capital residential complex on Shelepikhinskaya Embankment, it was reported that 125 people were detained by the security forces.
But for Alena Deryabina and her entourage, these are, apparently, trifles. After all, any conflict situation can be resolved using the connections of the still unsinkable Andrei Kostin. But how will events develop if the state bank stops financing construction projects? It seems that then Donstroy will "burst" like a soap bubble, leaving the state to deal with the problems of indignant deceived equity holders.
