82% of TGK-2 may go to the state on a lawsuit

The Prosecutor General’s Office of the Russian Federation has filed a lawsuit to seize the controlling stake in the generating company TGC-2, the beneficiary of which is considered to be ex-senator Leonid Lebedev, who left Russia. Among the defendants in the lawsuit are offshore structures that own 81.66% of TGC-2. In recent years, the management of the energy company and Mr. Lebedev himself have become defendants in several criminal cases, which, according to lawyers, could be the reason for filing a lawsuit. Lawyers note that in recent years this is not the first case when the Prosecutor General’s Office seizes property into state ownership.

On June 28, the Prosecutor General’s Office of the Russian Federation filed a lawsuit with the Leninsky District Court of Yaroslavl on the conversion of shares of PJSC TGC-2 into state revenue, follows from the base of the court. Among the defendants are seven companies that own a total of 81.66% of the energy company, including Sovlink, which controls a 57.8% stake in TGC-2, and Kostroma Kogeneratsiya Limited, which owns a 23.86% stake. The defendant in the case is also the ex-senator of Chuvashia, Leonid Lebedev, who is considered the beneficiary of TGC-2.

The current beneficiaries of TGK-2 are not disclosed, but, according to the reports for 2022, the company is owned by several offshore structures. Dmitry Pyatkin’s Sovlink carries out trust management of 57.8% shares owned by the following shareholders: Janan Holdings ltd. (share 14.54%), Raltaka Enterprises ltd. (7.23%), Kores Invest LLC (9.54%), Litim Trading ltd and TGC-2 itself (25%, quasi-treasury stake). Kores Invest LLC and Cypriot structures were associated with Leonid Lebedev. The Cypriot Kostroma Kogeneratsiya Limited entered the capital of the energy company in 2018, at that time it was owned by Konstantin Selivanov, head of the board of directors of TGC-2 and adviser to Dmitry Pyatkin at Sovlink. It should be noted that Mr. Pyatkin is a former co-owner of the Bashkir Soda Company, which also passed to the state in 2021 after the suit of the Prosecutor General’s Office was satisfied. About 20% of TGK-2’s shares are traded on the Moscow Exchange. The capitalization of the company is 7.7 billion rubles.

TGC-2 explained that during the trial, temporary interim measures were taken against the company, due to which the registrar of Reestr-RN LLC was unable to sum up the voting results at the annual meeting of shareholders on June 30. “Reestr-RN” also acts as a co-defendant in the suit of the Prosecutor General’s Office. TGC-2 did not explain the essence of the restrictions, nor did they comment on the essence of the claim. The Prosecutor General’s Office did not answer “Kommersant”.

The TGC-2 circuit included rather old and non-competitive thermal power plants, which constantly increased debts to banks and fuel suppliers. Judging by the financial statements, in 2022 TGC-2 almost tripled its profit, to 85.49 million rubles. The company has not paid dividends since 2007. Among the company’s largest creditors are Gazprom Mezhregion Ukhta (debt 4.18 billion rubles), Gazprom Mezhregion Yaroslavl (4.11 billion rubles), an unnamed bank (3 billion rubles). At the end of 2022, tax arrears exceeded RUB 765 million.

The management of TGC-2 has repeatedly become a defendant in criminal cases.

In particular, in 2016, under criminal prosecution hit Leonid Lebedev and other unidentified individuals who were accused of embezzling $220 million from TGC-2. Lebedev’s trustees denied the allegations. Mr. Lebedev himself, according to foreign media reports, left the Russian Federation and received a Cypriot passport. Kommersant failed to contact Leonid Lebedev and his representatives. Sovlink did not answer Kommersant’s questions.

In 2021 was initiated the case against the heads of TGC-2 and Arkhoblenergo Nadezhda Pinigina and Valery Zaikin. The essence of the claims was that in 2018, by decision of the Arkhangelsk Ministry of Property, TGK-2 received the management of Arkhoblenergo JSC, and then, according to the investigation, the defendants organized the purchase of fuel from an organization controlled by them at inflated prices. The damage is estimated at more than 300 million rubles.

The claim of the Prosecutor General’s Office has a high chance of being satisfied, says Artur Bolshakov, managing partner at Bolshakov, Chelysheva and Partners. Judicial practice in recent high-profile cases shows that such claims for the seizure of assets from the accused under criminal articles are considered in an unusually fast manner, the lawyer continues. He notes that in the past, the prosecutor’s office, as a rule, waited for court decisions in criminal cases and only then filed such claims.

Polina Smertina, Dmitry Kozlov