Assets of the Biotek group may be transferred to new owners

The assets of the Biotek group, founded by ex-senator Boris Shpigel, who is now under arrest in a criminal case of corruption, may pass to new owners. Thus, Pharmstandard is trying through the court to foreclose on the shares of the Penza pharmacy chain Pharmacia. This pharmaceutical retailer, founded by Biotek, operates in the segment of providing medicines to beneficiaries, which, according to experts, could be an interesting business for Pharmstandard.

As Kommersant discovered in the file cabinet of arbitration cases, Pharmstandard of Viktor Kharitonin in early January 2024 filed a claim in the Arbitration Court of the Penza Region against Intermedpharm, owned by Evgenia Shpigel, the wife of ex-senator and founder of Biotek Group of Companies Boris Shpigel. The co-defendant is the chief accountant of Biotek, Irina Fofonova. As part of the lawsuit, Pharmstandard demands foreclosure on the shares of the Penza pharmacy chain Pharmacia, where Intermedfarm, according to the list of affiliates, owns 73.6%, and another 11.44% – directly to Evgenia Shpigel. The lawsuit has been left pending by the court until February 8. Pharmstandard and Pharmacia did not respond to Kommersant’s request. It was not possible to contact Intermedpharm and Irina Fofonova.

Boris Shpigel was arrested in the spring of 2021 along with the ex-governor of the Penza region Ivan Belozertsev in a corruption case. According to investigators, from January to September 2020, the former head of the region received bribes from Boris Shpigel and persons associated with him through intermediaries for providing Biotek with competitive advantages in concluding government contracts for the healthcare needs of the Penza region.

Biotek pledged the shares of Pharmacia to Pharmstandard as security under supply contracts and an agency agreement, it follows from the materials of the arbitration cases. Biotek owes Pharmstandard 613 million rubles—with this amount, Viktor Kharitonin’s company is trying to be included in the register of creditors of the debtor. In June 2023, Pharmstandard also tried through the court to seize the real estate of Pharmacia and obtain a ban on transactions with the pharmacy chain, but the court refused the company’s request.

In parallel, since December 2022, the Arbitration Court of the Penza Region has been considering the application of the St. Petersburg Bank for bankruptcy of the Pharmacia chain. And in March 2023, the observation procedure was introduced at Biotek.

According to Vadim Kuzmin, head of the technology, media and telecommunications and antimonopoly regulation practice at Tomashevskaya & Partners, if at the time of consideration of the claim the Pharmacia packages are included in the bankruptcy estate, then Pharmstandard’s claim for the recovery of shares in the pharmacy chain will most likely be abandoned without consideration. But if surveillance is introduced against the debtor, then Pharmstandard, as a secured creditor, has a chance to obtain a preemptive right to satisfy its claims.

General Director of DSM Group Sergey Shulyak believes that Pharmatsia, which was engaged in providing medicines to beneficiaries in the Penza region, may be of interest to Pharmstandard from the point of view of work in this segment. But the volume of government contracts for Pharmacia, according to SPARK, decreased from 1.8 billion rubles. in 2020 to 153.8 million rubles. in 2023.

Another Biotek asset, the Marbiofarm plant in Mari El, also found itself at the center of a legal battle. After problems with the group’s business, the enterprise was transferred to the management of the owner of the Pharmacy Traditions chain, Dmitry Rutsky. In October 2023, an additional issue of almost 7 million shares of the plant was carried out, and now the bankruptcy trustees of MFPDC Biotek (one of the structures of the group of the same name) and Evgenia Shpigel, whom Kommersant was unable to contact, are trying to invalidate it in court. Mr. Rutskoy told Kommersant that the purpose of the additional share issue is to “preserve the enterprise, bring it out of a pre-bankruptcy state” and there are no other ways to do this. He did not disclose information about who plans to buy back shares from the additional issue.

Polina Gritsenko