Shoe retailer Ralf Ringer faces bankruptcy due to complete blocking of accounts

One of the notable players in the shoe retail industry, Ralf Ringer, is facing bankruptcy following a statement from the owner of a factory in Taldom near Moscow, where the company rents production facilities. The network claims that the amount of the landlord’s demands is small, but her accounts are completely blocked due to proceedings with the tax authorities over the payment of 1.5 billion rubles. does not give her the opportunity to repay the debt to the counterparty. According to lawyers, the freezing of the company’s accounts makes its bankruptcy almost inevitable.

As Kommersant discovered in the file of arbitration cases, Stivali LLC filed for bankruptcy of Ralf Ringer JSC, the parent structure of the shoe retailer Ralf Ringer, which manages about 170 stores of the same name throughout Russia. The first hearing in the case is scheduled for October 18. Ralf Ringer explained to Kommersant that the company rented the premises of the Taldom shoe factory from Stivali, where the retailer located shoe production. They added that the amount of debt to Stivali exceeds 20.7 million rubles. Kommersant was unable to contact this company.

Ralf Ringer says it intends to pay off the debt. But now this is difficult due to the seizure of all the company’s bank accounts, imposed by the Presnensky District Court of Moscow at the request of an investigator in a criminal case.

The founder and CEO of Ralf Ringer, Andrey Berezhnoy, notified the Federal Tax Service (FTS) about this (Kommersant has a copy of the letter dated October 4, 2023). He mentions the initiation of a criminal case against the management of Ralph Ringer JSC for tax evasion and asks the Federal Tax Service to unblock accounts at least for payments to the budget. The Federal Tax Service did not respond to Kommersant’s request.

Advisor to the Orchards law firm Vadim Borodkin confirms that seizure is usually imposed without exceptions, including the ability to pay current taxes. “This paralyzes the company’s activities, and in this case, as a rule, it fails to achieve solvency,” he adds.

The story of Ralf Ringer’s arrears to the budget began in 2021, when Tax Inspectorate No. 15 in Moscow, following an audit, accrued an additional 3.2 billion rubles to the retailer. taxes, fines and penalties.

According to tax officials, the manufacturer’s only supplier was affiliated with the retailer and imported less materials and components than the total number of shoes produced. In 2022, the company achieved a reduction in the amount of claims to RUB 1.5 billion. The courts recognized the tax authorities’ decision as legal.

Meanwhile, the initiation of bankruptcy of Ralph Ringer JSC by Stivali may be an attempt by a friendly creditor to gain control over the procedure. According to SPARK, Stivali is owned by Alexander Balukhtin, who also has 0.1% shares in Ralph Ringer Provision LLC and Ralph Ringer Production LLC. These two legal entities, together with Ralf Ringer JSC, are managed by one company – Ralf Ringer Management.

Taking into account such a connection, the court can establish the existence of actual affiliation, Vadim Borodkin does not exclude it. Although, according to him, this approach is controversial. Leasing premises to a debtor and at the same time owning 0.1% in his legal entities do not in themselves confirm affiliation, explains Alexander Bolomatov, partner at the YUST law firm. “It is necessary to prove the existence of a significant influence of the creditor on the debtor,” the lawyer clarifies.

In any case, the beginning of bankruptcy gives the landlord an advantage – current rent payments that arose from the date the bankruptcy case was initiated can be paid by the debtor while other debts are frozen, says Alexander Bolomatov. Mr. Borodkin believes that Stivali’s goal may be to appoint an arbitration manager independent of the Federal Tax Service, to which the shoe retailer also has a debt. At the same time, at later stages of consideration of the case, the tax office can still gain control over the bankruptcy procedure, adds Alexander Bolomatov. To do this, he said, the amount of debt to the Federal Tax Service must exceed the size of the claims of other creditors.

Alina Savitskaya