The founder of the NCC shared with his son

As Kommersant found out, the founder of the National Computer Corporation (NCC, now Smart Holding) Alexander Kalinin left the company, selling 33% to a structure whose beneficiary is his son Alexei. Mr. Kalinin told Kommersant that he would use the proceeds, which analysts estimate at 12 billion rubles, to develop his new project for the development and production of smartphones.

The founder of National Computer Corporation LLC (NCC LLC, changed its name to Smart Holding in 2021) left the company’s founders. In the SPARK-Interfax database, Kommersant found that on July 4, 33% of Mr. Kalinin’s shares became the property of Smart Technologies LLC, which now owns 97% of the company (the remaining 3% belongs to Aquarius Group LLC). Aquarius, which is part of Smart Holding, told Kommersant that an agreement on the sale of the share by Mr. Kalinin was reached a year and a half ago: “Now we have implemented it.” The company did not disclose the amount of the transaction, noting only that it “arranged both parties.”

Alexander Kalinin confirmed to Kommersant that negotiations began a year and a half ago, but “for various reasons” the deal took place only now: “The agreements are comprehensive and affect other joint assets. For my part, I did everything and expect the same from the partners from Smart Technologies.” He clarified that he plans to invest part of the funds received in a new project.

In February, Alexander Kalinin spoke about the project in the framework of “Media. Holding” (“Sovereign Mobile Initiative. Holding”) for the development and production of Android smartphones. Then Mr. Kalinin said that he would invest 10 billion rubles in the project, other investors would be some “large structures”.

The current structure of the owners of Smart Holding, as well as the companies in whose authorized capital it participates, is hidden in SPARK-Interfax. From the audit report of Aquarius Group LLC for 2022, it follows that Smart Holding owns 98.972% in the group, Alexander Kalinin had the rest at the end of the year (he says that he also sold these 1.028% to Smart Holding). Smart Technologies, which owns 97% of Smart Holding, is owned by Alexei Kalinin (40%), Nadezhda Blanket, Anton Efremov and Oleg Kot (20% each). A representative of Aquarius declined to provide data on the revenue of the group’s companies for 2022. In 2021, Cnews wrote that revenue in 2020 amounted to 22.8 billion rubles.

In the spring of 2021, a corporate conflict began at the NCC, founded by Alexander Kalinin, Evgeny Lachkov and Leonid Goldenberg. Alexei Kalinin then said that his family wanted to consolidate NCC by buying out 64% from Messrs. Goldenberg and Lachkov. Those, in turn, intended to sell shares to the structures of the founder of Varton, the beneficiary of Baikal Electronics and Astra Linux, Denis Frolov (see Kommersant dated April 8, 2021). The conflict was accompanied by mutual legal claims, as well as changes in the management structure of the NCC (see Kommersant dated October 20, 2021).

The situation was complicated by the fact that in 2021 Alexander Kalinin became a defendant in a criminal case initiated due to a cartel conspiracy in the supply of equipment for the GAS Vybory. In September 2022, Mr. Kalinin was found guilty and sentenced to a suspended sentence (see Kommersant dated September 16, 2022). The corporate conflict ended with the division of assets in December 2021 (see Kommersant dated December 22, 2021). Aquarius remained in structures owned by the Kalinins.

A source in a large IT integrator estimates Alexander Kalinin’s share in the holding to be up to 20 billion rubles. Analyst FG “Finam” Leonid Delitsyn says about 12 billion rubles. In his opinion, one of the reasons for the sale of his share may be “the company’s transition from rapid growth to the stage of maturity, when transactions on restructuring, acquisitions take place, and other competencies and a different type of managers are required.”

Alexander Kalinin himself sees the situation differently: “For more than 15 years I have been involved in the development of NCC. When I came under house arrest, my son Alexei and the president of Aquarius, Vladimir Stepanov, took over the management. After the legal difficulties were over, the question arose: to return to the management of the company and push with Alexei, or to go out and take on a new project, slowly winding down their business in the NCC. I chose the second.”

Nikita Korolev, Timofey Kornev