The network of boarding houses for the elderly Senior Group has changed the beneficiary

Alexey Sidnev, the founder of the Senior Group boarding houses for the elderly, completely left this business and, according to Kommersant’s information, decided to take up other projects in the UK. The actual owner of the group may be the owner of RG Development Sergey Shumey. Despite continued demand for quality aged care services, the company, which has suffered losses in recent years, has had to close some of its facilities.

By August this year, the Cypriot SG-Hold Co withdrew from the founders of the Senior Group, “Kommersant” was found in the Unified State Register of Legal Entities. This structure was 51% owned by the EMC network of private clinics, the rest of the shares were owned at parity by the founder of Senior Group Alexei Sidnev and his partner Alexei Bogdanov.

EMC did not respond to Kommersant’s request. Mr. Sidnev confirmed to Kommersant his resignation from the business. In the spring of 2022, he left the post of group manager, which he had led since 2007, retaining a 25% stake in the company. It was a decision of the board of directors of the group due to the company’s failure to fulfill its profit plans and a change in the approach to the development of the network after February 24, 2022, the businessman then explained to the publication Vademecum. Last week, he told Kommersant that he now lives in the UK, where he is working on new projects.

“I had the choice to stay in Russia and try to do something with my share in the Senior Group, but then I would have to be more careful in my statements (about the events taking place in the country.— “b”),” Alexei Sidnev told Kommersant.

He claims that he “received nothing” for his share, and calls the owner of the housing developer RG Development Sergey Shumey the new actual owner of the Senior Group. RG Development refused to comment on the non-core business of its owner. It was not possible to contact Mr. Shumey.

Alexey Sidnev says that Sergey Shumey owns the Senior Group through proxies. Back in February 2023, Aleksey Andreev received 95% each in Senior Group Malakhovka and Social Service Assistant, follows from the Unified State Register of Legal Entities. On the balance sheet of these legal entities are the main assets of the network – a geriatric center in the Moscow region and a patronage service. Since July, Mr. Andreev has been managing the service for the selection of nurses Pomogu.ru, established in 2019 by Sergey Shumey, which is now part of the Senior Group.

Previously Vedomosti Mr. Shumey was called a former lawyer for the Nidan juice company, founded by Igor Shilov, now the main owner of the EMC clinic network. Sergey Shumey until 2015 also headed the Family Medical Center, one of the EMC structures. Apparently, EMC retains control over a number of Senior Group assets. According to SPARK, Senior Group PM, Senior Group PPP, and Senior Group Zhukovka moved to EKSTO – the structure of the network – in August.

Now the Senior Group, as follows from its website, has one flagship boarding house in Malakhovka near Moscow, although at the beginning of 2022 there were three objects. In 2020–2021, the company signed a concession agreement with the Moscow City Hall to establish two geriatric centers: they were supposed to be launched in 2022–2023, but have not yet been commissioned.

In 2022, the entire commercial geriatrics market, according to Eqiva CEO Daria Shubina, amounted to at least 28 billion rubles, the share of the Senior Group was 2.6%.

According to her, Senior Group worked in the upper price segment, where the average bill is from 5 thousand rubles. per day. However, as follows from the SPARK data, in recent years the main legal entities of the group have been unprofitable.

It is logical to associate the reduction of the Senior Group business with a decrease in the solvency of relatives of older people, Daria Shubina believes. However, according to Vadim Barausov, head of the NGO Fund 60+, there is still a high demand for quality care for the elderly. This is also confirmed in the Guardianship and Care networks. At Opeka, revenue and profit grew by 38% year-on-year in 2022, says its founder Alexei Mavrin. According to him, the authorities are expanding subsidies for suppliers included in the register. But despite this, they add in Care, the sector remains low-margin, so big business does not invest in such projects.

Polina Gritsenko