“Victoria” changed participants – Newspaper Kommersant No. 204 (7405) dated 11/02/2022

As Kommersant discovered, the co-owner of the Mercury Group of Companies, Igor Kesaev, assigned his share in the Victoria supermarket chain to his partner Nikolai Tyaka. At the same time, Mr. Kesaev has so far retained shares in the Krasnoye & Beloe and Bristol alcoholic beverage chains. Experts believe that changes in the composition of the owners of Victoria may be associated with EU sanctions against the businessman.

The partner of the co-founder of the Mercury Group of Companies, Igor Kesaev, in the real estate company Mercury Properties, Nikolai Tyaka, became the owner of 37.25% of Victoria Baltia LLC, which manages the Victoria retail chain. Changes to the Unified State Register of Legal Entities were made on October 28, Kommersant discovered. Another 45% in the company was received by Sergey Studennikov, 7.69% – by Sergey Katsiev. Together with Mr. Kesaev, they owned the Cypriot Mercury Retail Group Ltd., which previously owned Victoria Baltia.

At the end of September, the Federal Antimonopoly Service granted an unnamed person’s request to acquire a 37.25% stake in Victoria Baltia, which corresponds to Mr. Tyaki’s stake. The representative of Igor Kesaev declined to comment, it was not possible to contact Nikolai Tyaka.

Previously, Victoria was part of the Dixy Group of Companies Igor Kesaev and his partners. In 2021, the owners of Dixy sold more than 2.4 thousand stores of the same name to Magnit for RUB 87.6 billion. “Victoria” remained in the perimeter of the Mercury Retail Group. In addition, the company managed the Krasnoe & Beloe and Bristol liquor stores chains.

In the fall of 2022, the owners of Mercury Retail Group began to transfer the business to Russian jurisdiction. In the operating companies Red & White and Bristol, Sergey Studennikov received 45%, Igor Kesaev – 37.25%, and Sergey Katsiev – 7.69%, follows from the Unified State Register of Legal Entities.

A Kommersant source on the market believes that changes in the ownership of Victoria may be related to the introduction of EU sanctions against Igor Kesaev in April 2022 and his desire to distance himself from Victoria. Nikolai Tyaka is also known as the main owner of International Tobacco Group and International Tobacco Group Volga, the former Russian structures of the British tobacco concern Imperial Brands, whose buyers Kommersant sources previously called the structures of the Megapolis tobacco distributor founded by Mr. Kesaev.

Dmitry Gabyshev, Managing Director of Peregrine Capital, notes that Mercury Retail Group is now focusing on the development of Krasnoe & Beloe and Bristol retail chains. Mikhail Burmistrov, CEO of Infoline-Analytics, also believes that Victoria can be a non-strategic asset for Mercury beneficiaries. He does not exclude the option of selling the trading network, as was the case with Dixy. Mr. Burmistrov estimates the retail business and real estate of Victoria at 8-10 billion rubles. A Kommersant source on the market heard about the possibility of selling Victoria, but notes that the change of ownership may not be related to these plans.

The sanctioned person may withdraw from the capital of the company for further sale of his share, says Natalia Abtseshko, head of the Vegas Lex international projects group. Also, according to her, the sanctioned status of the company’s controlling person may be of fundamental importance for some suppliers or distributors. Ekaterina Makeeva, head of sanctions practice at A-Pro, also suggests that it may be important for a company to protect its business from sanctions risks, especially if there are purchases from foreign partners.

Mikhail Burmistrov speaks about the difficult situation for retailers developing supermarkets, as they can become unprofitable. In his opinion, the reason is a possible decrease in revenue due to a drop in traffic in the conditions of emigration of a part of the solvent population.

Alina Savitskaya, Anatoly Kostyrev