Panamanian links of KAMAZ gets in the international offshore scandal
About how ‘Putin's friend’ could get control over the largest producer of trucks in Russia
The leak from the database Mossack Fonseca, the fourth biggest in the world offshore law firm, has hit the Kama auto giant. Investigation of the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) has led to unexpected conclusions. As it turned out, KAMAZ could be controlled through offshore companies by a cellist Sergey Roldugin. The media calls him a close friend of Vladimir Putin and he, according to the data of the company Mossack Fonseca, owns offshore companies in Panama. Realnoe Vremya publishes a digest of the investigation.
Call to Cyprus
On 4 April, Novaya Gazeta published an article from a series of investigations of Russian assets in offshore companies in Panama, which is based on the information disclosure of the company Mossaсk Fonseca (MF). One of the participants of the investigation turned out to be the PJSC KAMAZ. In particular, it is reported that one of the main shareholders of KAMAZ (Avtoinvest Ltd) was owned by an unknown Panamanian offshore company – Avto Holdings Ltd. 15% of this unknown offshore belonged to a cellist Sergey Roldugin through the company Sonnette Overseas. He, in his turn, is called a close friend of Vladimir Putin.
Roldugin on the question of the correspondents of Novaya Gazeta about his connection with transactions with strategic assets in the country, in particular, with KAMAZ, AvtoVAZ, Video International, replied: 'I was involved with this business a long time ago. Before Perestroika. It happened like this. And then it began to develop, and such things happened. The Music House [which Roldugin heads in St. Petersburg. – editor's note] is being subsidized from this money. It is a subject of another conversation.'
On question of Realnoe Vremya about the connection of KAMAZ shareholders with Panamanian offshore companies and Sergey Roldugin Oleg Afanasyev, the head of Department of information policy of KAMAZ, said: 'Circulation of share capital, the actions of the shareholders are not relevant to the sphere of my activities,' and suggested to address for comments to the Cyprus company Avtoinvest Ltd.
Cyprus 'trace' of the Russian KAMAZ
According to the reports of investigation of Novaya Gazeta and the open data, Realnoe Vremya tried to reconstruct the history of the control of KAMAZ through offshore companies.
According to the data on 4th quarter of 2015, the main owners of PJSC KAMAZ are the state corporation Rostekh (49.%), the Cyprus Avtoinvest Limited (23.54% – at 100% controlled by Solartrans Holdings Limited British Virgin Islands), German Daimler AG (15%). According to system Spark, 3.72% are owned by FLC KAMAZ, and small part (less than 0.01%) – Sergey Kogogin, Irek Gumerov, Aleksander Vasilyev, Yury Gerasimov, Andrey Maksimov, Oleg Ershov.
Cyprus Avtoinvest Limited, mentioned in the investigation of Novaya Gazeta, was registered in 2004. In April 2008, the newspaper Kommersant mentioned that the company was owned by Russian investment company Troika Dialog, controlled that time by the then a well-known businessperson Ruben Vardanyan. In the midst of the global crisis at the beginning of 2008 through Avtoinvest and other companies Troika Dialogue took full control over KAMAZ.
About how Troika got KAMAZ and then lost it
It is known that by the beginning of 2008 37.78% was owned by the Federal Agency for State Property Management (Rosimushchestvo). Judging by the published reports of KAMAZ, the same year, among the shareholders of giant there was Avtoinvest with a share of 20.8%. Through the company KamAZ-capital, originally established by the government of Tatarstan, Troika Dialog controlled another 16.6% of the shares. In April 2008, as Kommersant reported, Avtoinvest purchased from Tatarstan 37.8% of shares of KAMAZ-capital which owned 33.2% of the shares of KAMAZ. In the result Troika Dialog increased the block not less than to 51%.
In the second half of 2008, in the midst of the crisis in Russia, Troika Dialog tried to find investor on behalf of the corporation Daimler. In December of 2008, the German automaker acquired the shares of KAMAZ, however, 10% instead of 42%, as they originally intended. As a result of several deals by the beginning of 2009, according to quarterly reports of KAMAZ, 37.78% of shares of KAMAZ was owned by Rosimushchestvo, about 45% was controlled by Troika through two Cyprus offshore companies (29.53% were owned Avtoinvest Limited, 14.85% – Dekodelement Services Limited), 10% — Daimler AG. After a year, Daimler got another 5%. Troika and its structures (including offshore) in 2011 were bought by Sberbank.
Was there money?
According to Novaya Gazeta, Troika Dialog with a few hidden agreements could act only as an agent in the interests of much more powerful players. One of these players was Sergey Roldugin.
As Novaya Gazeta reports, since 2007, Troika tranferred its rights to manage their company Avtoinvest Ltd to an offshore company Avto Holdings Ltd. Under the agreement, Avto Holdings received the right to participate in shareholders' meetings of Avtoinvest, to appoint and dismiss the director and take 95% of dividends. In fact, one of the main shareholders of KAMAZ was owned by the previously unknown offshore company. And 15% of that unknown offshore belonged to a cellist Sergey Roldugin through his company Sonnette Overseas. Moreover, Avto Holdings has a ten-year option to purchase 100% of Avtoinvest: the offshore company, the co-owner of which was Sergey Roldugin, had the right at only 100 000 dollars to get control of one of the largest shareholders of KAMAZ.
However, there is no any information about real impact on the business of KAMAZ. For example, it is not necessary to talk about the withdrawal of dividends, control over which was received by Panama offshore company: KAMAZ did not pay dividends to its shareholders until 2012.