Sberbank puts the sale of problem loans on stream. As became known RBC daily, the state bank closed the second transaction this year for the sale of a portfolio of loans, the volume of which amounted to 1 billion rubles. If the first deal, which Sberbank organized a year ago, fell through due to the fact that the parties did not agree on the price, now the price has turned out to be too high.
Maxim Degtyarev, who replaced Svetlana Sagaidak as Acting Head of the Troubled Assets Department in the summer, is coping with the business she started - selling problem loans to collectors. Sberbank actually brings this direction on a regular basis.
As several participants in the collection market told RBC daily, Sberbank recently closed a deal to sell a portfolio of unsecured loans individuals. This time, Sberbank sold a portfolio of just over 1 billion rubles. with an average overdue debt of more than 700 days. According to RBC daily, the transaction price turned out to be quite high - from 5.5 to 6.7% of the volume of the sold portfolio. The buyer was the First Collection Bureau (PKB) agency. Sberbank held a closed competition, all agencies that are part of NAPCA took part in it. The total portfolio that the state bank offered to the market amounted to about 3 billion rubles.
This is the second such deal for Sberbank this year. In the first half of the year, the bank sold debts in the amount of 15 billion rubles, dividing them into three lots. One of the lots was also bought by PKB (see RBC daily of 07/09/13). True, the price was then lower - 3%. For the second time, Sberbank decided to change the principle - to sell less, but more expensive. “It is not economically feasible for Sberbank to collect bad loans on its own,” says one of the participants in the collection market.
Sberbank made its first attempt to sell bad debts to collectors last fall. But then she was unsuccessful. The State Bank chose a narrow circle of buyers - only agencies affiliated with banks, and put up a portfolio of various loans in the amount of 6 billion rubles as a single lot. Then the parties did not agree on the terms (see RBC daily of 03.12.12).
Now the deal from Sberbank was supervised by Maxim Degtyarev. For the last five years he has been working in the department for work with problem assets, before that he was in the department for three years project finance Sberbank. Before coming to credit organization led leasing companies, first "KMB Leasing", and then "Element Leasing" of the company "Basel". At Element Leasing, Mr. Degtyarev was responsible for building a risk system, interacting with financial institutions and developing a system financial reporting. His rich work experience was useful in negotiating with collection agencies. Sberbank finally managed to sell the delinquency at a bargain price.
According to commercial director collection agency"M. B.A. Finance” by Viktor Vodenko, the price of the last transaction is too high: few are willing to pay more than 5% for such a portfolio. “But for each player this is an individual indicator. Everyone has their own approach to assessing the prospects for collection, as well as different wishes for profitability. Sberbank is a special client, and you can overpay for work with its delay, if there are such opportunities. After all, someone may pay more in the future in anticipation of future profitability,” Mr. Vodenko notes.
Experts do not rule out that Sberbank will start selling bad debt on a regular basis, just like other players do. For example, VTB24 puts up overdue debt for sale once every six months or a quarter.
"If a financial results Sberbank from the sale of the delay to collectors will be higher than the financial result that it will receive when it collects the delay on its own, it is possible that the bank will continue the practice it has begun - it all depends on the efficiency internal service collection of the bank and from the tasks that face financial institution at a specific point in time,” Vladislav Kotelnikov, head of the department for the return of overdue debts of Raiffeisenbank, believes.
The press service of Sberbank declined to comment, it was not possible to contact Maxim Degtyarev. The PKB confirmed participation in the tender and the fact of the transaction, but refused to disclose its terms.
Natalia STAROSTINA
Appearing on the federal administrative scene in 1998, German Gref quickly became a prominent figure. Now he is ready to use the successes of Sberbank as a springboard to the political Olympus. What can prevent the future prime minister is only the team, including the candidate for the post of successor to the head of the bank, Maxim Degtyarev.
Member of the Board and Deputy Minister of the Ministry of State Property, Head of the Center for Strategic Research, later - Minister economic development and trade, he was involved in Russia's entry into the WTO, represented the state on the boards of directors of large commodity and infrastructure companies, participated in the creation of free economic zones and prepared Sochi for the application to host the Olympics. In October 2007, Gref became the head of Sberbank of Russia, which by the summer of 2016 had overtaken Gazprom in terms of capitalization. However, ten years as the head of a bank, albeit the largest in Russia, is too long for Gref's active nature. In 2016, his political ambitions became obvious: by proposing to Putin to create a shadow committee on reforms, German Gref actually declared that he was ready to lead the development of the entire Russian economy. And although the proposal was not accepted then, today it is Gref who is increasingly called the most likely successor to Dmitry Medvedev, whose rating is melting under the pressure of scandals, falling incomes of the population and the lack of clear prospects for economic growth.
In addition to the positive image of a reformer and progressive, German Gref has another important advantage: over the years of work at Sberbank, he created his own team, whose entry into the government could become a symbolic gesture in the spirit of early Putin. A new conceptual view of the economy, the ability to innovate and achieve goals proven over the years at Sberbank, and a selection of proven personnel - in fact, this is a ready-made recipe for the perfect cure for economic depression, which Putin can prescribe Russian economy shortly before or immediately after the 2018 elections. This alignment will positively affect the position of the Western world in relation to Russia: in developed countries do not hide their sympathy for Gref and Navalny, who actively supports the head of Sberbank in his desire to change his occupation. Inside the country there is also no shortage of those who see Gref's appointment as head of government as an excellent solution. However, the rosy picture is slightly spoiled by the forecast for the activity of the most important bank for the economy after Gref's departure for an increase.
The so-called “Gref team” consists of four main figures who together can close all positions in the economic bloc of the government: Gref’s first deputy for Sberbank Maxim Poletaev will be put on the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Economic Development will be given to Kirill Androsov, who worked with Gref under Fradkov, the head of Sberbank -Capital" Ashot Khachaturyants will be sent to lead the Ministry of Energy, another first deputy chairman Lev Khasis - to the Ministry of Industry and Trade. Sources inside the bank say that a serious hardware war may flare up between Poletaev and Khasis - apparently none of them wants to leave their warm place in Sberbank and go “upstairs”, but the boss’s ambitions will certainly prevail, and the team will remain a team. “It is clear that if Gref leaves for the government, then he will take Khasis, Ashot, and Poletaev with him,” notes Pavel Danilin, a political scientist and leader of information projects at the Effective Policy Foundation. - But what will happen in Sberbank after Gref? .. Gref, if he leaves, will leave a locum tenens for himself, who will keep Sberbank in his orbit, and who will never set up either for Gref himself or for his entourage, which is in Sberbank will probably remain en masse. A man who could even move if he had to come back. So, there is already such a person in Sberbank. This is Vice President Maxim Degtyarev.”
Maxim Degtyarev, who is confidently spoken of as Gref's successor, is the vice president of Sberbank and heads the distressed assets department. Having completed a course at the Sberbank Academy and after that received the post of chief specialist in troubled assets, Degtyarev does not have enough stars from the sky, but no one doubts his loyalty to Gref - after all, in particular, it was he who was instructed to oversee a high-profile deal for the sale of Ukrainian daughters of Sberbank. According to former State Duma deputy Ilya Ponomarev, Sberbank seems to have lost up to $70 million on this deal, and the circumstances that prompted the bankers to take such a step are still not known. Initially valuing the Ukrainian subsidiary at $600 million, Sberbank got only $130 million for it, although Ponomarev is convinced that “for 200 million live money, this deal could be closed very quickly”. Turning down the offer, after a series of opportune attacks on its Ukrainian branches, the bank apparently sold the subsidiary for a lower price, leaving everyone to wonder what made it take such a bad deal. In Moscow's Sberbank, according to Ponomarev, vice-president Maxim Degtyarev and department head Yuri Svistunov dealt with the sale.
“It looked more like some kind of order,” Ilya Ponomarev shared his impressions with the Ukrainian edition of Apostrophe. - I even find it difficult to say - if not on command from above, then how much Sberbank should have put in their pocket in order to agree to such an outright robbery ... I know German Oskarovich well, or these two gentlemen (Maxim Degtyarev and Yuri Svistunov) stupidly deceived him , or, given that Mr. Degtyarev is not his actual employee, but a career FSB officer seconded to Sberbank, it is quite possible that Gref was simply ordered to carry out this operation.
Maxim Degtyarev should take over the leadership of the most high-tech bank in Russia, which has 14,286 branches and serves millions of customers. However, the methods that Degtyarev resorts to as a specialist in working with problem assets say the least about him as a civilized manager. Since 2012, scandals around Sberbank and borrowing companies have not subsided, developing according to the same pattern: the issuance of a loan and negotiations on restructuring end with the criminal prosecution of the creditor and the seizure of his property in favor of companies likely associated with Sberbank. In May 2017, a source in the Ministry of Internal Affairs reported that Sberbank was insisting on the arrest of well-known businessman Vladimir Kekhman, who is the founder and beneficiary of JFC, and concurrently the artistic director of the Mikhailovsky Theater in St. Petersburg and director of the Novosibirsk Opera and Ballet Theatre. After receiving a loan from Sberbank, JFC, which specializes in fruit imports, ran into difficulties caused by political instability in the countries of the Arab East and was forced to declare bankruptcy. However, the statutory procedure for settling relations with a creditor did not suit Sberbank, and Kekhman, who apparently has nothing to do with the company, became a defendant in a large-scale fraud case. Kekhman openly says that “for three years, the case has been under undisguised and incredibly active pressure from Sberbank”, but remains at large for now, most likely thanks to support from the Ministry of Culture and, probably, a personal acquaintance with President Putin.
Another major borrower that Sberbank engaged law enforcement agencies to communicate with is the owner of the Visma group, Valery Geryugov, who, at the initiative of Sberbank, was placed under house arrest by the court in April 2017. Arkhyz, a mineral water producer, is suspected of embezzling loans received from Sberbank for total amount 1.8 billion rubles. The most famous borrower of Sberbank to the general public, who faced persecution by law enforcement officers, is the head of the National Association, Eduard Sagalaev. The famous television man acted as a guarantor for a loan that his son took to create a drug treatment clinic - and now he faces prosecution at the origins of which is the Central Russian Bank of Sberbank of Russia. “The clinic has been operating for five years, we paid off this loan, but some difficulties arose due to the crisis, and we negotiated with Sberbank to sign a settlement agreement. Everything seemed to be fine, but Sberbank, apparently, decided to speed up the process in this way. ”, - 70-year-old Sagalaev told Arguments of the Week.
On this topic
The scandal involving the network retailer Ulmart also calls into question the attitude of the possible head of Sberbank towards the development of innovations and advanced technologies. The bank's tough policy towards the borrower led to the initiation of a criminal case against the founder of the trading Internet network, Alexei Nikitin, and the former CEO of the company, Sergei Fedorin. The main shareholder of Yulmart, Dmitry Kostygin, is sure that these "criminal cases have been fueled" by the efforts of Sberbank employees. At the same time, Kostygin mentioned Maxim Degtyarev and Svistunov, emphasizing in an interview with RBC: “Sberbank as an organization is interested in repaying a loan, but liquidation of Ulmart is more beneficial for individual employees. This direct statement may confirm the assumptions that have long been circulating in the market that Degtyarev and the contractors he attracts may well make money on the liquidation of borrowers' businesses, deciding legal issues through judges, many of whom have their own loans at Sberbank. In the case of Ulmart, there is another coincidence: immediately after the attack on the domestic online retailer began, Sberbank announced the creation of a joint venture in the field of online commerce with the Chinese Alibaba. There were reports in the press that the bankruptcy of Yulmart was planned for the subsequent sale of assets to Chinese partners.
It seems that only 3-5% of companies that find themselves in the area of action of Maxim Degtyarev's department are returning to a healthy state, and more than 95% of Sberbank borrowers who have encountered any difficulties are waiting for the liquidation and sale of property. Since the percentage of return on unsecured loans during the liquidation process is about 10-20%, the bank's tough policy may have some hidden economic reasons, unless Maxim Degtyarev sees his function in visually teaching domestic businessmen all the risks of cooperation with Sberbank.
In a conversation with RBC, the main shareholder of Yulmart, Dmitry Kostygin, it seems to me, ranked Maxim Degtyarev among the “dark forces” inside Sberbank and opposed the “light force” of German Gref to him. In this context, it would be interesting to know how liberal Gref is aware of the style of work of Maxim Degtyarev and how his technocratic convictions can correspond to the involvement of the security forces in resolving issues with borrowers? But even if we leave this question out of the brackets, the fact remains: the country's largest universal commercial Bank, which lends to thousands of businesses, may be led by a lover of "power methods" Maxim Degtyarev. Will Sberbank turn into a threat to the Russian economy instead of being the locomotive of its development?
21:21 , 27.05.2017
"FSB officer" in Sberbank Maxim Degtyarev
Deputy Gref shakes debts from borrowers until they are liquidated
Appearing on the federal administrative scene in 1998, German Gref quickly became a prominent figure. Now he is ready to use the successes of Sberbank as a springboard to the political Olympus. What can prevent the future prime minister is only the team, including the candidate for the post of successor to the head of the bank, Maxim Degtyarev.
Member of the Board and Deputy Minister of the Ministry of State Property, head of the Center for Strategic Research, later Minister of Economic Development and Trade, he was involved in Russia's entry into the WTO, represented the state on the boards of directors of large commodity and infrastructure companies, participated in the creation of free economic zones and prepared Sochi for the application for the Olympics. In October 2007, Gref headed Sberbank of Russia, which by the summer of 2016 overtook Gazprom in terms of capitalization. However, ten years as the head of a bank, albeit the largest in Russia, is too long for Gref's active nature. In 2016, his political ambitions became obvious: by proposing to Putin to create a shadow committee on reforms, German Gref actually declared that he was ready to lead the development of the entire Russian economy. And although the proposal was not accepted then, today it is Gref who is increasingly called the most likely successor to Dmitry Medvedev, whose rating is melting under the pressure of scandals, falling incomes of the population and the lack of clear prospects for economic growth.
In addition to the positive image of a reformer and progressive, German Gref has another important advantage: over the years of work at Sberbank, he created his own team, whose entry into the government could become a symbolic gesture in the spirit of early Putin. A new conceptual view of the economy, proven ability to innovate and achieve goals over the years at Sberbank, and a selection of proven personnel are, in fact, a ready-made recipe for the perfect cure for economic depression, which Putin can prescribe to the Russian economy shortly before the 2018 elections or immediately after them. This alignment will also positively affect the position of the Western world in relation to Russia: in developed countries they do not hide sympathy for Gref and Navalny, who actively supports the head of Sberbank in his desire to change his occupation. Inside the country, there is also no shortage of those who see Gref's appointment as head of government as an excellent solution. However, the rosy picture is slightly spoiled by the forecast of the activity of the most important bank for the economy after Gref's departure for an increase.
The so-called “Gref team” consists of four main figures who together can close all positions in the economic bloc of the government: Gref’s first deputy for Sberbank Maxim Poletaev will be put on the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Economic Development will be given to Kirill Androsov, who worked with Gref under Fradkov, the head of Sberbank -Capital" Ashot Khachaturyants will be sent to lead the Ministry of Energy, another first deputy chairman Lev Khasis- to the Ministry of Industry and Trade. Sources inside the bank say that a serious hardware war may flare up between Poletaev and Khasis - apparently none of them wants to leave their warm place in Sberbank and go “upstairs”, but the boss’s ambitions will certainly prevail, and the team will remain a team. “It is clear that if Gref leaves for the government, then he will take Khasis, Ashot, and Poletaev with him,” notes Pavel Danilin, a political scientist and leader of information projects at the Effective Policy Foundation. - But what will happen in Sberbank after Gref? .. Gref, if he leaves, will leave a locum tenens for himself, who will keep Sberbank in his orbit, and who will never set up either for Gref himself or for his entourage, which is in Sberbank will probably remain en masse. A man who could even move if he had to come back. So, there is already such a person in Sberbank. This is Vice President Maxim Degtyarev.”
Maxim Degtyarev, who is confidently spoken of as Gref's successor, is the vice president of Sberbank and heads the distressed assets department. Having completed a course at the Sberbank Academy and after that received the post of chief specialist in troubled assets, Degtyarev does not have enough stars from the sky, but no one doubts his loyalty to Gref - after all, in particular, it was he who was instructed to oversee a high-profile deal for the sale of Ukrainian daughters of Sberbank. According to the former deputy of the State Duma Ilya Ponomarev, Sberbank seems to have lost up to $ 70 million on this deal, and the circumstances that prompted the bankers to take such a step are still not known. Initially valuing the Ukrainian subsidiary at $600 million, Sberbank got only $130 million for it, although Ponomarev is convinced that "this deal could have been closed very quickly for $200 million of real money." Turning down the offer, after a series of opportune attacks on its Ukrainian branches, the bank apparently sold the subsidiary for a lower price, leaving everyone to wonder what made it take such a bad deal. In Moscow's Sberbank, according to Ponomarev, vice-president Maxim Degtyarev and department head Yuri Svistunov dealt with the sale.
“It was more like some kind of order,” Ilya Ponomarev shared his impressions with the Ukrainian edition of Apostrophe. - I even find it difficult to say - if not at the command from above, then how much the Sberbankers had to put in their pockets in order to agree to such an outright robbery ... I know German Oskarovich well, or these two gentlemen (Maxim Degtyarev and Yuri Svistunov) stupidly deceived, or, given the fact that Mr. Degtyarev is not his actual employee, but a career FSB officer seconded to Sberbank, it is quite possible that Gref was simply ordered to carry out this operation.
Maxim Degtyarev should take over the leadership of the most high-tech bank in Russia, which has 14,286 branches and serves millions of customers. However, the methods that Degtyarev resorts to as a specialist in working with problem assets say the least about him as a civilized manager. Since 2012, scandals around Sberbank and borrowing companies have not subsided, developing according to the same pattern: the issuance of a loan and negotiations on restructuring end with the criminal prosecution of the creditor and the seizure of his property in favor of companies likely associated with Sberbank. In May 2017, a source in the Ministry of Internal Affairs reported that Sberbank insisted on the arrest of well-known businessman Vladimir Kekhman, who is the founder and beneficiary of JFC, and concurrently the artistic director of the Mikhailovsky Theater in St. Petersburg and director of the Novosibirsk Opera and Ballet Theatre. After receiving a loan from Sberbank, JFC, which specializes in fruit imports, ran into difficulties caused by political instability in the countries of the Arab East and was forced to declare bankruptcy. However, the statutory procedure for settling relations with a creditor did not suit Sberbank, and Kekhman, who apparently has nothing to do with the company, became a defendant in a large-scale fraud case. Kekhman openly says that “for three years the case has been under undisguised and incredibly active pressure from Sberbank,” but so far he remains at large, most likely thanks to support from the Ministry of Culture and, probably, a personal acquaintance with President Putin.
Another major borrower that Sberbank engaged law enforcement agencies to communicate with is the owner of the Visma group, Valery Geryugov, who, at the initiative of Sberbank, was placed under house arrest by the court in April 2017. Arkhyz, a mineral water producer, is suspected of embezzling loans received from Sberbank for a total of 1.8 billion rubles. The most famous Sberbank borrower to the general public, who faced persecution by law enforcement officers, is the head of the National Association, Eduard Sagalaev. The famous television man acted as a guarantor for a loan that his son took to create a drug treatment clinic - and now he faces prosecution at the origins of which is the Srednerussky Bank of Sberbank of Russia. “The clinic has been operating for five years, we paid off this loan, but some difficulties arose due to the crisis, and we negotiated with Sberbank to sign a settlement agreement. Everything seemed to be fine, but Sberbank, apparently, decided to speed up the process in this way,” Sagalaev, 70, told Arguments of the Week.
The scandal involving the network retailer Ulmart also calls into question the attitude of the possible head of Sberbank towards the development of innovations and advanced technologies. The bank's tough policy towards the borrower led to the initiation of a criminal case against the founder of the trading Internet network, Alexei Nikitin, and the former CEO of the company, Sergei Fedorin. The main shareholder of Yulmart, Dmitry Kostygin, is sure that these "criminal cases have been fueled" by the efforts of Sberbank employees. At the same time, Kostygin mentioned Maxim Degtyarev and Svistunov, emphasizing in an interview with RBC: “Sberbank, as an organization, is interested in repaying a loan, but liquidation of Yulmart is more beneficial for individual employees. This direct statement may confirm the assumptions that have long been circulating in the market that Degtyarev and the contractors he attracts may well make money on the liquidation of borrowers' businesses, resolving legal issues through judges, many of whom have their own loans in Sberbank. In the case of Ulmart, there is another coincidence: immediately after the attack on the domestic online retailer began, Sberbank announced the creation of a joint venture in the field of online commerce with the Chinese Alibaba. There were reports in the press that the bankruptcy of Yulmart was planned for the subsequent sale of assets to Chinese partners.
It seems that only 3-5% of companies that find themselves in the area of action of Maxim Degtyarev's department are returning to a healthy state, and more than 95% of Sberbank borrowers who have encountered any difficulties are waiting for the liquidation and sale of property. Since the percentage of return on unsecured loans during the liquidation process is about 10-20%, the bank's tough policy may have some hidden economic reasons, unless Maxim Degtyarev sees his function in visually teaching domestic businessmen all the risks of cooperation with Sberbank.
In a conversation with RBC, the main shareholder of Yulmart, Dmitry Kostygin, it seems to me, ranked Maxim Degtyarev among the “dark forces” inside Sberbank and opposed the “light force” of German Gref to him. In this context, it would be interesting to know how liberal Gref is aware of the style of work of Maxim Degtyarev and how his technocratic convictions can correspond to the involvement of the security forces in resolving issues with borrowers? But even if we leave this question out of the question, the fact remains: the country's largest universal commercial bank, which lends to thousands of businesses, may be under the leadership of Maxim Degtyarev, an amateur of "power methods". Will Sberbank turn into a threat to the Russian economy instead of being the locomotive of its development?
"FSB officer" in Sberbank Maxim Degtyarev
Deputy Gref shakes debts from borrowers until they are liquidated.
Appearing on the federal administrative scene in 1998, German Gref quickly became a prominent figure. Now he is ready to use the successes of Sberbank as a springboard to the political Olympus. What can prevent the future prime minister is only the team, including the candidate for the post of successor to the head of the bank, Maxim Degtyarev.
Member of the Board and Deputy Minister of the Ministry of State Property, head of the Center for Strategic Research, later Minister of Economic Development and Trade, he was involved in Russia's entry into the WTO, represented the state on the boards of directors of large commodity and infrastructure companies, participated in the creation of free economic zones and prepared Sochi for the application for the Olympics. In October 2007, Gref became the head of Sberbank of Russia, which by the summer of 2016 had overtaken Gazprom in terms of capitalization. However, ten years as the head of a bank, albeit the largest in Russia, is too long for Gref's active nature. In 2016, his political ambitions became obvious: by proposing to Putin to create a shadow committee on reforms, German Gref actually declared that he was ready to lead the development of the entire Russian economy. And although the proposal was not accepted then, today it is Gref who is increasingly called the most likely successor to Dmitry Medvedev, whose rating is melting under the pressure of scandals, falling incomes of the population and the lack of clear prospects for economic growth.
In addition to the positive image of a reformer and progressive, German Gref has another important advantage: over the years of work at Sberbank, he created his own team, whose entry into the government could become a symbolic gesture in the spirit of early Putin. A new conceptual view of the economy, proven ability to innovate and achieve goals over the years at Sberbank, and a selection of proven personnel are, in fact, a ready-made recipe for the perfect cure for economic depression, which Putin can prescribe to the Russian economy shortly before the 2018 elections or immediately after them. This alignment will also positively affect the position of the Western world in relation to Russia: in developed countries they do not hide sympathy for Gref and Navalny, who actively supports the head of Sberbank in his desire to change his occupation. Inside the country, there is also no shortage of those who see Gref's appointment as head of government as an excellent solution. However, the rosy picture is slightly spoiled by the forecast of the activity of the most important bank for the economy after Gref's departure for an increase.
The so-called “Gref team” consists of four main figures who together can close all positions in the economic bloc of the government: Gref’s first deputy for Sberbank Maxim Poletaev will be put on the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Economic Development will be given to Kirill Androsov, who worked with Gref under Fradkov, the head of Sberbank -Capital" Ashot Khachaturyants will be sent to lead the Ministry of Energy, another first deputy chairman Lev Khasis - to the Ministry of Industry and Trade. Sources inside the bank say that a serious hardware war may flare up between Poletaev and Khasis - apparently none of them wants to leave their warm place in Sberbank and go “upstairs”, but the boss’s ambitions will certainly prevail, and the team will remain a team. “It is clear that if Gref leaves for the government, then he will take Khasis, Ashot, and Poletaev with him,” notes Pavel Danilin, a political scientist and leader of information projects at the Effective Policy Foundation. - But what will happen in Sberbank after Gref? .. Gref, if he leaves, will leave a locum tenens for himself, who will keep Sberbank in his orbit, and who will never set up either for Gref himself or for his entourage, which is in Sberbank will probably remain en masse. A man who could even move if he had to come back. So, there is already such a person in Sberbank. This is Vice President Maxim Degtyarev.”
Maxim Degtyarev, who is confidently spoken of as Gref's successor, is the vice president of Sberbank and heads the distressed assets department. Having completed a course at the Sberbank Academy and after that received the post of chief specialist in troubled assets, Degtyarev does not have enough stars from the sky, but no one doubts his loyalty to Gref - after all, in particular, it was he who was instructed to oversee a high-profile deal for the sale of Ukrainian daughters of Sberbank. According to former State Duma deputy Ilya Ponomarev, Sberbank seems to have lost up to $70 million on this deal, and the circumstances that prompted the bankers to take such a step are still not known. Initially valuing the Ukrainian subsidiary at $600 million, Sberbank got only $130 million for it, although Ponomarev is convinced that "this deal could have been closed very quickly for $200 million of real money." Turning down the offer, after a series of opportune attacks on its Ukrainian branches, the bank apparently sold the subsidiary for a lower price, leaving everyone to wonder what made it take such a bad deal. In Moscow's Sberbank, according to Ponomarev, vice-president Maxim Degtyarev and department head Yuri Svistunov dealt with the sale.
“It was more like some kind of order,” Ilya Ponomarev shared his impressions with the Ukrainian edition of Apostrophe. - I even find it difficult to say - if not at the command from above, then how much the Sberbankers had to put in their pockets in order to agree to such an outright robbery ... I know German Oskarovich well, or these two gentlemen (Maxim Degtyarev and Yuri Svistunov) stupidly deceived, or, given the fact that Mr. Degtyarev is not his actual employee, but a career FSB officer seconded to Sberbank, it is quite possible that Gref was simply ordered to carry out this operation.
Maxim Degtyarev should take over the leadership of the most high-tech bank in Russia, which has 14,286 branches and serves millions of customers. However, the methods that Degtyarev resorts to as a specialist in working with problem assets say the least about him as a civilized manager. Since 2012, scandals around Sberbank and borrowing companies have not subsided, developing according to the same pattern: the issuance of a loan and negotiations on restructuring end with the criminal prosecution of the creditor and the seizure of his property in favor of companies likely associated with Sberbank. In May 2017, a source in the Ministry of Internal Affairs reported that Sberbank insisted on the arrest of well-known businessman Vladimir Kekhman, who is the founder and beneficiary of JFC, and concurrently the artistic director of the Mikhailovsky Theater in St. Petersburg and director of the Novosibirsk Opera and Ballet Theatre. After receiving a loan from Sberbank, JFC, which specializes in fruit imports, ran into difficulties caused by political instability in the countries of the Arab East and was forced to declare bankruptcy. However, the statutory procedure for settling relations with a creditor did not suit Sberbank, and Kekhman, who apparently has nothing to do with the company, became a defendant in a large-scale fraud case. Kekhman openly says that “for three years the case has been under undisguised and incredibly active pressure from Sberbank,” but so far he remains at large, most likely thanks to support from the Ministry of Culture and, probably, a personal acquaintance with President Putin.
Another major borrower that Sberbank engaged law enforcement agencies to communicate with is the owner of the Visma group, Valery Geryugov, who, at the initiative of Sberbank, was placed under house arrest by the court in April 2017. Arkhyz, a mineral water producer, is suspected of embezzling loans received from Sberbank for a total of 1.8 billion rubles. The most famous Sberbank borrower to the general public, who faced persecution by law enforcement officers, is the head of the National Association, Eduard Sagalaev. The famous television man acted as a guarantor for a loan that his son took to create a drug treatment clinic - and now he faces prosecution at the origins of which is the Srednerussky Bank of Sberbank of Russia. “The clinic has been operating for five years, we paid off this loan, but some difficulties arose due to the crisis, and we negotiated with Sberbank to sign a settlement agreement. Everything seemed to be fine, but Sberbank, apparently, decided to speed up the process in this way,” Sagalaev, 70, told Arguments of the Week.
The scandal involving the network retailer Ulmart also calls into question the attitude of the possible head of Sberbank towards the development of innovations and advanced technologies. The bank's tough policy towards the borrower led to the initiation of a criminal case against the founder of the trading Internet network, Alexei Nikitin, and the former CEO of the company, Sergei Fedorin. The main shareholder of Yulmart, Dmitry Kostygin, is sure that these "criminal cases have been fueled" by the efforts of Sberbank employees. At the same time, Kostygin mentioned Maxim Degtyarev and Svistunov, emphasizing in an interview with RBC: “Sberbank, as an organization, is interested in repaying a loan, but liquidation of Yulmart is more beneficial for individual employees. This direct statement may confirm the assumptions that have long been circulating in the market that Degtyarev and the contractors he attracts may well make money on the liquidation of borrowers' businesses, resolving legal issues through judges, many of whom have their own loans in Sberbank. In the case of Ulmart, there is another coincidence: immediately after the attack on the domestic online retailer began, Sberbank announced the creation of a joint venture in the field of online commerce with the Chinese Alibaba. There were reports in the press that the bankruptcy of Yulmart was planned for the subsequent sale of assets to Chinese partners.
It seems that only 3-5% of companies that find themselves in the area of action of Maxim Degtyarev's department are returning to a healthy state, and more than 95% of Sberbank borrowers who have encountered any difficulties are waiting for the liquidation and sale of property. Since the percentage of return on unsecured loans during the liquidation process is about 10-20%, the bank's tough policy may have some hidden economic reasons, unless Maxim Degtyarev sees his function in visually teaching domestic businessmen all the risks of cooperation with Sberbank.
In a conversation with RBC, the main shareholder of Yulmart, Dmitry Kostygin, it seems to me, ranked Maxim Degtyarev among the “dark forces” inside Sberbank and opposed the “light force” of German Gref to him. In this context, it would be interesting to know how liberal Gref is aware of the style of work of Maxim Degtyarev and how his technocratic convictions can correspond to the involvement of the security forces in resolving issues with borrowers? But even if we leave this question out of the question, the fact remains: the country's largest universal commercial bank, which lends to thousands of businesses, may be under the leadership of Maxim Degtyarev, an amateur of "power methods". Will Sberbank turn into a threat to the Russian economy instead of being the locomotive of its development?
"FSB officer" in Sberbank Maxim Degtyarev
Deputy Gref shakes debts from borrowers until they are liquidated.
Appearing on the federal administrative scene in 1998, German Gref quickly became a prominent figure. Now he is ready to use the successes of Sberbank as a springboard to the political Olympus. What can prevent the future prime minister is only the team, including the candidate for the post of successor to the head of the bank, Maxim Degtyarev.
Member of the Board and Deputy Minister of the Ministry of State Property, head of the Center for Strategic Research, later Minister of Economic Development and Trade, he was involved in Russia's entry into the WTO, represented the state on the boards of directors of large commodity and infrastructure companies, participated in the creation of free economic zones and prepared Sochi for the application for the Olympics. In October 2007, Gref became the head of Sberbank of Russia, which by the summer of 2016 had overtaken Gazprom in terms of capitalization. However, ten years as the head of a bank, albeit the largest in Russia, is too long for Gref's active nature. In 2016, his political ambitions became obvious: by proposing to Putin to create a shadow committee on reforms, German Gref actually declared that he was ready to lead the development of the entire Russian economy. And although the proposal was not accepted then, today it is Gref who is increasingly called the most likely successor to Dmitry Medvedev, whose rating is melting under the pressure of scandals, falling incomes of the population and the lack of clear prospects for economic growth.
In addition to the positive image of a reformer and progressive, German Gref has another important advantage: over the years of work at Sberbank, he created his own team, whose entry into the government could become a symbolic gesture in the spirit of early Putin. A new conceptual view of the economy, proven ability to innovate and achieve goals over the years at Sberbank, and a selection of proven personnel are, in fact, a ready-made recipe for the perfect cure for economic depression, which Putin can prescribe to the Russian economy shortly before the 2018 elections or immediately after them. This alignment will also positively affect the position of the Western world in relation to Russia: in developed countries they do not hide sympathy for Gref and Navalny, who actively supports the head of Sberbank in his desire to change his occupation. Inside the country, there is also no shortage of those who see Gref's appointment as head of government as an excellent solution. However, the rosy picture is slightly spoiled by the forecast of the activity of the most important bank for the economy after Gref's departure for an increase.
The so-called “Gref team” consists of four main figures who together can close all positions in the economic bloc of the government: Gref’s first deputy for Sberbank Maxim Poletaev will be put on the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Economic Development will be given to Kirill Androsov, who worked with Gref under Fradkov, the head of Sberbank -Capital" Ashot Khachaturyants will be sent to lead the Ministry of Energy, another first deputy chairman Lev Khasis - to the Ministry of Industry and Trade. Sources inside the bank say that a serious hardware war may flare up between Poletaev and Khasis - apparently none of them wants to leave their warm place in Sberbank and go “upstairs”, but the boss’s ambitions will certainly prevail, and the team will remain a team. “It is clear that if Gref leaves for the government, then he will take Khasis, Ashot, and Poletaev with him,” notes Pavel Danilin, a political scientist and leader of information projects at the Effective Policy Foundation. - But what will happen in Sberbank after Gref? .. Gref, if he leaves, will leave a locum tenens for himself, who will keep Sberbank in his orbit, and who will never set up either for Gref himself or for his entourage, which is in Sberbank will probably remain en masse. A man who could even move if he had to come back. So, there is already such a person in Sberbank. This is Vice President Maxim Degtyarev.”
Maxim Degtyarev, who is confidently spoken of as Gref's successor, is the vice president of Sberbank and heads the distressed assets department. Having completed a course at the Sberbank Academy and after that received the post of chief specialist in troubled assets, Degtyarev does not have enough stars from the sky, but no one doubts his loyalty to Gref - after all, in particular, it was he who was instructed to oversee a high-profile deal for the sale of Ukrainian daughters of Sberbank. According to former State Duma deputy Ilya Ponomarev, Sberbank seems to have lost up to $70 million on this deal, and the circumstances that prompted the bankers to take such a step are still not known. Initially valuing the Ukrainian subsidiary at $600 million, Sberbank got only $130 million for it, although Ponomarev is convinced that "this deal could have been closed very quickly for $200 million of real money." Turning down the offer, after a series of opportune attacks on its Ukrainian branches, the bank apparently sold the subsidiary for a lower price, leaving everyone to wonder what made it take such a bad deal. In Moscow's Sberbank, according to Ponomarev, vice-president Maxim Degtyarev and department head Yuri Svistunov dealt with the sale.
“It was more like some kind of order,” Ilya Ponomarev shared his impressions with the Ukrainian edition of Apostrophe. - I even find it difficult to say - if not at the command from above, then how much the Sberbankers had to put in their pockets in order to agree to such an outright robbery ... I know German Oskarovich well, or these two gentlemen (Maxim Degtyarev and Yuri Svistunov) stupidly deceived, or, given the fact that Mr. Degtyarev is not his actual employee, but a career FSB officer seconded to Sberbank, it is quite possible that Gref was simply ordered to carry out this operation.
Maxim Degtyarev should take over the leadership of the most high-tech bank in Russia, which has 14,286 branches and serves millions of customers. However, the methods that Degtyarev resorts to as a specialist in working with problem assets say the least about him as a civilized manager. Since 2012, scandals around Sberbank and borrowing companies have not subsided, developing according to the same pattern: the issuance of a loan and negotiations on restructuring end with the criminal prosecution of the creditor and the seizure of his property in favor of companies likely associated with Sberbank. In May 2017, a source in the Ministry of Internal Affairs reported that Sberbank insisted on the arrest of well-known businessman Vladimir Kekhman, who is the founder and beneficiary of JFC, and concurrently the artistic director of the Mikhailovsky Theater in St. Petersburg and director of the Novosibirsk Opera and Ballet Theatre. After receiving a loan from Sberbank, JFC, which specializes in fruit imports, ran into difficulties caused by political instability in the countries of the Arab East and was forced to declare bankruptcy. However, the statutory procedure for settling relations with a creditor did not suit Sberbank, and Kekhman, who apparently has nothing to do with the company, became a defendant in a large-scale fraud case. Kekhman openly says that “for three years the case has been under undisguised and incredibly active pressure from Sberbank,” but so far he remains at large, most likely thanks to support from the Ministry of Culture and, probably, a personal acquaintance with President Putin.
Another major borrower that Sberbank engaged law enforcement agencies to communicate with is the owner of the Visma group, Valery Geryugov, who, at the initiative of Sberbank, was placed under house arrest by the court in April 2017. Arkhyz, a mineral water producer, is suspected of embezzling loans received from Sberbank for a total of 1.8 billion rubles. The most famous Sberbank borrower to the general public, who faced persecution by law enforcement officers, is the head of the National Association, Eduard Sagalaev. The famous television man acted as a guarantor for a loan that his son took to create a drug treatment clinic - and now he faces prosecution at the origins of which is the Srednerussky Bank of Sberbank of Russia. “The clinic has been operating for five years, we paid off this loan, but some difficulties arose due to the crisis, and we negotiated with Sberbank to sign a settlement agreement. Everything seemed to be fine, but Sberbank, apparently, decided to speed up the process in this way,” Sagalaev, 70, told Arguments of the Week.
The scandal involving the network retailer Ulmart also calls into question the attitude of the possible head of Sberbank towards the development of innovations and advanced technologies. The bank's tough policy towards the borrower led to the initiation of a criminal case against the founder of the trading Internet network, Alexei Nikitin, and the former CEO of the company, Sergei Fedorin. The main shareholder of Yulmart, Dmitry Kostygin, is sure that these "criminal cases have been fueled" by the efforts of Sberbank employees. At the same time, Kostygin mentioned Maxim Degtyarev and Svistunov, emphasizing in an interview with RBC: “Sberbank, as an organization, is interested in repaying a loan, but liquidation of Yulmart is more beneficial for individual employees. This direct statement may confirm the assumptions that have long been circulating in the market that Degtyarev and the contractors he attracts may well make money on the liquidation of borrowers' businesses, resolving legal issues through judges, many of whom have their own loans in Sberbank. In the case of Ulmart, there is another coincidence: immediately after the attack on the domestic online retailer began, Sberbank announced the creation of a joint venture in the field of online commerce with the Chinese Alibaba. There were reports in the press that the bankruptcy of Yulmart was planned for the subsequent sale of assets to Chinese partners.
It seems that only 3-5% of companies that find themselves in the area of action of Maxim Degtyarev's department are returning to a healthy state, and more than 95% of Sberbank borrowers who have encountered any difficulties are waiting for the liquidation and sale of property. Since the percentage of return on unsecured loans during the liquidation process is about 10-20%, the bank's tough policy may have some hidden economic reasons, unless Maxim Degtyarev sees his function in visually teaching domestic businessmen all the risks of cooperation with Sberbank.
In a conversation with RBC, the main shareholder of Yulmart, Dmitry Kostygin, it seems to me, ranked Maxim Degtyarev among the “dark forces” inside Sberbank and opposed the “light force” of German Gref to him. In this context, it would be interesting to know how liberal Gref is aware of the style of work of Maxim Degtyarev and how his technocratic convictions can correspond to the involvement of the security forces in resolving issues with borrowers? But even if we leave this question out of the question, the fact remains: the country's largest universal commercial bank, which lends to thousands of businesses, may be under the leadership of Maxim Degtyarev, an amateur of "power methods". Will Sberbank turn into a threat to the Russian economy instead of being the locomotive of its development?
