Biography of Gleb Sergeevich Frank. Gleb Frank became the king of pollock Early years

Along with Rosneft and Gazprom, the center of power may become the state shipping company Sovcomflot, specializing in the maritime transportation of energy resources, mainly oil and liquefied gas. The board of directors of the company is chaired by the head of the presidential administration, Sergei Naryshkin. Until recently, the council included Alexander Bortnikov, who was appointed director of the FSB. And at the moment, among the members of the council are the chairman of the board of Vneshtorgbank, Andrei Kostin, and a longtime acquaintance of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, the president of Transneft, Nikolai Tokarev.

As Novaya learned, the son of Sovcomflot CEO Sergei Frank, Gleb, is engaged to the daughter of the co-owner of the Gunvor group, Gennady Timchenko, another longtime friend of Putin.

A source close to Sovcomflot assured that this is not a legal fact, nothing has been decided yet, and it is unlikely to rush things, much less link them to the business of the two companies.

Gunvor is the third largest oil trader in the world. Approximately 30 percent of oil and petroleum products from Russia are exported through it. According to the Financial Times, last year Gunvor exported 83 million tons of oil and petroleum products from the country (that’s $43 billion). The group is the largest trader of Rosneft and has contracts with Gazpromneft, Surgutneftegaz and TNK-BP. The co-owner of Gunvor, Swedish entrepreneur Torbjörn Tornqvist, in an interview with FT, did not deny Timchenko’s acquaintance with Putin, but assured that this does not affect their business.

Through Clearlake Shipping, Gunvor charters five Sovcomflot tankers on a long-term basis at market prices. Sovcomflot assured that it does not give preference to anyone and, in accordance with the freight policy, no client can claim more than 10 percent of the tankers.

Since 2003, MGIMO graduate Gleb Frank worked for some time in the Industrial Investors group of former Minister of Fuel and Energy Sergei Generalov (the group, in particular, includes the Far Eastern Shipping Company). He also interned at the Moscow law firm Sokolov, Maslov and Partners, specializing in maritime and transport law. Among its clients are sea and river shipping companies, fishing enterprises, shipyards and foreign maritime carriers.

In 1992, the company was founded by former senior employees of the legal department of Sovcomflot Mikhail Sokolov and Iftikhar Pirov. In 1998-1999, Sokolov was deputy head of the legislative and legal department of the Ministry of Transport (at that time the ministry was headed by Sergei Frank). Alexander Makovsky was also a co-founder of the law firm. Since 1991, he was deputy chairman of the board of the Research Center for Private Law under the President of the Russian Federation, was involved in lawmaking, prepared international conventions in the field of maritime law, and since 1994 - chaired the board of the Scientific Advisory Center for Private Law of the CIS.

Gleb Frank is currently deputy general director of Gazprombank-Invest (investments in Russian real estate).

We sent a letter to Gleb Frank, but he is on vacation and has not commented on the situation. Gennady Timchenko did not respond to Novaya’s request.

The general director of Sovcomflot, Sergei Frank, with whom we were able to contact, does not consider the interest in the personal life of his son justified. But experts don't entirely agree with him.

“In world practice, the heads of state-owned companies are included among the persons significant to society, since they manage public property and make decisions in this regard,” notes Elena Panfilova, director of the Center for Anti-Corruption Research and Initiatives of Transpirency International in Russia. — Of course, everyone has the right to privacy. But in a number of countries, in order to avoid unnecessary questions, there is a practice of declaring a conflict of interest. And if we are talking about a possible relationship between the head of a state-owned company and the owner of a private structure, which are connected by business relations, then the head of the state-owned company is either removed from making decisions related to this structure, or the decision is made collectively.

Elena Panfilova believes that for Russia the question remains open of how society or the government are going to resolve conflicts of interest. So far there are no legislative instruments, and few people understand how this should be done.

President Dmitry Medvedev's initiatives aimed at preventing corruption include regulating the activities of not only officials, but also judges and law enforcement officers, but so far parliamentarians, military officers and heads of state-owned companies and corporations have been excluded from the list.

Transpirience International proposes introducing the term “public officials” to cover everyone, and is confident that there are no legal restrictions on this.

Sergei Frank explained that the personal sphere has no relation to official activities. He has known Gennady Timchenko for about two or three years. But Gunvor began to cooperate with Sovcomflot long before he (Frank) became the general director, and the relationship between the companies is absolutely market-based, and Clearlake Shipping is not the main charterer of the vessels.

There is no conflict of interest, since the general director does not single-handedly give the command to provide vessels for charter. The decision is made by a charter committee consisting of five people, two of whom are British nationals. The vessel is released for charter only if there are five signatures. In addition, there are four independent directors on the Sovcomflot board of directors.

According to a source at Sovcomflot, the appearance of information about Gleb Frank may be associated with a conflict in which the former head of Sovcomflot Dmitry Skarga appears. Skarga is based in the UK. The Prosecutor General's Office demands his extradition and accuses him of abuse of power, as well as causing damage to Sovcomflot. Sovcomflot is suing Skarga and businessman Dmitry Nikitin in a London court, demanding payment of $700 million.

Experts believe that family members of the Russian elite have a very narrow social network, which quite naturally leads to dynastic alliances.

“Dynastic marriages are the norm for Russia; if they are sealed with love, this can only be welcomed, but they are perceived as an additional element of a personal union, even if the children do not want to think about it and act sincerely,” reflects Mikhail Delyagin, director of the Institute of Globalization Problems. — Such marriages help strengthen relations between the actors, make the situation more stable, but do not always prevent conflict.

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The daughter of Transneft President Nikolai Tokarev, Maya, married Andrei Bolotov. In the late nineties, he worked at the Russian-German Leasing Company (leasing equipment to Russian enterprises, the main shareholder was Sberbank), and since 2000, at Deutsche Leasing Vostok. After Tokarev headed Zarubezhneft, Bolotov worked for some time in a state-owned company in 2001. In the same year, he became an employee of ITERA Holding, and in 2002, of ITERA-owned Gazkhiminvest and the Zarit joint venture for oil and gas production on the Turkmen shelf of the Caspian Sea. The company was founded in 2002 by Zarubezhneft, Rosneft and ITERA. In 2003, in addition to Zarit, Andrei Bolotov was associated with the ITERA Gazneftekhim Company, and since 2005 he has been working at Vneshtorgbank. By 2007, he headed the first VTB department for working with large clients.

The youngest son of Rosneft President Sergei Bogdanchikov, Evgeniy, married the daughter of the Minister of Industry and Energy Viktor Khristenko, Yulia, in 2004. Since 2004, Yulia Bogdanchikova worked for some time as a leading specialist in the legal department of Sevmorneftegaz (created in 2002 by subsidiaries of Rosneft and Gazprom for the development of the near-fault oil and Shtokman gas condensate fields; in 2006, Gazprom consolidated 100% of the shares) , then left her position and began studying psychology.

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Frank Gleb Sergeevich is an entrepreneur, known primarily as the founder and owner of the RRPK company, the largest pollock producer in Russia and the world. It is also partly owned by the enterprises RPK Nord (field of activity - industrial oil transshipment) and Infotek-Baltika (sea cargo transportation). Chairman of the Board of Directors of the construction company Stroytransgaz, a general contractor in the field of design, construction and comprehensive maintenance of energy industrial facilities.

Early years and education

Born in 1982 in the city of Vladivostok. When Gleb was 13 years old, the family moved to Moscow. After graduating from the capital's secondary special school with in-depth study of a foreign language, Gleb Frank entered MGIMO and became the holder of an international lawyer's diploma. Having decided to devote himself to business, he receives an appropriate education in Europe. Gleb Frank has an MBA degree from the French INSEAD Business School, as well as a diploma of completion of two training courses taken at the International Institute of Management Development (Switzerland).

Beginning of career and RRPK

In 2011, Gleb Frank became one of the members of the board of directors of Russian Aquaculture, the largest Russian importer of fish. Soon, the young ambitious entrepreneur decides to start his own business and in the same year establishes the Russian Sea – Production company. Today, the holding, known as the Russian Fishery Company (renamed in 2014), specializes in catching Far Eastern fish and is considered the largest pollock producer in Russia. As of 2017, the company had a quota of 226,300 tons, which is about 14% of the total Russian pollock production.

At the beginning of 2018, the businessman bought back part of the securities and became the main owner of RRPK, owning 89.95% of the company’s shares.

Other business projects

In 2014, Gleb Frank successfully headed the board of directors of the Stroytransgaz joint-stock holding, which serves energy projects of national and international scale. Two years later, he buys shares in RPK Nord, the owner of the floating oil storage facility Umba, whose cargo capacity is about 300,000 tons. Another acquisition of the entrepreneur was a part of the Infotek-Baltika company, which operates in the field of complex sea transportation of cargo of various categories and has its own representative offices in almost all major Russian ports, from St. Petersburg to Murmansk.

Son-in-law of Gennady Timchenko ousted the brother of the governor of the Moscow region Andrei Vorobyov from the fishing business

Gennady Timchenko's son-in-law Gleb Frank is acquiring the share of Maxim Vorobyov, brother of the governor of the Moscow region, in Russian Fishery Company LLC (RRPC) and will become its controlling owner, the company announced. Representatives of businessmen also confirmed the information. RRPK is one of the largest companies in Russia for the production of Pacific fish - pollock and herring. In the pollock market, the most popular and profitable Russian fish, RRPK ranks first in Russia and third in the world, according to its own data.

The company was founded by Frank and Vorobyov in 2011 and was originally called “Russian Sea - Production”, later it was renamed RRPK.

Now, according to the Unified State Register of Legal Entities, the shares between the partners in RRPK are distributed as follows: Frank has 45.25%, Vorobyov has 44.7%, another 5.48% belongs to RRPK General Director Andrey Teterkin. The remaining 4.57% is owned by RMD Yuva, which is 100% owned by RRPK.

Consequently, after the transaction, Frank will directly own almost 90% of the company. And taking into account the share of RMD Yuva, more than 94% of the RRPK will be under Frank’s control. The transaction will also include shares in other legal entities of RRPK, the company said in a statement.

Gennady Timchenko's son-in-law Gleb Frank acquires the share of Maxim Vorobyov, brother of the governor of the Moscow region

The transaction amount is not disclosed. It will be closed after receiving approval from the Federal Antimonopoly Service.

In 2016, the company's revenue amounted to $238.1 million, EBITDA - $107.1 million, according to unaudited IFRS statements, the company reported. She did not publish data for 2017.

In 2017, RRPK also began to deal with crab: it won quotas for the production of 2,400 tons of crab at the Rosrybolovstvo auction.

Negotiations on the sale of the share began last year and lasted about six months, says an acquaintance of Vorobyov and Frank. “Maxim and I created RRPK seven years ago and together we went through a difficult path to the company’s leadership position in the Russian market. I am grateful to him for this,” Frank said in a company statement.

Vorobiev decided to concentrate on his other projects, including aquaculture production, says his friend. Vorobyov is the main shareholder of Russian Aquaculture, a major producer of lake trout and Atlantic salmon.

Maxim Vorobyov, brother of the Governor of the Moscow Region Andrei Vorobyov

Now RRPK faces large-scale tasks related to the modernization of the fleet and the construction of new ships, expanding the geography of its presence and finding new sales channels for its products, notes Frank.

RRPK has indeed recently announced big plans for further development. Thus, in 2017, it signed an agreement with Russian shipyards for the construction of six trawlers under the state investment quota program; the contract allows for the construction of two more trawlers. This will increase RRPK quotas by 150,000–200,000 tons. The total investment in the new fleet will be about $900 million. RRPK also intends to invest more than $30 million in onshore processing facilities. In addition, the company plans to increase the share of fish fillets in its production.

Ekaterina Burlakova

After Gleb Frank became the largest co-owner of Russian Aquaculture (formerly Russian Sea), rumors appeared about the possible departure of Maxim Vorobyov from this asset. Independent experts told The Moscow Post correspondent about this.