Plot

The case of the Arbat Prestige company. Details

Two people have been detained in the so-called “Arbat Prestige case” - the owner of the company, Vladimir Nekrasov, and Evergate consultant Sergei Schneider (Mogilevich). It is expected that those involved in the “Arbat Prestige case” will be charged with tax evasion.

News, 10:07 04/18/2011

The case of the former owner of Arbat Prestige has been dropped, the lawyer said

The investigation has stopped the criminal prosecution of the former owner of the Arbat Prestige company, Vladimir Nekrasov, and businessman Sergei Schneider (Semyon Mogilevich), who were previously charged with tax evasion, Nekrasov’s lawyer Alexander Dobrovinsky told RAPSI on Monday.

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Nekrasov: Let's.

Nekrasov: Absolutely. No one had done this before us, and after us there was only one Euroset with prices, but these prices appeared after our prices, so...

Malykhina: Is this a consequence of price history?

Nekrasov: Yes.

Malykhina: Let me remind you, the “Na-Na” group is half naked, a bunch of videos with drag queens and Zaza Napoli - whatever was there, Santa Clauses...

Nekrasov: The group "Na-Na" is "Let's smell it together!" I mean, this is debatable, but...

Malykhina: I’m thinking about something now... the 90s, everything seems to be correct, the end of the 90s...

Nekrasov: Grandmothers wrote letters to the Moscow mayor’s office: “We can’t, they’re wearing shorts, we can’t sleep, we’ve lost our appetite and blood pressure. We said: “Come to our store, we will cure you. Female pressure will go away just within 24 hours.”

Malykhina: How does this happen? In the first part of our program, you said that the marketing concept was about women’s happiness, about women and so on, yet it should be somehow elegant, beautiful, dresses with a train, and then, suddenly, some kind of shocking thing. That is, the positioning is one, but the advertising that conveys a certain message is completely different. Like this?

Nekrasov: She is not different. You see, the first advertisement that Zaza did was still a drag queen, and we work for a woman and we are only interested in women, almost 90% of our sales are women’s assortment. We had men, as I can tell you, like a free page for Ogonyok magazine.

Malykhina: Okay, but after the video with Zaza Napoli, gay portals actively discussed the fact that Arbat Prestige is the only perfume chain aimed not only at women, but also at everyone else. And they praised it very much.

Nekrasov: I want to tell you that we had a huge number of salespeople who were not recruited by me, and I didn’t even see them, the sales director recruited them, because they are the most best sellers.

Malykhina: In general, in my opinion, it is somehow easier to communicate and understand with women.

Nekrasov: It may be simpler, but these were the best sellers and they earned the most. And women came to them who wanted to communicate with them. After all, it’s comfortable when they don’t load you up and say: “Buy this cream, because it costs 5 thousand rubles or 3 thousand rubles.” And you just come to a guy, and the guy says to you: “Do you want to be beautiful? There is a cream for 200 rubles, there is a cream for 50 rubles, there is a cream for 3 thousand. What kind of wallet do you have, how much money do you have?

Malykhina: What is the nature of shocking advertising? How did you come up with it? Why did you decide to take such a sharp edge?

Nekrasov: Because it was necessary to attract buyers. It was necessary to show the buyer that there was another network aimed specifically at women. You remembered “Na-Na” and the dancing half-naked guys - yes, they danced and pretended to be very happy, because that’s how it was. We are focused on women.

Malykhina: If Arbat Prestige existed now, what kind of advertising would it be?

Nekrasov: We have New Year.

Malykhina: Doesn't matter?

Nekrasov: We have a New Year, but it would be different.

Malykhina: I mean, would this outrageousness go away? Here is Euroset. They spent some time with their prices, sympathized with them, and then moved into the category of such generally accepted, publicly available advertising messages without ostentation.

Nekrasov: Well, you know, this is a difficult question, because everyone who talks about “Arbat Prestige” says: “And we have a New Year.” It sits so tightly in my head. If you say, “It’s New Year’s Eve,” don’t think that it’s anyone other than Arbat Prestige.

Malykhina: I mean, these extremes, would they be?

Nekrasov: I think yes. Maybe they would be different, but they would be there. Another creative. For example, the first shampoo we sold was for 19 rubles. We sold 65 thousand of it in 3 days. Women came and wanted to buy, but he was sold. It was an action. We order this product from the manufacturer, the manufacturer delivers it to the store, we sell it and that’s it, it’s over, another promotion begins.

Malykhina: Well, this is an excellent marketing tool, you put up one item for 19 rubles, but people will still buy something else at the regular price. This is a basket that is being filled. What's the point?

Nekrasov: You know, in fact, the big mistake of many is that they think that I am so smart, and all these other women are born losers. In fact, this is a lie. It is impossible to deceive her.

Malykhina: That is, he will come and buy it for 19 rubles, but won’t take the rest?

Nekrasov: He will come, find what she needs for 19 rubles, and she will immediately find a product that absolutely suits her at the price. But it is never possible to deceive her. And if we have already touched on prices, then where do such prices come from? We had specific prices for the huge amount of assortment that was in stores. These prices were more similar to the American market than to the Russian market, and even more so to the French market. And the antimonopoly service needs to help see why a Chanel lipstick costs $15 on the American market, but in Russia it costs $50. Why?

Malykhina: Well, as we explain – customs, something else there.

Nekrasov: This is because some of the brands want this price. Because they believe that Russia...

Malykhina: That is, this is the selling price for Russia? Isn’t it retail that earns all this difference between the Russian and American prices, relatively speaking?

Nekrasov: Retailers make money, but that’s not the question. For the manufacturer, lipstick costs both for Russia and for America - the same production. If it’s the same production, then the price should be American, not French, and especially not Russian. If in France this price is approximately 35 euros, then in Russia it is generally unclear where. And this is the position of the brands. And we absolutely destroyed this position every day. And we never listened to the brand that it wanted it to be like this. Do you want it like this? But it will still be somehow different.

Malykhina: Given your volumes, if you sold such volumes, they, of course, adjusted to you.

Nekrasov: We didn't adjust.

Malykhina: No?

Nekrasov: No. They only now regret that there is no Arbat Prestige now. Today there is no national player that will sell such volumes as Arbat Prestige sold. Because if you go to stores, there will be a surge before March 8, before the New Year, on February 23. The rest of the time everything is calm and quiet.

Nekrasov: Okay, Trade Worker's Day. But have you seen carts with a bunch of gifts leaving the store?

Malykhina: Since Arbat Prestige was closed, the piles have not been seen.

Nekrasov: But they were there, we can’t say that it didn’t happen. And all the manufacturers were in the Arbat Prestige stores and looked at who was buying. They ask: “Why are you buying?” A woman alone could buy for 100 thousand rubles - that’s a lot of money, a lot of money. And they could buy it for 500 thousand, or for a million. She comes and says: “I buy myself luxury, deluxe cream,” for example, a jar of which costs 30-40 thousand rubles for 5 milliliters.

And then she buys sets - soap, shampoo, hair dyes. She says: “I buy because I have a housekeeper, cooks, nannies at home, plus I buy gifts for my girlfriends.” And she says: “Yes, I spend a million rubles, and what next? I have the right". And she has the right. And there were such people, so that we understand, not 100 people or a thousand - there were hundreds of thousands of them. The majority were people who spent an average of one and a half to two thousand rubles on themselves - not so much, but not little either.

Malykhina: Where did they go? Did they redistribute among competitors and lower their check?

Nekrasov: A huge number of people who started buying products from Duty Free.

Malykhina: We started driving a lot more.

Nekrasov: They started traveling more, started spending wild amounts of money in Duty Free, leaving this money not in Russia and paying taxes on it, but leaving the money in offshore zones. Duty Free – what is our zone? Tax-free. Well, sort of. But if it is on the territory of the Russian Federation, then, I think, some taxes fall into Russian Federation. But if it is in Paris or Cyprus, in this case they flew past us.

Malykhina: You yourself mentioned Euroset in terms of advertising and discounts.

Nekrasov: They are brilliant guys. Both Evgeniy and Timur are simply brilliant. I know them personally, they are brilliant guys.

Malykhina: It just seems to me that your example - Arbat Prestige - and the example of Euroset over the past 10 years, probably, are two giant businesses that were created from scratch out of nothing, were created by people who had nothing to do with the raw materials business , to loans-for-shares auctions, to some enterprises, that is, everything that entrepreneurs of the 90s are accused of.

Nekrasov: At all. Not even close.

Malykhina: And both businesses were in retail and were of gigantic scale. One exists, the other, unfortunately, no longer exists. Evgeniy quite actively expresses his position on what happened with Euroset and generally comments and participates in political life. How do you look at it, this is the approach, and what is your view of what happened? When, indeed, do businesses that are essentially made from scratch and are absolutely fantastic, do such metamorphoses happen to them?

Nekrasov: But this is life. You know, we can talk a lot on this topic, but life, it brings some of its own adjustments and that’s it. Evgeniy has one position there and he has the right to it. I have a different position. And to be honest, do I regret it? I think no. I only regret about those people who worked there - 4.5 thousand - for them, for many of these people, these names, the names of these girls, you know, like from some fairy tale, they do not exist.

I went to visit my parents’ grave in Ukraine, and at Duty Free in Vnukovo a girl came up to me, cried and said: “Do you remember me?” I say: “I remember,” although, of course, I must say that I do not remember. She says: “My name is Sveta. I was your manager in such and such a store. Vladimir Ilyich, please open a store. I’ll drop everything, I want to come and work for you.” What could I say? I say: “Light, well, that’s life. Today you work here - work.” Today she is a store director. That is, this Sveta is not just some kind of saleswoman. And it’s clear that she has such experience. She says: “I learned everything at Arbat Prestige.” It's really expensive. Then the second saleswoman came up in the same Vnukovo and also said: “Vladimir Ilyich, take us away from here.” Difficult. You know, this is life.

Nekrasov: I got on the plane, drank 100 grams of vodka and thought that somehow this is life, it’s so multifaceted and funny that sometimes it’s just, you know, it’s a pity that you can’t help these people somehow. I want to help. And then I went to another store, completely by chance, they asked me to look at the store’s marketing. It’s just that my friend has large stores, it has nothing to do with perfumery. He says: “Vov, look, you have a bright eye, tell me, what’s missing?” I went and quite by chance I was walking, and the director also came out of the store and said: “I worked for you in the store. Vladimir Ilyich, take me away from there.” I say: “Well, it’s like...”

Malykhina: Not yet. It's about people, it's about responsibility. Because all entrepreneurs always have this: for themselves and for that guy. But here is a personal, personal feeling. How quickly did you, I don’t know, come to your senses? Any person who retires from work, even in a calm mode, is engaged in some kind of soul-searching: am I doing it right, and am I on time. What is your inner mood?

Nekrasov: And you know, you can’t live in the past. So I can’t live in the past, because the past is a road to nowhere. After all, when you begin to live in the past, what you are now saying is self-digging, you begin to bury yourself in the earth. I can not. Or maybe I should have done it like this, but why didn’t I do it like this, but I could have gone like this, but here I am...

Malykhina: I could have done something earlier...

Nekrasov: Yes, I could have this there, and I could have more...

Malykhina: Did you stop yourself or is your internal molding just like that?

Nekrasov: No. I am such a person. You see, I am always positive internally. I look at life absolutely tomorrow and only positively. That is, I don’t look at life as if I could have lived there once. I don’t even think so, my brain isn’t wired that way.

Malykhina: That is, you don’t have any internal feelings of resentment, why is that?

Nekrasov: You know, you need to be offended by yourself. You need to be offended by yourself, because when you didn’t... For example, I wanted in my life with my second, third wife to have a child, but it didn’t work out. But since I’m already 50 years old, in principle, I can meet the girl of my dreams, I probably can, but it’s very difficult. It’s probably impossible to meet her and probably become happy today and look at life completely differently and with different eyes. Whatever you do now, I’m talking about myself - but it’s impossible. It doesn’t happen that easily, although maybe it happens to some people...

Malykhina: Anything can happen.

Nekrasov: Oh, No. You know, sometimes such love comes that you simply forget what your name was.

Malykhina: Now what are you planning to do? What can you expect in business in the next 5-10 years? Are you interested in general, is this topic teasing? Or have you already tried it, done it, but don’t want to anymore?

Nekrasov: Funny question. A huge number of projects, when I left some places, proposals began to pour in: “Let's go, Vova, there, let's go here. Vladimir Ilyich, come here, let’s give it.” Still, they call it retail, only retail is different - either it’s perfume, or it’s food, or other retail. But retail takes a lot of time. You know, at 50 years old, I don’t want to say that I’m old, I don’t feel weak, but if I go somewhere I want something to stretch.

Malykhina: I wanted it to tease.

Nekrasov: Yes. You are at work today, you are working, and today I am on vacation with you. But you are smiling, you are all positive. Why? You like.

Malykhina: So I'm not at work either. I also have a vacation.

Nekrasov: That's what I'm talking about - you like it. That’s what I would like – for me to go and like it. How I came to work at 8 am and finished at 10-11-12.

Malykhina: This is not planned yet, don’t you see it yet?

Nekrasov: Not ready yet. I thought differently - after all, I need to arrange my personal life, which does not exist.

Malykhina: You can start at 8 am.

Nekrasov: I thought so. I’ll wait a little, maybe something positive will happen in life.

Malykhina: But still, if we talk about your market, your alma mater, your perfume and cosmetics market - what could be done on it? What, perhaps, you don’t want, but what could be in demand now, in 2012, and what could change the market?

Nekrasov: 2012?

Malykhina: Is there actually a business niche now?

Nekrasov: Eat.

Malykhina: What could it be?

Nekrasov: The simplest thing is to open a large store, it is already absolutely clear what kind, it is already absolutely clear what format, it is clear with what assortment.

Malykhina: We don't understand.

Nekrasov: Well, I understand.

Malykhina: And you give us some general hints, so that we can at least fantasize, you never know. Now people are watching us, so to speak, deciding the formula for themselves on a napkin.

Nekrasov: Let them write letters to you, I will help them with ideas. I am very interested in young guys and girls coming who will build own business. It is very interesting. Then, because many are afraid.

Malykhina: Certainly.

Nekrasov: Afraid. They are unreasonably afraid. Why they are afraid, I still cannot understand.

Malykhina: And I have an opinion on this matter. Do you know why they are afraid?

Nekrasov: Which?

Malykhina: Because there was one crisis in ’98, 2008, people have the feeling that after the crisis... This is a constant.

Nekrasov: Listen, we are living in a crisis. Look, it's an endless crisis. This is a constant that must be taken as is. You know, scientists wrote that if you live for one day, it’s already good, if you live in marriage for a year, that’s also happiness, but for the next three years... Why is it like this? Why next seven? Nobody knows. Like this.

So we have a constant crisis. He is there more, he is less, he is this way, he is that, but he is a crisis. But in the end, for example, in 2009, right in the middle of the crisis, I left some remote places. And you know, my first thought is that my lawyer came up to me and said: “Ilyich, well, what do you think?” I say: “Now if we opened the Arbat Prestige store, there would be a queue. Ochakovo would simply even forget about such queues.” But then there was no time for that, there was something to think about and what to do.

Malykhina: That is, a large hyper, large, large format - would it still exist?..

Nekrasov: In demand in Moscow, and in other cities too. But it’s simple, because people...

Malykhina: Such a perfumery “Auchan”?

Nekrasov: But consider the Auchan perfume, yes.

Malykhina: How can we get these prices back? You had some leftovers there, but now you have no leftovers. How about again?

Nekrasov: You know, there would be a desire, in fact. After all, manufacturers are also inventors. They need sales markets, they still need the final buyer. After all, what can they sell in assortment list? We sold 65 thousand before New Year holidays we reached 80 thousand items of goods in stores, especially large ones.

What was that? This could range from sets that cost 150 rubles to lipsticks that cost, for example, 1000 rubles. You can find everything for any budget. You didn’t have to... Why were there incredible carts in all the stores? Yes, because people bought such a volume that it was simply impossible to carry it in bags. And if you do monitoring now, you stand near any perfume store, will you see at least one cart? You won't see her.

Malykhina: It is unlikely.

Nekrasov: You won't see this. Not even bags. You will only see small bags that a woman throws into her purse, you can’t even see them. What does this mean? This means that they did not find something with these women.

Malykhina: Marvelous. If in 2012 it is still possible to reverse engineer such a store...

Nekrasov: Certainly. That is, the woman is looking. She is searching. Don’t forget, if the girls who were, say, in 2008 are four years ago, that is, she was 8 years old there, then today she is 12. But at 8 years old she did not go to the Arbat Prestige store, But at the age of 12, would she have come to the store at Arbat Prestige? 100% yes. Because her friend or older sister went, her mother went, her grandmother went and her aunt went.

Malykhina: The circle is closed.

Nekrasov: That is, we again returned to this girl, who was 8 years old, but today she is not 8.

Malykhina: So there is a market for this. I'll ask the last question, I think it's very important. For some reason, it seems to me that your opinion is simply necessary for our viewers to hear it. How do you feel about the current political situation? Do you participate, sympathize, or pass by?

Nekrasov: I don't pass by. Still, for me, Russia is my country, this is my life. A huge number of people say: “These are leaving, those are leaving.” Listen, if they want to leave, let them leave. For example, I live here and get a lot of pleasure from it. This is my country, these are the people with whom I am friends or not friends. But I live in this environment, I have to think about what I could do as an entrepreneur. But since there is no business, what could I do as a person, just as an individual?

Malykhina: You are an optimist in everything that happens.

Nekrasov: I’ve been an optimist all my life, but optimism, politics and everything else is still... This is our country, you live here too. So you are also an optimist. If you weren’t an optimist, you would probably pack up and go live where it’s warm.

Malykhina: Well, that's unlikely. Pessimist-optimist, but his own country.

Nekrasov: The country is its own, and it can change. But it can only change with a strong person. It is very difficult to change anything with a weak person, he is weak, it is impossible to show him, it is impossible to explain to him. I don't get personal.

Arbat Prestige is a now defunct Russian retail company that developed a chain of perfume and cosmetic stores of the same name. In the 2000s, it was one of the leaders of this market in Russia. The Arbat Prestige holding included the operating company of the same name trading network and real estate companies. The headquarters was in Moscow.

The company was founded in 1989 and was initially involved in the distribution of perfumes and cosmetics. In August 1998, the first Arbat Prestige store was opened in the Ochakovo district (Moscow). The holding's parent company was Arbat Prestige OJSC (it owned shares in several companies and a trademark), and Arbat & Co LLC, the operating company, managed the chain's stores.

At its peak, the Arbat Prestige chain included over a hundred perfume and cosmetic stores located in Moscow, the Moscow region, St. Petersburg, Yekaterinburg, Chelyabinsk, Voronezh, Rostov-on-Don, Kazan, Krasnoyarsk, Kiev and Kharkov. In January 2008, the chain included 98 stores.

On January 24, 2008, the owner of the retail chain, Vladimir Nekrasov, was detained and then arrested for 2 months in connection with the initiation of a criminal case under Art. 199 part 2 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (non-payment of taxes by an organization). According to the Vedomosti newspaper, the businessman was accused of making payments for allegedly supplied products to controlled shell companies and then deducting the VAT paid.

On June 20, 2008, the company entered into a technical default, failing to repay its bonds in the amount of 1.5 billion rubles. However, already on June 27, Arbat Prestige transferred the required amounts to the creditors.

On December 15, 2008, Arbat Prestige, in order to pay off banks and suppliers, sold five of its stores in Moscow. The company was ready to rent out the remaining premises. In mid-December 2008, the management of Arbat Prestige officially notified suppliers of the cessation of the chain's activities. As of December 24, 2008, only one store operated under this brand in Moscow. At the beginning of 2009, the last store of the chain, located in mall"Atrium" in Moscow. "Arbat Prestige" actually ceased to exist.

On July 26, 2009, the owner of the bankrupt network of perfume and cosmetics stores "Arbat Prestige" Vladimir Nekrasov and businessman Sergei Shnaider (Semyon Mogilevich), who were accused of tax evasion, were released from custody due to the expiration of their detention.

In April 2011, it became known that Arbat Prestige repaid or bought out the largest debts (to Sberbank for 341 million rubles, Uralsib for 583 million rubles and Nomos Bank for 1.033 billion rubles). At the same time, the cassation court confirmed the illegality of the tax claims against the company. After this, on April 18, 2011, the court decided to terminate the criminal case against the former general director of Arbat-Prestige, Vladimir Nekrasov, “due to the lack of corpus delicti.”

Vladimir Nekrasov took control of the bankruptcy of Arbat Prestige. The holding repaid its debt to the last largest creditor, Sberbank (RUB 341 million). Previously, debts to Uralsib (RUB 583 million) and Nomos Bank (RUB 1.033 billion) had already been purchased. Recently, the cassation court confirmed the unfoundedness of the tax claims against the network (see Kommersant, April 5), on which the charges in the criminal case against Vladimir Nekrasov were based. This removes the last obstacles to ending the criminal prosecution of the businessman, which has been going on for more than three years. Representatives of Mr. Nekrasov and market participants say that the businessman will not return to the perfume business, but they do not rule out that he will move into another direction.

Until the beginning of 2008, Arbat Prestige was considered the largest perfume and cosmetics chain in Russia (turnover in 2007 was $471.5 million, uniting 95 stores in Russia and Ukraine). The holding's problems began after on January 23, the creator of Arbat Prestige, Vladimir Nekrasov, and his partner Sergei Shnaider (Semyon Mogilevich) were detained on charges of tax evasion from the organization. According to investigators, in the period from January 2005 to December 2006, the defendants, using front companies-suppliers Magnolia, Alkion and Original, hid about 115 million rubles from taxation. The holding, which had accumulated debts to suppliers and banks, began to close stores, the last one was closed in February 2009. By August 2009, all Arbat Prestige structures initiated their bankruptcy, trying to prevent third-party creditors from gaining control over it. However, banks soon intervened in the process (Uralsib, Nomos Bank and Sberbank), owning about 2 billion rubles in total. requirements. The borrower for the loans was Arbat & Co. LLC, other companies were guarantors or pledgors for them. Therefore, the main thing was to achieve control specifically in the bankruptcy of Arbat & Co.

The Arbat Prestige company was created as a distributor of cosmetics and perfumes in 1989, and the first store was opened in 1998. OJSC "Arbat Prestige" is the parent company of the holding, owns shares in several companies and a trademark. Arbat & Co LLC is the operating company that managed the chain stores. Firma Real LLC and Capital Estate LLC owned real estate in Moscow and St. Petersburg.

On July 24, 2009, Messrs. Nekrasov and Schneider were released from the pre-trial detention center on their own recognizance. After this, Vladimir Nekrasov began to take active steps to manage the bankruptcy process of the holding. Already in September 2009, his demands amounted to 617.5 million rubles. were included in the Arbat & Co. register. In November of the same year, it became known that Nomos Bank assigned its rights as a creditor for 1.033 billion rubles. to a certain Autoaudit N 1 LLC, associated with the former management company holding "Russian Investments": the chairman of its board of directors, Kirill Ignatiev, is the owner of 99% of "Avtoaudit N 1". And on March 4, Uralsib Bank disappeared from the holding’s creditors. As it turned out, at the end of 2009, three structures of Russian Investments (Commercial Group Russian Investments LLC, Investment Company Russian Investments LLC and Petersburg City Development LLC) entered into surety agreements for the debts of Arbat & Co. "in front of Uralsib. At the beginning of this year, they fully repaid the loan for $18.93 million and with this amount were included in the register of creditors of the company. On March 30, the register of creditors of Arbat & Co. was replenished with another holding structure, Capital Estate LLC, with claims for 1.643 billion rubles.

Today, the Moscow Arbitration Court will consider the petition of Firma Real LLC to replace Sberbank in the register of creditor claims of Arbat & Co LLC for 341 million rubles. Sberbank became the last bank whose debts were paid off by the bankrupt holding company. The loan was taken out by Arbat & Co., and the guarantors for it were Capital Estate LLC and Firm Real, which also provided the bank with a building on Sergius Radonezhsky Street, 2 as collateral. During the bankruptcy of Firm Real, this the property was sold at auction (initial sale price 307.2 million rubles), and the debt to Sberbank was repaid with the proceeds.

“If one of the guarantors repays a debt to the bank, then he acquires the rights of a creditor under it and can actually establish his claims in the register of creditors of the borrower,” explains the head of the judicial arbitration practice law firm"Yakovlev and Partners" Kir Corum. Taking into account this debt, the claims of Mr. Nekrasov and creditors close to him in the register of Arbat & Co LLC (the main debts of the holding are concentrated in it) will amount to 4.28 billion rubles, while the total debt of the company was estimated at approximately 5.3 billion rubles . (see diagram).

In October 2010, the Moscow Arbitration Court questioned the validity of the criminal prosecution of the owner of Arbat Prestige, Vladimir Nekrasov, and his partner Sergei Schneider (Semyon Mogilevich). The court declared illegal tax claims against Arbat & Co. in the amount of over 155 million rubles, based on the use of shell companies. These same dubious suppliers also appear in the criminal case against Messrs. Nekrasov and Schneider. Vladimir Nekrasov's lawyer Alexander Asnis previously told Kommersant that when the court's decision comes into force, it will be prejudicial to the criminal case and will provide grounds for its termination. In the same October, the criminal case was returned by the court to the prosecutor's office to eliminate shortcomings. On April 4 of this year, the Court of Cassation confirmed the illegality of tax claims against Arbat & Co., and company representatives reported that the case is still with the prosecutor's office.

Lawyers believe that closing a criminal case at the investigation stage is easier than doing it in court. “The period for the prosecutor’s office to eliminate violations that impede the consideration of the case in court is five days, but in practice, the prosecutor often sends the case with his instructions to the investigative authorities. In the presence of certain circumstances, they can resume the preliminary investigation of the case and, having made sure that there is no corpus delicti or event of a crime , they may issue a decision to terminate the case,” says the lawyer law firm"Yukov, Khrenov and partners" Igor Kopenkin.

The most valuable assets of the bankrupt chain are now the Arbat Prestige trademark and four real estate assets - a building at Varshavskoye Shosse, 65 (owned by Arbat & Co, pledged under a loan to Nomos Bank, now pledged to Avtoaudit N 1), a store on Bolshaya Cherkizovskaya, 5/1 and two buildings in St. Petersburg (registered under Capital Estate LLC).

If earlier representatives of Mr. Nekrasov did not rule out his return to business, now they believe that he is unlikely to revive Arbat Prestige. Mr. Nekrasov’s lawyer, Alexander Dobrovinsky, does not think that Vladimir Nekrasov will return to the perfume business. "Arbat Prestige" was conceived as an extensive chain of supermarkets with a large assortment of cosmetics. a small amount stores, this is not feasible,” he says. Kirill Ignatiev agrees with him: “The task of restoring the network was not set. For more than a year and a half, a systematic process of selling assets has been going on in order to at least partially repay debts. The point is to deal with creditors correctly, to sell as much as possible of what can be sold."

In addition to banks, Arbat & Co also has a large debt to suppliers, their number is in the dozens, the estimated amount of claims is about 1 billion rubles. Head of the distribution company Hermitage & Star Beaute, former supplier“Arbat Prestige”, Vladimir Voronchenko believes that “Nekrasov’s interest can only be in the premises, since it makes no sense to revive the business: it’s too competitive market". Mr. Voronchenko is confident that suppliers will agree to work with Arbat Prestige only if all old debts are repaid.

Anna Zanina, Anastasia Gorshkova, Kristina Busko

The Arbat Prestige chain is preparing to close its last perfume store and cease to exist. The company's problems began almost a year ago, after its owner Vladimir Nekrasov was arrested for tax evasion.

The company does not say when the last store will close. True, the network has been selling off its existing stocks of goods for a long time. At the end of November, all of its suppliers stopped working with the Arbat Prestige chain. On the eve of the New Year's sales, when perfume and cosmetics retail receives up to 25-30% of annual revenue, the retailer was left with a monthly inventory in warehouses.

The arrest of the owner puts the network under threat

The collapse of the Arbat Prestige empire began in January of this year, after the arrest of the owner of the network, Vladimir Nekrasov, on suspicion of tax evasion amounting to almost 50 million rubles. True, on December 18, Nekrasov and businessman Semyon Mogilevich, who was arrested with him, were finally charged. Total amount of unpaid taxes in new version charges increased from 50 to 115 million rubles. At the beginning of the year, Arbat had 98 stores. The network's turnover in 2007 increased by 36.2% - to $471 million. In the first quarter of 2008, the company suffered a loss of 281 million rubles, and sales fell by a third compared to the same period in 2007 and amounted to 1.6 billion rubles. Arbat owned 13 properties in Moscow with an area of ​​33 thousand square meters. m worth more than $300 million. In February 2007, the entire network was valued at $1 billion, based on this capitalization, Nekrasov bought 40% of the company from Troika Dialog.

Sale

After Nekrasov’s arrest, suppliers became nervous and began to refuse to ship goods without prepayment. In the spring, Beiersdorf, Procter & Gamble, L'Oreal and Max Factor stopped shipping online. At the same time, the company had to reduce the number of stores, and then completely sell off the premises in order to pay off creditors and suppliers. Uralsib Bank bought four premises under a repo transaction, and the retailer plans to put up five more stores for sale in the near future. Last week, the chairman of the company’s board of directors, Alexander Dobrovinsky, said that the company could rent out part of its premises. At the same time, claims against the company have already been filed by Nomos Bank - for $27 million, Sberbank - for 559 million rubles, and suppliers - for more than 200 million rubles. At the same time, the Arbitration Court has already made a decision in favor of Nomos Bank, which provided the chain with loans secured by stores on Mira Avenue and Prishvina Street. Previously, Dobrovinsky assured that he has offers for real estate in high prices In addition, he intends to negotiate with banks on debt restructuring.

Preparing for bankruptcy?

On December 22, the Moscow Arbitration Court approved a settlement agreement between the two subsidiaries Arbat Prestige: Arbat & Co LLC admitted a debt of almost 1.6 billion rubles to Capital Estate LLC and undertook to repay the debt to the plaintiff in several tranches by January 30, 2009. The debt arose due to the fact that Capital Estate acted as a guarantor for the Arbat & Co. bond issue, placed in 2006. To repay the loan, a loan from Uralsib Bank was attracted for $81 million, secured by three Moscow Arbat Prestige stores owned by Capital Estate. In June, to pay off the bonds, these stores, located on Kutuzovsky, Leninsky and Leningradsky Avenues, were sold to Uralsib. Experts interviewed by RBC daily say that the company will be able to repay the debt only by selling the remaining real estate properties of the network, which, however, is already all pledged to banks. In this case, experts see two options: either Arbat Prestige will find a buyer for its stores who will offer them a higher price than the banks, or the company should prepare for bankruptcy. However, a lawsuit on the part of a friendly company could be filed specifically - in order to gain control over the bankruptcy procedure in the future.