The auction of Rosimushchestvo aimed to sell 100% of JSC "Mosmetrostroy”, a permanent builder of the Moscow Metro since 1931 - turned into a scandal. The Company has been acquired by OOO “Tsentrstroy" for 7.599 billion rubles, it is associated with the head of the board of directors in “Mosmetrostroy", Vladimir Kogan and co-owner of the "Infrastructura", Valery Abramson. However, it turned out that structures E4 by Mikhail Abyzov and NPO “Mostovik” were not allowed for trading. Now they intend to challenge the outcome of the auction in court.

The winner of the auction selling 100% shares of OAO “Mosmetrostroy" appeared to be OOO "Tsentrstroy ", which offered 7,599,000,000 rubles for the lot. That is 3.4 times higher than starting price. In total four companies were allowed to participate in the auction: Evrostroy LLC and Seltehstroy LLC were out of the race in the middle of the trading, then JSC Finservice" and "Tsentrstroy” fought for Metrostroy. According to Interfax, the interests of "Tsentrstroy" were represented by Alexander Peisakhov at the auction. According to "SPARK-Interfax”, Mr.Peisakhov co-owns the company "Metrostroy Direction" (the construction contractor of Stroginskaya-Mitinskaya subway line). In 2009, 61% of the company was acquired by ZAO "Infrastructure" (until January of this year, "Infrastructure" belonged on a par to Valery Abramson and ”Millhaus" by Roman Abramovich). In addition, in 2007 Mr. Peisakhov headed "Hals-Invest system" - "subsidiary" of Sistema-Hals, where in those years Mr. Abramson was a member of the Board of Directors.

On the eve of an auction a few players of the Moscow and St. Petersburg market assured that the buyer of "Mosmetrostroy” will become the head of its board of directors Vladimir Kogan, a former co-owner of Promstroibank (PSB SPb, now “VTB North-West”). One of the interlocutors of Kommersant claimed that Mr. Cogan would retain the position in the company, as well as retain the current management, with which he has been working for a long time. Representatives of Vladimir Kogan declined to comment. Several knowledgeable top managers of infrastructure companies say Valery Abramson performs an alliance with Vladimir Kogan. "I am satisfied with the results of bidding," Valery Abramson told Kommersant, and declined to comment further. Earlier, sources of Kommersant told that Mr. Abramson could draw Roman Abramovich in "Mosmetrostroy” as a partner. Roman Abramovich has no relation to the winning company", one of the businessmen in the surrounding Mr Abramovich assured Kommersant.

"Mosmetrostroy" is one of the largest organizations of the Russian constructing underground. It was established in 1931 to implement the project on construction of the Moscow Metro. It has built 177 stations, more than 300 km subway lines. It also builds tunnels and track layouts (it has built over 30 km). Together with the Israeli "Menrav" it participated in the construction of one of the sites high-speed railway lines between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem worth of 5 billion rubles.

However, yesterday's auction turned into a scandal. Later in the afternoon the Group E4 by Mikhail Abyzov and NPO “Mostovik” distributed an official statement that their representatives were not allowed to auction, even though they provided all the documents and each made a deposit of 220 million rubles in the Federal Property Management Agency. But half an hour before the auction it turned out that the permits for the representatives of these companies were not booked and they could not get into the hall of trading. Another two claimants upon "Mosmetrostroy" - "Medinvest and citizen Makarov A. appeared to be in a similar situation. When the auction was already in full swing, the participants without permits were denied admission to the auction for rather questionable reasons, according to statements by E4 and NPO “Mostovik”. The companies promised to challenge the results of the tender in court. "They have a right to complain. We are ready to answer all their arguments," a representative of Rosimushchestvo, Alexander Komarov told Kommersant.

The representative of one of the companies, which had estimated "Mosmetrostroy," consideres the price proposed by "Tsentrstroy" four times lowered. "An indicator may be "Mostotrest” - its ratio of capitalization and annual revenue accounts 2.3. Therefore, the real price of "Metrostroy" with the revenue of 23 billion rubles per year should reach 53 billion rubles. Even with the 40% discount for non-public character of the Company its value reaches 32 billion rubles," a source explained to Kommersant. Another advantage of "Mosmetrostroy" is that the company actually has a monopoly on the market. Recently the mayor of Moscow, Sergei Sobyanin promised to allocate up to 50 billion rubles annually for the construction of new metro stations.

Source: Kommersant № 239 (4539) on 12/24/2010