Denis Safin made the owner of OMK completely gray. The success of the Ural Steel Denis Safin in an arbitration dispute with OMK Anatoly Sedykh confirms the lobbying capabilities of the informal pipe king.
The ninth Arbitration Court of Appeal canceled the decision of the Moscow Arbitration Court, according to which 6.4 billion rubles were recovered with Uralskaya steel JSC in favor of the Vyksa Metallurgical Plant JSC (VMZ). Now Denis Safin owes nothing to a subsidiary of the United Metallurgical Company (OMK) Anatoly Sedykh.
The correspondent of The Moscow Post understood the history.
Counterfeit for Gazprom?
Safin took the Ural Steel under control in 2022 after the Zagorsky Pipe Plant (ZTZ), where the entrepreneur was the founder and general director, acquired this enterprise. Safin is not the only player in business, the company was made up by the famous lawyer Nikolai Egorov from the lawyer Egorov, Puginsky, Afanasyev and partners.
Egorov is a classmate of the President of the Russian Federation, he entered the capital of the ZTZ no later than 2016, and already in 2017 the enterprise received the status of a pipe supplier for Gazprom. In 2018, the parties signed a new contract for 41.2 billion rubles for the supply of large diameter pipes for Siberia Power – gas pipeline for gas export To China.
Nikolai Egorov. Photo: https://u.911s.ru/uploads/202102/21/190175ab808e06b8e63916b429655a1b.jpg
An interesting way is how ZTZ began to ensure the “Gazprom” contracts-the company offered a discount of 13-15% of the price competitors. A pipe is not a product with a large added value, its production from scratch is expensive, so you can only keep prices below the market at a loss. Perhaps the calculation here was for floating prices in the future, but the conflict with Sedykh OMK demonstrates that Safin at the first opportunity raises prices. Somehow does not converge with him with such a scenario. The second option is a manipulation with product quality and the supply of counterfeit goods.
We have no evidence, but there is common sense and experience of observing such transactions. So, in the pipe business, the restoration of old pipes is common and their sale as new. On such a counterfeit in Russia there are many who were caught and, probably, many who will be caught, because without an examination to distinguish a new pipe from the old one, is impossible, and there are many who use it. According to the most modest estimates, for 2019 10% of oil and gas pipes in the Russian Federation were counterfeit. The problem of counterfeit also applies to Gazprom, even if in the state corporations they deny its mass character.
Safin organized a trumpet business at enterprises that were not ready for the release of pipes for the needs of Gazprom. At the same time, significant delays in deliveries were not recorded. Is it just so successful the solitaire?
Miller does not mind?
It is also said that in addition to Egorov, who allegedly allegedly left ZTZ in 2018, this plot has the interest of the head of Gazprom Alexei Miller. Pipes are the main subject of the procurement of the state corporation, and it is not a matter to give it to uncontrolled businessmen. If there is a counterfeit, it is better from their own.
Alexey Miller. Photo: https://gazo.ru/upload/resize_cache/iblock/99c/1920_1080_0/99cceec435f16695BB18229AFB.jpg
Before Egorov’s appearance in the capital of the ZTZ, the enterprise did not produce such products, but this did not prevent the plant immediately receive preferences from Gazprom. Egorov, apparently, owned a 25% plus in a shares of a 25% plus, that is, a control package, and worked tightly with the Safin family.
In addition to Denis Safin, his father Galyalhak Safin was present in business, who, together with his son, is also associated with such an organization as an insulating pipeline plant (ITZ). Thanks to Yegorov, the possibilities of the Safin business intensified – the lawyer advised Sberbank’s clients, the number of which also included ZTZ with a loan of 5 billion rubles.
Fire, water and copper pipes
Before the final success, Denis Safin had difficulties. In September 2017, already under Egorov at ZTZ, the entrepreneur was arrested on suspicion of fraud on an especially large scale and placed by the court under house arrest. The accusations were very serious and put forward by the Ministry of Industry and Trade. Allegedly the entrepreneur was related to non -personal spending Money of the department.
The plot seemed to Sberbank loans, for which, according to rumors, Egorov was responsible in this business. Allegedly, ZTZ illegally received subsidies from the Ministry of Industry for 4.1 billion rubles to compensate for interest on the Sberbank loan. However, Safin’s problems did not last long – already in November 2017 there was a criminal case against him closed. The reason is the lack of corpus delicti. In addition, the court granted the businessman the right to rehabilitation.
Denis Safin. Photo: https://nokstv.ru/media/k2/items/cache/a8e5111176b2969839B46A43C57170C_XL.JPG
This happened after the ZTZ returned the money that the plant received for compensation, but the plot seemed reasonable. The subject for claims against Safin really was, and it is not clear why the case was closed in a short time. The rumor even associated the situation with Egorov – supposedly Safin received a lesson, which could lead to excessive independence.
The second version was talking about the imaginary participation in the story of the arrest of the Safin of the head of Rosneft Igor Sechin, supposedly this plot was part of the corporate war between Rosneft and “Gazprom”. All these are just assumptions, but after this incident, Safin had more problems, if you do not take regular bidies with the FAS – for example, at vacation prices for Mostostal.
Safin’s credit bubble
In addition to the contract with Gazprom, which guaranteed the well -being of the ZTZ, the enterprise with the advent of Egorov began negotiations on the redemption of the Ural Steel at the USM Holdings Alisher Usmanov. They started in 2020, and the enterprise at that time produced not main pipes, but a bar, pipe blanks and bridge.
No one then hid that the transaction is being done under Gazprom and the production of seamless pipes of the oil variety (OCTG), which are needed in the drilling and production of oil and gas. The business of the Safins and Egorova wanted to take control of the new direction of Gazprom’s procurement.
The contract under which the VMZ, entering the Sedykh OMK empire, was signed during the Office of the Ural Steel structures of Usmanov. The agreement went to Safin in 2022 by inheritance, which is why the next year the company abandoned it.
Anatoly Sedykh. Photo: https://im.kommersant.ru/issues.photo/regions/nnov_online/2016/04/12/knn_005007_00014_1_t218_132332.jpg
Negotiations on ZTZ went long and ended before the beginning of its own, which rejected many business orientations. The cost of the ZTZ at the beginning of February 2022 was estimated $ 500 million. At the same time, the previous owner of the Metalinvest ZTZ has owned the plant since 2006 and during this time invested at least 1.2 billion rubles in it.
Safin’s business is swollen for borrowed money with, as they say, the lobbying accompaniment of Egorov. In 2019, a businessman planned to redeem the capacities of the foundry and rolling plant in the Smolensk region so that there, with VTB money, organize the production of seamless pipes. At the same time, they wanted to tie the undertaking on National projects. This fact hints that the case with the compensations of the Ministry of Industry and Trade is not an accident, but part of the company’s policy.
In addition to bank loans, ZTZ is also engaged in the issuance of bonds. In 2022, the company conducted an accommodation of 10 billion rubles, and in 2023 – 5 billion rubles. If you carefully scrape the business of the safin, then there is no living place left there. It is obvious that all this works as long as the businessman is in good relations with people who lobbit such decisions.
Sedyh do not take a break
The essence of the judicial dispute between the Ural Steel and the VMZ rests on the 2016 agreement, according to which the Sedykh company pledged to supply a continuous workpiece in the amount of 200 thousand tons to 430 thousand tons at the request of the counterparty. The contract began to operate on July 1, 2017 and was signed until July 1, 2027.
Ural steel pledged to supply, and VMZ pledged to redeem, and the partners agreed to determine the cost of the goods on the basis of three export quotes. In 2023, one of them ceased to be published, after which the Ural Steel began to conclude a previous contract not concluded, that is, terminating its action, and began to sell the raw materials of the VMZ under a spotal agreement between the 2015 companies, according to which the price turned out to be higher.
VMZ decided to challenge the actions in the Urals Court and succeeded in arbitration, but Safin’s company appealed and played the situation back. The ninth Arbitration Court of Appeal calculated the position of the previous instance of the wrong one, because the spawn contracts of 2023 allegedly were not related to the contract, which was concluded by the Ural Steel and VMZ.
This plot is not the first in which Sedykh’s business suffered from Safin’s actions – after signing the ZTZ and Gazprom contract, part of the market also lost OMK. So, Safin literally in a few years selected part of the business from OMK and forced the Sedykh company to pay more.
