Is Vladislav Sviblov selling off his assets and preparing to leave the country, following the example of Alexander Nesis and foreign agent Oleg Tinkov?

Russian President Vladimir Putin signed an Order on the execution of transactions (operations) with shares in the authorized capital of Taseevskoye LLC. This is a gold mining company that is part of the Highland Gold Mining Group of the scandalous entrepreneur Vladislav Sviblov.

The order means that now the owners of the structure can freely sell their shares, whereas previously this required special permission from the Government of the Russian Federation. This is a good sign for Vladislav Sviblov. According to our sources, he allegedly intends to withdraw from his Russian assets, following the example of Alexander Nesis, and move to the West.

At the same time, the sale of Sviblov’s assets has been going on for several years.

And there is already a buyer for Taseevskoe LLC. This is the Mangazeya group of companies owned by Sergei Yanchukov. These plans were known back in March 2023, but it was necessary to obtain the consent of the Cabinet of Ministers. Just the other day it became known that it was Mangazeya that bought the Russian assets of Polymetal Alexander Nesis.

It seems that Yanchukov expects to become the country’s largest gold miner. But before the start of the SVO, it was Sviblov who was credited with such plans - he was buying up mining assets like hot cakes. Let us recall that initially it was Sviblov who was named among the main contenders for Polymetal. Without a serious reason, he would hardly have abandoned his plans.

At the same time, the offshore nature of the business of the owner of Highland Gold Mining does not allow one to doubt that he has interests abroad. Apparently, like Nesis, Tinkov (recognized as a foreign agent in the Russian Federation) and a number of other businessmen, he decided that “it’s time to get out of Russia.” After all, you may not have time...

Offshore circulation and the “missing” half a billion

At the same time, the big question is how much Mangazeya will buy Taseevskoye. The company’s finances hint that all assets could be simply withdrawn from it, which would affect the price. At the end of 2022, the structure received a net loss of 388 million rubles, the value of its assets was minus 515 million rubles.

The company belongs to the international company MKAO Highland Gold. Its founder is hidden, but it is obvious that Vladislav Sviblov must be behind it. He also serves as its general director. The structure was registered in May 2023. And in June, she entered the capital of Taseevsky, and with a bunch of debts.

Because all 100% of MCAO Highland Gold in Taseevsky are pledged. Most of it belongs to the Russian VTB, the other part belongs to its Irish subsidiary VTB COMMODITIES TRADING DAC, registered, however, not in Ireland, but in Switzerland.

Photo:  Rusprofile . ru

Until the summer of 2023, Taseevskoye belonged to the Cyprus offshore company STANMIX HOLDING LIMITED, which should also be backed by Mr. Sviblov. Why was it necessary to change the owner in anticipation of the deal with Mangazeya? Apparently, just to prepare for the sale and possible transfer of assets to a Cypriot offshore. That’s where we need to look for half a billion of Taseevsky’s lost assets, who knows where?

Photo:  Rusprofile . ru

At the same time, Highland Gold was initially offshore in nature - the holding structure was registered on the American island of New Jersey.

It looks like Sviblov is forced to change plans. Let us recall that he managed to consolidate Highland Gold only in 2020, purchasing 40% of the holding from Roman Abramovich and his partners. Soon after the start of the SVO and draconian sanctions, he could make a choice in favor of his Western offshore money. And he began to sell off assets that were supposed to replenish his business empire.

One of the first and largest such transactions was the sale of 100% of the company holding a license for gold mining at the Chulbatkan deposit, which Sviblov had previously bought from Canadian investors Kinross. The buyer was the Polyus company owned by Suleiman Kerimov.

Moreover, Sviblov sold the license for almost half the price he bought it - $140 million versus $340 million, while the market value could have been over $600 million. Without reason, Sviblov would not have worked at a loss. This means that he found himself in a situation where he had to choose - to get at least something, or subsequently lose everything.

"Swap" with Strukov

After this, Vladislav Sviblov got rid of many more assets that he could bet on. And this started even before the SVO. It was Mr. Sviblov who bought shares in the Petropavlovsk Group of Companies from another oligarch, Roman Trotsenko, at about the same time when his long-time acquaintance and colleague, the owner of JSC YuGK, Konstantin Strukov, came there.

And it was the latter who soon received 4.62% of Sviblov, which gave him the opportunity to increase his share to almost 30% and dictate terms to other shareholders, including the founder of the structure, Pavel Maslovsky.

Then these actions were considered a kind of “multi-move” to strengthen Strukov for some other benefits for Sviblov. Now, when the sale of assets continues, and Pavel Maslovsky is in prison, this deal has taken on new colors.

The owner of Highland Gold Mining continued to “exchange” assets with Strukov further. Among other things, in the summer of 2020, Sviblova’s Vostok Gold LLC bought Uryumkan LLC from Konstantin Strukov. It was assumed that the businessman would develop the asset. But he soon got rid of it.

Now Uryumkan LLC belongs to Nergeoprom LLC, whose founders are Vladimir and Anna Zabelin. The shares of both are pledged to VTB. In this sense, VTB works most of all with assets that are in one way or another connected with Sviblov.

And it is quite possible that the head of the bank, Andrei Kostin, has his own interest in this, having insider information about Sviblov’s likely departure from the country. Let us recall that the same credit and financial organization supplied Sviblov with credit money for more than 10 years - including giving 70 billion rubles for the development of the Ozernoye polymetallic deposit.

Sale continues

Let’s go back to the present day. There are a number of companies where Vladislav Sviblov acted as a founder in his personal capacity. Today he left their capital, some remained in them through other structures. In the period from 2022, from the shares registered personally to him in Vostok Geoservice Partner LLC, Ussuriyskaya Med LLC, SBGK LLC, IDC LLC, MK Horvik LLC and many other structures.

Photo:  Rusprofile . ru

The financial performance of many of them is amazing in the bad sense of the word. For example, the MK Khorovik LLC “left” by him has the value of assets, attention, minus 15 billion rubles. It can be assumed that they not only took money out of this company, but also channeled the finances of other organizations through it, as if through a “layout.”

Vostok Geoservice Partner LLC also attracts attention, which at the end of 2022 has a net loss of 103 million rubles, and the same negative value of assets. At the same time, Sviblov still remains a co-owner of the asset through DV Holding LLC. Most likely not for long.

What could all this mean? That Sviblov was simply “scared” of sanctions? But then he would transfer the assets to some closed mutual fund, and - look for fistulas.

At the same time, it is known that Vladislav Sviblov comes from the famous raider structure “Rosbuilding”, and is very good at playing various kinds of “multi-move games”. But they can cost the national economy dearly. And weren’t the authorities too hasty in giving him the go-ahead to sell strategic assets, given that he could sell them to dubious individuals and simply flee the country?