The general director and chief accountant of Vim-Avia have been detained, and the co-owners of the Mursekaevs are being sought. The owner of "vim-avia" flew away and did not promise to return Vim-avia, whose subsidiary

A month before the collapse of the aviation business, Rashid Mursekaev's consulting firm was bankrupted by his friend Sergei Galan, and Mursekaev's daughter sold her fuel company to Galan.

Investigators in the VIM-avia case are investigating how the co-owners brought the airline to collapse and where they could hide assets and money. It is possible that Rashid Mursekaev guessed about the imminent collapse of the aviation business and removed assets ahead of time, including through relatives and proxies. According to one version, the money went to Luxembourg - there, Mursekaev's son-in-law (or his full namesake) found an offshore company. And Mursekaev's daughter sold her billion-dollar fuel company a few weeks before the collapse of VIM-Avia. A month earlier, a company that was created to manage the carrier's finances had gone bankrupt. Both stories involved Sergey Galan, a longtime business partner of the Mursekaevs.

Strong bonds of family business

Most of Rashid Mursekayev's firms are family owned. Even in VIM-avia, the main owner is not him, but his wife Svetlana. Two of his sisters, for example, owned real estate companies.

And in 2014, the daughter of a businessman also went into business. Anna Ambrosova (Mursekaeva), still in her fourth year at MGIMO, founded the fuel company FT International. Already two years after the creation of FT International, it was earning 2.5 billion a year. The second co-owner was Anna's husband, 25-year-old graduate of the Higher School of Economics Nikolai Ambrosov. He is the son of Mursekaev's longtime business partner, Evgeny Ambrosov. Together, at the beginning of the 2000s, they managed a large maritime hub in Russia - the Far Eastern Shipping Company.

Presumably, the daughter's fuel company also made money by selling kerosene at the Bratsk airport in the Irkutsk region. This airport has long been owned by the Mursekaev family - first through the Invest Holding office, and now through VIM-Avia.

Bratsk is a small but important hub used by transatlantic flights for refueling, and by the Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations for extinguishing fires in the taiga and for observation flights. VIM-avia needed it as a transit point for refueling and maintenance of its Chinese flights: they started their business with charter flights to China. And this airfield is halfway from Moscow to China. On it, experts say, you can earn money by selling fuel.

“The main income there is refueling helicopters and planes,” says Boris Rybak, head of the Infomost consulting company.

Despite good financial performance, in August of this year, Anna Ambrosova and her husband unexpectedly decided to sell FT International. Interestingly, by that time, the father's airline was just beginning to have problems with debts for aviation kerosene. If we assume that the Mursekaevs knew about the imminent collapse and were preparing to flee abroad, then this step looks like getting rid of Russian assets. Especially given the personality of the buyer. They became a Moscow businessman Sergei Galan - a longtime acquaintance of the family. The offices of his firms are even located in the same business center as the Mursekaevs.

Interestingly, a month before the buyout of FT International, Galan, through the Technopolis controlled by him, bankrupted the same company of the Mursekaevs, which originally owned the Bratsk airport. It's about Invest Holding. The Mursekaevs created it 10 years ago to manage assets and securities, in a word, to provide management and operational support to VIM-avia. According to the Kartoteka.ru database, last year Invest Holding showed a net profit of 9 million rubles. However, for some reason, he did not have enough million to pay off some obligations to Technopolis in time. The court materials do not say what exactly Invest Holding owes.

offshore latitudes

The investigation may also be interested in the family's foreign assets. At one time, the airline was 20% owned by a Liechtenstein firm called Hercules Partners Fund. This may indicate at least that the Mursekaevs have connections there, and at the maximum, that part of the profits were withdrawn there.

And now, thanks to the Mossack Foneska database, it was possible to find out that a person with the same name and surname as Mursekaev's son-in-law is associated with an offshore company in Luxembourg. This is a company called Aloma S.A. Nikolai Ambrosov is its beneficiary. The investigation will have to find out whether the company is really controlled by Mursekaev's son-in-law or just his namesake. To do this, Luxembourg can send a request through Interpol.

Aloma has chosen the largest French Credit Agricole as its correspondent bank. "Correspondent bank" means that all settlements were carried out through it, and, most likely, the company's funds are stored in it. It is located in the same building as the Luxembourg branch of the bank.

The experts are divided

Some experts say that all this path of bankruptcies, changes of ownership and offshores could serve to withdraw assets. The Mursekaevs understood that the airline could soon be closed, and prepared the ground for withdrawal. Thus, the chairman of the National Anti-Corruption Committee, Kirill Kabanov, is sure that the owners of VIM-avia did not plan to save the airline.

- The owners of VIM-avia acted according to a well-known fraudulent scheme. They got loans secured by property (liners) in four banks (according to preliminary data from the investigation, these are Sberbank, Absolut Bank, VTB and Zenit), Kirill Kabanov told Life.

According to the chairman of the NAC, most likely, the Mursekaevs took most of the money from the banks abroad. And this process did not begin now, but three years ago, when the owners began to issue loans in large Russian banks, Kabanov believes.

- There are questions to the supervisory authorities, which poorly controlled the movement of funds from the airline's bank accounts, - the head of the NAC notes.

However, other experts believe that the Mursekaevs did not plan to hastily leave the country. According to the expert, editor-in-chief of the Air Transport Review magazine Alexei Sinitsky, most likely the reason for the collapse of VIM-Avia was the lack of working capital due to the desire to earn maximum during the high season.

- The owners did not calculate their financial capabilities. The money that the airline received for the tickets sold in the autumn-winter season was not enough to pay off creditors, Sinitsky suggests. - There could be a cash gap, and then everything just fell apart.

Sinitsky is sure that the Mursekaevs hoped that banks would support them with loans, and that Domodedovo Airport would continue to serve on credit.

“Autumn is always a financially difficult time of the year, and the owners of VIM-avia could not find a way out of this situation,” the interlocutor sums up. “But it seems that they fought to the last for the company's viability and did not plan to leave Russia in advance.

Flew, but did not promise to return

Whether the Mursekaevs planned to leave the country or not, they did it. According to the UK, the family flew out of Russia at the beginning of last week. Presumably, they flew to Turkey immediately after they publicly announced the pre-investigation check of the UK.

Turkey is usually quite willing to cooperate with the Russian security forces. Therefore, Life, in a previous article about VIM-avia, suggested that the family could move from Turkey to the UAE, Great Britain or Uzbekistan.

In Russia, they still have some real estate assets. So, Svetlana Mursekaeva is registered in an apartment a stone's throw from the Arbat. Shares in this apartment are owned by Mursekaev's son Rashid and daughter Anna. The profitable house in Skatertny Lane was built at the beginning of the last century, and in the 2000s it was restored and turned into a club house. Now it has only 12 apartments, each with an average of 200 square meters and a price of at least 200 million rubles.

From the Arbat, through Moscow traffic jams, the children of the Mursekaevs got to their place of study. Both entered MGIMO. Moreover, Rashid was recommended for enrollment with only 65 points for the Unified State Examination in the Russian language.

Mursekaev Jr., unlike his sister, has not yet completed his studies. On the way to the university, he sometimes breaks the rules of the road. He is reckless, drives in the opposite direction and shows disrespect to other drivers. At the beginning of 2017, he did not give way to a car with special signals. This is stated in the materials of the capital's courts. True, it does not say who exactly Rashid did not give way to - ambulance or police.

Life according to the judicial base counted four fines in the amount of 18 thousand from him. He did not pay them on time, which is why the amount of the fine doubled and fell on the guy with a debt burden.

In this sense, Mursekaev Jr. followed in the footsteps of his father. Problems with Mursekaev Sr. also began because of debts. This led to the collapse of his business, criminal cases, and thousands of our compatriots could not return home on time.

The first wave of claims hit his company in May: the carrier delayed dozens of charter flights across the country. Then the company justified itself by the fact that allegedly not all aircraft managed to return from scheduled maintenance.

The second wave turned out to be the last for the company. Fuel suppliers and airports said that VIM-avia owed them more than half a billion and they did not intend to fill in more fuel on credit. And in August-September, all departments began to make claims against VIM-avia: Rostransnadzor, Rosaviatsia, Rostrud, the Prosecutor General's Office, and the Investigative Committee.

Rostransnadzor blamed the fact that the company violated the terms and conditions of aircraft maintenance. The Prosecutor General's Office and Rostrud discovered cosmic - more than 200 million - wage arrears.

And the Investigative Committee generally initiated a criminal case on fraud against the accountant and general director. The investigation believes that the airline knew about the lack of funds for fuel for flights, but still sold tickets to passengers. Because of this, property damage was caused to at least 2997 passengers. In total, more than 40,000 passengers got stuck in resorts abroad and in the Russian Federation due to the collapse. Even when the claims of the Investigative Committee were at the stage of pre-investigation verification, the Mursekaev family fled abroad.

On Friday, President Vladimir Putin told Deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich, who oversees transportation, that he was not coping with the situation. And he generally applied disciplinary measures to the Minister of Transport Maxim Sokolov - he signed a decree on incomplete official compliance. The President criticized the approach of the Ministry of Transport to the development of criteria by which the department evaluates the work of the carrier.

Strong bonds of family business

Most of Rashid Mursekayev's firms are family owned. Even in VIM-avia, the main owner is not him, but his wife Svetlana. Two of his sisters, for example, owned real estate companies.

Rashid Mursekaev

The main income there is refueling helicopters and planes, - says the head of the consulting company "Infomost" Boris Rybak.

offshore latitudes

Probable place of offshore registration:

The experts are divided

The owners of VIM-avia acted according to a well-known fraudulent scheme. They got loans secured by property (liners) in four banks (according to preliminary data from the investigation, these are Sberbank, Absolut Bank, VTB and Zenit), Kirill Kabanov told Life.

There are questions to the supervisory authorities, which poorly controlled the movement of funds from the bank accounts of the airline, - the head of the NAC notes.

The owners did not calculate their financial capabilities. The money that the airline received for the tickets sold in the autumn-winter season was not enough to pay off creditors, Sinitsky suggests. - There could be a cash gap, and then everything just fell apart.

Sinitsky is sure that the Mursekaevs hoped that banks would support them with loans, and that Domodedovo Airport would continue to serve on credit.

Autumn is always a financially difficult time of the year, and the owners of VIM-avia could not find a way out of this situation, the interlocutor sums up. - But it seems that they fought to the last for the company's viability and did not plan to leave Russia in advance.

Flew, but did not promise to return

Turkey is usually quite willing to cooperate with the Russian security forces. Therefore, Life in the previous article about VIM-Avia, that a family can move from Turkey to the UAE, Great Britain or Uzbekistan.

The Mursekaevs' apartment in Skatertny Lane:

Mursekaev Jr., unlike his sister, has not yet completed his studies. On the way to the university, he sometimes breaks the rules of the road. He is reckless, drives in the opposite direction and shows disrespect to other drivers. At the beginning of 2017, he did not give way to a car with special signals. This is stated in the materials of the capital's courts. True, it does not say to whom exactly Rashid did not give way - an ambulance or the police.

The youngest, and more recently the largest charter air carrier in the country, VIM-Avia, whose value is estimated by experts at $60 million, has officially revealed its owner. According to the company's materials, it is 100% owned by entrepreneur Rashid Mursekaev.

Until the last moment, VIM-Avia LLC kept financial performance and information about the owners secret. But now it has become public. The fact that Mursekaev is the owner of VIM-Avia was announced by the company in an investment memorandum. prepared for a bill of exchange loan in the amount of 500 million rubles. (a copy is at the disposal of Vedomosti). The loan is organized by the Region group of companies and Impexbank. An employee of one of these companies, who participated in the writing of the memorandum, specifies that Mursekaev controls all 100% of VIM-Avia's capital. The market guessed that the entrepreneur controlled the company, notes a source close to Mursekaev. But many believed that at least a small package remained with the founder of VIM-Avia, Viktor Merkulov, he adds.

Mursekaev is not a novice in transport, although he took up aviation only in 2003, when VIM-Avia appeared. And Mursekaev began his career in trade together with a fellow countryman from Barnaul, the founder of "Kaskol" Sergei Nedoroslev. At first, the partners were engaged in the supply of Chinese consumer goods - on account of debts for Russian weapons and aircraft. Then they bought up shares of regime and aviation enterprises. In 1997, they separated, and Mursekaev went into business on his own. Of his most famous transactions during this period, the resale of 68% of the shares of the Far Eastern Shipping Company to the ex-head of the Ministry of Fuel and Energy, Sergei Generalov.

Merkulov was the founder of VIM-Avia." Aviators joke that VIM stands for "Viktor Ivanovich Merkulov". Initially, the company's fleet consisted of four Il-62s and four An-12s. Then Mursekaev bought out a controlling stake in the carrier and organized the leasing of 12 used Boeing 757, due to which "VIM-Avia" has reached today's heights. The seller was the German Condor Flugdienst - the charter "daughter" of Lufthansa. The owners of the liners, as follows from the memorandum, remain the creditors of "VIM-Avia" - "Meridian-Leasing", Impexbank and Avangard-Leasing, the terms of agreements with them are 3-6 years.

It was not possible to contact Mursekaev and Merkulov yesterday.

Mursekaev acquired a good business. As follows from the memorandum of VIM-Avia, the company's revenue for 10 months of this year amounted to 4.5 billion rubles. Despite the fact that for the whole of last year the same figure was 822 million rubles. The company's recent purchases of other carriers - Chita-Avia, Aerobratsk and Russian Sky, among other things, helped the company move forward, the document says. By October, VIM-Avia moved from 42nd to 6th place in terms of passenger turnover, surpassing Domodedovo Airlines and UTair, coming close to Transaero. And by the end of the year, the company's turnover should amount to 6 billion rubles, or $210 million, according to the memorandum. True, the profitability of VIM-Avia is not high. For 10 months, its net profit amounted to only 2.6 million rubles, and the return on sales was 0.19%, the document states.

"The company quickly entered the market and in a short time managed to become the sixth in terms of traffic volumes," said Mikhail Ganelin, an analyst at CenterInvest Group. In his opinion, today the value of the entire company can reach up to 30% of its annual revenue, i.e. about $63 million.

TATARSTAN GOES TOGETHER

Over the past 24 hours, two federal publications at once - The Bell (former RBC team) and Vedomosti - reported that Tatneft agreed to help the VIM-Avia airline, which cancels and delays flights and may completely stop flights due to debts to Domodedovo airport. On Saturday, September 23, the Russian Investigative Committee reported that the carrier had canceled or delayed indefinitely more than a dozen flights, both domestic and international. The head of the Investigative Committee Alexander Bastrykin instructed to conduct a pre-investigation check on these facts. According to the UK, the delay of 15 flights on September 22 and 23 caused damage to almost 3 thousand passengers.

The main problem, according to information leaked to the media, is the carrier's large debt to Domodedovo for airport services and, above all, for fuel. Debts only to the airport reach 500 million rubles. Here, Tatneft went to meet VIM-Avia, providing Domodedovo with a guarantee letter for payment. Recall that the supply of jet fuel is engaged in the "daughter" of "Tatneft" - "Tatneftyaviaservis". In addition, according to The Bell, Tatneft's Zenit bank also provided material assistance to the airline. According to a source from BUSINESS Online, Tatneft and Zenit are indeed the airline's creditors (it is not known how many of them there are). According to him, VIM-Avia's debt to Zenit exceeds 1 billion rubles. Aircraft and real estate remain as collateral to the bank. Yesterday in Moscow, at the initiative of the Federal Air Transport Agency, a council of creditors of VIM-Avia was held with the participation of Tatneft, Zenit and Domodedovo, as well as a whole group of players. At the meeting, a decision was made to restructure the airline's debts, with which all creditors agreed. For how long, our interlocutor did not specify.

An interesting moment: the airline is registered in Tatarstan, in the village of Bogatye Saby - it changed its registration from Moscow to Tatarstan in February of this year. The owners of VIM-Avia, according to the official information of the airline, are Tatar businessman Rashid Mursekaev and his wife Svetlana. It should be noted that, according to the Kontur.Focus database, VIM-Avia has been credited with Zenit for a long time: 5% of VIM-Avia Airlines LLC is pledged in this bank in accordance with the loan agreement dated December 8, 2016.

Zenit Bank declined to comment on the situation, while Tatneft responded very reservedly. “Yes, we, as fuel suppliers, are one of the creditors, but no more,” the press service of the oil company said in response to our request. And the head of the press service of the President of the Republic of Tatarstan, Eduard Khairullin, told BUSINESS Online that "neither the government of Tatarstan nor Tatneft have any relation to the VIM-Avia airline and its obligations."

“THE MANAGER IS INTERESTING, INTELLIGENT, BUT HAS NOT CALCULATED HIS FINANCIAL STRENGTH”

Players of the Tatarstan aviation market say that they are well acquainted with the owner of VIM-Avia. “I know Rashid Mursekaev well. He is not from Tatarstan, he is from Barnaul, he is simply an ethnic Tatar. Have known each other for many years. The head is interesting, intelligent, but, unfortunately, he did not calculate his financial strength, ”says Azat Khakim, chairman of the board of directors of Tulpar Group of Companies.

The general director of UVT Aero, Petr Trubaev, also speaks about his personal acquaintance with Mursekaev: “I only wish the best for this airline, especially since I personally know its leader and would like them to get out of this situation faster. I would not want our colleagues, having got into such a situation, to get out of it unworthily.

The source of "BUSINESS Online" in the aviation market told how "VIM-Avia" got to Tatarstan. According to him, Mursekaev planned to develop cargo air transportation in the direction of China - Europe through Kazan and, accordingly, intended to "make friends" with the Kazan airport. In order to establish work in Tatarstan, he, on the advice of his business partners, big businessmen, registered a company in Sabakh. However, the cargo project did not go ahead (but the registration remained!), and the current one began to experience difficulties. The two main areas of work of VIM-Avia are the charter transportation of tourists and shift workers, the first of which failed. The company developed rapidly, too dynamically, and eventually "undermined its strength," says our source.

However, VIM-Avia entered into relations with Zenit even before the "moving" to Tatarstan - probably back in Moscow. Recall that two years ago Tatneft itself entered the aviation business, having bought the air gate of the south-east of Tatarstan - Bugulma Airport. In Zakamye, the only republican airline UVT Aero left after the bankruptcies of AK Tatarstan and Ak Bars Aero is based (registered as a private individual). The latter has planned to upgrade the fleet, the company now owns seven Bombardiers and two helicopters. Just the other day, UVT Aero received permission from the Federal Air Transport Agency for international flights.

WILL WE FLIGHT?

Judging by the information of our source, after the decision on debt restructuring, flights should resume as normal. Judging by the online scoreboard of the VIM-Avia base airport, the company has a high workload in the next two days and plans flights not only in Russia and neighboring countries, but also to Belgium and China. Today, 10 aircraft of the company are to fly from Domodedovo to Antalya (Turkey), Sochi, Simferopol, Blagoveshchensk, Anadyr, Taiyuan (China), Pevek, Irkutsk, Haikou (China). Another 9 aircraft are to fly to Moscow from Antalya, Krasnodar, Yerevan (Armenia), Liege (Belgium), Dalaman (Turkey), Sochi and Simferopol. On September 26, VIM-Avia scheduled 15 flights to the same cities as today, and 13 more back.

So far, neither the airline itself nor the authorities have given official information about the regularity of flights. Adviser to the head of the Federal Air Transport Agency, Sergei Izvolsky, in an interview with BUSINESS Online, said that the official position of the department on the situation with VIM-Avia would be published on the official website of the Federal Air Transport Agency during the day. He refused to give even a rough estimate of the state of affairs because, in his words, the case concerns "the fate of thousands of passengers who have bought tickets."

Elena Fedorova, Director of Public Relations of VIM-Avia, told us that the airline is now participating in a meeting of the operational headquarters of the Federal Air Transport Agency, and also held a series of consultations with government agencies that control the aviation industry. “Negotiations are underway with the partners of the airline. At the moment, preliminary agreements have been reached, which should lead to a correction of the situation. A plan is being developed to resolve the situation together with financial institutions that have decided to support the airline. The airline apologizes to passengers for the inconvenience caused,” Fedorova said in response to an official request from our editorial board.

“THEY HAVE VERY COMPETENT MANAGEMENT, THEY HAVE ALWAYS MANAGED TO BE EFFECTIVE”

Experts of BUSINESS Online told about the probable fate of VIM-Avia and what to expect for the airline's passengers.

Azat Hakim - Chairman of the Board of Directors of Tulpar Air Group of Companies:

- The situation is really critical, because the airline has had these debts for more than a year and they are constantly negotiating, they are negotiating. But, apparently, the debts have become so critical that the airport will not make any concessions. It is clear that this did not just appear out of nowhere. The airline has acquired a lot of equipment, especially expensive - this is the Boeing 777. There are very large lease payments that need to be paid on time, and it is clear that the airline simply does not financially bear such costs. It is normal for an airline to borrow fuel, but in this case it already indicates that the financial situation is very difficult. If they already owe everyone, then the situation becomes critical. They owe lessors, carriers, overflights, and the worst thing is that they also owe salaries to employees. And when employees work in debt, they work without much zeal. With a greater degree of probability, I think that the company will be forced to stop its operations.

As for government support, there is no state participation in the company, and the Ministry of Transport is unlikely to meet halfway. The fact that tickets have already been sold, passengers need to be transported - we have already gone through this. They will redistribute to other airlines and take everyone out. In my opinion, the Ministry of Transport will make a more balanced decision - to subsidize those airlines that will then take out VIM-Avia passengers.

Oleg Panteleev - Editor-in-Chief of AviaPort.Ru:

— It all depends on what will be the relationship between the carrier and creditors, including service providers. Of course, we had precedents when service providers stopped serving an airline, and in connection with this, the organization ceased its operations. It is regrettable, but the risks are very high, but no one is interested in stopping the airline, because even for service providers it is quite obvious that the stoppage of the airline means that a significant part of the debt cannot be repaid. In addition, from the point of view of the government, VIM-Avia is one of the few carriers operating on regular lines to the Far East. The airline flew to Magadan, flew to Blagoveshchensk. From this point of view, of course, it would be important for the carrier to remain, because this increases the transport accessibility of the Far Eastern regions. I repeat once again that a lot depends on creditors, and if the company is still supported by the government and provides financial guarantees, this will enable the airline to continue flying. In the long term, nothing positive is visible yet.

When traveling, it makes sense for passengers to take a supply of cash with them in order to pay for food, accommodation or transportation to their homes. It is necessary to constantly monitor the readings on the scoreboard, which indicates the parameters of the arrival and departure of the flight, if possible, contact the representatives of the airline. But it is worth noting that we see from the example of previous problematic situations, when a particular company was on the verge of stopping or even stopped its flights, the government found an opportunity to redistribute passengers to other airlines. Thus, in some cases, their problems were minimized. If the passenger has a ticket that provides for a refund, then in the event of a long delay, it makes sense to make a refund, and with a high degree of probability the money will be returned quickly.

Roman Gusarov is the editor-in-chief of the industry portal Avia.ru:

— The airline always has a chance to survive, but it all depends on the goodwill and capabilities of those to whom the company turns for help. There are both negative and positive outcomes of such a situation. A vivid negative example is the TransAero company, which has accumulated so many debts that its support would make no sense, even with support it would remain unprofitable and would accumulate debts. At the same time, UTair experienced similar difficulties. And here the situation is completely different. The shareholders found an opportunity to support the airline with their resources by negotiating with creditors, restructured debts, optimized the company's structure, and reduced the aircraft fleet by about 40 percent. They lost their positions in the market, made a number of sacrifices, but brought the airline to a positive profitability zone. Yes, it has become smaller in volume, but it has ceased to produce losses, and now it is working quite successfully.

As for VIM-Avia, they have very competent management, they have always managed to be efficient. They were not inclined to any adventures, they did not particularly risk, but they always maintained their financial solvency quite well. And the company's reputation is good, it never had a major failure until this summer, there were no problems with creditors. I think we should support her. No one is interested in reducing market participants. If one or two major airlines a year go and leave at such a pace, then in a few years we can simply remain with one carrier. Monopolization of the market is of no interest to anyone - neither the state nor the passengers. Therefore, an airline with a good reputation could be supported. I would rate the chances of survival 50/50.

Rosaviatsia last weekend initiated a meeting of the airline's creditors: they unanimously agreed to restructure its debts

Tatneft, which supplied fuel to the troubled VIM-Avia, agreed to help her in order to enable her to continue flying. Due to debts, VIM's flight grid was shaken: over the weekend, almost 3,000 passengers were waiting for their flights to Domodedovo, after which the Russian Investigative Committee began checking the company. Will the situation around VIM-Avia improve and what is its owner like, who recently re-registered the company in Tatarstan, learned "BUSINESS Online".

The airline "VIM-Avia" cancels and delays flights and may completely stop flights due to debts to Domodedovo Airport
Photo: Vitaly Ankov, RIA Novosti

TATARSTAN GOES TOGETHER

Over the past 24 hours, two federal publications at once - The Bell (former RBC team) and Vedomosti - reported that Tatneft agreed to help the VIM-Avia airline, which cancels and delays flights and may completely stop flights due to debts to Domodedovo airport. On Saturday, September 23, the Russian Investigative Committee reported that the carrier had canceled or delayed indefinitely more than a dozen flights, both domestic and international. Head of the Investigative Committee Alexander Bastrykin ordered to conduct pre-investigation check on these facts. According to the UK, the delay of 15 flights on September 22 and 23 caused damage to almost 3 thousand passengers.

An interesting moment: the airline is registered in Tatarstan, in the village of Bogatye Saby - it changed its registration from Moscow to Tatarstan in February of this year. The owners of VIM-Avia, according to the official information of the airline, are a Tatar businessman Rashid Mursekaev with my wife Svetlana. It should be noted that, according to the Kontur.Focus database, VIM-Avia has been credited from Zenit for a long time: 5% of VIM-Avia Airlines LLC is pledged in this bank in accordance with the loan agreement dated December 8, 2016.

Zenit Bank declined to comment on the situation, while Tatneft responded very reservedly. “Yes, we, as fuel suppliers, are one of the creditors, but no more,” the press service of the oil company said in response to our request. And the head of the press service of the President of the Republic of Tatarstan Eduard Khairullin told BUSINESS Online that "neither the government of Tatarstan nor Tatneft have any relation to the VIM-Avia airline and its obligations."

« THE HEAD IS INTERESTING, INTELLIGENT, BUT DID NOT CALCULATE HIS FINANCIAL STRENGTH"

Players of the Tatarstan aviation market say that they are well acquainted with the owner of VIM-Avia. “I know Rashid Mursekaev well. He is not from Tatarstan, he is from Barnaul, he is simply an ethnic Tatar. Have known each other for many years. The head is interesting, intelligent, but, unfortunately, he did not calculate his financial strength, ”says the chairman of the board of directors of Tulpar Aero Group Azat Hakim.

The general director of UVT Aero also talks about his personal acquaintance with Mursekaev Petr Trubaev: “I only wish the best for this airline, especially since I personally know its leader and would like them to get out of this situation faster. I would not want our colleagues, having got into such a situation, to get out of it unworthily.

However, VIM-Avia entered into relations with Zenit even before the "moving" to Tatarstan - probably back in Moscow. Recall that Tatneft itself entered the aviation business two years ago, the air gate of the southeast of Tatarstan is Bugulma Airport. In Zakamye, the only republican airline UVT Aero left after the bankruptcies of AK Tatarstan and Ak Bars Aero is based (registered as a private individual). The latter has planned to upgrade the fleet, the company now owns seven Bombardiers and two helicopters. Just the other day, UVT Aero received permission from the Federal Air Transport Agency for international flights.

After the decision on debt restructuring, flights should resume as normal. Judging by the online scoreboard of VIM-Avia, the company has a high workload in the next two days
Photo: Mikhail Pochuev/TASS

WILL WE FLIGHT?

So far, neither the airline itself nor the authorities have given official information about the regularity of flights. Advisor to the head of the Federal Air Transport Agency Sergei Izvolsky in an interview with BUSINESS Online, he said that the official position of the department on the situation with VIM-Avia would be published on the official website of the Federal Air Transport Agency during the day. He refused to give even a rough estimate of the state of affairs because, in his words, the case concerns "the fate of thousands of passengers who have bought tickets."

PR Director of VIM-Avia Elena Fedorova informed us that now the airline is participating in a meeting of the operational headquarters of the Federal Air Transport Agency, and also held a series of consultations with government agencies that control the aviation industry. “Negotiations are underway with the partners of the airline. At the moment, preliminary agreements have been reached, which should lead to a correction of the situation. A plan is being developed to resolve the situation together with financial institutions that have decided to support the airline. The airline apologizes to passengers for the inconvenience caused,” Fedorova said in response to an official request from our editorial board.

“THEY HAVE VERY COMPETENT MANAGEMENT, THEY HAVE ALWAYS MANAGED TO BE EFFECTIVE”

Experts of BUSINESS Online told about the probable fate of VIM-Avia and what to expect for the airline's passengers.

Azat Hakim— Chairman of the Board of Directors of Tulpar Aero Group:

Oleg Panteleev —Chief Editor of AviaPort.Ru:

Roman Gusarov— editor-in-chief of the industry portal Avia.ru:

"VIM-Avia", according to Vedomosti, ranks 10th among Russian airlines in terms of passenger traffic and fourth among those flying from Domodedovo. Its transportation in January-August grew by almost a third to 1.8 million passengers. In late May - early June, VIM-Avia delayed almost 200 flights and eventually reduced the charter program, refusing to transport about 100 thousand people. According to Kontur.Fokus, in 2016 VIM-Avia Airlines LLC received revenue of 17.2 billion rubles (38% more than a year earlier) and a net profit of 89.1 million rubles.