Co-owner of MKB buys out almost the entire share from the founders of "36.6"

The founders of one of the largest Russian pharmacy chains "36.6" Artem Bektemirov and Sergey Krivosheev will remain only its minority shareholders. As Kommersant learned, about 30% of their shares are being acquired by the main owner of the Moscow Credit Bank (MCB), Roman Avdeev, who recently paid “36.6” 5 billion rubles. for 52% of the drug manufacturer Veropharm. Thus, Mr. Avdeev becomes the main shareholder of the pharmacy chain.

Photo: Evgeny Dudin, Kommersant / buy photo

The fact that Artem Bektemirov and Sergey Krivosheev agreed to sell almost their entire stake in “36.6” to Roman Avdeev’s structures was reported by two sources in the pharmaceutical market and confirmed by two sources close to the shareholders of “36.6”. “The deal began two or three weeks ago, but should finally close before the end of the year,” says one of Kommersant’s interlocutors. Messrs. Bektemirov and Krivosheev own 40.01% of the pharmacy chain through the British "36.6" Investments Ltd. Kommersant's sources say that as a result of the transaction, the founders of 36.6 will have a total stake of 5-10%. “Artem Bektemirov will continue to be the general director of the 36.6 group until the new main owner decides on a candidate for this post,” another source reports.

Meanwhile, from SPARK-Interfax data it follows that the general director has already been replaced at CJSC Management Company Pharmacy Chain 36.6, a subsidiary of 36.6, which is directly involved in the retail business of the group. Instead of Marina Penkova (she is the current general director of Veropharm), he became Vladimir Zakharov.

According to Ivan Glushkov, Deputy General Director of Stada CIS, Mr. Zakharov’s candidacy was proposed by the Hi Capital fund, which has a 22.4% stake in “36.6”. One of the fund's co-investors is Roman Avdeev. Hi Capital declined to comment yesterday.

Mr. Bektemirov and Mr. Avdeev also declined to comment yesterday. “36.6” also did not comment on the information about the deal.

"36.6", according to IMS Health for the first half of 2013, is the third pharmacy chain in terms of sales volume in the retail commercial market with a share of 1.89% (the first two places are held by Rigla - 2.85% and A5 - 2.17%). Retail segment revenue in the first half of the year was RUB 6.7 billion. (decrease by 10%), net loss - 1.4 billion rubles. (increased by 23%).

How 36.6 sold a controlling stake in Veropharm

Yesterday on the Moscow Exchange, the capitalization of “36.6” was 2.5 billion rubles, thus, the market value of the shares of Artem Bektemirov and his partner is 1 billion rubles. Kommersant's sources say that the deal to sell their shares will most likely be cash-free - the debt of the pharmacy chain will be converted into securities. According to “36.6” itself, at the end of the first half of 2013 its total financial debt amounted to 11.3 billion rubles, retail accounted for 9.18 billion rubles, and another 2.16 billion rubles. to Veropharm. This year, the MKB approved a “36.6” credit line for 8.5 billion rubles, of which, according to Mr. Bektemirov, about 2 billion rubles were selected as of July 1.

At the end of August, 36.6 found funds to repay the main part of the debt by selling 52% of Veropharm for 5 billion rubles. LLC "GardenHills", the sole beneficiary of which is Roman Avdeev. The rest of the debt, Mr. Bektemirov said then, could be covered within a year through the sale of non-core assets of “36.6”, as well as from the sale of approximately 150 pharmacies (as of June 30 there were 737 in total) - through this it is planned to attract 1 more, 5-3 billion rubles. Artem Bektemirov also said that the company expects to attract an investor into “36.6” itself, whose participation could lead to a reduction in the shares of Messrs. Bektemirov and Krivosheev. At the same time, the head of “36.6” did not rule out that investors could be MKB or structures close to it. The investor needed "36.6", including for the discussed merger deal with the A5 pharmacy chain (1,166 points), negotiations with which continued at least last month.

“The change of the main owner gives hope that 36.6, which continues to be in a difficult operational and financial situation, will be better managed in the future,” says VTB Capital analyst Ivan Kushch. In the short term, there is no point in expecting the 36.6 retail business to emerge from the crisis, says Alexey Krivoshapko, director of Prosperity Capital Management. “36.6 was a champion company in changing general directors,” he recalls. “Of course, the owner plays a role in managing the company, but it is important who will be placed in the position of top management.”

Oleg Trutnev, Evgenia Pertseva

Roman Avdeev replenished his first aid kit