In a litigation on the recovery of more than 170 million rubles. from the Rostov confectionery factory "Mishkino" an unexpected participant may appear. As found out by Kommersant, the guarantor of this loan, issued by the Azov-Don Company (ADC), was Ali Uzdenov, managing partner of AFK Sistema. Now, if the court takes the side of the plaintiff, the ADC will be able to foreclose the debt only on a top manager, lawyers warn. Mishkino itself has been experiencing financial difficulties for years.

The managing partner of Sistema, Ali Uzdenov, filed an application with the Arbitration Court of the Rostov Region for a third party to be involved in the dispute between Azov-Don Company LLC and the Mishkino confectionery factory. Information about this appeared in the files of files. At the beginning of 2019, the ADC demanded to recover from Mishkino about 173 million rubles, issued in July 2016 as a loan against the security of the site and equipment of the confectionery factory. Mr. Uzdenov made a guarantor for this loan. The content of his statement “Kommersant-Yug” was told by a representative of the Arbitration Court of the Rostov Region. So, according to the Kommersant interlocutor, Ali Uzdenov later learned that prior to concluding an agreement with ADK Mishkino, he worked at a loss for four years in a row, and the company's obligations at that time reached 1.3 billion rubles. In addition, Mr. Uzdenov considers the loan agreement to be concluded with violations, since, according to his data, ADC and Mishkino are affiliated structures, they added in court. Ali Uzdenov declined to comment.

Rostov factory "Mishkino" calls itself the largest Russian manufacturer of oriental sweets. It produces halva, sherbet, kozinaki, peanuts, sweets, etc. under the brands "Mishkino Happiness" and "Medvegan". Production capacity, according to own data, is more than 60 thousand tons of products per year. In 2018, according to Kartoteka.ru, the company's revenue was 1.08 billion rubles, the net loss was 567.1 million rubles. The sole owner and CEO of Mishkino in the Incorporated is Sergei Ryzenko. He refused to answer the questions “Kommersant-South”.

ADC is associated with the Rostov holding "Aston", a large producer of vegetable oils (brand "Zateya", "Aston") and one of the leading exporters of grain. Vadim Vikulov, general director of Aston Asset Management Company, insists that there is no and never has affiliation between ADC and Mishkino: companies have different owners and management. According to the register, 50% of the ADC is owned by Alice and Tatiana Vikulov. As Mr. Vikulov explained to “Kommersant-Yug”, Mishkino asked ADC for a loan necessary for replenishing working capital with assurances that the owners would capitalize the enterprise within a year and return the debt. “We agreed, but asked for a guarantee, which provided Ali Uzdenov and his wife,” says Vadim Vikulov. “Unfortunately, instead of paying off the debt, bankruptcy is initiated, but the guarantors still have to answer for their obligations.” As follows from the filing of cases, in March 2019, the Arbitration Court of the Rostov Region accepted the application of businessman Arthur Petrosyants to declare Mishkino bankrupt.

Anton Babenko, executive director of the Padva & Epstein law office, explains that if Ali Uzdenov enters the process as a third party, he will receive the same amount of rights to challenge the loan as the defendant. The court in this case will carefully examine the arguments about the affiliation of the debtor and the creditor, since Russia has already established a practice in which the creditor can be denied the right to collect the debt if it is associated with the debtor, he adds. Sergey Radchenko from the law office Yug warns that if the court takes the side of the ADC, the company will be able to collect the debt solely on the guarantor of the loan. If the court refuses the ADC in the claim for the recovery of the loan and concludes that the contract is invalid, the plaintiff will lose the opportunity to appeal to the guarantors in the future, adds the lawyer of the legal group “Yakovlev and Partners” Marina Morozova.