Officially begun on July 9, the bankruptcy of the subsidiaries of the Urban Group Alexander Dolgin, one of the largest developers of the Moscow region, could adversely affect not only the nearly 14 thousand equity holders, but also the creditor banks of the group. A special risk zone may be the Moscow Industrial Bank, which issued more than 600 million rubles to the contractors of the Urban Group. on bail not yet built apartments. The bank denies problems, but, according to experts, it may be threatened by the need to increase reserves with the risk of lowering standards to a critical level.

On July 9, the Moscow Region Arbitration Court declared five Urban Group structures bankrupt: OOO "Vash gorod" (engaged in the implementation of the "Vidny Gorod" project with an area of ​​370,000 sq m), Ivastroy (Lyikovo, 1.7 million sq. m), OOO Ekoquartal (450,000 sq m Mitino O2), Highgate LLC (Opalikha O3, 435,000 sq m and Lesarevizhny, 584,000 sq m) and LLC "Continent project" ("Solar system-2", 460 thousand square meters). In all companies, bankruptcy proceedings are open for a year. The applicant in the cases was the Foundation for the Protection of the Rights of Citizens Participating in Shared Construction, established in the fall of 2017. Representatives of the fund itself, the Ministry of Construction and the Urban Group declined to comment.

Urban Group exists since 2003. Its main beneficiary is Alexander Dolgin. The company was one of the largest developers of the Moscow region, but in the spring of 2018 faced financial difficulties. In April, Rosreestr refused to register the share participation agreements (DDU) in the projects of the Urban Group. The reason was the lack of information from the agency about the payment of contributions to the fund by the company (there developers deduct 1.2% of the value of each DDU).

In the Urban Group, the situation was then called a "misunderstanding" (see "Kommersant" on May 24). But then Sberbank withdrew accreditation for mortgage programs in the developer's projects, and the federal authorities announced that they were taking control of the situation. It is promised that the Urban Group's problem facilities will be completed at the expense of the Russian budget and funds of the Moscow region. The fund of protection of the rights of co-investors filed claims on the bankruptcy of the developer's structures on June 9.

Despite the fact that the decision on the bankruptcy of the Urban Group was taken by the federal authorities, according to Almaz Kuchmbaev from Kuchmbaev and partners, the completion of the process will take at least six months. "Three to four months, the introduction of the procedure will challenge the management of the developer, another three to four months will be needed by the interest holders to approve the new developer in each case," he said. Representatives of the Urban Group have already confirmed plans to appeal the court's decisions. So, at the meeting on the application for bankruptcy of LLC "Your City" the developer's lawyer indicated that now Rosreestr's refusal to register the DDU in the project the company will appeal in the Khimki District Court. According to his calculations, because of this measure, the developer could not get from citizens about 800 million rubles. In Rosreestr explained to Kommersant that the DDU will be registered only after providing the necessary information from the Fund to protect the holders' rights and in the absence of other legal grounds for refusal.

Head of the legal department "Amuleks" Nadezhda Makarova believes that the chance to win the case from the Urban Group a little: to suspend the registration of the DDO Rosreestru, in the absence of the necessary data prescribed legislation, and the legitimacy of the fund is unlikely to be the subject of consideration. However, the partner of Padva and Epshtein law firm Pavel Gerasimov doubts that even a positive decision of the Khimki court will help the Urban Group avoid bankruptcy. "If the company meets the signs of bankruptcy, then the arguments will not be saved, only funding," he says.

Debtors against bankruptcy

Mr. Gerasimov believes that the developer's bankruptcy is the worst option. "Sanitation involves the fulfillment of obligations in a civil procedure, whereas in bankruptcy it is a question of longer terms and decision-making by the bankruptcy creditors and the manager," he explains. Almaz Kuchmbayev confirms that the process of bankruptcy of the structures of the Urban Group will be "absolutely unprofitable for all categories of equity holders".

According to the analyst of TsIAN Alexander Pypin, we are talking about a total of 13.8 thousand equity holders who bought housing in houses under construction. "Projects that are at the foundation stage may be curtailed because of economic inexpediency, and all others are likely to face a significant increase in the timing of implementation," explains Kuchmbaev.

Lawyer of the Moscow Regional Bar Association Lyubov Kiseleva adds that with the change of the developer, an increase in construction costs may occur. "In this situation, the co-investor will be offered to pay the difference, if the terms of the contract allow," she explains.

In the most difficult situation, according to lawyers, will be customers of the Urban Group, bought out on the DDU commercial and non-residential premises. "They can claim to receive rights to their property only after the completion of the construction of the house, putting it into operation and the decision of the court examining the case of bankruptcy, payment of compensation from the Fund for the protection of the rights of real estate investors are not made to such investors," explains the senior lawyer of BMS Law Firm Taras Khizhnyak.

Loans of doubtful collateral

But interest holders are not the only party that can suffer from the bankruptcy of the Urban Group. The developer actively attracted funds not only from individuals, but also legal ones, on the balance sheet of which now there was only a large amount of unrealized real estate.

So, according to Rosreestr, at the end of May 2018, 392 apartments in the complexes "Vidny Gorod", "Laikovo", "Mitino O2", "Opalikha O3" and "Solar System-2" were pledged to the Moscow Industrial Bank (Minbank) . The Moscow Mortgage Agency (MIA Bank) has 224 apartments in "Laikovo" and "Mitino 02". According to the Federal Chamber of Notaries, Promsvyazbank has pledged four houses with two buildings and one more building in three houses in the "Prominent City". The "Renaissance" - 799 apartments in "Mitino O2", Sberbank - 540 apartments in the "Forest". Sberbank, Renaissance and Promsvyazbank declined to comment.

In the Ministry of Finance explained to Kommersant that the apartments in the projects of the Urban Group - is secured by a loan of 640 million rubles., Issued to one of the contractors of the developer. The bank argues that now this debt is serviced on time and in full. In addition, the Ministry of Finance has an "additional highly liquid provision".

According to Rosreestr, the deposits to the Ministry of Finance were issued by OOO Stroydedvizhimost and LLC Inzhstroitechnology. These companies belong to offshore structures, whose phone numbers coincide with similar data of Urban Group LLC Urban Group and LLC Urban-Design. The fact that "Sladnedvizhimost" and "Inzhstroitechnology" are controlled by the beneficiaries of Urban is confirmed by two sources of Kommersant, who are familiar with the situation in the company.

Alexander Pypin doubts that loans will be returned on time. If the loans were issued on market terms, the loan of the Ministry of Finance could be about 1.5 billion rubles, the analyst added. The maximum amount of reserves that the Ministry of Finance can create in principle without violating the norms (if it does not reduce assets or shareholders do not provide additional assistance) is 640 million rubles, the senior director of the banking analytical group Fitch Ratings Alexander Danilov estimated. This figure exactly coincides with the size of the loan to the contractors of the Urban Group. Thus, if the bank still has to create reserves for this loan of 100%, for example, at the request of the Central Bank, the bank's standards will be in the critical zone - at the minimum acceptable level. For other creditors of the Urban Group, the situation is not so critical.

Risks of bad example

Another negative consequence of the bankruptcy of the Urban Group with the assistance of the Fund for the Protection of the Rights of Shareholders, according to Almaz Kuchmbayev, could be the creation of a precedent in the market for solving the problem of developers exclusively at the expense of the budget. "It is necessary to wait that now many regions will ask to deal with such problems, in particular, we will prepare such an appeal by the co-investors of the Ulyanovsk region," the lawyer believes.

The director general of the rating agency of the construction complex Nikolay Alekseenko doubts that such appeals will be satisfied. "It is logical that the fund is engaged in the completion of residential facilities only in exceptional cases and on the decision of the federal government, while in most cases the problem of defrauded co-investors is within the competence of regional authorities," the expert notes. Mr. Alekseenko emphasizes that there is simply no possibility of completing large volumes of construction at the organization: deductions of 1.2% of the cost of the DDU are not enough for this.