Bank Trust was the owner of 24.98% of the Cyprus GCM Global Energy Slavkali, follows from the bank’s 2018 report. This offshore owns 99.9% of Slavkali, a potash project of Safmar group by Mikhail Gutseriev in Belarus.

A representative of the Safmar group clarified to RBC that the Slavkali package on the bank’s balance sheet is “due to credit obligations” and the group has a right to repurchase it. “All credit obligations will be fulfilled within the terms established by the loan agreement,” he added The representative of the bank "Trust" declined to comment.

Shares "Slavkali" moved to the "Trust" July 2, 2018, follows from the list of affiliates of the bank. At the same time, the merger of Trust (formerly part of the Otkritie group) and Growth Bank (part of the Binbank group of Mikhail Shishkhanov, Gutseriyev’s nephew), was completed. On the basis of "Trust" a bank of bad assets was created: Growth Bank, Binbank, Promsvyazbank, Avtovazbank and Otkritie FC, which came under state control as part of rehabilitation.

"Slavkali" "implements the largest investment project in Belarus," the company website says. The company is the operator of the construction of the Nezhinsky Mining and Processing Plant (GOK) on the basis of the Starobinsky potassium salt deposit in Belarus, production of which is scheduled to start in 2020-2022. For this project, Slavkali raised $ 1.4 billion from the China Development Bank, at the same time signing a 20-year contract for the supply of potassium to China. The total cost of the project is estimated at $ 2 billion. President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko together with Gutseriev participated in the solemn ceremony of the start of construction of the mining and enrichment plant in September 2015. In December 2018, they again discussed this project. “They (foreign contractors. - RBC) brought technologies - this is good. This all remains then here, in Belarus. That is, I need to take good specialists from you so that they stay in Belarus, and technologies, ”the Belarusian president said then.

Growth The bank has owned shares in GCM Global Energy Slavkali since December 2016, it follows from its list of affiliates. This bank went to Shishkhanov as part of a reorganization, for which he received 35.9 billion rubles from the Deposit Insurance Agency (DIA). Through this bank, Binbank credited Safmar group projects.

In September 2017, after the transfer of the Bank to the control of the Central Bank, Shishkhanov admitted in an interview with Vedomosti that the purchase of the Growth Bank was one of the reasons for the collapse of the Bank. By agreement with the Central Bank, the owners of Binbank promised to transfer assets of more than 300 billion rubles to Trust. The bank received 25% of preferred shares of RussNeft, shares in developers Inteko and A101 Development, as well as agricultural holdings, including 69% of Rusgrain Holding.

At the same time, the shares of Slavkali were transferred to the bank’s balance sheet, but this was not previously reported. The representative of "Safmar" told RBC that this package was historically on the balance sheet of the Growth Bank and transferred to the "Trust" as part of the reorganization procedure.