Boigraphy

Anton Bolshakov was born in 1968. He graduated from the Finance Academy under the Government of Russia and is an economist in finance and credit sphere.

In 1993-1995 he worked for Alfa Bank as an operation analyst at the Department of operations accounting and processing, then as an economist at the Department of the interbank market of credit management, and later as a senior dealer at the Department of financial transactions.

Since 1995 he headed Department of financial operations, Monetary and Financial Department, Treasury, asset and liability Department, and was board of trustees member, vice chairman of the board of trustees, and member of the board of directors in Zenit bank;

Source: Rb.ru

Dossier

In December 2002 it became known that SIBUR may lose one of its assets, Yaroslavl Tire Plant (YaShZ). Zenit bank, SIBUR‘s lender, claims that the petrochemical holding has not settled a debt for which YaShZ is the guarantor. It is on these grounds that Zenit threatened to make Yaroslavl Tire Plant bankrupt. SIBUR argued that the debt to Zenit was restructured and therefore threats of YaShZ bankruptcy were unfounded.

In early 2003, Zenit press service referring to the statement by deputy chairman of the board Anton Bolshakov, announced that the bank considered the possibility of initiating bankruptcy proceedings against YaShZ because of SIBUR overdue bills worth 165 million rubles. Zenit acquired the bills in late 2001. The bank estimated that by the end of 2002 SIBUR owed Zenit 231 million rubles including interest and penalties.

Source: Vedomosti, 20 January 2003

 

In 2006 Tatneft JSC and four private investors including three Zenit board members (Aleksey Sokolov, Igor Avanesyan, and Anton Bolshakov) founded International PetroChemical Growth Fund (IPCG) worth 900 million dollars.

Tatneft owned 45% of the fund and the private investors had approximately equal packages comprising 50% of the fund. Tatneft and other Zenit shareholders invested their assets, including shares in Tatneft and Zenit, into the fund. IPCG fund is the final owner of 40.98% shares in Zenit bank. The fund owns the package through RUVC Limited, Bursonco Limited, Rosemead Enterprises Limited, Janisaco Enterprises Limited, Intra Management, and Libra Capital, which is the nominal shareholder. Tatneft owned 39.73% of the bank. Zenit top-managers and executives own 18.32% through SGI CY Holding Limited, Nabertherm Limited, and Sintez Group.

Source: RosInvest.Com, 27 October 2006

 

In 2008 four Zenit co-owners controlled almost 30% of shares in Ak bars. The stake was worth about 14 billion rubles. However, there is no information as to how the four business partners got the shares. Aleksey Sokolov, Anton Bolshakov, and Maksim Demin each controlled a 7.34% stake, and Igor Avanesyan owned 7.19%. The total amount of shares controlled by the four entrepreneurs thus reached 29.21%. Since 2001 Bolshakov has been a deputy to Sokolov in Zenit, and in 2006 he joined the board of directors.

As of the beginning of 2007 Tatar local authorities controlled 96% of the bank’s shares. In May 2007 Tatneft controlled by the regional authorities sold 32% of the bank’s shares. The buyer and the price of the deal were not disclosed. Most of this stake resulted in the hands of private investors. Two years before that, the four businessmen were among the owners of Zenit. Approximately in equal proportions they invested in International Petro-Chemical Growth Fund, their total investments comprising 55% of the fund; Tatneft invested the remainder 45%. Since then, the fund has been the owner of 41.8% of Zenit shares; another 24.6% belong to Tatneft and 14.4% to Vladimir Lisin, the main owner of Novolipetsk Metallurgical Combine. Transfer of control over the bank from the government of Tatarstan to private investors reduced the political power of Ak Bars. However, in 2008 Fitch agency reported an increase in Tatarstan's rating, and an increase in the bank’s rating followed, Fitch citing the ability of authorities to provide support to the region-controlled bank if needed. However, the agency made a reservation that the "lack of transparency in control over the bank’s shares by the region is an obstacle to comprehensive assessment of relations between the authorities and the bank."

Source: eTatar, 6 May 2008

 

Tatneft controlled Zenit for 10 years, although it did not resist outside investors joining in the capital of the bank. In 2001, for example, Novolipetsk Metallurgical Combine acquired 20% of its shares in an additional issue. In April 2005, Zenit announced its desire to attract foreign business partners, at first presented as “a group of companies Urals Energy”, but then decided to simply call them “European businessmen”. The foreign investors got a 26.75% stake in the bank. Mark Stephen and Daniel Mallabar Cox, citizens of the United Kingdom, joined the board of directors. With the foreign investors, Tatneft was left with only 25.95% of Zenit. At that time, among other owners of the bank there was a UK entity SGI Enterprises with a 19.25% stake, Stinol-Invest from Lipetsk with a stake of 17.35%, and Rudprom from Uglich that owned 6.4% of the shares. But the strategic partnership did not last long. Most of the shares sold to European businesses changed their respective owners. By July Cox, who in early 2006 owned a 19.71% stake of Zenit, disappeared from the list of the bank’s beneficiaries. Zenit and Tatneft press service gave not comment on the situation.

A source close to the bank said that the company represented the interests of Sushovan Gosh, a Zenit and Tatneft member of the board of directors. A customer of the bank recalls that during a venue Gosh claimed to be representing the interests of Zenit managers. We were unable to contact his for comments.

In 2006, analysts estimated the value of the bank at $ 1 billion. In other words, each of the individual investors had shares worth nearly $ 100 million. "They did not have assets worth that much", argued a friend of one of the investors.

Source: Strategic Development Centre, 1 November 2006

 

In 2010 Vesta, a small bank in the fifth hundred in the rating of Russian banks in terms of assets, introduced changes in its board of trustees and board of directors. The Board welcomed new members, including chairman of the board of trustees Viktor Zhidkov; co-owner of Zenit bank Anton Bolshakov; Aleksey Panferov, ex-head of MDM Bank investment block and managing partner of New Russia Growth Capital Advisers; Andrey Dobrynin, a partner of the fund; and Aleksey Sivyakov. Vesta was considered a Zenit satellite engaged in services to wealthy clients.

Source: Vedomosti, 23 April 2010


In 2011 the Central Bank named 153 loss-making banks. These institutions did not cope with the impact of the global financial crisis. Vesta was in the top-fifteen.

Source: Komsomolskaya Pravda, 24 May 2011