| Amstor Retail Group | |
| Type: | Public |
| Location: | Ukraine |
| Industry: | Development |
| Products: | Commercial property, hypermarket, supermarket |
| Founder: | Volodymyr Vahorovskyi (Володимир Вагоровський) |
Amstor Retail Group is a commercial property management company that operates in central and eastern Ukraine.[1] The chain was 70% owned by Smart-Holding. Amstor LLC was declared bankrupt by the decision of the Commercial Court of Dnipropetrovsk Oblast in 2019. In December 2020, Madera Development acquired several shopping centers, land and commercial equipment from Amstor at an auction in the Prozorro sales system.
On 27 June 2022, Russia committed a terrorist attack against Amstor in Kremenchuk city.[2] It was bombed by an X-22 rocket[3] from Kurskaya Oblast, Russia. It was damaged, and by 30 June 2022, at least 21 people were killed and 59 injured (25 hospitalized).[4] [5]
Amstor was founded by the Ukrainian businessman Volodymyr Vahorovskyi. The first store opened in Donetsk on 28 August 2003. By the end of 2007, there were 19 Amstor shops in the east of Ukraine; 22 shopping centres were under development. Starting in 2009, approximately ₴280 million (about US$30 million) of the company's funds were invested in development.
On 20 December 2012, Amstor entered the market of Kyiv. In 25 October 2013, Amstor was opened in Dnipropetrovsk. In 2014, it had eight supermarkets in Donetsk, Makiivka, Sviatohirsk and Yasynuvata.
The company planned to open new stores, but the war in Donbas in Eastern Ukraine in 2014, as well as a corporate conflict of the major shareholder Smart-Holding with the minor shareholder Volodymyr Vahorovskyi around Amstor, which began in December 2014, stopped these plans. In 2015, Smart-Holding spent more than ₴150 million to stabilize 20 stores in the territory controlled by Ukraine. In July 2015, Smart-Holding and Fozzy Group reached an agreement to implement a joint project to restore the operations of the Amstor retail chain. The stores of Amstor Retail Group have given space to numerous representatives of small and medium-size businesses.[6]
On 27 June 2022, an Amstor premises was hit by a Russian missile during the 2022 Kremenchuk missile strike.[7]
The economic recession of 2008 led to Amstor almost becoming bankrupt. Business partners Shifrin and Vahorovskyi offered Vadym Novynskyi 70% of Amstor's stock in exchange for working capital and restructuring the company's excessive credit portfolio. Novynskyi's company Smart-Holding provided a $3 million stabilization loan, and in return they each retained 15% of the company's stock. In 2009–2011, Novynskyi gave about $30.5 million to Amstor, and Smart-Holding concluded suretyship agreements to $50 million under the company's loans with the banks.[8] In 2012, Amstor's first supermarket in Kyiv was opened.[9] Later, two more Amstors were opened there.
In March 2014, Volodymyr Vahorovskyi, without the consent of Smart-Holding, founded Amstor Trade LLC. The name of the new company was almost identical to that founded with Smart-Holding's half a year prior. The only difference was the absence of a hyphen in the name. To fill up the capital of Amstor Trade, Vahorovskyi made several fiscal transactions. One of them, for instance, was the purchase of 'worthless' securities for ₴15 million from Lancelot by Amstor Trade House, funneling the money to Amstor Trade LLC as a loan.[10]
Later on, the Vahorovskyis brothers acted to make a deal to sell the trademarks to the companies that were controlled by them. The equipment of Amstor supermarkets was 'sold' and 're-registered' to these companies. Similar schemes were used when withdrawing vehicles and special machinery that belonged to the retail chain.[11] In November 2014, Smart-Holding noticed photos of receipts from Amstor outlets located in the Anti-Terrorist Operation Zone, from which the "Amstor Trade House" name disappeared, and the VAT equalled to 0%. Smart-Holding did not give its consent though.
It was revealed that money from Amstor's accounts was transferred to some fake companies. From the publication of receipts in social media from the supermarkets in December 2014, Volodymyr Vahorovskyi was discovered to have used the money to buy an apartment in Hrushevsky Street in Kyiv, an expensive car, etc.[12] The proceeds from these 18 outlets were not debited and were appropriated by the ex-managers.[13]
Smart-Holding removed the Vahorovskyis from the management and assigned new managers to all the branches of the Amstor chain. Armed people acting under command of the Vahorovskyis blocked access to the stores. All that led to suspension in the supermarkets' operations—neither representatives of Smart-Holding nor the employees were allowed in.[14] The representatives of Smart-Holding received access to the stores only on 9 January 2015. In a span of ten days, servers were removed, labour books of employees disappeared, and the IT infrastructure of Amstor, contacts of suppliers and accounting papers were destroyed.[15]
Amstor LLC was declared bankrupt by the decision of the Commercial Court of Dnipropetrovsk Oblast on 23 July 2019.[16] In December 2020, Madera Development, whose beneficiary is Ihor Mazepa, acquired several shopping centers, land and commercial equipment from Amstor at an auction in the Prozorro system.
18 stores of Amstor Retail Group are located in the ATO zone. They had worked under the control of Vahorovskyi, who managed to make a deal with leaders of the temporarily occupied territory of Donetsk. Later, Vahorovskyi was deprived of Amstor shops in the Donetsk People's Republic territory by local militants.