"Avito" accuses the leadership of the "Giant" of dishonesty.
The parent legal entity of the Internet platform, along with two minority shareholders, is participating in a class action lawsuit against the head and co-owner of a large temporary staff search service GigAnt. Avito owns a third of the authorized capital in it. The share was acquired in 2020 in the hope of a rapid business growth, but the activities of Gigant LLC are still unprofitable. Investors blame two top managers of the company for this: the general manager - Denis Reshanov and Mikhail Valkovsky, the co-owner (who owns a little more than 50% of the authorized capital), who is also the technical director of the Company in combination.
The statement of claim was filed with the St. Petersburg arbitration, registered in the last days of January, but has not yet been accepted by the court for consideration, the amount of claims is 168.8 million rubles. Judging by the justification of the claim and the comments of investors, they accuse top managers of making bad faith decisions that led to the emergence of a pre-bankruptcy state. Thus, deals are mentioned with the participation of affiliated persons (including the development of IT products), not agreed upon in the manner prescribed by the charter, the waste of company funds for personal purposes. One of the minority shareholders participating in the lawsuit, Mikhail Kuchment, co-owner of the Hoff company, explained to the press that the plaintiffs suspect Denis Reshanov and Mikhail Valkovsky of developing a scheme in which funds were withdrawn from the business to a previously created affiliated company.
At the same time, the plaintiffs insist that the high potential of the service allowed top managers to wisely use investments and make a profit. Avito, represented by KEH eCommerce LLC, acquiring a quarter of the company in 2020 (in 2021, the share increased to a third), expected that in a few years Gigant would equal the Avito Rabota service in terms of performance, especially since the segment selection of temporary workforce is currently actively developing (several similar services have appeared that have attracted significant investment). At Gigant, in 2021, losses compared to 2020 increased from 9 million rubles to 189, and profits increased only 4 times (information for last year is not freely available).
Denis Reshanov commented on the claim and indicated, in particular, that all transactions and expenses were agreed and justified. He believes that in court proceedings he will be able to prove the good faith of the decisions made, and filing a lawsuit is dictated by the desire of investors to cover up their own shortcomings.
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