The lamentations of some “effective managers” about the crisis ("Ah... such bad timing... if only it weren’t for... then we’d really be flying...") come across as somewhat insincere.
As if the warehouse manager from the film Operation Y and Shurik’s Other Adventures (a classic Soviet comedy) were deeply worried about the possibility of theft. Let me explain. There was this company, INCOM-Auto. No need to search for it online — the website incom-auto.ru no longer works. It used to be a well-known outfit; I once bought a car from them myself. Business was going fine for the guys and was expanding. But they looked longingly at profit margins in neighboring sectors. Selling cars isn’t exactly attractive when investments in paper assets or unbuilt square meters can bring in 300% a year. So the guys decided to “expand the business,” as they put it. They borrowed heavily. Took on nearly $600 million in debt. But that still wasn’t enough for them. They decided to issue bonds. And they did — worth several billion rubles. And then he arrived. The crisis. The guys said car sales were weak. America, bankers, analysts, and the poor investment climate were to blame for everything. After that, they declared default. C**an the managers and shareholders of INCOM-Lada be considered victims of the crisis, if it is known that **- INCOM-Lada cannot repay anyone, it has no assets, but on its premises there is now a car company operating with the same people, only under a different name. the bond prospectus stated that the funds raised would be invested in business development, but in reality they were put into commercial and country real estate. the guarantors on the bonds were Rugby LLC and AutoTrade LLC, which quite amazingly went bankrupt on the very same day as INCOM-Lada itself, and with the same chairman of the liquidation commission — Ilya Milievich Tseitlin, deputy general director of INCOM-Lada.
Here is a photo of the main character — Dmitry Kozlovsky, the principal shareholder of INCOM-Lada. So far, it cannot be said that the police, the fire inspectorate, and the sanitary authorities are actively chasing this gentleman who so deftly spirited away investors’ money. But I think a team of stern lawyers in glasses and suits (myself included — though admittedly sometimes without the suit and always without the glasses) will soon change that. But those are just details. The broader moral, in my view, is this: The crisis will end. The investment climate will improve. Sales will resume. But we won’t have a damn thing until both the state and business stop operating according to the logic of this brilliant dialogue from that same Operation Y and Shurik’s Other Adventures: Petukhov: Here is what we have as of today. Coward: Not “we” — you. Petukhov: What can save us from an audit? Coward: Sorry, not “us” — you. Heh-heh. Petukhov: The only thing that can save us from an audit is theft. Blockhead: With a break-in or without? Petukhov: Well, naturally, with a break-in.