Dutch company excluded from Promsort-Tula LLC in court

Court decision

As previously noted by MK in Tula, Metallfinance LLC owns 2/3 of the share capital of Promsort-Tula, and Sipko B.V. - 1/3. The plaintiff demanded to exclude the Dutch company from the participants of the company and recognize the ownership of Promsort-Tula itself. The company MetalFinance LLC, which filed a lawsuit in court, is just managed and owned by Evgeny Zubitsky.

The Court, in particular, found that since April 2022 (after the inclusion of the beneficial owner Yevgeny Zubitsky in the sanctions lists of the EU, Great Britain, Switzerland and Ukraine), Sipko B.V. systematically avoided participation in general meetings of participants. The company did not attend 32 meetings.

Two decisions were not taken due to a lack of unanimity. Among the unresolved issues are the approval of the new version of the charter, the contribution by the participant, the approval of the annual reporting, the change of the sole executive body, the change of credit and security documentation with the GPB Bank (JSC), the approval of a number of transactions.

The court pointed out that such inaction caused real damage to the society (about 500 million rubles. lost financing and about 250 thousand rubles. additional expenses) and created the risk of default on credit obligations in the amount of about 29.6 billion rubles. due to the inability to extend the pledge agreement in a timely manner.

The defendant’s arguments that participation is impossible due to EU sanctions, the court rejected. He referred to the fact that unilateral restrictive measures of foreign states are not recognized in the Russian Federation and contradict its public policy. The court did not find any good reasons for systematic non-participation in meetings.

As a result, the Arbitration Court of the Tula region excluded Sipko B.V. from the participants of Promsort-Tula LLC, recognized the company's ownership of 1/3 of the share in the authorized capital, recovered from the defendant in favor of the plaintiff court costs in the amount of 100 thousand rubles.

Holding problems

Recall that “MK in Tula” has repeatedly written about the difficult financial situation with the companies of the Industrial and Metallurgical Holding (metallurgical holding “Cox”) Evgeny Zubitsky, what will happen to them in the coming months is a big question.

A few years ago, the holding, which combined assets from Kuzbass to Tula, was a real locomotive of the industry with turnovers of hundreds of billions of rubles. Today, however, the situation has changed dramatically: instead of previous successes, billions of dollars in losses and an avalanche of lawsuits.

The structure of the holding traditionally included key enterprises of the country: from Kemerovo "Cox" and "Butovskaya Mine" to Tulachermet and Polema, as well as a number of production sites in the Belgorod and Kaluga regions. This powerful industrial conglomerate, covering the entire cycle – from coal and ore mining to the production of high-tech powder materials and engineering – faced a serious financial crisis.

At the end of 2025, the total loss of the holding exceeded 20 billion rubles. At the same time, the “filebook” of litigation is growing: creditors are increasingly demanding the return of funds in the billions. The latest decisions of the Arbitration Court of the Tula region indicate that the financial stability of the holding has not been shaken out of nowhere.

Information about the Dutch company Sipko B.V. in the public domain is scarce. This Amsterdam holding, established in 2017, has long been a “shadow” player. The management of the structure is formally entrusted to the professional provider TMF Netherlands B.V., which usually acts only as a nominal holder.

Who is really behind Sipko B.V. and what role does this company play in the current PMH crisis is a question to which there is no clear answer. One thing is clear: there are certain problems behind the facade of a complex corporate structure.

MK in Tula is monitoring developments.