According to the Autobusiness Review magazine, in 2016, Nezavisimost’s sales of new cars fell by 27.5% to 9.1 thousand units, although the overall decline Russian market, was much less - 11%. The group's revenue decreased by 11%, amounting to 29 billion rubles.
In July of this year, the group closed dealerships in Moscow (Volvo, Land Rover/Jaguar and Volkswagen) and Yekaterinburg (Volvo, Mitsubishi and Kia). On September 28, Gazprombank, one of Nezavisimost’s largest creditors, posted 11 notices of intent to go to court “due to signs of bankruptcy” against the companies of this group in Moscow, Yekaterinburg and Ufa.
The representative of "Independence" and then explained this to the "usual technical procedure". According to him, negotiations are underway with the bank to settle the debt. As for the situation with BMW, the representative of the dealer told RBC that Independence lost about 300 million rubles on sales of cars of this brand in 2017. due to their low margins.
The total debt of Independence is about 6 billion rubles, a representative of the group told RBC. In addition to Gazprombank, Sberbank is the key creditor of Independence. Its representatives did not respond to requests from RBC.
Photo: Nikita Infantiev / Kommersant
The representative of A1 said that the management of the dealer group is now implementing an anti-crisis plan with the support of banks and importers. “We support management in the negotiation process and make every effort to resolve the situation,” he added. Roman Tchaikovsky was unable to promptly comment on the situation.
Kirill Yakovenko, an analyst at Alor Broker, believes that a combination of factors could have aggravated the situation in Nezavisimost: the crisis state of the economy, a sharp decline in sales in 2016, weak market activity compared to other participants, an illiterate strategy for working with auto concerns, as well as an increased debt burden. “Six months ago, one of the dealer’s shareholders, the A1 group, already capitalized Nezavisimost by $20 million, but in order to continue the operation of such a business, even then it was necessary to narrow the number of car dealerships and be the first to curtail contracts with inefficient brands,” he notes. According to Yakovenko, it will be extremely difficult for the group to continue working.
A representative of Independence told RBC that several scenarios for the development of events are being considered, including the restructuring of credit lines and the launch of a financial recovery procedure for the company. “We have brands in our portfolio that allow the company to show profit from sales, and work will be focused on them,” he said, without specifying which brands he was talking about. ”, concerning the future fate of the company. “There are already successful precedents on the market for resolving situations that are similar, if not much worse than [the situation] with the Independence Group,” he says.
A Peugeot representative told RBC that the contract with Independence expires at the end of the year and the possibility of extending it is now being considered. The press service of Mitsubishi RBC reported that dealership"Independence" in Ufa continues to work. Land Rover/Jaguar and Ford Sollers also say they continue to work with the dealer.
Consolidation continues
Meanwhile, Independence's competitors are becoming more active. At the end of September, the Kommersant newspaper, citing sources, wrote that the Avilon car dealer group could take over the Belaya Dacha BMW dealership in Moscow, which was leased by Nezavisimost. Andrey Pavlovich, CEO of Avilon, confirmed to RBC that the company is interested in expanding cooperation with BMW and is now considering the possibility of developing the project at Belaya Dacha under its own brand. “At the moment, this issue is at the stage of negotiations, and as soon as we come to a final decision, we will immediately report on the results,” he said.
Avilon may also include the Volvo brand in the portfolio. As Pavlovich told RBC, the company applied for dealership. New salon, according to the CEO, can be located on Volgogradsky Prospekt in the capital, where most of the group's car dealerships are concentrated. It is planned to sum up the results of the tender in November. Volvo spokesman Anton Svekolnikov declined to comment. A BMW representative said that the company is ready to consider cooperation with dealers who have already proven themselves in working with the brand.
Vladimir Bespalov, an analyst at VTB Capital, notes that the potential withdrawal of Nezavisimost from the market will not drastically affect it: “Competition in Moscow among dealers is high, so other participants will quickly fill the vacated niches.”
In August compared to August 2016, up to almost 133 thousand pieces. However, premium import brands that are not produced in Russia generally showed a negative trend.
A few days ago, a scandal suddenly broke out around one of the dealers of the BMW brand - the Nezavisimost company. Dozens of customers who paid for cars could not receive them, despite the fact that they were at the site of an authorized dealer. The noise began to grow, and representatives of the Russian office of BMW issued an official statement, where they confirmed the fact that the dealer had financial problems and assured that they were taking measures to solve the problem.
The scale of the problem became clear after the story of Muscovite Gleb Pimenov was posted on Facebook, who tried for two months to collect the paid BMW crossover. After unsuccessful negotiations with the dealer, Pimenov blocked the main entrance of the dealership with his car and, together with friends, guarded his new car in the parking lot so they don't take her out. This case was published in a number of media, thanks to which the car was still given to the client. But, as it turned out, the Muscovite was not alone in his problem. There was a case, one of the clients who could not pick up his car from the dealer even with the help of a lawyer, out of desperation, almost began to destroy his purchase right in the parking lot, but his friends who were nearby stopped him in time. He still got the car, but disaster almost happened.
The official representative of the Russian office of the BMW Group Vasily Melnikov said:
BMW Group Russia confirms that the Nezavisimost dealership faced a number of complex problems that led to the dealer's failure to comply with the agreements and the subsequent stoppage of its work. Because of this, the deadlines for the transfer of purchased cars to customers were violated. At the moment, negotiations are underway with the dealer to get out of this situation, providing for various scenarios, up to the most cardinal ones.
In order to make a decision as soon as possible, taking into account the interests of customers, BMW Group Russia asks everyone who has encountered a delay in the transfer of a car to contact BMW customer support. In this case, you must have documents confirming the purchase and payment for the car.
Currently, along with the collection of information in order to ensure a sufficient level of security Vehicle owned by BMW Group Russia, cars are exported from the Nezavisimost DC. The importer's warehouse ensures complete safety and security of cars: cars assigned to the clients of Independence Group of Companies will not be transferred to anyone until the final investigation in this situation.
The essence of the situation is that, having received money for the car from the client, Nezavisimost did not transfer it to BMW Group, as a result of which the cars were physically delivered to the dealer’s site, and the importer did not give the title without payment. Apparently, the financial situation of the company (which is not yet known for certain) is not in the best way, as a result of which there are actually no funds to buy cars.
At the same time, other dealerships of the Nezavisimost Group of Companies - Land Rover, Ford, Audi and others - do not have such problems, dealerships operate as usual, although the company itself is undergoing an optimization process, due to which several centers of different brands. However, they fulfilled their obligations to customers in full.
“We do not recommend buying cars and doing service work at Nezavisimost and refer customers to other dealerships. We are dealing with questions that customers have and trying to minimize losses,” said a BMW spokesperson.
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“We do not recommend buying cars and doing service work at Nezavisimost and refer customers to other dealerships. We are dealing with questions that customers have and trying to minimize losses,” said a BMW spokesman.
Two automakers - BMW and Volvo - terminated their contracts with Independence. The company's customers claim that they can neither get their cars nor get their money back. There are already 70 people
Problematic "Independence": customers of one of the largest Russian car dealers claim that he does not give cars to buyers. The Nezavisimost dealer group has been operating on the market for more than twenty years, but in a week it lost contracts with two automakers at once - BMW and Volvo. What is happening and will buyers be able to get their cars for which they have already paid?
In mid-July, Gleb Pimenov and his family came to buy a car from official dealer BMW, to the Salon of Independence. It was 50 thousand rubles cheaper than the others. As a result, we bought two cars: one more - mother-in-law, on credit. Moreover, she was able to pick up the car in five days, and they promised to give Pimenov his car in 15 days. But at first they were fed with promises that it would be literally “just about”. Then the salon reported that the selling manager had quit and would have to wait. And so on until September. As a result, Pimenov took decisive action: he arrived at the salon and blocked the main entrance so that he could no longer be ignored.
Gleb Pimenov buyer “I parked my car in front of the entrance, turned on the alarm. Half an hour later, the head of the security service immediately arrived at the scene. In my presence, he allegedly called the general director of Independence, he was assured that they would give me the car. I said that the action would continue until you give me back my car. We called the district police officer, and the investigation began. As a result, information appears that our car was paid for by Independence. Everyone signed. And they give us the keys, we are like: “Lord, thank God!” We sat down and left. The next day, the first thing I read all the documents, it turned out that we had changed the term there. Instead of 15 days, they entered 37, so that we had no reason at all to present any penalties there.
About 70 people never received cars from Independence. Moreover, the VIN numbers are not indicated in the contracts, it is only in one agreement, and this car was found at another dealer in Samara, says Dmitry Zolotov, coordinator of the public project "Movement":
Dmitry Zolotov coordinator of the public project "Movement"“When we started communicating with the senior manager, and, as we were told from his words, they will not contact us, because they do not negotiate with terrorists. People turned to us, just Nikolai, the victim, who said that for more than six months he could not take away either the money or the car. It turns out that since March 9 it has been in limbo. He first waited three months for a car, his patience snapped, he wrote a termination agreement. Now three months can not get the money. We came with him, we wanted to talk to someone from the leadership, but things are still there: they threw him 50 thousand - and that's it.
I spoke with Business FM on condition of anonymity one of the employees of the "Independence". According to him, delays in the issuance of cars began a year ago, and this summer the situation became critical:
- At the end of the summer, cars were not issued at all for two, three months. In September, they proposed not to sell cars, because it is not clear what will happen next. This was the initiative of our leader directly, because he is also afraid for the sellers, some clients even managed to find the addresses where the employees are located, for example, they rented an apartment, that is, it is terribly elementary. One day we were asked not to go to work. They described the situation, that everything, we are closing, so we offer you to pay 20 thousand rubles for several months of your work, and we disperse.
- And how did the management explain to you why cars are not issued to customers on time?
— It was my first experience in selling a premium brand. I was told from the very beginning that it was normal that cars took so long to be issued, and I believed in it. The leaders didn't know much either. Everyone understood that some kind of tough thing was happening, that we had some specific financial difficulties, and the whole team tried to somehow get out.
The shareholders of one of the largest Russian car dealers are the investment company A1, which is part of Mikhail Fridman's Alfa Group, and its founder, Roman Tchaikovsky. It seems that Independence was crippled by the crisis and a sharp decline in sales last year - by almost a third. There were problems with debts - Independence has more than 6 billion rubles. Recently, Gazprombank announced that it intends to go to court "in connection with the presence of signs of bankruptcy." But in Nezavisimost itself, RBC was told that this was a technical procedure and that negotiations were underway with the bank. They also explained the loss of the contract with Volvo by a technical procedure, which, following BMW, announced the termination of the dealership agreement. But what about customers who never waited for their cars? Business FM asked PR Director of Volvo Car Russia Anton Svekolnikov:
— At the moment, Nezavisimost does not have the opportunity to buy cars from the importer, so we recommend that customers take the money from Nezavisimost and contact other Volvo dealers.
- That is, direct participation in the fate of these clients Volvo company does not accept?
- We are negotiating with the company "Independence" on the subject of their returning the money to customers. But the law does not provide us with legal mechanisms for influencing the Nezavisimost company regarding the return of these funds.
BMW has already issued cars at its own expense to 35 customers who made a full prepayment, and are still deciding how to help the rest. It was not possible to get a prompt comment from Business FM's Independence itself. Under the guise of a client who wants to buy a car, the producers of Business FM called the company's office, where they were assured that the salons were open:
— If I make a full prepayment, how long will I have to wait for the car?
— 14 working days waiting for TCP.
— I saw the news of your company, not very encouraging. Tell me, how are you there?
- Yes, everything seems to be in order, but there is a restructuring of the company. We sell cars, it's just that our discounts are not as big as they used to be.
- No, I saw that you have problems, people can't pick up cars.
- No, everything is fine, everything is in normal mode. If there is, then very small delays.
- Can you not worry about the fact that the company will close in the near future?
- Certainly.
The company says that they are now "in the process of restructuring the loan portfolio." And the deceived clients, who did not wait for the cars, are ready to sue, but, however, they are afraid that there will be nothing to return the money to them from Independence.
Independence closed all its showrooms: on Monday it became known that the company had ceased to be the official representative of the Audi and Volkswagen brands. They were the last to cooperate with the dealer. Prior to this, several other importers terminated their contracts with Independence. The company said that they decided to cease operations, because they could not agree with creditors on debt restructuring. The dealer has worked on the market for 25 years, he had showrooms in Moscow, Yekaterinburg and Ufa.
About serious financial difficulties"Independence" became known at the beginning of the year, its debts were estimated at 6 billion rubles. In September, several dozen customers of the dealer complained that they could not receive paid BMW cars. German manufacturer forbade the company to sell its cars, and gave cars to deceived customers at his own expense. In October, a similar situation occurred with Volvo customers, and the brand deprived Nezavisimost of its dealer status. Later contracts with the company were terminated by Jaguar Land Rover, Mazda and Mitsubishi. Ford and Peugeot plan to terminate their contracts before the end of the year.
In recent months, Independence has been negotiating with its main creditors - Sberbank and Gazprombank. A plan was discussed under which banks could become shareholders of the company. But on Monday it became known that Gazprombank had filed bankruptcy claims against Independence structures for more than 2 billion rubles.
How will the closure of Independence affect its customers and the market as a whole? The dealer declined to disclose how many customers have already paid for the cars and still haven't received them. According to the administrative director of the company Sergey Chadin, this is a small number. He expressed the hope that all automakers will meet the dealer halfway and issue cars to customers at their own expense: “For some customers, a decision was made to find funds, terminate contracts, work is underway with the rest. In particular, for Audi it was a favorable decision, the importer supported us. We are looking forward to Mazda, they are coordinating the position with the headquarters in Japan. We are working less favorably with Volvo, negotiations are still underway. According to Volkswagen, this issue should be resolved with the help of importers.”
Muscovites will hardly feel the departure from the market of "Independence". Cars of the brands that were presented at the dealer can still be purchased, said Dmitry Chumakov, CEO of the marketing and sociological research agency Vector Market Research: “Most of Nezavisimost’s business is still concentrated around the Moscow region. There are quite a lot of dealerships for each of the car manufacturers. Yes, in terms of after-sales service in a certain region or district of the city, representation will be worse, you will have to travel to neighboring areas. But, nevertheless, from the point of view of the representation of cars from various foreign manufacturers, including those included in the Independence portfolio, there will be no significant damage to car buyers.”
Competitors have already begun to look closely at the salons of Independence. So, for example, the Belaya Dacha center, which sold BMW, has already become interested in Avilon, writes Kommersant.
Around one of the BMW brand dealers. Customers of the BMW Independence Center claim that they cannot receive paid cars, although they are physically located at the dealer's site. The seller, in turn, refers to the lack of title and the inability to issue cars to buyers. Dozens of victims talk about their claims on social networks, and some of them are ready to take extreme measures. As a result, on Thursday, September 14, the Russian office of BMW made an official explanation.
The case of Muscovite Gleb Pimenov, who for two months could not pick up the paid BMW crossover, received a great response. “We paid for the car on July 25, the delivery date came out on August 15. The car is parked at the dealer, they swiped the money, but they didn’t buy the title from the importer BMW Rusland Trading,” Pimenov’s friend explained on Facebook.
As a result, a disgruntled car owner blocked the main entrance of the dealership with his pickup truck. “The friends are demanding an immediate ransom of the car and are guarding their new car in the parking lot to prevent it from being taken out. Today the dealer simply did not open,” Pimenov’s associate wrote. After a series of publications in the media, the dissatisfied client still received his new car.
Another story with the same dealer almost ended in damage to expensive property. A dissatisfied client and a lawyer spent several hours in the salon, demanding the keys to the car and calling the police three times. Having lost his temper, the client first overlaid several cars with wooden sticks, and then tried to get into the purchased car by breaking the glass in it, but was stopped by his friends. As a result, the management of the salon still issued the car, and with all the necessary documents.
The official representative of the Russian office of BMW, Vasily Melnikov, confirmed to the correspondent of the site that Nezavisimost really did not transfer money to the importer. “At the moment, a situation has arisen when customers paid for cars, but we don’t see this money and therefore we don’t issue titles. In fact, we did not receive any money. Now Nezavisimost is not fulfilling the obligations that a company representing our brand must fulfill," he explained.
Later, the Russian office issued an official statement in which it noted that negotiations are currently underway with the dealer to get out of this situation, providing for various scenarios, “up to the most cardinal ones.”
Representatives of the BMW Independence dealership recognize the problem and say that the company is trying to find a way out. “We continue to try to have a constructive dialogue with the BMW dealership for the benefit of our customers. We do our best to provide customers with cars of this brand in the near future. Until today, cars were issued in a planned manner in accordance with the terms of the contract. We hope that in the near future, together with the importer, we will be able to offer customers a solution to the current situation, ”the website answered at Independence.
At the moment, says Melnikov from BMW, the shipment of new cars to the dealer has been stopped. Moreover, the importer has started to remove the cars that were provided to the seller, and is also considering options for the removal of customer cars to ensure their safety. “We do not recommend buying cars and doing service work at Nezavisimost and refer customers to other dealerships. We are dealing with questions that customers have and trying to minimize losses,” said a BMW spokesman.
However, the importer still cannot directly force the dealer to issue cars that have already been paid for to customers, he says: “Legally, Independence has obligations to the customers from whom they received money and to whom they pledged to issue cars. This responsibility lies with the dealer. We are a third party, we ship cars if we see that the payment went through.
There is no talk about deprivation of the dealership either, they say in the BMW office: “This procedure takes at least several weeks. Any dealer center is protected from potential inadequate actions of the representative office. In this case, this is another legal entity that we have no right to influence. While we are considering options for what to do next.