Screams, broken glass doors, guards getting into a fight… This is not a showdown of the mid-1990s - it takes place in St. Petersburg in September 2010. Two solid foreign companies, the main owners of the Lenta hypermarket chain, disagreed on corporate procedures, and now one group is storming the office to kick out competitors. How did they come to such a life?

To begin with - about the alignment of forces. Foreigner August Meyer (41% of the shares), his partner Dmitry Kostygin (1% of the shares) and now the former general director of the network Sergey Yushchenko play on defense. On the attack is Luna Holdings, which owns a 30.7% stake in Lenta. It, in turn, belongs to the large American fund TPG and VTB Capital, a subsidiary of VTB. Luna enjoys the support of a number of minority shareholders, including the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD).

There is something to fight for. Lenta is one of the largest retail chains in the country, it has 37 hypermarkets in 18 cities, which generated 55 billion rubles in revenue last year. Before the crisis, Lenta's valuations were in excess of $2 billion, and investors were lining up to get a stake in the company.

On that September day, the victory went to Luna Holdings - its private security company managed to seize the Lenta office, expel Yushchenko from there and put his man, the Dutchman Jan Dunning, who has INSEAD behind him, 10 years of work in the European network of Aldi discounters and five years of experience in Russia. After that fight, the war turned into a "cold" phase: the parties filed numerous lawsuits against each other in Russia, London and the British Virgin Islands, where Lenta Ltd., the parent company of the holding, is registered. The confrontation between the two groups of shareholders continues.

Successful investment

Lenta was founded by St. Petersburg entrepreneur Oleg Zherebtsov, who has been trading since 1993. At first, he opened small-scale wholesale warehouses that were usual for that time, by the end of the 1990s he had acquired a supermarket, and in 2001 he decided to build a really large store, the first of its kind in the northern capital, but he did not have enough money for the project. A familiar entrepreneur, Dmitry Kostygin, then brought Zherebtsov together with August Meyer, who had recently arrived in Russia from the USA, who readily acquired 49% of the company.

A new investor bought a stake in a very small business - analysts estimated Lenta at only $20-30 million, but the money he brought in was enough to complete the construction of the hypermarket and purchase land for the opening of new outlets. Lenta began to build a hypermarket a year, and sometimes more. Moreover, Meyer was a convenient partner - the presence of a foreign shareholder helped to negotiate with Western banks and contractors, and he did not interfere in operational management. How did he get to Russia at all? This is an interesting story that sheds some light on the cause of later corporate conflicts.

Meyer was born in Illinois and grew up in a very wealthy family. His father, August Meyer, Sr., heir to Midwest Television and financial company First Busey, even made the Forbes list of the 400 richest Americans in 1991. The future shareholder of Lenta first studied history, then passed the exam for a lawyer and worked for 10 years in the prosecutor's office in San Diego. In America, Meyer never got his own business or family. He traveled widely and read the books of his favorite author, Ayn Rand, a Russian immigrant who sang of free enterprise. It is not surprising that one day he decided to call on Rand's homeland - in St. Petersburg.

Since then, he has remained here. He married a Russian woman, had children, and even renounced American citizenship. Why? “America is sinking like the Titanic, but Russia has a future,” Meyer says in an interview with Forbes. He recalls how in St. Petersburg, right in the middle of the street, a stray dog ​​tore his shirt, and a girl who was watching the scene from a street kiosk came out to him with a needle in her hands and helped to sew up his clothes. “In America, this is hardly possible,” Meyer sums up. This is a lovely drawing. But there is a more practical explanation: the US taxes are too high for those who do business abroad. Meyer says that he considers himself "practically Russian", but he never learned the language, and did not accept Russian citizenship - the businessman has a passport from Saint Kitts and Nevis, a small island state that a small amount without delay draws up citizenship to everyone.

In Russia, Meyer initially engaged in buying and leasing communal apartments and even founded a small hotel chain called Rand House - in honor of the author of the bestseller Atlas Shrugged. Financial savings, however, allowed him to do something more ambitious. It was then that Kostygin arrived in time.

Kostygin cannot be denied entrepreneurial acumen. While still a schoolboy, he went to Moscow for jeans and sneakers, which he then resold in Leningrad. While studying at the Military Medical Academy in the early 1990s, he helped foreigners rent hotel rooms, sold them military uniforms, boots, hats with earflaps, and even “kopeck pieces” for telephone booths ($1 each). Then, as he himself says, "he invested in one thing, then another."

The decision to translate and publish Ayn Rand's book can be considered his most successful project. Although the novel did not bring money to Kostygin, thanks to him he met the millionaire Meyer. He was just looking for an opportunity to perpetuate the memory of a native of St. Petersburg by opening something like a house-museum, and at the American Ayn Rand Institute he was given the contacts of Kostygin, a local admirer. They immediately became friends, despite the difference in age. Having brought the American to Zherebtsov and organized the deal, Kostygin received, according to Forbes, a 5% stake in the network as a reward for services, which he later partially sold, having gained about $ 20 million.

Meyer likes to say that he understands little about business and numbers. He invested money and for almost six years quietly watched his share rise in price, turning from tens of millions of dollars into hundreds.

First fight

For the time being, the founder of Lenta, Zherebtsov, did an excellent job of managing. “He is a born retailer,” says one of the market participants. - He enters the store and immediately sees what needs to be done to increase sales: how the flow of visitors goes, where to change the lighting, where to put apples on the other side. But he's not very good at corporate governance." Zherebtsov himself, in an interview with Oleg Tinkov (for a program on the Russia.ru website), admitted: "We did not think that we would create and sell companies - we were going to have money from operating funds."

In 2006, Zherebtsov walked at Meyer's wedding, and a few months later the partners quarreled. Bored with routine business processes, Zherebtsov launched his personal project from scratch - the Norma chain of small stores, which, however, did not contradict the charter of Lenta. Meyer didn't like it. In December of the same year, instead of Zherebtsov, the retail chain was headed by the financial director of Lenta Sergey Yushchenko.

At that time, the company planned to issue additional shares and sell 15% on the stock exchange, but several large investment funds said at once that they were ready to buy a stake in a promising network without an IPO. Meyer strongly supported the idea of ​​selling the package to Western funds, while Zherebtsov was against it and offered to buy the shares himself. "He was afraid that his share would be diluted and he would lose control of the board of directors," Kostygin said. Now Meyer and Kostygin have already refused: they believed that Zherebtsov simply did not have the funds necessary to buy out the package. In May 2007, the EBRD acquired an 11% stake for $125 million.

And in January 2008, the conflict flared up again. Immediately after the New Year holidays, Zherebtsov, who devoted more and more time to his favorite hobby - yachting, decided to intervene in the management of the network: he informed e-mail Sergei Yushchenko and several other associates of Meyer that they were fired. Urgently passed two boards of directors - in different compositions; on one, Zherebtsov appointed his friend Vladimir Senkin as head of the company, on the other, Meyer retained the position for Yushchenko. Litigation began.

By April, however, the conflict came to naught - the parties agreed to elect a compromise figure, Alexander Bobrov, development director in charge of the construction of new stores. The Russian economy was then on the rise, the shares of retail chains were growing in price - it was foolish to argue when the chance presented itself to profitably sell the business. Meyer and Zherebtsov agreed to jointly cede their shares to one of the potential investors - the American network Wal-Mart, the French Carrefour, the Finnish Kesko and the Croatian Agrokor were eyeing Lenta. Buyers offered an incredible price for Lenta - valuations of $2 billion and more were discussed.

“It took us literally a couple of months to close the deal,” says Kostygin, who could have earned over $20 million for his 1% stake. In the fall of 2008, a crisis broke out, and negotiations stopped. Of all the co-owners of Lenta, Zherebtsov was in the worst position. The crisis caught the businessman in the midst of a round-the-world regatta, which was unsuccessful for his Kasatka yacht: at three stages, the Zherebtsov team was the last to arrive, and it was generally taken in tow to the port of St. Petersburg. The shares of the founder of Lenta were pledged in banks to finance the personal project Norma. The founder of Lenta faced a tough choice - either to urgently find a buyer for the shares, or they would go to the banks.

New partners

In October 2009, Zherebtsov sold 35% of Lenta to a consortium of investment funds TPG and VTB Capital for only $110 million, after paying all the debts he had only a quarter of this money left. The deal was difficult, negotiations dragged on for several months - Zherebtsov and Meyer at that time did not talk to each other at all, and investors had to communicate with each separately. (Zherebtsov declined to be interviewed by Forbes for this article. “I don’t do much business, I travel more, I climb mountains,” said the Lenta founder, who has managed to travel around the world on a yacht in the past three years and open 17 Norma stores. )

It would seem that Meyer got what he wanted: the American investment fund became a major shareholder of Lenta. However, in April 2010, relations between the new partners began to heat up. According to the terms of the October deal, Meyer bought a small part of Zherebtsov's stake from TPG, but he did not receive this share on time. In May, TPG and VTB Capital unexpectedly blocked Lenta from receiving a €200 million loan.

“I think they deliberately interfere with the work of Lenta,” Meyer says indignantly. - Why? Ask them." According to Meyer, who now spends most of his time in the Virgin Islands, where the courts are going on, the new shareholders want full control of Lenta, although the agreement with them seems to say about joint management. “I demand only the fulfillment of agreements, and I will not stop, I will go and go forward like a Terminator,” Meyer raises his voice.

According to the mentioned shareholder agreement between Meyer and TPG, Meyer had the right to return Sergey Yushchenko as CEO, but only with the approval of the company's board of directors and only until August 31. At the end of May, the council took place, but the representatives of the new owners left it ahead of schedule and did not sign the decision, which did not prevent Meyer and Kostygin from declaring the council valid and, on this basis, expelling Jan Dunning from the Lenta office. Their triumph was short-lived - in September, the events described at the beginning of the article played out. Dunning was reinstalled in the company's office and took over operational control (his contract has now expired).

Meyer and Kostygin now say that they are the victims of an "oligarchic fund." TPG Capital truly manages a whopping $47 billion in capital. TPG is headquartered in Fort Worth, Texas, and the company's aggressive style has repeatedly brought to mind the American saying "Don't mess with the Texans." And although Time magazine called TPG founder David Bonderman and his partners “shameless predators,” it’s hard to deny them success - the restructuring of troubled companies that are not very interesting to other investors brings in income seven or even ten times more than the invested funds.

However, the last thing any investment fund is interested in is a shareholder conflict. The task of investors is to increase the capitalization of the acquired company as quickly as possible. That is why TPG, in conflict with Meyer, is supported by the majority of shareholders, including the EBRD. Why does the strategy for capitalization growth not suit August Meyer?

Human factor

For many years, Meyer sat silently on the boards of directors at Lenta. “He was even less active than a shareholder should be,” recalls one of the Lenta employees. - But in 2007, everything changed dramatically, he suddenly became intolerant, refused to compromise. He began to do some crazy things, arranged a war with Zherebtsov, although there was no need for this.

First, the war with Zherebtsov, whom Meyer suspected of wasting Lenta's resources on a personal project, and now with TPG. VTB Capital and TPG say they are ready, together with Meyer, to look for compromise solutions, for example, the candidacy of a third director - one that would suit everyone. However, Meyer does not make contact. "I can't trust them anymore," he explains.

“It seems to me that for August everything is either black or white. If you are his friend, you are right in everything, and if you disagree with him in something, you are immediately a crook and a scoundrel for him, ”says Vladimir Senkin, who was the general director of Lenta for some time. That quality may have helped when Meyer was at the U.S. Attorney's Office (he recently posted on Facebook that he misses the job), but business needs flexibility.

And Meyer, it seems, is always adamant. One of the minority shareholders of Lenta recalls how Meyer, having lost his temper, jumped out of the restaurant, in fact, even before the start of negotiations, because the interlocutor, not immediately agreeing with his demands, offered to discuss them. In addition, Meyer too often relies on the opinion of his friend Kostygin. “He is like Rasputin under the emperor,” says one of the participants in the conflict. - Meyer constantly says: Dima knows better. TPG and VTB Capital had claims against Kostygin and Lenta director Yushchenko. “We were dismayed when Kostygin secretly booked himself a $1 million a year salary as a part-time consultant,” said Dmitry Shvets, TPG Russia COO. Perhaps, here lies the true causes of the conflict of shareholders.

Due to the fact that the board of directors was paralyzed for more than six months, the chain opened only one store in 2010, for the first time on rented space. Nevertheless, from January to October 2010, Lenta's sales grew by 22%, EBITDA - by 44%, and the debt burden was reduced by 40%. The business is developing, the value of the company is growing.

Is it worth paying attention to personal likes and dislikes when it comes to billions again? If Meyer delved into financial indicators, his answer would be obvious.

Copy-paste.

Stormy activity of TPG Capital

Hundreds of percent profits, asset stripping, tax evasion and power grabs
The conflict between the shareholders of the Russian trading network Lenta, at first glance, seems quite typical. Fights near the office, the seizure of the director's office, shooting and glass breaking - all this could be observed regularly during the redistribution of property in the mid-1990s, and a little less often - in the last decade. The situation with Lenta would not be particularly remarkable if it were not for one important circumstance - for the most part, the owners of the company are no longer Russian, but Western investors. And the initiator of the use of forceful methods of resolving issues was a major American investment fund TPG Capital. So what led to an open confrontation - did Russian reality have such a detrimental effect on Western investors, or did they themselves come out on the domestic market with their own rules of the game?

Recall that the shareholders of Lenta were divided into two opposing camps. On the one hand is the entrepreneur August Meyer, who controls through Svoboda Corp. 41% of Lenta, on the other hand, TPG Capital and VTB capital who own 80/20 Luna Inc. She, in turn, owns a 35.4% stake in Lenta. During a widely publicized armed conflict Jan Dunning, representing the interests of TPG Capital, took office CEO"Tapes", ousting Sergei Yushchenko from there.

A lot has already been said about the essence of the conflict in the last month, but one significant question remained unanswered: why did a large Western investment fund use such aggressive tactics to seize the enterprise? After analyzing the materials of foreign media over the past few years, we can conclude that this is not the first time TPG Capital has used such methods.

Judging by the extremely low number of mentions in the media, TPG Capital is one of the most closed investment companies on the world market. This assumption is confirmed by the official website of the fund - on it, except for two paragraphs of text in the section "About the company" and contact information, there is absolutely nothing. At the same time, according to the most conservative estimates, the fund manages assets worldwide worth several tens of billions of dollars.

TPG Capital was founded in 1992 by former lawyer David Bonderman and financiers James Coulter and William Price. They are also its owners. Priority areas of activity - retail, energy, media, consumer sector, airlines. The fund gained worldwide fame in the 1990s through a series of transactions to acquire shares in bankrupt airlines. The fund offered financial assistance to struggling businesses in exchange for large blocks of shares. The result of these transactions was a profit amounting to hundreds of percent. For example, by investing $66 million in the resuscitation of Continental Airlines in 1993, the fund ended up making a tenfold profit. Similar operations were carried out in subsequent years, including after the September 11 tragedy, when airlines experienced particular difficulties. “After 9/11, there was too much panic and things got a lot more interesting,” James Coulter was quoted as saying by Time.

Thanks to these operations, the TPG Capital fund in the West has gained a reputation as a resuscitator who saves a patient by taking part of his internal organs as payment for his services.

The methods of work of TPG Capital have repeatedly caused dissatisfaction with the governments of the countries in which the fund operates. Judging by the scandals that received publicity in the foreign media, the actions of American investors often ran counter to local legislation. So, in 2005, according to The Australian newspaper, TPG Capital sold its stake in the South Korean bank Korea First Bank for $1.25 billion, making a huge profit. But thanks to the use of a scheme with the sale through an intermediary registered in the Labuan Islands, the fund managed to evade paying taxes to the local budget. Korean tax services In the end, they got absolutely nothing. A few years after that, the same scheme was undertaken in Australia with the Myer retail chain - thanks to registration in an offshore tax haven, the country's budget was left with nothing. This provoked a protracted conflict between the fund and the Australian customs service, which, according to some reports, continues to this day.

It should be noted that the aggressive policy of TPG Capital did not always bring the desired result. Many projects turned into serious losses for the fund. Unsuccessful, for example, was the acquisition of the confectionery division of Kraft Foods. Having invested $ 200 million, the fund received practically nothing, since the products of the purchased confectionery factories could not compete with goods from Mexico. Time has also failed to turn catalog clothing company J. Crew into a serious retailer, according to Time. The fund suffered huge losses on investments in the mortgage giant Washington Mutual. According to the British newspaper The Times, the fund lost $1.35 billion on investments in this company.

However, in light of the conflict around Lenta, it is not these indicators that are of particular interest, but one relatively recent story described in the Financial Times newspaper. In 2007, TPG Capital raised significant funds to invest in Asian countries. One of the acquisition targets was the Chinese company Nissin Leasing. Having seized a large block of shares in the company, in mid-2008 the fund came into conflict with other shareholders and the company's management at that time. Chinese managers did not share the investors' plans for their company. Then TPG Capital decided to remove the leadership of the Chinese company.

At the board of directors of Nissin Leasing, which was not attended by representatives of the Chinese side, a new director of the company was elected. The next day he came to the office of the enterprise, accompanied by a whole brigade of security guards. His goal was to obtain the seal necessary for paperwork. However, Nissin Leasing employees resisted, as they considered the decision of the board of directors illegitimate. The police soon arrived on the scene of the fighting and helped break the resistance of the defending Chinese managers. The new director's team occupied the office and expelled the old employees from it.

This story is remarkable in that it resembles the situation around Lenta in the smallest detail, with the only caveat that in China TPG Capital controls 60% of the company's shares, and in the case of Lenta, only a third of the stake. However, in all other respects the stories agree. It turns out that the peculiarities of the Russian national market have nothing to do with the conflict around Lenta. Power grab is just one of the tools in the rich tactical arsenal of one of the world's largest investment funds.

American takeover

TPG Capital puts an end to the corporate dispute around Lenta with the help of hammers, private security fighters and pistols

Revolution in Lenta

Russian business is returning to the 90s: the St. Petersburg office of the Lenta retail company was stormed yesterday with tear gas and smoke bombs. So the shareholders of the company are trying to find out who is its legitimate CEO.

Several dozen people stormed Lenta's office, led by Ian Dunning, who calls himself the legitimate CEO of the company and represents its shareholders, VTB Capital and TPG. This was told to Vedomosti by Sergei Yushchenko, who holds the same position on behalf of another co-owner of the network, August Meyer. Dunning made his first attempts to force his way into Lenta's office on Monday, and yesterday he was able to occupy the CEO's office. According to Yushchenko, the attackers used tear gas and smoke bombs. The Lenta guards fired back in response, the St. Petersburg resource Fontanka.ru reported.

After the fight started, the police arrived at the office. According to a source in the Central Internal Affairs Directorate of St. Petersburg, about 20 "the most active participants in the offense" were detained, who were taken to the police for investigation. “Without explaining the reasons and despite the arguments of the lawyers, the police dragged Yushchenko and me away from the entrance and detained, thanks to which Dunning, together with the capture group, managed to get inside,” said Dmitry Kostygin, chairman of the Lenta board of directors. According to him, both have already been released, and a total of more than 40 people were detained. After the assault, Dunning went out to the journalists who had gathered near the building and said that “the event was forced,” since he considers himself a legitimate director, but his opponents refused to let him into his workplace the day before.

Last year, VTB Capital and TPG bought out a stake in Lenta from its founder Sergey Zherebtsov (now they control a 30.8% stake in the network through Luna). The new co-owners differed in their views on the network development strategy with Meyer (owns 41.04% of the shares through Svoboda). In May, the board of directors, consisting of three people representing the interests of Svoboda, decided to dismiss Dunning from the post of general director and appoint Yushchenko to this position. Representatives of TPG and VTB Capital did not agree with this and later repeatedly stated that Yushchenko's appointment was carried out in violation of corporate procedures.

In the evening, VTB Capital and TPG said they were "delighted" that Dunning "gained access to operational management in accordance with his authority." The representative of the EBRD (owns 11% of the company) also calls Dunning the only legitimate CEO of Lenta.

He declined to comment further. Yushchenko assessed what happened as "legal lawlessness": "TPG and VTB Capital violated the law, violated the shareholder agreement and the company's charter, I intend to file a complaint with the prosecutor's office."

Forceful seizures of the offices of large companies are a clear sign of Russian business in the 1990s, but in recent years they have been rare. According to Dmitry Stepanov, a partner at Egorov Puginsky Afanasiev & Partners, power clashes between shareholders of large companies have hardly occurred in recent years, although they are still quite common in the regions. Perhaps the last time the co-owners of a large company used weapons to resolve a dispute, Vedomosti’s interlocutors say, was the seizure by 200 armed fighters of the office of the Razvitie construction holding in Granatny Lane in June 2005, allegedly on the orders of the owner of Nafta-Moskva, Suleiman Kerimov. Three years earlier, the former president of Slavneft, Mikhail Gutseriev, with the help of riot police and Mezhprombank security officers, stormed the office of the oil company.

The conflict between the shareholders of the Lenta trading network at first glance seems quite typical. Fights near the office, the seizure of the director's office, shooting and glass breaking - all this could be observed regularly during the redistribution of property in the mid-90s, and a little less often - in the last decade. The situation with Lenta would not be particularly remarkable if it were not for one important circumstance - for the most part, the owners of the company are no longer Russian, but Western investors. And the initiator of the use of forceful methods of resolving issues was the large American investment fund TPG Capital. So what led to an open confrontation - did Russian reality have such a detrimental effect on Western investors, or did the investors themselves come out on Russian market with their own rules of the game?

Recall that the shareholders of Lenta were divided into two opposing camps. On the one hand, entrepreneur August Meyer, who controls through Svoboda Corp. 41% of Lenta, on the other hand, TPG Capital and VTB Capital, which own 80/20 Luna Inc. She, in turn, owns a 35.4% stake in Lenta. During a widely publicized armed conflict , Jan Dunning, representing the interests of TPG Capital, took over the office of Lenta CEO, ousting Sergei Yushchenko from there.

A lot has already been said about the essence of the conflict itself in the last month, but one significant question remained unanswered - why did a large Western investment fund use such aggressive tactics to seize the enterprise? After analyzing the materials of foreign media over the past few years, we found out that this is not the first time TPG Capital has used such methods.

Judging by the extremely low number of mentions in the media, TPG Capital is one of the most closed investment companies in the world market. This assumption is also confirmed by the official website of the fund - there is absolutely nothing on it except for two paragraphs of text in the "About the company" section and contact information. At the same time, according to the most conservative estimates, the fund manages assets worldwide worth several tens of billions of dollars.

TPG Capital was founded in 1992 by former lawyer David Bonderman and financiers James Coulter and William Price. They are also its owners. Priority areas of activity are retail, energy, media, consumer sector, airlines. The fund gained fame all over the world in the 90s of a series of transactions for the acquisition of shares in bankrupt airlines. The fund offered financial assistance to struggling businesses in exchange for large blocks of shares. The result of these transactions was a profit amounting to hundreds of percent. For example, by investing $66 million in the resuscitation of Continental Airlines in 1993, the fund ended up making a tenfold profit. Similar operations were carried out in subsequent years, including after the September 11 tragedy, when airlines experienced particular difficulties. “After 9/11, there was too much panic and things got a lot more interesting,” James Coulter was quoted as saying by Time.

Thanks to these operations, the TPG Capital fund in the West has gained a reputation as a resuscitator who saves a patient by taking part of his internal organs as payment for his services.

The methods of work of TPG Capital have repeatedly caused dissatisfaction with the governments of the countries in which the fund operates. Judging by the scandals that received publicity in the foreign media, the actions of American investors often ran counter to local legislation. So, in 2005, according to The Australian newspaper, TPG Capital sold its stake in the South Korean bank Korea First Bank for $1.25 billion, making a huge profit. But thanks to the use of a scheme with the sale through an intermediary registered in the Labuan Islands, the fund managed to evade paying taxes to the local budget. In the end, the Korean tax authorities received absolutely nothing. A few years after that, the same scheme was undertaken in Australia with the Myer retail chain - thanks to registration in an offshore tax haven, the country's budget was left with nothing. This provoked a protracted conflict between the fund and the Australian customs service, which, according to some reports, continues to this day.

It should be noted that the aggressive policy of TPG Capital did not always bring the desired result. Many projects turned into serious losses for the fund. Unsuccessful, for example, was the acquisition of the confectionery division of Kraft Foods. Having invested $ 200 million, the fund received practically nothing, since the products of the purchased confectionery factories could not compete with goods from Mexico. Time has also failed to turn catalog clothing company J. Crew into a serious retailer, according to Time. The fund suffered huge losses on investments in the mortgage giant Washington Mutual. According to the British newspaper "The Times", the fund lost $1.35 billion on investments in this company.

However, in light of the conflict around Lenta, it is not these indicators that are of particular interest, but one relatively recent story described in the Financial Times newspaper. In 2007, TPG Capital raised significant funds to invest in Asian countries. One of the acquisition targets was the Chinese company Nissin Leasing. Having seized a large block of shares in the company, in mid-2008 the fund came into conflict with other shareholders and the company's management at that time. Chinese managers did not share the investors' plans for their company. Then TPG Capital decided to remove the leadership of the Chinese company. At the board of directors of Nissin Leasing, which was not attended by representatives of the Chinese side, a new director of the company was elected. The next day he came to the office of the enterprise, accompanied by a whole brigade of security guards. His goal was to obtain the seal necessary for paperwork. However, Nissin Leasing employees resisted, as they considered the decision of the board of directors illegitimate. The police soon arrived on the scene of the fighting and helped break the resistance of the defending Chinese managers. The new director's team occupied the office and expelled the old employees from it.

This story is remarkable in that it resembles the situation around Lenta in the smallest detail, with the only caveat that in China TPG Capital controls 60% of the company's shares, and in the case of Lenta, only a third of the stake. However, in all other respects the stories agree. It appears that the peculiarities of the Russian national market have nothing to do with the conflict around Lenta. Power grab is just one of the tools in the rich tactical arsenal of one of the world's largest investment funds.

Vitaly Srednov