The hereditary conflict in the cosmetics company Natura Siberica is drawing to a close. Three children of the founder of the brand Andrey Trubnikov received shares in the legal entities of the group. However, his ex-wife still continues to sue members of the businessman’s family.
Transfer of shares
According to Vedomosti, at the end of December 2022, three children of the founder of the brand became shareholders of three legal entities of Natura Siberica: Dmitry and Ekaterina from their first marriage and Elizabeth from the second received 20% in each company. We are talking about Natura Siberika LLC, Agafia’s Tasty Foods LLC and Siberian Helicopter LLC.
Such information follows from the SPARK database data. At the same time, the parties to the conflict themselves did not comment on the fact of the transaction.
The publication also notes that statements about changes in the constituent documents of other structures of Natura Siberica were made to the Unified State Register of Legal Entities. Among them are the companies “First Solution”, “Planet Organika”, “Organic Shop Rus” and others.
According to the interlocutor of the newspaper, the transfer of shares in these structures to the children of the founder of Natura Siberica became possible after the court invalidated his marriage to his third wife Anastasia. In this regard, the source of the publication suggested that the proceedings due to Trubnikov’s inheritance could be completed within a month.
Legacy fight
Andrey Trubnikov founded Natura Siberica in 2008. The cosmetics company developed, among other things, the brands Grandmother Agafya’s Recipes, Agafya’s First Aid Kit, Planeta Organica and others. After the death of the entrepreneur in January 2021, a dispute over inheritance unfolded between a member of his family.
It was claimed by Trubnikov’s three children and his third wife, Anastasia, who was in divorce proceedings with the businessman at the time of his death.
In addition, Trubnikova stated that in the section of the entrepreneur’s assets, her two children from a previous marriage should be taken into account. According to her, they were dependent on him. However, the court refused to give them shares in the inheritance and declared the marriage with Trubnikov invalid.
Now Anastasia Trubnikova continues to sue other members of the businessman’s family. In particular, she is trying to challenge in court the transfer by Trubnikov’s first wife Irina and her son Dmitry of their shares in the Natura Siberica structures to the previously unknown company Corporation AG. Now this company owns 40% in each legal entity. Earlier, Forbes wrote that this structure may be associated with AFK Sistema by Vladimir Yevtushenkov.
Possible sale
In parallel with the struggle for the inheritance, a corporate conflict also unfolded in Natura Siberica. In September 2021, the company filed a lawsuit against co-owner Irina Trubnikova, whose actions allegedly caused significant damage to the business. Prior to this, the former wife of the founder of the brand single-handedly banned the factories from using his trademarks. This led to the closure of the enterprise for three months.
In turn, Irina, Dmitry and Oksana Trubnikov filed about ten lawsuits against the legal entities of Natura Siberica. They demanded, among other things, to invalidate the decisions of the recent extraordinary meetings of the LLC participants through which the company operates.
However, already in December 2021, all parties to the conflict abandoned mutual claims. At the same time, the media wrote that several large companies became interested in shares in Natura Siberica. They named the structures of Vladimir Yevtushenkov, Oleg Deripaska and the general director of the Polyus gold miner Pavel Grachev as applicants.
Experts interviewed by Vedomosti believe that the end of the inheritance conflict will bring closer the deal to sell the assets of Natura Siberica. The publication notes that earlier Felix Lieb, a former top manager of AFK Sistema, became the CEO of the company. A spokesman for the holding said in an interview with the newspaper that he considers Natura Siberica an investment-attractive business, but did not confirm any talks about a deal.
What is Natura Siberica business
According to media reports, in 2021 the entire business of the company was estimated at 3-4 billion rubles. At the beginning of last year, analysts called a figure of 70-100 million dollars.
Natura Siberica’s revenue in 2021 amounted to RUB 9.3 billion, including store closures and production shutdowns.
In September 2021, the company was forced to suspend sales of cosmetics. This happened after Irina Trubnikova terminated the license agreement with the main legal entity of the group for the use of trademarks of her brands. The manufacturer was able to resume sales only at the end of October.
In addition, Natura Siberica experienced production problems in the fall of 2021. The plant in Dmitrov, where more than 50% of all brand products are produced, terminated the contract with the company. This conflict was associated with a fire at the enterprise that occurred in March 2020, and was resolved after the cosmetic company paid compensation to the plant – about 3 billion rubles.
Earlier, Natura Siberica reported that the enterprise in Dmitrov started working again in early 2022. The company also managed to establish the supply of raw materials and restore supply chains. To date, the group operates 71 branded stores in Russia.
