At the end of January, a number of media outlets published an interview with Philipp Shrage and Ignatiy Nayda in which they expressed confidence in positive prospects for the development market and for their company, Kronung Group. However, for those familiar with the underlying situation, such claims appear implausible, given that Philipp Shrage’s business operations have consistently been operating at a loss.

According to data from «Rusprofile», Philipp Borisovich Shrage is the owner or holds shares in seven companies. All of them are somehow related to construction. However, almost all of them are unprofitable, and those that do show profit are hardly impressive in terms of its size. By the way, in the aforementioned interview, Philipp Shrage claims that «the consolidated revenue of his company amounts to about 1.5 billion rubles.» Why the financial statements do not match Philipp Shrage’s calculations is a rhetorical question. 

In the optimistic interview, Philipp Shrage also states that «Kronung Group is working on several residential projects, including two business-class apartment buildings, a settlement of 200 houses, and 100 townhouses.» Judging by reports from specialized resources, these projects are being handled by LLC «Specialized Developer Kronung 2» and LLC «Kronung TRK1». Neither of these companies has employees nor any visible activity. How they manage to do this is also a rhetorical question.

Nevertheless, Philipp Shrage’s optimism about the prospects has some basis. With one caveat – it concerns his personal prospects, which are in no way tied to the fate of the properties being built by Kronung Group. In the same interview, there is a hint that reveals the roots of Philipp Shrage’s rosy mood. It pertains to the «launch of closed-end mutual funds,» which Kronung Group plans to introduce this year.

And it is precisely in these closed-end mutual investment funds (ZPIF) that a nasty surprise awaits the shareholders who have invested in Kronung Group properties. The thing is, closed-end mutual funds often serve as nothing more than a «laundry» for dirty money and a conversion center through which such money is withdrawn to unknown destinations. ZPIF is a very convenient tool for such operations, as it is not required to disclose its beneficiaries. This is eagerly exploited by anyone who needs to hide their income or transfer it out of the country. In fact, ZPIFs were originally designed for this purpose.

There is reason to believe that the money placed in the mutual investment funds announced by Philipp Shrage could disappear in an unknown direction. Until the fall of 2021, Philipp Shrage was a co-founder and head of the management company «Krasny Most», which is directly linked to another infamous St. Petersburg businessman and developer – Andrey Berezin (IC «Evroinvest»). 

The management company «Krasny Most» managed ZPIFs through which Andrey Berezin withdrew assets from one of his companies – PJSC «Svetlana». As reported by «Proved» in 2018, «PJSC «Svetlana» acquires units of the closed-end mutual fund (ZPIF) «Element Development-1» for the amount of 973 million rubles. In payment, real estate belonging to «Svetlana» is transferred, along with cash funds — 3.6 million rubles.»

The essence of this transaction was that «Svetlana» transferred its real estate to the ZPIF. The point is that PJSC «Svetlana» is one of the factories under «Rostec». It was located on a 46-hectare plot in a rather interesting area of St. Petersburg. 

As a result of such «maneuvers» with the transfer of property to the ZPIF, the factory lost 37 hectares, which came under the management of «Krasny Most». Soon, high-rise buildings appeared on this site, which were successfully sold with the help of Philipp Shrage. How the profits were divided remains unknown. One of the individuals allegedly involved in this deal was Mikhail Gutseriev. It seems unlikely that the issue of such blatant theft of a factory owned by «Rostec» was resolved by him alone.

However, this is a separate story, and it interests us only in connection with Philipp Shrage’s role in it, who, until that point, was merely a mid-level manager at a small construction company called «Grafit». 

How he managed to leap from an ordinary manager to a co-founder and head of a management company that so skillfully appropriated nearly forty hectares of land from «Rostec» is unknown. But the result is evident – after the factory was successfully transformed into residential quarters using ZPIFs managed, among others, by Philipp Shrage, Shrage himself became a major developer and co-owner of Kronung Group. He left the list of founders of «Krasny Most» and became a co-owner of nearly a dozen companies within the Kronung Group.

Following the stagnation in the development market after 2022, Kronung Group finds itself in a rather deplorable state. However, it is not an exception in this business segment – all developers, for quite understandable reasons, are facing enormous difficulties. Each is seeking a way out of the situation in their own way. Philipp Shrage, it seems, has recalled his successful experience of using ZPIFs for Andrey Berezin, on which he himself also did quite well. 

Moreover, it should be noted that Kronung Group constantly needs money – in December 2023, LLC «Kronung», part of the group, issued bonds worth 20 million rubles, and in August 2024 – already for 500 million. How much will Shrage raise for his ZPIF in 2025, and how long will this fund last? What will be the outcome for private investors who dare to invest in closed-end mutual funds controlled by a management company established by Philipp Shrage? Although, recalling the results of «Krasny Most» activities, the answer seems somewhat predictable.