DISTRIBUTOR OF XIAOMI FILED FOR BANKRUPTCY

Retentiva, a distributor of Chinese smartphones Xiaomi and Jinga, has been declared bankrupt. The company became involved in a scandal over the activities of a partner company, ASER Group. The latter illegally imported gadgets under the Jinga brand from China into Russia without paying mandatory payments, and, as a result, fell under criminal prosecution.

We are talking about Jinga’s push-button devices of the Retentiva's own brand, manufactured in China. Experts note that this brand has not become popular in the cell phone market, occupying a share of no more than 1% in 2019. However, the scandal with "gray" supplies certainly scared the company's partners.

As a result, the Xiaomi brand stopped interacting with the distributor almost immediately.

The Retentiva Distribution Company, operating under the Retentiva brand, was founded by Denis Cherfas eight years ago, and the owner's share was pledged to Sberbank almost until the end of 2022. At the same time, the main initiator of the bankruptcy of the company was Otkritie Bank.

During the court session, the bank declared 666 million rubles of debt, which were included in the register. The company owes another 714 million rubles to a subsidiary of Gazprombank (GPB Factoring). The claims of other companies, represented by Mobilidi (201 million) and Marvel-Distribution (99 million), were also satisfied by the court.

Experts note that the company was the largest distributor. In 2018, the company's profit exceeded 202 million rubles.

Now the main players are wondering if the company will be able to pay off its debts and come to a recovery. In the opinion of individual creditors, this will also depend on whether the manager can bring main beneficiaries, who control the activities of the company, to subsidiary liability.

Lawyers remind that some of the deals made by the debtor may now be appealed by the manager. It is not known, whether the signs of deliberate bankruptcy will be found in the actions of the management. But if the company's assets are sufficient to make payments to creditors, there is a chance that Retentiva will emerge from bankruptcy and be able to continue operating in the market, getting rid of the debts.