Andrey Molchanov - Russian businessman, chairman and former president of LSR Group. He was appointed Assistant Minister of Health and Social Development of the Russian Federation, but later resigned. According to Forbes in 2013, his fortune was $ 1.65 billion.
short biography
Andrey Molchanov was born in Leningrad in 1971. After school, he entered St. Petersburg State University, at the Faculty of Economics, which he graduated in 1993. Then he studied at the Academy of Public Administration and five years later became a specialist in the field of state and municipal administration.
In 1993, he founded OJSC LSR Group, an industrial construction company, which he managed until 2007, until he became an assistant minister. In 2008, he was elected a member of the Federation Council from the Leningrad Region. At the moment, Andrei Molchanov, his wife and two children live in Moscow.
He has many awards and diplomas. Among them - the medal "For Merit to the Fatherland" II degree, letters from the Federation Council of the Leningrad Region and the medal "In memory of the 300th anniversary of St. Petersburg."
Projects in St. Petersburg
Andrey Molchanov has a huge influence on the construction business in St. Petersburg. He has quite influential friends who help achieve goals.
One example of controversial projects is the government’s decree of 2002, which allowed the transfer of a large forest area near St. Petersburg into non-forest lands. Almost 193 hectares of forest were transferred to expand the granite quarry and further development of the Kuznechnoye deposit, as well as several other quarries.
The development was necessary for construction needs in St. Petersburg, however, on the background of a socio-ecological catastrophe, many considered it unjustified. They began to believe that Andrei Molchanov (contacts of LSR Group are available on the official website, a single number: 8-800-770-75-77) got in touch with the right people and launched a project that took into account the interests of his company in many respects.
Right friends
Andrey Molchanov helped Sergei Mironov, speaker of the Federation Council, strengthen his position in the AP. After the 90s, they worked in the same company and became good friends. Molchanov carried out work with the deputies, helping them make the right choice after Yakovlev’s resignation. As a result, the businessman and the deputy controlled almost half of the AP and influenced the adoption of important legislative decisions.
In 2007, Molchanov actively financed the Just Russia election campaign. In 2007, thanks in large part to this assistance, Sergey Kuzmin began to control her activities. Sergey is the former CEO of Granit-Kuznechnoye OJSC, a company that depended on Molchanov’s LSR Group.
The situation on the construction market of St. Petersburg
Biography of Andrei Molchanov is full of controversial events. After 2007, the building materials market was tested. Prices rose rapidly, and given the fact that the cost of housing is half formed by building materials, the crisis has overtaken and the real estate market. The price per square meter has become higher than ever, the Affordable Housing program has begun to seem unfeasible and unprofitable.
Everyone knew that the building materials market in St. Petersburg was controlled by one company - “LSR Group” by Andrey Molchanov. The entrepreneur began to capture the market long before the crisis. He was the head of one of the very first check investment funds. These funds were created to help people in Russia invest vouchers. Andrey Molchanov bought at a check auction the shares of the Stroydetal plant, which produced building materials.
Over the years, the company flourished and eventually became the main player in the market, controlling 70% of brick production, 70% of sand and almost half of other building materials. At the same time, LSR Group built 25% of elite housing in St. Petersburg. In some areas, it was a monopolist and set housing prices. The city became dependent on one company.
The LSR Group began to lose interest in the city, paying attention to Moscow and the Moscow region. St. Petersburg faced the threat of a shortage of building materials. Andrey Molchanov moved to the capital, opened his office there and began transferring money to Moscow.
How successful 2007 was for the entrepreneur can be judged by the Forbes rating. According to him, under the control of Molchanov were assets worth $ 660 million.
Political activity
In 2007, Andrei Molchanov decides to leave the career of an entrepreneur and gets a job in the Ministry of Health as an assistant to Mikhail Zurabov. Long-standing relations with deputies, including Mironov, helped him a lot.
In 2008, Forbes summed up his entrepreneurial activity, putting him in first place in the ranking of the richest businessmen in St. Petersburg. At that time, his fortune amounted to $ 4.9 billion. However, a year later this figure decreased several times and amounted to $ 0.45 billion.
Renunciation of Just Russia
In 2010, many predicted the resignation of the governor Valery Serdyukov . Andrei Molchanov wanted to compete for his chair, but he understood that the Social Democrat was not very suitable for this. It was necessary to publicly renounce A Just Russia. Moreover, Andrei Molchanov, whose photo was often flashed in the media, announced not only the cessation of party funding, but also the possible entry into United Russia.
Molchanov planned everything so that he would get the next career advancement in the Leningrad Region, for which he had big plans. About them it became known after a few years.
Profitable projects
In 2012, LSR Group made a loud statement about the launch of a new project for a multifunctional complex for the Military Medical Academy. The Academy moved to the resort town of Sestroretsk, the cost was estimated at $ 10 billion, many called also large amounts.
There were many rumors that Lev Vinnik, deputy general director of LSR Group, helped to get the order. Earlier, Leo worked under the administration of St. Petersburg and executed land plots for development. By 2007, he became an adviser to Anatoly Serdyukov, head of the Federal Tax Service and Minister of Defense of the Russian Federation. According to many, it was thanks to Vinnik's contacts that he could become the initiator of the Academy’s move to Sestroretsk.
Molchanov Andrei Yurievich, whose biography shows the importance of making the right acquaintances, did not forget about politics. In 2012, 3 candidates were nominated from the United Russia party for the post of governor of the Leningrad region, but the president chose Alexander Drozdenko.
In the same year, Andrei Molchanov and former State Duma deputy Eduard Yanakov bought Riga's Russian-language newspapers. Local authorities were worried that the Russian-language press of Latvia was influenced by businessmen, but could not do anything.
Back to business
In 2013, Andrei Molchanov decides to return to business and leave politics. It is not surprising, because over the past year he lost more than $ 50 million. Andrei returns to his company LSR Group and heads the board of directors.
Later, in the same year, in St. Petersburg, an investigation was conducted into the case of the supply of 40 thousand substandard reinforced concrete slabs throughout Russia. The amount of damage was estimated at more than a billion rubles that were transferred to Molchanov’s subsidiary LSR-Stroy. According to the conclusion, the delivered plates did not comply with GOSTs. The criminal case did not concern the company itself, the charges were brought against the officers who received the materials.
In August 2013, LSR Group purchased the Royal Gardens Hotel LLC. This company had the right to reconstruct the blockade substation at 3 Fontanka and build a hotel on this site.
The project met with strong resistance from urban planners. The building has existed since the Great Patriotic War and fed trams in the besieged city. For the blockade, it has become a symbol of victory. However, according to the examination carried out by Art Deco, the building did not have much value, and the company received permission to establish a building fence.
By 2015, disputes over the construction did not cease, the entrepreneur turned to the governor with a request to protect him from town defenders. Andrei Molchanov, whose family is the wife of Elizabeth and six children, is worried about the disruption of the project.