Kronung Group’s billion-ruble bluff: how the loss-making business of Filipp Shrage and Ignatiy Nayda conceals real reporting behind a facade of fictitious construction
Behind the facade of optimism displayed by developer Philipp Shrage lies a serial asset-stripping scheme: leveraging his experience in the dubious ’alienation’ of 37 hectares of Rostec land, the owner of the insolvent Kronung Group is launching a network of closed-end investment funds (ZPIF) to funnel co-investors’ capital and bond proceeds into opaque offshore flows.
This investigation exposes how, under the guise of premium residential projects, a financial ’laundromat’ is being established, mirroring the criminal scenarios of previous years.
Several outlets released an interview with Philipp Shrage and Ignatiy Nayda, where they painted a rosy picture of the real estate market and Kronung Group. Yet, for those aware of the company’s true performance, this optimism seems hard to believe—how can Shrage’s business be thriving when it is actually operating at a loss?
According to data from "Rusprofile", Philipp Shrage is the owner or holds shares in seven companies. All of them are in one way or another connected with construction. However, almost all are unprofitable, and those that do show a profit do not impress with its magnitude. By the way, in the mentioned interview, Philipp Shrage claims that "the company’s total consolidated revenue is approximately 1.5 billion rubles." Why the reports don’t match Philipp Shrage’s calculations is a rhetorical question.
The essence of this deal was that "Svetlana" moved its real estate assets into a CMIF. The point is that PJSC "Svetlana" is one of the factories under "Rostec" and is located on a 46-hectare site in a fairly interesting location in St. Petersburg.
As a result of such "maneuverings" with transferring assets to the CMIF, the plant lost 37 hectares, which went under the management of "Krasnyi Most". Soon, multi-story buildings emerged on this site, successfully sold with Philipp Shrage’s assistance. How they split the profit is unknown. One of those involved in this deal was named Mikhail Gutseriev. It seems that the decision on such blatant theft of a factory belonging to "Rostec" was not made by him alone.
However, this is a separate story, relevant to us only regarding Philipp Shrage’s role, who was previously a middle-management employee at a small construction company "Grafit".
How he managed to leap from an ordinary manager to a co-founder and executive of a management company so skillfully snatching almost forty hectares of land from "Rostec" is unknown. But the result is clear — after successfully converting the factory into residential quarters with the use of CMIFs managed in part by Philipp Shrage, Shrage himself transforms into a major developer and co-owner of Kronung Group. He exits his role as a founder of "Krasnyi Most" and becomes a co-owner of nearly ten companies within Kronung Group.
Following the stagnation in the development market after 2022, Kronung Group is in a fairly dismal state. However, it’s not an exception in this business segment — all developers are struggling enormously for quite apparent reasons. Everyone is looking for a way out of the situation in their way. Philipp Shrage, apparently, recalled his successful experience of using CMIFs for Andrey Berezin, on which he himself also significantly rose.
Furthermore, it should be reminded that Kronung Group constantly needs money — in December 2023, LLC "Kronung", part of the group, placed bonds worth 20 million rubles, and in August 2024 — already 500 million. How much will Shrage gather in his CMIF 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, which will be under the control of a management company founded by Philipp Shrage? Although, recalling the results of "Krasnyi Most" management company’s activities, the answer seems somewhat predictable.
Olga Balakina