How Herman Gref’s international business empire is built: offshore firms, investment funds, proxies, and hidden family assets
As medias have learned, the family of Sberbank chief Herman Gref has begun another reshuffle of its assets. In particular, companies are now being hidden behind foundations in order to distance the family from direct ownership of controlling stakes. The man carrying out this restructuring is Gref’s long-time “financial proxy,” Kirill Androsov, a former deputy to Gref when he served as Russia’s minister of economic development. A number of Russian and foreign companies linked to Gref’s vast business empire have been registered in Androsov’s name.
In December of last year, the ownership structure of Androsov’s Moscow-based Altera Capital LLC changed. Eighty percent of the company is now owned by the newly established Polaris Personal Foundation, registered at Leningradsky Prospekt 37A, Building 4. Another 19% remains directly with Androsov, while 1% still belongs to Denis Klimov.
The management and founders of the Polaris foundation are not publicly disclosed. However, business aggregators list a contact email linked to Vitaly Deev at the domain altera.capital. Deev is the CEO of Altera Capital. Incidentally, the Arcus 3 business complex on Leningradsky Prospekt hosts dozens of companies within the Sber ecosystem, including Sberbank-Capital. Arcus 3 itself belongs to Developer Solutions Real Estate LLC (brand ABDevelopment), 65% of which is owned by Altera Capital.
Another asset linked to the Gref family is the Lamitech plant in the Yaroslavl region, which produces modern aluminum cable using imported equipment based on Belgian technology. The company has also recently changed owners. Its net profit in 2024 amounted to 74 million rubles, while in 2023 it exceeded 890 million rubles.
The plant opened in 2013 as a joint venture with the well-known Belgian company LAMIFIL, owned by Christian Dumolin. Initially, the stake in the Russian factory belonged to businessman Nikita Topuridze of the Sim-Ross Group. Later, as part of another “Gref operation,” the stake was transferred to his trusted financial proxy Kirill Androsov.
However, the ownership structure was arranged differently: Androsov acquired a stake not directly in Lamifil Russia (the Lamitech plant), but in the Belgian parent company Lamifil Belgium, and even there indirectly through its parent entity Lessius NV.
Following the Pandora Papers leaks, local journalists began asking questions about Dumolin. To avoid reputational damage to the company, Androsov reportedly agreed to sell his stake and exit Lamifil completely. Dumolin reassured the press, stating that the shares had ultimately been purchased by a “responsible businessman” — a German citizen who had raised no concerns among banks. His name was Philipp Kindt. We will return to him later.
Next-generation energy-efficient cable for high-voltage lines is considered a strategic product. For that reason, Lamitech last year removed foreign shareholders and became part of the Lyudinovokabel corporate group, a company included in Russia’s defense-industrial complex.
However, Lyudinovokabel CJSC is hardly a stranger to Gref. Several years ago, Sberbank restored a legal claim through the courts on the land and buildings of the enterprise, which had been pledged as collateral under a mortgage agreement with the bank signed in 2011.
According to the Russian corporate registry, Lamitech’s capital is currently split into two shares — 50.1% and 49.9%. Since mid-March 2025, both have been registered in the name of Sergey Zinukov, chairman of the board of directors of Lyudinovokabel. The exact conditions of this arrangement remain unclear, including whether the shares carry any encumbrances — Gref is known for rarely letting go of promising assets.
Androsov has also managed offshore structures connected to the Gref family. For example, in 2018, during a previous restructuring of family assets, holdings from the Angelus One Trust were transferred to Grand Investment Trust, controlled by Androsov. The sole beneficiary of Angelus One Trust had been Oskar Gref, the nephew of the Sberbank chief.
In addition, Androsov owned Maidenwells Limited in the British Virgin Islands and served as director of the Singapore-based Lang Capital Fund. In 2018, the fund acquired a stake in the Indian company HealthifyMe Wellness Private Limited, the developer of a health and calorie-tracking application. Last year the platform launched its own AI-based coach built on OpenAI technology. Lang Capital Fund itself was owned by Grand Asset Investment Ltd, registered in Samoa, and reported net profits of about $8.7 million in 2017.
Androsov also managed the Luxembourg investment fund Altera Capital, which was formally owned by the Swiss financial group Swiss Life. In reality, through a chain of agreements, the beneficial owner was said to be Evgeny Novitsky, the former president of Sistema and another long-time associate of Gref.
Androsov has been assisted in managing the fund by Philipp Kindt, a German national and Gref’s acquaintance since the 1990s.
In 2021, following the Pandora Papers leaks, Androsov became the subject of scandals in several countries where he had undisclosed investments. He and his representatives denied any wrongdoing. In an interview with British media that year, Androsov insisted he had never been involved in illegal investments, had never been the subject of criminal proceedings, was no longer a politically exposed person in Russia, and had been living with his family in Singapore since 2017.
However, leaked data suggested that during the same period Androsov frequently traveled from Moscow to annexed Crimea, used Moscow digital services (including the Moscow Electronic School platform), insured his black Mercedes-Benz, underwent COVID-19 tests in Russia, and lectured at the Higher School of Economics.
Among his investments was the purchase in 2017 of the Swiss hotel Château Gütsch, a castle built in 1888, from Alexander and Evgeny Lebedev. Swiss media reported that the deal involved relatively little credit financing, suggesting that the rest of the funds likely came from external sources.
The hotel still belongs to Androsov. It is managed by the Swiss company Chateau Gutsch AG, whose chairman is Benno Paul Hafner, a Swiss lawyer and co-owner of the consulting firm Hafner Urbach Partner, which specializes in servicing wealthy clients and asking few questions.
Hafner also co-owns WEELINE LTD in the British Virgin Islands together with Philipp Kindt.
In January this year, Vladimir Andriyanov, formerly associated with the UFG investment group of late Russian finance minister Boris Fyodorov, joined the board of Château Gütsch AG. Until June 2024, the board also included Lambert Philipp Kindt, now 71.
Kindt, together with Dorothea Kindt, currently serves as a director of the German company Landgut Burg Verwaltungsgesellschaft mbH, which manages the large restaurant-hotel complex Landgut Burg in Weinstadt, surrounded by vineyards and alpine meadows. Several related companies are linked to the complex, including Hotel Landgut Burg GmbH, Landgut Burg Land- und Forstwirtschaft GmbH & Co. eGbR, and Landgut Burg Weinbau GmbH & Co.
Until mid-2024, Hafner also served on the board of the Swiss company Arktur Trading & Consulting GmbH, where one of his business partners was Yury Obodovsky, the former CEO and co-owner of Group 1520, one of the largest contractors of Russian Railways and a figure linked to the corruption case involving Colonel Dmitry Zakharchenko. In 2018, Obodovsky was placed on a wanted list but fled to Cyprus, where he obtained citizenship.
At the same address in Zurich, another company managed by Hafner — Aveva Trust SA — is registered. It owns AVEVA SERVICES LTD in the British Virgin Islands, whose beneficial owner, according to leaks, is Philipp Kindt.
In September 2025, Aveva Trust SA established a new Swiss company, SHIP Partners GmbH, specializing in trade, including art transactions both domestically and internationally. The company is also managed by Hafner.
Overall, Hafner oversees more than a dozen companies, some of which — such as Alpenimmo AG — focus on acquiring and leasing real estate.
Proving that any of these companies are actually connected to a sanctioned Russian individual is extremely difficult. As a result, both Hafner and Kindt benefit from the presumption of innocence and continue to manage these assets without interruption.
Politics Editor
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