Inteco was founded by Baturina along with her brother Viktor Baturin in 1991 as a plastics company. It was awarded the contract to produce seats for Luzhniki Stadium, Moscow's largest stadium, in 1995. This produced allegations of corruption since Baturina's husband, Yuriy Luzhkov, became Moscow city mayor. Also in 1995, Inteco was awarded a contract to produce plates for Russkoe Bistro, a fastfood chain set up by Luzhkov and owned by Moscow city authorities. Later Inteco moved into the construction trade, despite Baturina stating that this would be a conflict of interest: "as the mayor’s wife, I have to be very careful not to hurt my company’s reputation". Inteco became very successful and at one time produced 20% of all new buildings in the capital. Inteco's leadership has insisted to have been awarded all tenders in a fair manner and according to the relevant laws.
Developments
In 2005 Inteco sold its concrete works, which accounted for a third of company revenues, and DSK-3, a producer of prefabricated buildings, for $1.1 billion. Evrotsement bought the concrete business for 3-5 times the going market price. PIK Group bought DSK-3. The reason for the sale was thought to be the impending end to Luzhkov's term in office. In 2007 Viktor Baturin sued Inteco for $120 million due to allegedwrongful dismissal. He was fired in 2005 and his 1% share of the company bought by Inteco for $21 million. Baturin insists however that his share was in fact 25% until it mysteriously disappeared in 2002 or 2003. Following Luzhkov's dismissal from his position as mayor of Moscow, he alleged to The Telegraph newspaper that the Russian authorities were planning to break up the Inteco. Mikail Shishkhanov and Sberbank Investments acquired the company in 2011, with Shishkanov buying 95 percent of the shares and Sberbank the remaining five. Facing high debts, the company was taken over by the Russian Central Bank in 2017 following an asset transfer by owner Mikail Shishkhanov. Inteco is expected to post a profit for the first time in years in 2020, and would consider an IPO at a later date. As of July 2019, the firm was $474.26 million in debt.
