MAX Group plans to buy former OBI stores in Russia - FAS

MOSCOW. April 28 (Interfax) - The MAX Group of Investment Construction Companies plans to buy the Russian network of DIY stores that was owned by Germany's OBI, the Federal Anti-monopoly Service said.

"The FAS has received the relevant requests. The service will in the prescribed manner assess what impact the deal would have on the Russian consumer goods market," it said.

OBI said in March that it was shutting its 27 stores in Russia. Later the category director of the OBI chain in Russia, Maxim Suravegin, said at the DIY Forum that the retailer plans to resume operations. German DIY retailer denied the information about reopening its stores saying that the stores in Russia will remain closed.

OBI pulled out of the Russian project in April. Boris Lyuboshits, the founder of Audit Group LLC and the legal firm Cezar Consulting, became the interim manager of the assets to be transferred to a new investor.

The Russian network said this week that its stores would reopen - a first hypermarket in Moscow opened on April 27 and the rest would open by May 11.

OBI had 27 stores and 4,900 employees in Russia. It had been on the Russian market since 2003.

According to the SPARK-Interfax system, LLC GICC MAX specializes in the development of construction projects. Its owner is Ilya Kolobkov, who also owns a stake in LLC Samis LLC, which operates in the construction industry, and LLC Moscow Institute of Existential Studies.