20.02.2010 Eesti Ekspress: Moscow multimillionaire's daughter battles Estonian bank

Eesti Ekspress found the woman, who is becoming the leader of resistance against Swedish banks in Estonia. Hooray!!! Hooray! Hooray!!

I am embarrassed about my wooden and limited Russian, when I start my interview with Natalia Levina (34).

Her answers are curt and I am beginning to fear that this is going to be rather torturous, when she smiles at me and tells me how she defended the reputation of Estonia.

Last September, Levina noticed an article about Estonia in Spain's second biggest newspaper El Mundo. It said that our country's economy was in freefall and the rate of the lats (sic!) was faltering.

Natalia then contacted the Estonian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (its president Toomas Luman is her good acquaintance and business partner), they called the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry talked to the ambassador and El Mundo finally removed the incorrect article from its website and published a correction of its mistakes.

We sit in the open-plan kitchen in Levina's apartment in the Luther Quarter. There is a small table with four chairs, a sofa with cushions and a white cuddly sheep in the corner, a steel grey fridge.

I take a sip of instant coffee (gosh, I cannot remember the last time I had it!), look around and think that this apartment is warm in terms of temperature, but the atmosphere feels a bit chilly. It doesn't feel like a home and looks more like a place for quick overnight stays.

However, she said that an apartment is better than the hotel where she used to stay before and it is good to sit down for a chat here when her parents come to visit from Moscow.

Levina, who studied law in Moscow, moved to Madrid about ten years ago.

Over there, she completed her education in business management, worked as an investment consultant specialising in Eastern Europe and gave lectures in the university.

She ended up in Estonia a little over a year ago, when Pyotr Sedin asked for the assistance of her father, who is engaged in the vodka industry. Pyotr Levin is a mining engineer, like Sedin.

Levin became the main owner of Sedin's company Grove Invest, which develops apartment buildings in the Luther Quarter and established a plywood factory in Kohila.

He sent his daughter, who used to live in Spain, to oversee his investments here and she now spends about 40 per cent of her time in Tallinn.

‘Spring and autumn are the worst seasons,’ says Levina. ‘You can get fresh strawberries in Spain when the snow hasn't even melted here yet.’ She likes picking berries and mushrooms in our forests. ‘The first time I visited Estonia was in the Soviet times, when I was in the sixth grade. And Estonia seemed a lot better off than Moscow some 15, 16 years ago. You had ATMs, bankers were not getting shot and you had Stockmann, where prices were lower than in Moscow. People seemed kinder.’

We all heard some astounding news on Monday: ‘The company that established Kohila Plywood Factory is suing SEB for 1.49 billion kroons.’

The action is extraordinary in terms of size and content.

Firstly, no Estonian company has claimed so much in damages before. Secondly, the content of the action is unprecedented. Attorney-at-law Erki Kergandberg says that the case is not about loss of profit, but SEB Bank and its leasing company destroyed a healthy company and Grove Invest is claiming compensation for the damages caused.

However, the attorney refused to discuss the action in detail – it would be polite to let SEB see the papers before the press do.

The bank in its turn said it was unable to comment, as it had not yet been able to acquaint itself with the action.

The bankruptcy petition signed by Pyotr Sedin gives the best explanation of what happened in Kohila thus far. It states that the objective of the business plan was to launch a plywood factory of large production capacity. However, the equipment purchased from Italy proved to be defective and the factory could never work at full capacity. The owner ran out of money, which is why Sedin himself had to file a bankruptcy petition with the court.

Natalia Levina says that SEB Leasing as the owner of the equipment dithered for so long that the warranty period expired. The bank was unable to obtain a new warranty. Instead, SEB drove the factory to bankruptcy with its utterly confusing behaviour and bombarded the factory's owner Grove Invest and Pyotr Sedin personally through collateral.

The bank even tried to get Sedin's Nõmme home sold.

‘I know that there isn't a single bank in the world that behaves with its clients the way SEB does,’ says Levina.

As the details of the action have not been released yet, I am unable to say how seriously it should be taken. One of the fiercest economic battles in Estonia is still on the level of PR – the Levin-Sedin side announced their attack.

However, it is clear that this is more than an attempt to scare the bank with a large figure, because the action was prepared by two of the best known law firms in the country: Raidla Lejins & Norcous and Tark & Co. These firms don't get involved in complete rubbish.

Joint property business with Toomas Luman

■ Natalia Levina is a member of the supervisory board of Grove Invest, the company that develops property in Tallinn and built a plywood factory in Kohila.

■ Natalia Levina herself owns one-half of Shnelli House, which houses the headquarters of Estonian Railway, through a small company.

■ The other half of the building belongs to Toomas Luman, whose company is also building the Luther Quarter.

■ Levina also owns one-half of Nordea House.

Eesti Ekspress, 20 February 2010