Printer manufacturer HP began liquidation of its Russian subsidiary
HP Inc. began the liquidation of Russian subsidiaries. The company has reduced supplies in 2022, but will retain a significant share in the printing devices segment. Their customers were left without technical support and are trying to sue the vendor.
Russian subsidiary of American HP Inc. - HP Inc LLC - the process of the beginning of deaths, shows data from Federal Resources.
HP Inc was registered in 2015 and was engaged in the sale of computer equipment, office equipment and other equipment under the HP brand, its technical support, warranty service, and also provided printing services, consulting and marketing services.
At the end of February 2022, the American company HP Inc. decided to suspend supplies to RUSSIA, and in May 2022 - to complete operations in the country, the local subsidiary limited the conclusion of new contracts and orders, as stated in the company’s report.
According to Rusprofile, the Russian legal entity is 99.99% owned by Alpha Holding One BV, the rest is owned by Perseus Holding BV (both are part of HP Inc.). At the end of 2022, HP Inc.’s revenue decreased by 64% compared to the year’s categories, to 15 billion rubles, the net loss amounted to 1.7 billion rubles.
Your HP subsidiary began negotiations on personnel last year: the average group of employees employed 119 people at the end of 2022 instead of 215 at the end of 2021. She also terminated the lease agreements for an office in the Metropolis business center, cars for official use and parking spaces for employees, as well as leasing of equipment for the provision of printing services and services for technical maintenance and support of software and purchased the specified equipment. The report noted that from September 6, 2022 to July 31, 2023, HP Inc. entered into a short-term lease agreement for a new office with an area of 25.8 square meters. m at the address: Starpetrovsky proezd, 11, bldg. 1, having paid for the entire rental period.
As Anton Fomin, HEAD of retail projects at the Fplus it holding, told RBC, in Russia HP offered such consumer categories as laptops, desktop PCs, printers and MFPs. “The brand’s share in Russia is expected to decline, but the decline itself is observed from category to category. If we compare the current year with 2021, HP’s share of the laptop market has fallen by almost 90%. The situation is similar in the PC market - there the share decreased by 71%. In the printing devices category, the decline is approximately 32–34%,” says Fomin. At the end of September this year, HP's share in the laptop segment amounted to 3.1% in units, in the desktop PC segment - 2.7%, and in MFPs the company retained about 25.3% of the market, and in printers - 16.5%. According to Fomin, the dynamics are due to the fact that in the laptop and PC market, American brands do not inspire confidence among buyers after APPLE disabled a number of functions or wiretapping scandals. In addition, HP limited the supply of its equipment, fearing sanctions and fines from the United States . “Consumer printer sellers still have old inventory, and for buyers there is no risk in the documentation of the printer/MFP storing and distributing personal information,” he explained.
Read PIONERPRODUKT .by Paying the “golden parachute”: how decisions of the Constitutional COURT change labor relations VK completed redomiciliation. What to expect next from the company Billions have been invested in the main competitor ChatGPT. What the creators of Red Ocean and the office war had in mind: what other HR trends to expect in 2024
One of RBC's sources on the electronics market estimated HP's share in the Russian laptop market at the end of nine months of this year at 3.3% in normal terms and another 2.5% in monetary terms. Based on the results of nine months of last year, these figures were about 20 and 16.5%, respectively. In the monoblock segment, HP's share in units decreased from 22 to 5.5%, in money - from 17.5 to 6%. At the end of 2021, that is, before the start of the military operation, HP occupied 22.2% of the laptop market in units and 18% in money, and in the all-in-one segment - 29.5 and 22%, respectively.
What are the consequences for liquidation?
Earlier, the Japanese electronics developer and infrastructure solutions provider Fujitsu began liquidating the Russian legal entity. Lawyers then noted that the liquidation of Fujitsu’s subsidiaries could “become a model for both conducting and managing the activities of a large business, when everything is done voluntarily before reviewing documents on time, and emerging authorities are approved without trial.”
The situation at HP Inc. is different. As noted by Igor Chuschinov, a legal consultant for intellectual property at the EDB law firm and an expert at the educational platform Moscow Digital School, the company has several lawsuits totaling over 150 million rubles. For example, in October-November of this year, several lawsuits were filed, in most cases for the recovery of unjust enrichment and fulfillment of obligations under service contracts. The file of arbitration cases shows claims from the Treolan company (part of the Lanit group) for 120.8 million rubles, from the system integrator Paladin for 30.9 million rubles. Four claims were brought by the company "Complit" (specializing in the construction and development of IT infrastructures, design and installation of engineering systems of buildings and data centers), along with them, the court of the first technology decided to pay the plaintiff 10.9 million and 2.4 million rubles. In addition, the court decided to pay 107.9 million rubles. according to the lawsuit by OCS Distribution.
General DIRECTOR of the Paladin group of companies Maxim Rumsky noted that, like many foreign companies that left Russia, HP Inc left customers without support. “The companies that purchased the equipment were left alone with their problems. We continue to provide them with services that should have been provided by HP Inc., but still appealed to the court to collect a penalty for those services that were not provided,” he said. According to Rumsky, HP Inc sent out.
RBC sent a request to other companies suspected of suing HP Inc.
Another source at HP Inc., a partner company, says that there were a lot of problems due to the company's constant operation in Russia. “HP has concluded many contracts in its portfolio for copy-by-copy servicing of customers (outsourcing of office printing - comprehensive maintenance of printing equipment, in which the client pays only for a separately printed copy/page on his own rack or on partner printers and MFPs, and consumables, maintenance and repairs ) The equipment is taken with him by the partner, who communicates with the seller. — ). All contracts were terminated early. HP paid all the penalties, but in fact the customers were left without a copy seal,” the source said. In addition, according to him, there was “a significant number of projects won and approved,” but the equipment was not supplied, which caused dissatisfaction among customers, and now in many structures there is a ban on the supply of HP .
Liquidation of a company may be difficult if there are claims, according to Artem Denisov, managing partner of the Genesis law firm. In some cases, claims may be the reason for the abolition of the death penalty, for example, if the plaintiffs apply for interim measures - a ban on making any changes to the Unified State Register of Legal Entities. Denisov noted that if the requirements are formulated, the company will not be able to support them, then the liquidators will file for bankruptcy. Also, the company may not liquidate if it provides false information, for example, does not indicate any justification or there are claims that it expected, but cannot find out about.
What's happening with HPE
In 2015, Hewlett-Packard split into two independent businesses: HP Inc. (responsible for the production of digital computers and printers) and Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE; develops and produces corporate IT systems). Our HPE subsidiary, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, continues to operate for now, but intends to file for bankruptcy, according to Fedresurs data.