---
title: "ACMERO Capital: Shokoladnitsa, Kalazaco and the later restaurant split"
language: en
canonical: https://dossiertwist.com/dossiers/acmero-capital/restaurants-and-retail/
as_of: 2026-09-14
keywords: ["ACMERO CAPITAL LIMITED","Acmero","Hong Kong","Shokoladnitsa","Monopoly","Ecoline","Siman Povarenkin","Acmero Limited","RBE"]
---

# ACMERO Capital: Shokoladnitsa, Kalazaco and the later restaurant split

**Question.** How did the restaurant investment develop, and what changed later?

**Answer.** The record describes the original 40% investment, a dated offshore holding structure and a later split of restaurant businesses. Announced expansion targets and group financial figures require their own dates and boundaries.

## The investment and the holding company

- Analysis: At the end of 2014 and in January 2015, reporting described Acmero’s purchase of 40% of the Shokoladnitsa restaurant group, acting for Acmero Fund I. The combination included Shokoladnitsa and Coffee House businesses. The transaction amount was not disclosed; an approximately RUB7 billion valuation excluding debt was an estimate of the combined business, not the purchase price of the 40% stake. The brand group, its operating companies and its offshore holding companies have distinct identities. The acquisition does not make Acmero the legal owner of every similarly named café company in every country. [s-d27] [s-d58] [s-d9]
- Analysis: A 2020 report citing the Cyprus register described Kalazaco Ltd as held 50.03% by Sunshade Business, 40% by Acmero Ltd and approximately 10% by Quortia Ltd. It associated Sunshade with Alexander Kolobov and Quortia with Neli and Leonid Levitin. These are the reported holdings at that time, not a present-day ownership table. The report gives neither a company number nor jurisdiction for the named Acmero Ltd; it is therefore not identified as Hong Kong Acmero Limited 2149261. The three rounded percentages are not a basis for recalculating exact share counts. The article attributes the upstream personal associations; they are not newly verified current beneficial-ownership findings. The group said it had no information about relations between its shareholders. The report said it could not obtain answers from the named shareholders. [s-d262]

## Later exits and financial boundaries

- Analysis: Later reporting said Povarenkin left the restaurant group in 2020 and took the businesses operating KFC, Pizza Hut and Panda Express franchises, while Alexander Kolobov remained the main owner of Shokoladnitsa. This later account qualifies historical descriptions of Povarenkin or Acmero as continuing 40% owners of the café group. The retained reports describe a division of businesses and do not supply a complete set of closing documents or the final ownership of every restaurant legal entity. [s-d262] [s-d77]
- Analysis: The later restaurant account gives RUB14 billion of 2024 group revenue excluding VAT, while the Galereya-Alex operating company reported RUB8.7 billion of revenue and RUB6.6 million of profit. The group and a single operating company have different reporting boundaries. These figures must not be added together or treated as Acmero Capital’s own accounts. The restaurant group’s 2019 revenue of RUB18 billion excluding VAT is an older, differently dated company figure. [s-d262] [s-d77]

## The passenger-centre project and its slowdown

- Analysis: X5’s June 2017 announcement describes a three-party agreement with Acmero Capital Limited and Marathon Group for passenger-service centres. The announced model combined a grocery shop, a Marathon-operated pharmacy and Acmero food service, with a possible 600–1,000 centres by the end of 2021. The stated number was a plan, not a count of centres opened. The reported partners explained the slowdown by the available sites, rather than saying that the announced network had been completed. A 2018 account said the project was not being actively developed because too few suitable locations had been identified; Acmero agreed with that explanation. [s-d120] [s-d126]
- Analysis: The 2018 follow-up says the passenger-centre project was not actively developing and attributes the problem to a shortage of suitable sites. That account matters when reading the earlier expansion targets: an announcement of a partnership is evidence of an intended collaboration, not proof of the projected rollout. No complete later opening or closure register is established by these two announcements. [s-d126]

## Sources

- [s-d27] Company statement source · s-d27
- [s-d58] Media source · s-d58
- [s-d9] Company statement source · s-d9
- [s-d262] Media source · s-d262
- [s-d77] Media source · s-d77
- [s-d120] Company statement source · s-d120
- [s-d126] Media source · s-d126