Boranbayev loses his restaurant business in Belarus

The State Property Committee of Belarus has seized by court action the Mak.by restaurant chain from KSB VICTORY RESTAURANTS PTE.LTD, registered in Singapore and controlled by Kairat Boranbayev, Euroradio reported.

The decision was initially made by the Minsk Economic Court on October 10, 2023, although the company immediately filed an appeal to the country’s Supreme Court that was supposed to review the appeal today on January 10, 2023. As a result, the higher authority decided to support the initial decision by the court. The total cost of assets that must be transferred to the government of Belarus is about $3.75 million.

Before November 2022, the company ran a fast-food chain under the McDonald’s brand. Once McDonald’s left Russia, the brand left the Belarussian market as well. Many expected that the Russian brand Vkusno i Tochka would have come to Belarus instead of McDonald’s as it had in Russia. However, Alexander Lukashenko, president of Belarus demanded local companies to step in. As a result, from November 2022 to April 2023, the chain worked without a name. Since last April, it has worked under the name of Mak.by.

Mak.by’s restaurants in Belarus belong to KSB VICTORY RESTAURANTS PTE.LTD, which in turn is controlled by Rapid Food Holding PTE. LTD (90%) and Sengermen PTE. LTD (10%). The owner of the first company is Kairat Boranbayev, while the second is owned by Victoria Danko, a Belarusian citizen.

Since 2016, Boranbayev has also owned former McDonald’s in Kazakhstan, which was renamed I’m in November 2023. The businessman still controls this asset despite being legally prosecuted and forced to give up many of his properties and assets.