Samolet Group of Companies has agreed to acquire the MITs development group, two sources close to both parties to the agreement told Vedomosti. A Samolet representative confirmed this information. According to him, the deal will include over 50 companies associated with MIC Group, as well as its land bank in the capital, new Moscow and the Moscow region. 11 residential projects under construction and design will also go to Samolet, Vedomosti’s interlocutor specified. He added that management companies, networks and head facilities for the construction and operation of residential complexes, as well as intellectual property rights, will become part of the agreement. To close the transaction, it will be necessary to obtain the approval of the Federal Antimonopoly Service, he explained. To date, no application for the acquisition of such a company has been received, a representative of the department said. The MIC declined to comment.
The terms of the deal were not disclosed. Samolet’s representative specified that it would be carried out in several tranches with the involvement of bank financing. One of Vedomosti’s sources, close to the parties to the deal, claims that the purchase of MIC will cost the developer more than 40 billion rubles. Another says that Samolet will pay about 55–60 billion rubles for all the group’s assets.
In this case, it will be the largest transaction in the residential development segment in its entire history, say consultants interviewed by Vedomosti. In 2016, PIK Group bought out the developer Morton for 11.7 billion rubles, according to the first report. “Trust” last year gained 38 billion rubles. from the sale of Inteko to Sminex. At the same time, the developer Etalon agreed to acquire the Russian business of the Finnish construction concern YIT for 4.6 billion rubles.
The deal will allow Samolet to increase its land bank and strengthen its position in the market of the Moscow region, Anton Elistratov, CEO of the group, explained to Vedomosti. He also added that the acquisition of MITs will allow the company to increase current construction throughout Russia from 3.6 million to 4.2 million square meters. m.
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Samolet is the second largest developer of mass housing in Russia. Its land bank is estimated at 45.9 million square meters. The shareholders of Samolet are ex-minority shareholder of Russian Aquaculture Mikhail Kenin and businessman Pavel Golubkov. The co-owner of one of the group’s companies, Plane Two Capitals, which builds in Moscow and St. Petersburg, is Maxim Vorobyov, brother of the Moscow Region Governor Andrey Vorobyov. Its structure owns 25% of the shares in the company.
MIC Group, according to the Unified Resource of Developers (ERZ), is one of the ten largest developers in Moscow. Now the company has 629,856 sq. m of housing. The company’s land bank is estimated at 2 million square meters. m. Among its projects are Veresk complexes in Khoroshevo-Mnevniki, Mint near the business center Moscow City, Amaranth near Paveletsky railway station, Pepper near the station. m. “Pyatnitskoye highway”. The main shareholders of the developer are Alexander Kopylkov and Andrey Ryabinsky (he is also the founder of the promotion company in the field of boxing “World of Boxing”).
The acquisition of MIC by Samoletom is a landmark deal for the real estate market, says Alexey Novikov, partner at NF Group. Timur Ryvkin, director of the residential real estate and land development department at Nikoliers, agrees with this. He recalls that most of the MIC projects are located in the Moscow region and the new Moscow, where Samolet traditionally occupies a leading position, so the deal looks quite logical and justified for this group. But the MIC also has facilities within the old boundaries of Moscow, for example, a large residential complex on Shosseynaya Street, as well as a number of apartment complexes (for example, on Oktyabrskaya Street), which is of interest to Samolet as part of its development strategy in the capital, he supposes. Through this deal, Samolet will gain access to the MIC land plots, Novikov says. According to him, this is especially true for Moscow, where obtaining permits can be a lengthy process. Buying a company with existing projects allows solving this problem, the expert believes. Acquisition of a developer with a portfolio of projects is indeed a justified strategy in terms of development, sums up Mikael Ghazaryan, Head of the Capital Markets and Investments Department at IBC Real Estate.
Despite the fact that Samolet is buying one of the largest developers in Moscow, the company will not yet be able to overtake PIK Group, experts say. According to ERZ, this company is currently under construction is 5.3 million square meters. m of housing.