The Kazan “Park House” has new owners, this information “BUSINESS Online” was officially confirmed by the Romex Group, which is headed by Alexei Prokopenko, a well-known businessman from the Krasnodar Territory. The European investment fund Atrium European Real has sold a network of 7 shopping centers to one of its related companies, Ramo-M. Experts estimate the transaction within 700 million rubles for each shopping center, which is negligible – about 10 thousand rubles per 1 sq. m. meter. Prokopenko himself is well known in Tatarstan and even has state awards here. Details are in our material.

“To maintain asset viability and jobs”

The Kazan shopping center Park House officially has a new owner: the European investment fund AERE has sold the network of the Park House shopping center to JSC Ramo-M. Information about the deal “BUSINESS Online” was confirmed by Romex Group today, April 18.

“The deal went through. There is also the situation: this asset was owned by a foreign fund (we are talking about the European investment fund Atrium European Real Estate (AERE) – ed.), which, in connection with the events in the world, ended its activities in Russia. Therefore, this asset was put up for sale. The Ramo-M company and Aleksey Vasilyevich Prokopenko as the main owner became the new owners of the shopping centers, ”Konstantin Tomenko, Deputy General Director of Romex Group of Companies for the construction of commercial real estate, explained to BUSINESS Online some details of the transaction. Thus, 7 “Park Houses” in Russia – two shopping centers in Moscow and one each in Kazan, St. Petersburg, Yekaterinburg, Volgograd and Tolyatti – will now become part of the assets of Romex Group of Companies.

“I don’t know how they will digest it”: will the rentiers from the Kuban pick up the Kazan “Park House”?

Tomenko declined to name the amount of the deal, but rumors that the deal would be penniless did not seem to be confirmed. Recall that earlier Kommersant put forward such an assumption with reference to its expert. This implies the transfer of objects to management until the geopolitical situation stabilizes, which will allow the investment fund to return to Russia.

Tomenko, in a conversation with a BUSINESS Online correspondent, especially emphasized that the transfer of objects “occurred under a sale and purchase agreement.”

What awaits “Park Houses” in connection with the change of ownership? It seems that at the initial stage there will be no changes: according to Tomenko, Ramo-M bought shopping centers “to a large extent in order to preserve the viability of the asset and jobs.” “This facility will continue its activities exactly in the format in which it works, everyone (employees) will keep their jobs, the facility will continue to work,” the source assured the newspaper.

From warehouses to shopping centers: what links Romex Group of Companies and Tatarstan?

For Tatarstan residents, the news about the purchase of shopping centers by companies from the orbit of the Romex Group of Companies looks unusual, since the Kuban developer is known to the region primarily as a developer of large commercial facilities: it was Romex who built distribution centers in Tatarstan for X5 Retail Group * in Yelabuga and Zelenodolsk. A little later, with the development in Tatarstan of the “Program for the development of electronic commerce”, which is so actively advocated by the business ombudsman of the Republic of Tatarstan Farid Abdulganiev, “Romeks” actively took up the construction of logistics centers in the republic for the needs of electronic commerce.

So, in 2020, the first stage of the Ozon logistics hub was laid in Novaya Tura, Romex invested 2 billion rubles in the project. In 2021, the company solemnly opened the first stage and laid the foundation stone for the second stage of the logo center, worth about another 1.8 billion rubles. At the same time, President of Tatarstan Rustam Minnikhanov even awarded the head of Romex and the vice-president of Ramo-M, entrepreneur Prokopenko, with a medal of the Order of Merit for the Republic of Tatarstan – for “special contribution to the socio-economic development” of the republic.

In January 2023, Prokopenko again flew to Kazan to start the construction of the third stage of the logo center worth 2.7 billion. “For us, Tatarstan has become a native region, we have invested more than 8 billion rubles in it and built over 150,000 square meters for logistics. All conditions for development have been created for business in Tatarstan: the region handed over the site and networks for free, you can make plans for the future. Thanks to Rustam Nurgalievich (Minnikhanov), Mikhail Pavlovich (Afanasiev, head of the Zelenodolsk district), who works with us on the line, ”said the businessman from the south of Russia.

But the scope of Romex’s interests is not limited to logistics, one of the main activities of the company is the management and operation of real estate. And in shopping centers, Romex understands: according to the company, the holding has built five shopping centers with a total area of ​​​​about 500 thousand square meters. meters. We are probably talking about the Red Square shopping center in Krasnodar, Novorossiysk, Anapa, Armavir and Tuapse. By the way, Ramo-M owns them.

In the Forbes ranking “Kings of Russian Real Estate – 2023”, a company from the Krasnodar Territory takes 25th place. Its owners are Valery Sagitov, Andrey and Svetlana Lipatov, Sergey Aitzhanov and Sergey Vinogradov. General Director – Konstantin Sevastyanov. The revenue of JSC Ramo-M in 2021 amounted to 2.5 billion rubles, and the net profit was 927 million rubles.

“As a business, these objects are now of no interest to anyone. They need to be developed, and development needs to be invested.”

Pavel Lyulin, Vice President of the Union of Shopping Centers, told a BUSINESS Online correspondent that in good times a portfolio of Park House shopping centers could cost 15–17 billion rubles. “However, now, taking into account the fall in income, the tough conditions for the exit of Western property owners, the discount, the real price of the transaction can be significantly lower: 2 times or more,” Lyulin noted.

The Atrium European Real Estate Fund has long wanted to sell these assets and leave Russia, but the deal was delayed by the search for a buyer for the entire portfolio of properties. “I am sure that they do not plan to return in the near future,” the expert emphasized. According to the vice-president of the Union of Shopping Centers, a significant number of retail real estate objects are currently on sale, almost all Western property owners are now at the stage of negotiations. “There will be other deals,” he concluded.

Commercial real estate consultant Mikhail Shutov estimated the deal at 5 billion rubles. Companies leaving Russia are not selling a profitable business that generates profits, but real estate, often in a “tired” state, he explained. “I value each of the 7 shopping centers at about 700 million rubles,” Shutov noted. “They are housed in outdated buildings that were misused, judging by the Kazan shopping center. There is an unpleasant smell in the toilets, which indicates non-working ventilation, chipped tiles and other problems. As a business, these objects are now of no interest to anyone. They need to be developed, and development needs to be invested.”

It should be noted that with an estimate of 700 million rubles, the Kazan shopping center could cost the new owner only 10 thousand rubles per square meter of total area and 15 thousand rubles for retail space. The order of the price is comparable to the cost of renting in the same shopping center for 1–2 months.

The retail real estate market in Russia is falling, the situation is very difficult, Shutov believes. “Many companies (with foreign capital – ed.) left, and covid “put” people on online sales, and now this sales format continues to develop,” the source said. Shutov recalled that the economy of shopping centers is built on three anchors: food (supermarkets), entertainment and electronics sales. “When you build a shopping center, first of all you plan these three zones, the rest of the tenants go like small cuts, 50-300 square meters each, they sit on the stream from these three anchor tenants,” Shutov explained. According to him, the entertainment industry in the shopping center has recently left much to be desired, and the goods of two more pillars can be ordered online.