GAZPROMBANK HAS BECOME THE NEW OWNER OF MEGA SHOPPING CENTERS IN RUSSIA

Gazprombank Group bought a chain of Mega shopping centers in Russia from Swedish Ingka Centers. As part of the transaction between the organizations, Gazprombank bought 14 shopping and entertainment centers with a total area of 2.3 million m2 in 12 subjects of the Russian Federation.

The amount of the transaction was not disclosed, experts note that it should be about 193 billion rubles.

According to the Deputy Chairman of the Board of Gazprombank Tigran Khachaturov, quoted by Vedomosti, the purchase of Megi was a step proving that Gazprombank follows the principles of human resources development and strategically significant assets of Russia.

Gazprombank also has real estate assets at its disposal. Gazprombank Invest, according to its official website, is the owner of real estate in eight regions of the country. So, he owns a residential complex "Sovremennik", as well as cottage settlements "Pokrovskoe-Rubtsovo" in the Moscow region.

As Mikhail Burmistrov, CEO of Infoline-Analytics, notes, the acquisition of Megi for Gazprombank was a profitable deal, since shopping and entertainment centers bring constant income, while remaining stable and high-quality commercial real estate. The deal was affected, among other things, by the departure of IKEA from the Russian Federation, it is very difficult to find a replacement for such a tenant.

Ingka Centers was on the 7th place among the largest rentiers in the Russian Federation according to Forbes for 2022. The company's passive income from rent was estimated at $285 million. At the same time, the Swedish organization was the largest owner of commercial real estate in the Russian Federation. Ingka Centers appeared on the Russian market back in 2000. However, due to the international political background and the pressure of Western countries on the Russian Federation, the company withdrew from the domestic market and decided to sell Mega.

In addition, she found a buyer for her furniture factories and headquarters in Khimki. The owner of this property was the company "KLS-Khimki".

This year, the sale of Megi became the largest on the Russian real estate market, overtaking the sale of Metropolis shopping center (60-65 billion rubles) and Nevsky Center shopping Center (8-12 billion rubles).