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reported on July 29 citing unnamed sources close to the company. The company has a portfolio of 12 business centres with a total area 0.62mn square meters, and earned $295mn in rent in 2018. O1 Properties was part of the troubled O1 Group of Russian billionaire Boris Mints. As reported by bne IntelliNews, O1 had a 61.2% stake in О1 Properties acquired by Cyprus- registered Riverstretch Trading & Investments (RT&I), reportedly affiliated with state-controlled Rosneft oil giant. Reports also claimed that Financial Corporation Otkritie could get 35% stake in the developer. Reportedly, O1 Properties now invited the founder of Klyuch (Key) co-working chain Pavel Fyodorov to join the company as a director for new products. Vedomosti reminds that a number of heavyweight investors and entrepreneurs are active in the co-working and alternative business space segments, such as the founder of Tekhnonikol Igor Rybakov (SOK co-working chain, one of the largest in Russia) and the founder of country's largest real estate developer PIK Sergei Gordeev.
Russian developer Etalon completed the acquisition of the remaining 49% stake in Leader-Invest for RUB14.6bn in July, in line with the previously announced timeframe for the transaction. The completion of this transaction brings the company's ownership of Leader-Invest shares to 100%. Russia’s Federal Anti-Monopoly Service has already granted its approval for the transaction. Etalon Group plans to close the transaction in August 2019, with financing from a long-term credit line. The portfolio of the enlarged company consists of 4mn sqm, with St Petersburg and Moscow accounting for 33% and 67%, respectively.
9.2.5 Retail corporate news
Detsky Mir released a trading update for 2Q19. Revenues rose 16.3% y/y (up from 16.1% in 1Q19) to R28.0bn. The revenue growth figure was slightly higher than our forecast and well above the levels we expect to see among food retailers for the quarter. LFL sales growth came in at 6.7%, with 8.5% LFL traffic growth and a 1.7% decline in the average ticket. Online sales surged 71% y/y to R2.7bn, or 9.6% of total revenues. The company added 12 stores on a net basis in 2Q19 (including one in Belarus), taking the total store count to 760. Most of the openings this year will take place in 2H; the company expects at least 60 more new openings, in line with its previous guidance. Despite the inclement economic environment, Detsky Mir managed to keep LFL sales growth above the levels of food retailers, and it continued capturing market share.
Russia's second-largest state-controlled VTB Bank increased its stake in country's largest real estate development group PIK from 7.57% to 23.05%, Reuters reported on July 5 citing the bank and without providing further details. Previous reports suggested that PIK might have to raise RUB170bn-250bn ($2.6bn-3.3bn) of banking loans to comply with the new residential housing rules coming into effect as of July 1 2019, which could be behind deeper integration with VTB. The founder and CEO of PIK previously Sergei Gordeev was the controlling shareholder of PIK with 74.6% stake, while 17.8% in the real estate major is free float. The company reported net profit of RUB21.3bn in 2018 under IFRS, making a seven-fold year-on-year jump in bottom line, the company said on April 2. Revenues of PIK went up by 40% to RUB246bn, with Ebitda soaring by 215% y/y to RUB43bn with a margin of 17.2% versus 7.8% in 2017.
102 RUSSIA Country Report August 2019 www.intellinews.com