Kama Capital, an investment holding, has purchased the Metropolis Business Center (GBA is 110,000 sq. m.) on Leningradskoe Shosse, near the Voykovskaya Metro Station, from Hines Russia & Poland Fund (USA) and PPF Real Estate (Czech Republic). The Vedomosti has been informed of this by a Kama Capital spokesperson, whose statement was confirmed by Natalia Maltseva, Hines Senior Vice President, and a representative of CORE.XP, a consultant on the transaction. According to the former, the transaction had been approved by a government commission. According to its terms, the company listed as the owner of the complex had to be transferred to Russia (it is currently registered in Cyprus. — Vedomosti). We have been unable to get a statement from PPF Real Estate.
The Metropolis Business Center comprises three buildings. The first two were acquired by Hines Russia & Poland Fund and PPF Real Estate in 2015, and the third one was purchased three years later. The complex was put up for sale back in 2022, but it was only sold now.
Kama Capital specializes in investment and management of commercial properties. Its portfolio, according to the company’s estimation, exceeds 450,000 sq. m.
sq. m
450 000
For example, this year, the company purchased the Russian assets of Auchan Group’s Ceetrus: Aquarelle shopping centers in Pushkino, Volgograd and Tolyatti, Troika complex in Moscow, as well as cash line zones in Auchan hypermarkets. However, consultants who had worked with this investment holding company claimed that it acted in the interests of people associated with Lidertrans, a logistics operator. We have not been able to obtain a comment from that company. An insider asserts that it has nothing to do with the Metropolis deal.
Kama Capital has refused to disclose its owners.
The parties are not disclosing the transaction amount of the Metropolis deal. Stanislav Bibik, an NF Group partner, believes that the market value of the office complex is currently 25-30 billion rubles. Mikael Kazaryan, Head of Capital Markets and Investments at IBC Real Estate, says that it could be higher: 35–40 billion rubles. In this case, according to him, it is the largest deal in the office segment since 2017. Irina Ushakova, Head of Capital Markets and Investments at CORE.XP, also calls it the largest in this segment over the past seven years, without revealing any amounts. «Taking into account the debt burden transferred to the buyer, the transaction amount could not exceed 5 billion rubles,» says a source close to a transaction party. «Against the backdrop of the increasingly complex political landscape, international investors have clearly realized that, in the foreseeable future, the discount to the value of Russian assets will only increase.» Kazaryan calls Metropolis a landmark property for the Moscow office market. According to him, the complex, located in the established business cluster on Leningradskoe Shosse, enjoys consistently high demand from tenants due to its developed infrastructure and convenient access to transport. Bibik shares his opinion.
According to consultants, Metropolis is the last major property of PPF Real Estate in Russia. Until February 2022, the company was among the largest foreign investors in the Russian market. It ranked 13th in the Forbes rental provider ranking, with an annual rental income of $155 million. But starting in 2022, it gradually sold its assets. For example, one of the largest logistics parks in Russia, the Yuzhnye Vrata Complex in Domodedovo, was acquired by Instone Development. The Comcity Business Park (185,000 sq. m) on Kievskoye Highway went to the Inventa holding, which manages the assets of Avigdor Yardeni, an Israeli-Georgian businessman. Aptekarsky also bought its Nevsky Center, a 91,000 sq. m shopping center in Saint Petersburg.
In Q1 2024, according to NF Group, investors put 30.5 billion rubles into the acquisition of office buildings in Russia, approximately twice as much as a year earlier. The largest deal in this segment was the sale of the Stone Belorusskaya Office Building to an unknown investor. If the April data are taken into account, investments in office buildings amounted to 54 billion rubles, according to a CORE.XP report. It says that investors remain interested in quality offices in Moscow amid a shortage of such properties.
Aquarelle shopping centers’ owner closes deal to purchase Metropolis Business Center.