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EBRD and RZB Group lending €65 million for St. Petersburg shopping centre
New retail complex to bring international standards to Russia’s 2nd city
The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and the RZB Group have
agreed to lend €65 million to a group of international investors for a
state-of-the-art shopping centre to be developed in St. Petersburg by France’s
Vinci Construction Grands Projets SA with the aim of attracting high quality
international retailers to Russia’s second largest city.
The EBRD is the lender of record for €48.75 million. The RZB Group will
contribute €32.5 million to the total package, half of which will come from
Raiffeisen Zentralbank Österreich AG (Austria) under an EBRD A/B loan
structure. The remainder is to be provided by ZAO Raiffeisenbank Austria
(Russia) as a parallel loan.
The EBRD’s 10-year loan will be disbursed on completion of this turn-key
project, expected in the autumn of 2006. The shopping centre is to be built
just off one of the city’s main thoroughfares, half-way between the city
centre and St. Petersburg’s Pulkovo airport in an area already well served by
public transport.
The centre, covering 72,000 square metres of shops, will include a
hypermarket, DIY store and multiplex cinema, as well as a large shopping mall
and parking for 3,500 cars. The project is expected to set market standards
and stimulate competition in the city’s fast-growing retail sector.
The legal borrower is Ralmir Holding BV, incorporated in the Netherlands and
representing a group of international investors who, acting in a private
capacity, have committed to buying the completed project from Vinci. These
include Jacques Fournier, former chairman of Carrefour, the world’s second
biggest international retailer, as well as René de Picciotto and Philippe
Setton, who are both Geneva-based private bankers. All the EBRD and RZB Group
funds will be disbursed in Russia.
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