International law firm Clifford Chance has advised on the top three transactions in the Russian real estate market to date. These include the acquisition of the Metropolis and the Galeria shopping centres by one of the largest real estate funds completed in February 2013 and February 2012 respectively and the acquisition of White Square office complex by O1 Properties completed at the end of 2012.
Marc Bartholomy, Corporate Partner and Head of Real Estate at Clifford Chance Moscow, who led on all three transactions noted: “The transactions show that the Russian real estate market continues to be of great interest to domestic and foreign investors. Our local expertise and global network makes us a trusted advisor by investors and has led to our role on the buy-side for all three deals.”
The transactions involved the Moscow corporate and finance teams and Clifford Chance offices in London, Washington and Amsterdam.
While the terms of the deals have not been officially disclosed, market experts’ estimates exceed US$1 billion for each transaction, with the Metropolis shopping centre acquisition considered to be the largest ever in the Russian commercial real estate market.
Metropolis, a 205,000 sq.m. shopping centre in Moscow, is widely recognised as Russia’s premier retail development with a favourable location in the north-west of the city. It is one of the most visited shopping centres in Moscow with approximately 55,000 customers per day in 2012. Among the awards received by Metropolis are: the ‘Best Mixed-Use Complex’ by CRE Awards 2009, ‘Best New Development Category Extra-Large’ award by the Russian Council of Shopping Centres and ‘Best Shopping Centre of the Year’ by the FIABCI “Prix d’excellence” Awards 2010.
The Galeria Shopping Centre, a 192,000 sq.m. retail and leisure development, is the largest centre in St. Petersburg. It opened in 2010 and has 290 stores over five floors. The shopping centre won in ‘The Largest Retail Centre’ category at CRE Awards 2011 and its acquisition was named ‘The Best Investment Transaction of the Year’ by CRE Awards 2012.
White Square Office Centre is a class “A” office complex consisting of three buildings with a gross building area of 110,800 sq.m. and 840 parking spaces on three levels of underground parking. The complex was acknowledged the ‘Best Class A Office Center’ by CRE Awards 2010 and won the ‘City for All’ award in 2010 from the Government of Moscow.
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