A new Moscow office tower is set to change hands in a deal worth around $400m (€296m). Russian developer Donstroy, one of the Russian capital’s largest developers, is negotiating to sell the 147,000 m2 NordStar Tower to the real estate arm of Russia’s ninth-biggest banking group, OJSC Promsvyazbank, sources said.
The group’s two main shareholders are the Ananiev brothers, while Germany’s Commerzbank (15.32%) and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (11.75%) also hold stakes.
Privately owned OJSC Promsvyazbank, founded in 1995, has total assets of RUB461.7bn (€11.6bn), and total capital of RUB60.5bn as of 1 October 2010.
The group could also take a stake in the developer as part of the transaction; sources said the complex deal shows an effective annual yield for the tower of around 10%. Donstroy’s portfolio includes more than 50 projects with a total area of more than 5m m2.
In a separate transaction, Russian oil company TNK-BP is selling its Arbut 1 Moscow headquarters building for more than $250m to an unnamed Russian owner/occupier, because it is moving to the NordStar Tower.
TNK-BP was formed in 2003 as a result of the merger of BritishPetroleum’s Russian oil and gas assets and the oil and gas assets of Alfa, Access/Renova group.
Moscow’s real estate sector is pulling out of recession. This week CB Richard Ellis said that prime office rents could rise by as much as 5% in 2011. New class A delivery will be limited to 250,000 m2 this year, said CBRE, of which 35% is already committed, meaning only 175,000 m2 of new space will become available. Vacancy in the centre for class A space ended the year at 10.4%, down from a mid-year peak of 15%.
Last year, take-up in the market was 1.4m m2 and was the same as 2009. The CBD’s share in take-up was high at 33% and the firm expects that deal volume in the area will remain high this year.
