Immofinanz has successfully concluded the sale of its Moscow retail portfolio to the Russian FORT Group. The transaction closed in St. Petersburg. As previously announced, Immofinanz has now completed its exit from the Russian market during the financial year 2017 in line with the corporate strategy.
“We repositioned the five Moscow shopping centres to reflect the changed market environment in Russia. That sets the stage for the start of a multi-stage structured sales process which has now ended with the transfer of the properties to the buyer“, commented Dietmar Reindl, COO of Immofinanz.
Oliver Schumy, CEO of Immofinanz, said: “Over the past two years we have eliminated a number of risks – for example, through the settlement of historical lawsuits filed by investors and the reduction of risks in our portfolio. However, the most important milestone was the sale of our retail portfolio in Moscow. The market climate in Russia has been difficult for many years and has had a substantial negative effect on IMMOFINANZ. As previously announced, we have finalised the sale of the Russian shopping centres before the end of 2017 and closed the transaction in the shortest possible time. The Immofinanz portfolio with its office and retail asset classes is now clearly focused on the stable Western European markets of Germany and Austria and on the promising growth markets in CEE.“
The sale of the retail portfolio generates immediate net cash flows (after the repayment of existing debt financing) of approx. €72m (RUB 5bn). The purchase agreement also includes an additional guaranteed payment of €14.5m in January 2022 and an earn-out of up to approx. €129.6m (RUB 9bn) based on the revenues from the shopping centres in 2021, which is also due in 2022. In addition, Immofinanz can participate with up to approx. €14.4m (RUB 1bn) in the positive outcome of current tax reimbursement proceedings.
