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$27.6 mln backing for state-of-the-art warehousing near Moscow
Bank to provide long- term loan and take equity stake
A state-of-the-art 50,000-square-metre logistics and warehousing centre is to
be built next to the Moscow MKAD Ring Road with the help of $27.6 million of
financing from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development.
These logistics facilities will help meet the warehousing shortfall in the
Moscow area that has been exacerbated by Russia’s consumer boom. Moscow’s
existing quality warehousing space is approximately one-third the amount of
Prague’s even though the city’s population is eight times that of the Czech
capital.
The Bank is extending a 10-year loan of $23.3 million, of which it will take
$8.3 million onto its own books. The remaining $15 million has been syndicated
to Raiffeisen Zentralbank Oesterreich Aktiengesellschaft under an EBRD A/B
loan structure.
The funding will enable ZAO Agrofirma Belaya Dacha, a leading privately owned
producer of greenhouse vegetables, to build two warehouses on land it owns
next to the ring road. The company already operates three A-class warehouses
in the Moscow area through its Belaya Dacha Market subsidiary.
In parallel to its loan, the EBRD is also investing $4.3 million to acquire a
34 per cent equity stake in the special-purpose company being created to
develop and manage the project. Agrofirma Belaya Dacha will have a majority
stake in this company.
Agrofirma Belaya Dacha owns a strategically situated plot of land close to two
of the Russian capital’s major cargo airports and within easy reach of the
city centre, as well as major shopping malls and hyper-markets built along the
ring road.
Because of its location and excellent road connections, the new site has the
potential of becoming a regional distribution hub. Ilaria Benucci, Director of
the EBRD’s Property and Tourism team, said the Bank is pleased to participate
in a project that sends an important signal to other Russian companies as to
the value of transparency and long-term strategic vision in attracting
long-term funding from international investors.
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