OREANDA-NEWS. December 10, 2007. OAO ARMADA (MICEX, RTS: ARMD) has won a tender to build a "smart house" in Vladivostok. One of the companies in the ARMADA Group, Soyuzinform, will be responsible for the engineering, information and communications infrastructure of the city’s fifth arbitration appeal court.

The solution based on the company's profound expertise in the development and implementation of infrastructure projects will be used to reduce the risks of investing in real estate, as well as provide for comfortable and safe working environment for employees. The contract designating Soyuzinform as general contractor was valued at RUR360m, including expenses for the required equipment and consulting and engineering services. The project is to be completed in 2009.

Soyuzinform has a long history of productive cooperation with government agencies, providing a comprehensive set of services for the IT infrastructure creation, development and maintenance, as well as the construction of smart buildings. In 2007 alone, the company won several tenders to build smart houses for the Finance Ministry, Federal State Statistics Service, Federal Service for Fiscal and Budgetary Supervision, and arbitration courts of the Penza and Tomsk regions.

"Smart houses are one of the newest and most promising sectors of the Russian IT market, with a growth rate predicted to reach 25-35% in 2008. This would not be ARMADA's first project in the domain, and we keep building up our client base and experience, which, we believe, will gain us one of the leading positions in the sector," ARMADA Group General Director, Alexei Kuzovkin said.

The Russian smart houses market, including the construction of business centers, hotels, airports, sports facilities and office buildings, has been driven by such factors as the move towards cost-savings and cost-efficiency alongside greater security. In Russia, comprehensive automated smart house systems pay off after 1.5 to 3 years of operation. Simultaneously, once implemented, they help bring down insurance payments as the risk of emergencies in smart houses is minimal. In addition, with integrated control systems in place, office centers meet the premium class criteria.