OREANDA-NEWS  On 01 November was announced, that Europe’s largest shopping centers developer ECE Projektmanagement postponed plans of development in Ukraine and almost fired all the staff from its Kiev office.

The company, that announced EUR300-400M investments in Ukraine, explains such a situation by the fear to invest money into the country with negative investment climate. Prior, because of the same reason Ukrainian projects frozen Austrian Sparkassen Immobilien, subsidiary of Erste Group.

Information about firing staff was confirmed by “ECE-Ukraine” press service. Press secretary of German “ECE” Robert Hegelen stated, that “ECE Ukraine” is not going to be liquidated, but company frozen negotiations regarding Ukrainian projects and fires stuff (around 30-40 people). Office will be closed in December, but 2-3 company representatives will be left to monitor situation in the market.  “We will wait for economic situation in the world to become stable. Currently in Ukraine the investment climate is negative and 3rd parliamentary elections in three years say about unstable situation inside the country” – explained reasons of resigning from Ukraine Hegelen.

Company opened office in Ukraine at the end of 2006. But since this time it hasn’t secured single project. “They had very tough requirements for plots: they wanted land to be cheap, with good location and only in freehold. To find such plots in Ukraine is difficult – most of them are leased and expensive, that was not suitable for ECE” – told representative of consulting company. According to his words for the first year in Ukraine company tried to find plots by itself, later on started thinking over JV, but also failed to succeed.