OREANDA-NEWS Finnish Stockmann Group announced the sale of its last asset in Russia — shopping center "Nevsky center" in St. Petersburg. This is stated in the press release of the company.

The buyer of the asset is the Czech PPF Real Estate, the value of the transaction is €171 million Before the final completion of the transaction, it must be checked by the Antimonopoly service. According to the parties ' plans, the deal should be closed by the end of 2018. After tax, the Stockmann Group expects to make a profit of about €139 million.

"The deal allows Stockmann to fully focus on the development of stores in Finland and the Baltic States. At the same time, the sale increases our financial flexibility and reduces the debt on The group's balance sheet," Stockmann's managing Director, Laurie Weihalainen, commented on the deal.

With the sale of" Nevsky center " Stockmann Group loses its last asset in Russia. At the same time, the Russian market will continue to operate stores opened by franchise — so in Moscow on the franchise retailer has five stores, the point of sale under the brand Stockmann is also in Yekaterinburg, Kazan and Krasnodar.

"Nevsky center" was opened in November 2010, the total area of the center is 46 thousand square meters.However, at the end of 2015 Stockmann announced the sale of all its Department stores in Russia. The key contender for the company's last asset in St. Petersburg was Boris mints ' O1 Group. In 2017, O1 entered into negotiations with Sberbank on granting a loan for the purchase, but later the purchase of the shopping center fell through.

Czech PPF Real Estate since 2016 expressed interest in buying the "Nevsky center". After both O1 and the American Morgan Stanley Fund refused the deal (Vedomosti sources claimed that in this case the reason for the refusal was the us sanctions), PPF Real Estate remained the most promising buyer of the asset. The Czech company is already the owner of assets in Russia: for example, together with the American Hines, it acquired in April from the American Heitman Foundation a business center with an area of 33 thousand square meters in the Moscow metropolis complex. The projects of the Czech company also include the Comcity business Park (780,000 sq.m.) on the Kiev highway and the Yuzhnye vrata warehouse complex.