Gutseriev sells his development portfolio

The Mospromstroy project of Mikhail Gutseriev may depart UDevelopment.
Regional developers are building up their portfolios in the Moscow market. So, the Ural UDevelopment can build up a section of the Mechanical Engineering Design Bureau near the Volgogradsky Prospekt metro station, which was planned to be developed by Mikhail Gutseriev's Mospromstroy. Although the site is located close to the center, competition can create difficulties.

The fact that the Yekaterinburg UDevelopment can build up a plot on Sosinskaya Street in Moscow became known from the Unified State Register of Legal Entities. In July, Aleksandra Anisimkov's Panoramainvest company became the owner of 60% of Specialized Developer Sosinskaya 43 LLC. Its structures are also listed among the founders and in other UDevelopment projects. Another 40% of the LLC is controlled by the owner of the site - the Mechanical Engineering Design Bureau. In UDevelopment, information about the new project was neither confirmed nor denied.

The developer acquired his first project in Moscow in 2018 (see Kommersant dated August 17, 2018). The company announced the construction of a residential complex with an area of ​​more than 10 thousand square meters. m on Khavskaya street, 24, near the Shabolovskaya metro station. In April 2019, the Veles Trust, a closed-end mutual fund manager, announced the purchase of all the premises in this complex. The company clarified that before the project is put into operation, it will sell apartments in it only to legal entities in order to bypass the law on shared construction.

On the UDevelopment website, the volume of its portfolio is estimated at more than 350 thousand square meters. m of real estate in Yekaterinburg, including "one of the first high-rise business class residential complexes" Antares "" and the complex of mansions "Chosen" on the embankment in the city center. Alexander Anisimkov has not only a development business. According to the Unified State Register of Legal Entities, he owns the Yekaterinburg IT-integrator Unit, and the Ural media wrote that he also owned a franchise of the Subway snack chain in the city.

The complex on Sosinskaya Street before UDevelopment was going to be implemented by Mospromstroy (controlled by the Safmar group of Mikhail Gutseriev).

Information about the object in 2016 was on the company's website. In 2014, the urban planning commission approved the implementation on a plot of about 1 hectare of 25 thousand square meters. m of real estate, including parking and a kindergarten. Colliers International partner Vladimir Sergunin estimates the volume of investments in construction at RUB 1.5 billion, and the developer's potential revenue at RUB 3.2–3.5 billion.

Safmar declined to comment. According to one of Kommersant's interlocutors in the real estate market, Mospromstroy negotiated with the owner of the land plot to carry out general contracting works, that is, there was no talk of selling the land. Another source of Kommersant adds that Mospromstroy has been trying to optimize its assets over the past two or three years and has already sold about 10 of its 30 plots. These are mainly former production areas that do not promise high profitability, he points out. Other structures of Mr. Gutseriev are also considering withdrawal from part of their assets, the source said, for example, negotiations were underway to sell the Vympel class B business center in the north of Moscow.

Kommersant's interlocutors associate the desire of the Safmar structures to get out of complex projects not only with the logic of business processes, but also with media reports in December 2019 about searches in the companies of the Gutseriev family, as well as with financial difficulties.

In the fall of 2019, Forbes estimated the total debt of companies associated with Mikhail Gutseriev at 1 trillion rubles. Safmar denied this.

Olga Shirokova, director of the consulting and analytics department at Knight Frank, believes that although the project on Sosinskaya Street will be located not far from the city center, difficulties can be caused by high competition: a large complex from MR Group is being implemented in the immediate vicinity, and a large-scale renovation of the Kuzminki district is also planned. But it is possible that UDevelopment will be able to interest buyers at least with a concept: the experience of projects already being implemented by regional developers shows that they are able to offer the market new unusual solutions, says the consultant.