Oleg Tinkov is afraid to go into the "Water Area"

This is the third time Oleg Tinkov has broken a deal with development partners to transfer the TCS Group headquarters to the Aquatoria business center under construction. This was told by the co-owner of the project Kirill Pisarev. The TCS Group claims to have entered and exited the deal only once.
21.08.2019
Forbes
Origin source
On Tuesday, August 20, TCS Group announced that it would not move to the Aquatoria business center. The company explained that they are exploring more attractive headquarters location options. The move of Oleg Tinkov’s group F 47 to “Aquatoria” was to become the largest deal in the capital's office rental market. Forbes found out how Tinkov’s company refused the deal three times.

Deal in three steps

The company began discussing the transfer of the TCS Group headquarters to Leningradskoye Shosse a year and a half ago. Then the team of Oleg Tinkov came up with the idea of ​​Tinkov City - a multifunctional office with a residential tower for employees. The incarnation was not long in coming. A broker acting in the interests of TCS Group (Vedomosti wrote that TCS Group advises S.A. Ricci), called the ex-owner of the PIK group and co-owner of Wainbridge development company Kirill Pisarev and offered to sell the plot on Leningradskoye Shosse. At the same time, Wainbridge itself proposed to engage in the development of the site. The project cost was to amount to 18 billion rubles, excluding the cost of land, said Pisarev in an interview with Forbes.

According to Pisarev, the first time the deal fell through in the summer of 2018: a few days before it, Tinkov announced the rejection of the project, explaining his decision by the fact that such a project would be difficult to implement. Having been refused, the developer decided to build the “Water Area” project on the site, consisting of two towers - residential and office - with a total area of ​​150,000 square meters. m

Three months after the failure of the transaction, the same broker again went to Wainbridge. Pisarev met with Tinkov, who said that they were very attracted to this location, but they only wanted to buy an office tower. Pisarev does not name the cost of the tower, but, according to Colliers International partner Stanislav Bibik, in its final form it can cost about 15 billion rubles. “Again three months of negotiations, we agreed on all financial terms of the transaction. Moreover, two days before the signing of the contract, they shook hands again, ”Pisarev recalls. However, according to him, TCS Group again backtracked at the last moment - "in connection with the difficult political situation in the country." It was February 2019.

In April, the situation repeated itself: a broker representing the interests of TCS Group came to Wainbridge again and said that Tinkov could not find the best object, the construction of which will be completed in 2022. But this time it was not about buying a building, but only about a long-term lease.

Earlier, the newspaper Vedomosti wrote that out of 75,000 square meters. m of the office part of the "Water Area" TCS Group wants to rent 68,000 sq. m. m. The cost of such a lease can vary from 1.3 to 1.7 billion rubles per year, says Sayan Tsyrenov, director of practice for real estate transaction support at PwC in Russia.
It was assumed that the office project should be of the “built to suit” type - for the needs and requirements of the client, but with an obligation to conclude a lease agreement for 10 years in advance. Tinkov himself wanted the signing of an agreement with a partner at the SPIEF-2019 in June, says the Forbes interlocutor, who is familiar with the course of the transaction. Then the partners shook hands already in the presence of journalists. Oleg Tinkov joked: “Now I’m not going anywhere from you,” Pisarev recalls.

Almost two months later, Wainbridge prepared the documents for the deal on August 6th. But the day before, Pisarev called the Tinkoff Bank’s management Oliver Hughes and said that the bank was not ready to give guarantees for the developer to receive financing for the construction. It was these guarantees that were the key condition for the deal, which eventually fell through for the third time.

“It just didn't work out”

“It just didn’t work out,” Oliver Hughes succinctly explained the reason for the failure of the agreements during the telephone conference. “We announced the deal once and left it once,” the bank’s press service said in response to a Forbes question about why TCS Group’s relocation agreement was broken for the third time. Two Forbes interlocutors related to the deal said it really broke down three times. And one of them added that TCS Group several times changed its status as a partner - from owner to tenant.

“Unfortunately, this deal has not gone further. We are now looking for other options - all realtors are aware of this and are bombing us with different offers, so we have options. In the coming months, we can decide on a new home for Tinkoff, ”said Hughes. The group does not have a strict deadline, but there is a desire to enter the new building by 2022, the head of the bank said.

Risks to Parties

The deal between Wainbridge and TCS Group could be the largest in the real estate market in modern history, notes Tsyrenov from PwC. A break with TCS Group may delay the implementation of the office part of the project, since it will be difficult to find a tenant on such large areas, he said.

The location of the "Water Area" is not the easiest in terms of using the building as an office - now there are more competitive offers in the area of ​​the Third Transport Ring and next to the metro, adds Stanislav Bibik.

“On the other hand, a project can be attractive in price or have a unique infrastructure. It could be used as an apartment, and this would most likely be more profitable than office space, ”he said. In turn, Pisarev has no doubt that he will be able to find another partner - this year the company refused to cooperate with several large customers and is now going to restore this relationship. “But we spent a lot of time,” he laments.

As for the TCS Group, it will also be quite difficult for him to find a new partner for the office - this is an IT company and it needs certain energy capacities that not every office can provide, Tsyrenov says.

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