FM Logistic is selling the warehouse complex Central Properties in Dmitrov for more than 3 billion rubles.

The French logistics operator FM Logistic sells for more than 3 billion rubles. another warehouse complex in Dmitrov near Moscow Central Properties. This company has already consolidated more than half of the facilities owned by FM Logistic in Russia. The sale of logoparks does not mean that the operator is curtailing business in the country: it will remain their tenant on a long-term basis. Such transactions, according to experts, allow the former owners of real estate to release a significant part of the funds, while retaining the area.

“Kommersant” got acquainted with the document, where the subcommittee of the government commission on foreign investment control approved the structure of Central Properties Sergei Yegorov and Denis Stepanov – the closed-end investment fund Parus-proektny 7 – to purchase the property of Bati Losino LLC. This company is owned by the French logistics operator FM Logistic and has a 120,000-sqm logo park on its balance sheet. m in Dmitrov near Moscow. The deal was confirmed by a Kommersant source close to the buyer. Central Properties and NF Group (deal consultant) declined to comment. FM Logistic did not respond to Kommersant’s request.

The amount of the transaction between Central Properties and FM Logistic is 3.12 billion rubles, of which the seller must send at least 2.2 billion rubles. to repay a loan at Sberbank, follows from the document of the subcommittee. FM Logistic, which has not announced its withdrawal from the Russian market, will remain the tenant of the facility in Dmitrov. The asset will go to the buyer at a price much lower than the market price: a year and a half ago, experts estimated the logopark in Dmitrov at 4.2-4.5 billion rubles. Director of Ricci | Warehouses” Dmitry Gerastovsky believes that in order to reach a compromise between the buyer and the seller due to a decrease in market value, FM Logistic can rent space at a low rate for a long time.

The sale-leaseback deal (sale by the owner of his property in exchange for its long-term lease) for FM Logistic will allow not only to retain space, but also to release capital for other areas of activity, Anton Alyabyev, senior director of the CORE.XP warehouse and industrial real estate department, believes. This is an effective way to replace bank loans for business development, agrees Denis Platov, director of the capital markets department at Nikoliers.

Last year, FM Logistic also sold to Central Properties two properties in Chekhov and Stupino, near Moscow, with a total area of ​​more than 250 thousand square meters. m, remaining the tenant of these facilities. The purchase of a warehouse in Dmitrov is a continuation of a package deal, Denis Platov believes. After its closure, more than 64% of the FM Logistic portfolio will be consolidated with the buyer.

In Russia, the operator occupies several warehouse complexes with a total area of ​​816 thousand square meters. m, of which only a part is owned by him. A Kommersant source on the market knows that the operator now retains logo parks in Dolgoprudny (68 thousand sq. M.), Tolbino (38 thousand sq. M.), Noginsk (63 thousand sq. M.) and in Rostov-on – Don (36 thousand sq. m.).

Central Properties became interested in an object in Dmitrov back in 2021, but the parties failed to agree on the terms. Later, VTB Capital was interested in the logopark, but this deal did not take place either.

Against the backdrop of the withdrawal of Western companies from the Russian market, the volume of investment in commercial real estate in the country continues to break records. In January-June 2023, the indicator amounted to 242 billion rubles, which exceeded the result for the whole of 2022, calculated in Nikoliers. At the same time, facilities in the warehouse segment accounted for only 15% of transactions totaling RUB 35 billion.

Daria Andrianova