Game studio Lesta Games bought an office in Moscow
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Lesta Games (games “World of Tanks”, “World of Ships”) acquired an office building with an area of 6 thousand square meters. m next to the Taganskaya metro station. Experts estimate the asset at 1.9–4 billion rubles. The company explains that having your own building will allow you to “reduce rental risks” and save money. Market participants believe that the office will allow Lesta Games to “gain a foothold in Moscow for strategic development.” Last year, the space in the Skylight business center was bought by the IT holding VK, which is developing the gaming direction.
The Lesta Games group of companies told Kommersant that it became the owner of an office building with a total area of 6 thousand square meters. m (4 thousand sq. m of offices) in Izvestkovy Lane near the Taganskaya metro station. A Kommersant source in the media industry estimates the transaction amount at 2–4 billion rubles. “Indicatively, the asset costs 1.9–2.2 billion rubles,” said Natalya Nikitina, head of the office real estate department at CMWP. Lesta Games is now renting part of a building in the Factoria business center in Moscow for office use with a usable area of just over 2 thousand square meters. m. The company also has branches in St. Petersburg and Minsk.
According to SPARK-Interfax, Lesta LLC includes two subsidiaries – Lesta Games Moscow LLC and Lesta Games Agency LLC. The revenue of Lesta LLC last year amounted to 4.5 billion rubles, net profit – 250 million rubles. At the end of 2022, the company’s revenue was at the level of 3.8 billion rubles. with a net profit of 365 million rubles.
The new office of Lesta Games belonged to Otkritie Bank (PJSC) until 2021, after which it passed to Pervy LLC (affiliated with family members of the founder of the Siberian retailer Maria-Ra, Alexander Rakshin), follows from the Rosreestr extract. It also says that the deal with Lesta Games Agency LLC was closed on January 22.
Pervy LLC itself actively invests in the real estate market. So, last year the company became the owner of the former Otkritie Bank building – a mansion on Zhivarevy Lane (2,785 sq. m) – and a business center on Arbat (6,282 sq. m). The latter was listed on the balance sheet of Telecom-5, a joint structure of Rostelecom and Sberbank Investments, Vedomosti reported. In December 2023, the organization closed the deal to acquire the Salaris shopping and entertainment center (310 thousand sq. m.) from PIK Group shareholder Sergei Gordeev.
Last year, a number of companies and government agencies acquired ownership of offices. Thus, the Moscow City Hall bought about 50 thousand square meters. m in the iCity complex under construction next to Moscow City, IT holding VK – 30 thousand sq. m. m in the Skylight business center, developer of information and automated systems “RusBITech” – 22.25 thousand sq. m in Ostankino Business Park, and Rosselkhozbank – 13.4 thousand sq. m. m in the Oko II business center in Moscow City.
Investors were also actively interested in assets in the office real estate segment. According to Ricci estimates, in 2023 the total volume of investments in office real estate increased by 24%, to 119.8 billion rubles. This is a record figure over the past ten years, consultants note.
For gaming companies, owning a building is “a rather rare story,” admits the head of the Moscow division of Lesta Games, Gauhar Aldiyarova: “But we believe that over a long planning horizon it will justify itself.” According to the top manager, payments for maintaining the building as a property are significantly lower than for renting comparable office space. In addition, the property “is much more reliable – you no longer have to worry that the landlord will suddenly change the terms of the contract for the worse,” Ms. Aldiyarova emphasizes.
The company’s expenses will not increase, they will even decrease by the cost of previously rented property, agrees the head of the Video Game Industry Development Organization Vasily Ovchinnikov: “And if some are re-rented to other studios, the company will also recoup the maintenance costs.” He noted that the representative office and separate legal entity of Lesta Games in Moscow operated even before the sanctions and the separation of the company from Wargaming (former owner): “The acquisition of real estate lays the foundation for the strategic development of the studio.”
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