Krasnodar group Lepta Capital wants to move into Stone Towers in the north of Moscow

According to Kommersant, Lepta Capital, associated with KNGK-Group, the owner of an oil refinery in the Krasnodar Territory, is considering the possibility of acquiring about 14 thousand square meters. m in the Stone Towers business cluster in the north of Moscow. Experts expect that in 2024, the bulk of transactions in the office market will come from end users of business centers, while investors will reorient to other investment instruments due to high loan rates.

The fact that Lepta Capital is negotiating the purchase of about 14 thousand square meters. m in the Stone Towers business cluster in Bumazhny Proezd in northern Moscow, two sources in the real estate market told Kommersant. The seller of the asset will be the Novostal-M metallurgical holding, which bought this property a year and a half ago. The parties to the transaction did not respond to Kommersant’s request.

Lepta Capital manages real estate in Moscow, Moscow region and Krasnodar. According to its own data, the company’s portfolio includes more than 100 thousand sq. m. m of objects – in particular, space in the iCity tower in the Moscow City business center, in Ostankino Business Park and in Stone Towers, where if the deal is closed, the company will have additional space. The founder of Lepta Capital LLC, according to SPARK, is Marina Shamara, co-owner of KNGK-Group LLC, which is engaged in the design and construction of production facilities.

This group also includes the Ilsky Oil Refinery in the Krasnodar Territory. Revenue of LLC Ilsky Oil Refinery named after. A. A. Shamara” in 2022 amounted to 195 billion rubles, net profit – 2.9 billion rubles. The ultimate beneficiary of the holding is Yuri Shamara.

Novostal-M bought an office in Bumazhny Proezd from the developer Stone in 2022 for an estimated 5 billion rubles. In 2023, the company decided to sell the asset to free up funds for business development, asking RUB 6 billion for it. (See “Kommersant” dated September 5). The structures of LUKOIL shareholders Vagit Alekperov and Leonid Fedun applied for the object, but the deal fell through: the buyer was not satisfied with the price at the time, Kommersant’s interlocutors clarified. Since then, Novostal-M has been trying to find a new buyer.

The building is quite actively offered on the market, the asking price is 6.1 billion rubles, says Ekaterina Belova, head of the office space department at IBC Real Estate. She believes that selling space for this amount will not be easy, given that the facility is without finishing, which will require an additional 1–1.5 billion rubles. Director of Sales and Acquisitions Ricci | Offices” Dmitry Antonov estimates this asset at 7.5 billion rubles. in view of VAT.

In 2023, the Moscow office market saw a surge in the number of purchase and sale transactions. According to CORE.XP estimates, at the end of last year their volume doubled year-on-year, to 415 thousand sq. m. m, which is a record value for the segment. The drivers of demand were companies from the IT sector, which accounted for 29% of the total volume of transactions, government agencies and state-owned companies (24%), companies from the construction industry (13%), as well as private investors, the consultants specified.

Dmitry Antonov expects that “if the situation in macroeconomics and politics does not let us down,” then the office real estate segment this year can expect a repeat of the results of 2023 or indicators close to it. There are several fairly large transactions planned on the market. Thus, Russian Railways intends to buy space in the Moscow Towers business center under construction in Moscow City, and the Central Bank, as the Vedomosti newspaper previously wrote, will buy offices in the Slava complex. If these transactions take place, then the total volume for 2024 could approach 700 thousand sq. m. m, which will be an absolute record for the market, notes Ekaterina Belova. The main demand now comes from end users, Mr. Antonov believes, since with current high loan rates due to the key rate of 16%, investors are considering more profitable investment instruments than offices.

Daria Andrianova