Leroy Merlin builds logoparks – Kommersant

French DIY retailer Leroy Merlin has decided to sell all its warehouse space in Russia by entering into a lease agreement with new owners. We are talking about 270 thousand square meters. m in the Moscow region with an estimated cost of up to 12 billion rubles. At least two companies are named among the applicants for these objects on the market – Central Properties and Ventall-Development. Preparations for the sale of warehouse infrastructure followed after the owner of the network decided to transfer the Russian business to the management of local top management. Managers will need funds from the sale of space in logoparks for the further development of Leroy Merlin in the Russian Federation after the refusal of the French side to allocate funding for these purposes.

Leroy Merlin can sell all of its logoparks in Russia, three sources told Kommersant in the real estate market. The retailer owns two facilities in the country – about 130 thousand square meters. m in the “South Gate” in Domodedovo and 140 thousand square meters. m in the complex “Bely Rast” in the Dmitrovsky district of the Moscow region. Leroy Merlin did not respond to Kommersant’s request.

According to two interlocutors of Kommersant, these assets are claimed by Central Properties and Ventall-Development, which previously bought out part of the space in the South Gate logopark from the Czech PPF Group. A Kommersant source close to Ventall-Development knows that the company made an offer to Leroy Merlin to buy out the retailer’s space in South Gate. Central Properties co-owner Sergei Egorov and Ventall-Development CEO Valery Zhukov declined to comment.

Information about the sale of warehouse infrastructure by Leroy Merlin appeared after retail announced in March 2023 that the Russian business had been transferred to local top management. Now this deal is under consideration by the regulators of the Russian Federation, then the French group Adeo, which owns the Leroy Merlin network, reported. The reason for this is the military conflict between Russia and Ukraine, which forced some Western brands to cede control to local management, while other networks completely sold Russian business.

Most likely, the transaction for the sale of warehouses by the retailer will take place in the sale & leaseback format, in which the former owner of the object remains its tenant, says one of Kommersant’s interlocutors. Finding another tenant for such large areas is now almost impossible, so the company will most likely continue to use this infrastructure, agrees Alexander Perfilyev, commercial director of Ghelamco. In this case, the area of ​​Leroy Merlin in two logoparks can be estimated at 11-12 billion rubles, Irina Ushakova, head of the consulting services platform of the investment and capital markets department CORE.XP, calculated. Herzen CEO Yaroslav Tua, on the contrary, believes that the new owner can get a 15% discount on a sale & leaseback deal.

The sale of the logoparks will allow Leroy Merlin to receive funds for the development of its business in the Russian Federation, says Stepan Shchedrov, Deputy Director for Key Accounts at Union Brokers. Just for these purposes, funding from the head structure of the retailer has practically ceased, one of Kommersant’s interlocutors knows. In addition, the demand for warehouses is at the next peak, so now is a favorable moment for the implementation of such facilities, Yaroslav Tua adds.

In 2022, there were many transactions in the warehouse segment due to the departure of foreign owners, but almost everyone who wanted to leave the Russian market has already done so, says Anastasia Kornevich, director of the warehouse property management department at Accent Capital. Therefore, in her opinion, this year there will be no “wide sale” of logoparks, and the value of assets has already begun to grow following rental rates. According to CMPW, in the first quarter of 2023, rates in logoparks increased by 4% year-on-year, to an average of RUB 6,000. for 1 sq. m.

Daria Andrianova