The bankrupt confectionery factory “Bogatyr” will turn into a warehouse

The bankrupt confectionery factory Bogatyr, founded in Zelenograd in the 1990s by the Estonian Kalev, has found a new owner. Asset for 1.2 billion rubles. buy out Elma Group structures. Most likely, production there will not resume and a warehouse complex will appear on the site of the factory, given the specialization of the new owner of the facility. But to reconstruct it, experts warn, it will require approximately the same amount that the buyer paid as part of the deal.

The management company TEKS, part of the Elma Group, became the winner of the auction for the sale of the property of the bankrupt Marlin LLC, as follows from the information published on October 12 in the bankruptcy register. The company offered 1.2 billion rubles for the asset. The deal will include the property of the Bogatyr confectionery factory in Zelenograd, including 4.5 hectares of land and a complex of buildings with a total area of ​​36 thousand square meters. m. Trust Bank, which pledged the property, declined to comment. Elma Group confirmed that they are buying the company.

“Bogatyr” with a projected annual capacity of 27 thousand tons of sweets and confectionery bars was founded in the mid-1990s by Vladimir Gamuletsky and the Estonian Kalev. In 2014, the company had difficulties servicing debts, including to Rost Bank, and in 2018 it was closed. In 2019, Trust, to which Rost Bank’s obligations were transferred, filed for bankruptcy of the factory. At that time, the amount of debt was 319.4 million rubles. Now the total debt is 2.1 billion rubles.

The sales price of Bogatyr turned out to be unattractive for confectionery manufacturers, notes managing partner of Walnut Capital Artem Motorny. According to his calculations, excluding warehouse space, the enterprise could be interesting if the cost was reduced to 400–450 million rubles. According to the expert, the main part of the equipment, with the exception of the nougat production line, given the current market conditions, is not of great interest to industry companies.

One of the few options for using the property is renting it out for warehouses. The former factory is located inside the Central Ring Road, which means there will be significant demand from logistics operators and retailers, especially now, in the context of a shortage of such space, says Nikolai Goryunov, director of the capital markets and investment department at IBC Real Estate.

According to CMWP, there are currently no free warehouses in Zelenograd, and in general in Moscow and the Moscow region, vacancy in the segment does not exceed 0.8%. At the same time, according to IBC Real Estate estimates, the volume of demand for such areas in January-September 2023 reached 2.2 million sq. m. m.

But even with such a lack of warehouse infrastructure, large tenants are unlikely to want to occupy space in an outdated facility. Therefore, the new owner of Bogatyr will have to carry out a serious reconstruction of it, which will require 1–1.5 billion rubles, says real estate management expert Pavel Lyulin. ILM partner Andrey Lukashev believes that Elma Group will sell equipment to a specialized player or rent out space to a confectionery manufacturer.

Daria Andrianova, Anatoly Kostyrev