VEB.RF may sell a hotel in Zavidovo

The structures of the owner of the Agranta group, Sergei Bachin, expect to consolidate 100% of the hotel complex in the Zavidovo resort area on the border of the Moscow region and the Tver region. The businessman intends to buy out 40%, transferred earlier under the amicable agreement to the creditor of the project – VEB.RF. Consolidation of the hotel may be part of a more complex deal concluded on the eve of the state corporation lending to other projects of the businessman in Sochi and Kamchatka.

Zavidovo Development LLC applied to the Federal Antimonopoly Service with a request to acquire a 40% stake in Zavidovo Plaza LLC, the agency said in a statement. Zavidovo Plaza owns the Radisson Resort-Zavidovo hotel complex in the resort of the same name on the border of the Moscow and Tver regions.

According to Kartoteka.ru, now Zavidovo Development controls 60% in this company. The remaining 40%, which the company expects to buy out, are on the balance sheet of VEB.RF. The state corporation explained that the asset development strategy is still being worked out and now the sale of the asset to the investor is not planned.

Zavidovo Development is controlled by the structures of the founder of the Agranta group, Sergei Bachin. The representative of the businessman also did not promptly answer Kommersant’s questions.

The Zavidovo resort, located on 2.5 thousand hectares, has been developed by Sergey Bachin since 2012. The Radisson Resort-Zavidovo has 239 rooms and is rated five stars. The complex also includes 200 apartments.

Stanislav Ivashkevich, managing partner of Ivashkevich Hospitality, points out that the project has a number of design flaws, but despite them, the hotel is one of the most popular country hotels in the Moscow region.

On the open market, according to the expert, its cost could be calculated on the basis of $250,000 per room. In this case, the amount of the entire transaction could be $109.8 million (8.9 billion rubles). According to Mr. Ivashkevich, the demand for the object in case of sale would be high.

The construction of the Radisson Resort—Zavidovo was carried out with borrowed funds from VEB.RF: in 2013, the state corporation opened a $60 million credit line for Zavidovo Plaza. by 3.37 billion rubles. The proceedings in the case were terminated in 2017 as a result of a settlement agreement. Then VEB.RF received 40% in Zavidovo Plaza (see Kommersant dated July 31, 2017).

For VEB.RF, Zavidovo Plaza is a non-core asset and it makes no sense to keep it on the balance sheet, says Yury Fedyukin, managing partner of Enterprise Legal Solutions. The expert suggests that the repurchase of 40% of the company was originally planned in the process of concluding a settlement agreement, and the share acted as a guarantee for the fulfillment of obligations.

Nevertheless, Mr. Fedyukin calls such a scheme non-standard, not excluding that now the debt will be secured using more traditional instruments – for example, a pledge or guarantee of the company’s owners. AB A-PRO partner Ekaterina Makeeva does not rule out that the buyout of 40% is part of a more complex deal.

Kommersant’s interlocutor in the tourism market admits that the transfer of a stake in the hotel in Zavidovo back to Mr. Bachin can be carried out by VEB.RF as part of a debt restructuring or an effort to improve the investor’s financial situation before opening new credit lines. The businessman, together with Vladimir Potanin’s Interros, is developing the Rosa Khutor resort in Krasnaya Polyana in the Sochi mountain cluster, its construction was also financed by VEB.RF.

In the same area, it is planned to implement the Vasta Discovery project, the cost of which was previously estimated at 80 billion rubles. VEB.RF also planned to finance the project. In Kamchatka, the structures of Mr. Bachin are engaged in the implementation of another large-scale project – the Three Volcanoes Park, which is now at the design stage.

Alexandra Mertsalova, Anatoly Kostyrev