Raven Russia buys 50% stake in Kiev development

Raven Russia, the AIM-listed property investor specialising in commercial real estate in Russia, has acquired a 50% stake in an industrial development project in Kiev for an undisclosed sum. The deal is Raven Russia's first project in Ukraine. The company's partner in the joint venture is the closed-end fund Asnova Holding, which last year sold a major stake in its local health and beauty retail business to global retail and manufacturing company A. S. Watson.

The 19-hectare Kiev site is situated near the main Kiev-Odessa highway 25 km outside the city and will accommodate a warehouse and logistics complex which, when completed, will cover some 100,000 m2, Raven said. Asnova has a substantial stake in Ukrainian logistics company Komora-S, which has agreed to pre-let around 40,000 m² for a term of seven years. The end value of the project, once built and let, is put at almost EUR 68.7 mln. It should be up and running by the end of 2009.

Raven Russia Limited was established in July 2005. Following its second share offering in March 2006, it now has a share capital of around EUR 563 mln. The company has so far committed a total of over EUR 1.37 bn to projects, some EUR 412 mln to logistics properties in Moscow and St Petersburg.