18 Nov 2022 09:18

Kazan developer G-Group pulls out of deal to buy Russian business of Sweden's Bonava

KAZAN. Nov 18 (Interfax) - G-Group, a residential and commercial real estate developer based in Kazan, announced on Thursday that it is pulling out of a deal to acquire the Russian subsidiaries of Swedish developer Bonava for 98 million euros, or the equivalent of SEK1.1 billion.

"Taking into account the dynamism of the external environment, G-Group has decided to break off the preliminary agreement and turn its resources to other projects," G-Group said on its Telegram channel.

"The final completion of the transaction to acquire Bonava's Russian assets, concluded on October 7, could take place only on the condition of its approval by the [Federal Antimonopoly Service] and the government commission of the RF. This process requires a significant amount of time and the agreement specified that the parties will need up to six months to close the transaction," the statement said.

G-Group said it will continue to carry out its own projects in St. Petersburg and other regions where it has a presence, and it is actively looking for attractive assets.

Bonava announced the sale of its Russian subsidiaries to G-Group for 98 million euros on October 10. At the time Bonava had about 16 hectares of land in various parts of St. Petersburg, as well as a project in Vsevolozhsk, Leningrad Region, construction of which will be completed in 2023. About 230,000 square meters of housing can be built on these properties.

G-Group acquired two properties in Yekaterinburg from local builder Prinzip for 2.8 billion rubles at the end of October.

G-Group, founded in 1996, has two main brands: Unistroy for residential real estate and UD Group for commercial real estate. Unistroy was ranked 68th by amount of current residential construction in Russia as of November 1, 2022, according to the Unified Registry of Developers. The group primarily operates in Kazan, as well as St. Petersburg, Togliatti and Ufa. Yekaterinburg is a new market for the developer.

G-Group was controlled by Rashit and Faridya Gilfanov, as well as their sons Ilfat and Albert as of June 30, 2022, the group reported in its consolidated financial statements.

G-Group has two outstanding issues of exchange-traded bonds totalling 3.9 billion rubles that were registered in January 2020 and August 2021.