"Nafta Moscow" is crowdfunding for the completion of the Eurasia Tower. The financing for the skyscraper's construction can be provided by VTB.

Bank VTB may receive another skyscraper in Moscow City as collateral. As it became known to Kommersant, the owner of Eurasia Tower, Nafta Moscow, owned by Suleyman Kerimov, is negotiating with the state bank to obtain a loan of $300 million for the completion of the tower. Together with Sberbank, VTB is the main creditor of Moscow City developers: the total amount of financing provided by them exceeds $1.3 billion.

An investment banker familiar with the situation told Kommersant that the owners of Eurasia Tower (75% owned by Nafta Moscow, the rest by MCG Pavel Fuks) are negotiating with VTB for a loan to complete the tower. "The parties are discussing a loan of $300 million, the terms are currently being agreed upon," the source explained. A source close to VTB confirmed this information.

Nafta Moscow and VTB declined to comment. A representative of Pavel Fuks insists that MCG is not in negotiations with VTB.

Pavel Fuks started construction of the Eurasia Tower skyscraper on plot N12 with an area of 207,000 square meters in partnership with the owner of IPG "Eurasia," Mukhtar Abliazov, back in 2004. In 2008, the developers found their first creditor - Sberbank opened a line of credit for 12.5 billion rubles. About 5 billion rubles were withdrawn from it. 50% of the tower became collateral for the loan. At the end of 2009, Mr. Fuks became the sole owner of the project, buying out Mukhtar Abliazov's stake (he owned half) for $50 million. Construction of the tower was frozen during the crisis, and in 2011 Pavel Fuks, according to his own admission, defaulted on loan payments, after which Sberbank went to court demanding the collection of 5.018 billion rubles from ZAO "Techinvest" (the developer of Eurasia Tower). At the end of 2011, Nafta Moscow bought the rights to the loan claim from Sberbank and began negotiations to acquire Eurasia Tower. In the spring of 2012, Suleyman Kerimov's company received 75% of ZAO "Techinvest."

Construction of Eurasia Tower was frozen at the 50th floor. In the spring of this year, a representative of OJSC City (managing the Moscow International Business Center project) told Kommersant that work on the facility had resumed. According to Ekaterina Rumyantseva, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Kalinka Realty, it will take about $350 million to complete the tower. Taking into account the cost of office space and apartments in Moscow City, the completed tower could be worth about $1 billion, according to Klavdia Chistova, Head of the Office Real Estate Market Research Department at CBRE.

VTB and Sberbank are the main creditors of projects in Moscow City. The total amount of loans issued by state banks is at least $1.3 billion. For example, MCG VTB provided $231.3 million for the construction of Imperia Tower (280,000 sq. m), with 80% of the project being pledged as collateral for one of the tranches. Among other borrowers from VTB, who are building in Moscow City, is "Gals-Development" (a state bank and the main shareholder of the company), which is constructing a terminal complex on plot N11 (228,000 sq. m). The developer owns 51% of the project, also pledged to VTB. AFI Development by Lev Levayev borrowed around $300 million from VTB for the construction of the AFI Mall shopping center (330,000 sq. m; the loan was repaid in June of this year). The unsold part of the "Vostok" tower of the "Federation" complex (424,000 sq. m), which is being completed by Potok (formerly Mirax) owned by Sergey Polonsky, is pledged as collateral for Sberbank's $373 million loan. Earlier, Sberbank sold areas in the "City of Capitals" (developer Capital Group), which were transferred to it as collateral for a $400 million loan.

Among other creditors of Moscow City are Alfa-Bank (provided $240 million for the construction of the "Federation" tower) and Gazprombank (financing the "Snegiri Development" project on plot N2-3, the amount is not disclosed). The company "Kievskaia Ploshchad" by God Nisanov and Zarakh Iliev plans to attract a loan for construction in the Moscow International Business Center from "Eurocredit" bank (315,000 sq. m). Some developers have built or are building using their own funds: "Naberezhnaya Tower" (Enka), multifunctional complex ("Tashir" and "Soglasie"), and the concert hall by Mikhail Prokhorov.

Kalinka Realty

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