Sminex will take a walk through the Patriarchs

The developer bought an elite project in the center of Moscow

Alexander Chigirinsky's Snegiri development group, which began consolidating its real estate assets in Moscow back in the 1990s, began to get rid of them. The company sold the site near the Patriarch's Ponds in the center of the capital, where the city authorities allowed the construction of luxury housing, to Alexey Tulupov's Sminex-Inteco. However, experts warn that now the implementation of such a project can be risky due to a serious decline in demand for expensive real estate.

Snegiri sold Rublevo Business Park LLC, which has the company's office on its balance sheet, and 0.3 hectares under it in Bolshoy Palashevsky Lane near the Patriarchal Ponds to the owner of "Sminex-Inteko" Alexey Tulupov. This follows from the data of SPARK-Interfax, where changes in the composition of the founders appeared on April 17. Sminex-Inteco declined to comment. Snegiri did not respond to a request from Kommersant.

Snegiri was created in the early 1990s by businessman Alexander Chigirinsky. The company built in the center of Moscow — in particular, the residential complex "Garnet Palace", the office centers "Alexander House" on Yakimanka and "Balchug Plaza" near the Kremlin. The company was also a co-investor in the construction of the Evolution Tower skyscraper in Moscow City, which was sold in 2015 for an estimated $1 billion to Transneft.

Alexey Tulupov was a co-owner of Rosbuilding, and later founded Sminex. In 2022 , the company for 38 billion rubles . bought from the bank "Trust" GC "Inteco", founded by Elena Baturina. The revenue of Sminex, according to Forbes estimates, in 2021 amounted to 22.2 billion rubles. Inteco's revenue is 60.4 billion rubles, EBITDA is 21.7 billion rubles—

In 2020, Snegiri agreed to build a site in Bolshoy Palashevsky with elite housing with a total area of 12 thousand square meters. m. Then the company expected to complete the construction of the project in three to four years, the Vedomosti newspaper reported.

"Sminex-Inteco" could pay about 3.5–4 billion rubles for the site, according to Timur Ryvkin, director of the Nikoliers Land development Department.

Snegiri has been selling this territory on the market as an investment project since 2020, the founder of Kalinka Ekaterina Rumyantseva knows. Nevertheless, she continues, the current geopolitical situation partly served as a factor for the sale of the object: developers have the opportunity to enter projects with large discounts, as some of the owners of assets want to get out of them as soon as possible. In addition, they are reminded in CORE.XP, there are few building plots left in the center.

Konstantin Lebedev, Head of the Evaluation and Consulting Department of the Commonwealth Partnership, believes that for Sminex-Inteco, the new platform will help increase the company's revenue in a short time. "Inteco is a distressed asset that was sold with a lot of debt, and now Sminex needs to service it, including through the implementation of small liquid projects and capital turnover in a short time," he adds.

Earlier, experts estimated investments in the development of the territory in Bolshoy Palashevsky Lane at 1.8–2 billion rubles, and the proceeds from the sale of apartments in the complex at 5.5–6 billion rubles.

Now expenses and revenue can grow. According to Mr. Ryvkin's calculations, 3.5–4 billion rubles will need to be invested in the construction of the complex, and the income from the sale of housing in the complex may reach 12-13 billion rubles.

However, now it can be risky to start a development project in the elite segment. The decline in activity among buyers, which was observed throughout the past year, continues. According to NF Group estimates, in January—March of this year, no more than 140 apartments and apartments were sold in elite new buildings in Moscow, which is half as much year-on-year. Against this background, the volume of supply by the end of March increased by 90% year-on-year, to 2.1 thousand lots, and prices decreased by 9% year-on-year, to 1.46 million rubles per 1 sq. m, analysts said. "This is the biggest crisis in the luxury housing market, which has never happened before",— Ekaterina Rumyantseva notes. According to her forecasts, this year the decline in demand in the segment will continue.