| 2008-07-18 |
Published: The Kommersantú (“ú”) Newspaper |
Vice-Mayor of Moscow shall supervise the major construction project in Belarus
Vladimir Resin, First Vice-Mayor and Head of the Moscow Construction Complex, has headed the Supervisory Board of the Minsk-City, a company that managers a development project worth US$ 4.8 billion (construction of an area of 2.3 million sq. m). Mr. Resin’s involvement will allow Moscow co-investors of the Project to avoid possible conflicts with Minsk bureaucrats, his fellow-countryman.
Press-Service of ITERA International Group of Companies informed yesterday that Vladimir Resin headed the Supervisory Board of SOOO Minsk-City. This Company manages the construction of the namesake business center in the Byelorussian capital city. Igor Makarov, Chairman of the Board of Directors of ITERA, told "Ú" that Mr. Resin was to take care of the strategic development of the Minsk-City Project. Feodor Sarokvasha, a SU-155 (co-owner of the management company) representative, confirmed this information.
ITERA that has been supplying natural gas to Byelorussia in 1997-2006, made a presentation of the Minsk-City Project worth US$ 4.8 billion to President Alexander Lukashenko a year ago. The plan was to construct 1.5 million sq. m of residence, 550 thousand sq. m of offices and hotels, 200 thousand sq. m of shopping space by 2020. The Project will occupy 318 ha including a part of Minsk-1 airport. SU-155, a Moscow developer, has become ITERA’s partner within the Minsk Project a month ago (See "Ú" of June 24). SU-155, just like KUP Minsk City Real Estate Center, received a 15 per cent stake in SOOO Minsk-City, while ITERA retained its 70 per cent stake. As Valery Korotkov, First Vice-President of ITERA, had mentioned to "Ú" earlier, a number of large Russian banks and OJSC International Airport Vnukovo might join founders of the management company (OJSC Vnukovo-Invest is the principal shareholder).
ITERA Oil and Gas Company was established in 1992. The stake of 30.5 per cent belongs to Igor Makarov, the Board Chairman. The other larger shareholder is the Sun Group of India with a stake of about 26 per cent. The asset value as at the end of 2007 was Rub 29.9 billion. The Project Portfolio of Iterainvestsroi, its developer affiliate company, was over 5.7 million sq. m.
Mr. Makarov admitted the choice in favor of Vladimir Resin was not accidental: "The Moscow authorities have great experience of implementing large projects, such as MMDTs Moscow-City". (Mr. Resin is personally supervising construction of the Moscow-City Project.) A "Ú" source in the Metro Mayor's Office does not exclude a possibility that it was Mikhail Balakin, the principal co-owner of SU-155, who used to work for the Moscow construction complex until 2005, who asked Mr. Resin to head the Minsk-City Supervisory Board. "ITERA, unlike SU-155, had long ago found common language with the Byelorussian authorities", — says the "Ú" interlocutor. According to the source, Vladimir Resin who had been born in Minsk understood the Byelorussian market specificity and could help SU-155 solve administrative problems. The choice of Vladimir Resin as Head of the Minsk-City Supervisory Board was a political decision, — another "Ú" source close to the Moscow Government insisted. According to that source, the First Vice-Mayor of Moscow "made friends” with President Lukashenko, who personally insisted on Resin’s nomination.
Before Minsk-City, the Head of the Moscow Construction Complex was mainly involved with activities of Moscow companies where the city possessed "golden shares": Vladimir Resin chairs the Boards of Directors of Glavmosstroi, and Mospromstroimaterialy of Oleg Deripaska. He is also representative of the Mayor’s Office in the Supervisory Board of Mosingstroi which belongs to "À1" (an Alfa-Group company).
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