Oleg Deripaska's Glavstroi may have reached a deal with Soyuz bank on the repayment of its $200 million debt.
The construction company is giving the bank 34.5 hectares of land near Borovskoye Shosse, where it had planned to build 460,000 square meters of housing.
The Federal Anti-Monopoly Service has allowed the Deposit Insurance Agency and Glavstroi to purchase Stroikomplex Govorovo, which owns 34.5 hectares between Borovskoye Shosse and the Moscow Ring Road, RIA-Novosti cited the anti-monopoly service as saying. Earlier, Glavstroi had planned to build a 460,000 square meter housing subdevelopment on the location, but the project was frozen.
Glavstroi spokesman Vitaly Korolyov said the company had consolidated 100 percent of Govorovo — which earlier was on the balance sheet of affiliated companies — and now will transfer it to Soyuz as repayment for part of its debt. In total, the builder owes the bank 5.7 billion rubles ($195 million), but Korolyov wouldn't say which part of the loan the land would go toward.
Soyuz plans to use the land to pay off its debt to the Deposit Insurance Agency, which has been reorganizing the company since it took over at the end of 2008 (the bank owes the agency 27 billion rubles), said a source close to one side of the deal. Before the financial crisis, the bank was owned by Deripaska, but after the agency began its reorganization, control was transferred to affiliates of Mezhregiongaz. In March, Deripaska's Ingosstrakh took control of the bank through an additional share issue.
A spokesperson for the Deposit Insurance Agency was not able to provide comment in time for this article.
The Govorovo project is valued at $150 million to $190 million, said Artyom Tsogoyev, a managing partner at the Moscow Central Real Estate Exchange.
Glavstroi's total debt is about 36 billion rubles ($1.2 billion), according to data from the company.
Several of Glavstroi's subsidiaries already have been pushed into bankruptcy: Alfa Bank filed a bankruptcy suit against Glavmosstroi, but the builder was saved when City Hall's Bank of Moscow gave it a 2.1 billion ruble loan.
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