Norwegian fund Storm Real Estate, which invests in Russian real estate, may become a public company.
Depending on the economic conditions over the next 12 months, the fund may list on Oslo's stock exchange, the company said in its first quarter report. The company is giving no details of the deal.
Storm Real Estate was founded in November 2008 (before this, it was called Eastern Property and E-Star Property) to invest in Russian real estate. It is managed by Storm Capital Management.
Eastern Property planned to raise about $350 million to acquire commercial real estate in Moscow and St. Petersburg, promising specifically to purchase Silver Tower (135,000 square meters) in Moskva-City, business center Hermitage Plaza (31,600 square meters) near the Mayakovskaya metro station and a warehouse complex (61,000 square meters) on Simferopolskoye Shosse.
So far, Storm Real Estate has raised about $90 million, and currently owns business centers Gas Field (16,000 square meters) on Ulitsa Obrucheva in Moscow and Grifon (7,000 square meters) in St. Petersburg.
"A listing would allow [the fund] to attract new investors and, accordingly, resources to develop the company. Besides, it will give it the opportunity to determine its capitalization," said Artyom Tsogoyev, managing partner at Moscow Central Real Estate Exchange.
Demand for the developer's stock, including for investors in Russia, is currently modest, said Ivan Manayenko, a department head at Veles Capital. Thus, he did not rule out that Storm Real Estate would carry out the listing for a specific investor who demonstrates the necessary requirements.