After many years of struggle, a consortium of state-owned Oschadbank (80%) and Ukreximbank (20%) has acquired ownership rights to the Gulliver retail and office complex (Gulliver Trade and Office Complex) in Kyiv, one of the largest and most expensive trade and office complexes in Ukraine, according to a statement released on Saturday by the coordinator of the Oschadbank consortium.
“After years of struggle, the state-owned Oschadbank and our Ukreximbank have obtained ownership of the Gulliver shopping and entertainment center in Kiev as repayment for the debts of its beneficiary. This is the result of the work of teams from both banks, the state, and legal advisors,” wrote Alexander Bevz, a member of Ukreximbank’s supervisory board, on Facebook.
The bank’s statement notes that TOK Gulliver served as collateral for the loan, and the foreclosure procedure was initiated due to the failure of Tri O LLC, the debtor who owned TOK Gulliver, to fulfill its obligations under the loan agreement.
Oschadbank supervisory board member Roza Tapanova noted that privatization of this asset is not possible.
“Management and sale,” she described the possible options under Bevz’s post.
In turn, according to Oschadbank, the consortium is offering all tenants of TOK Gulliver to contact Oschadbank’s legal advisor Sayenko Kharenko to re-register their contractual relationships and report that there are no legal grounds for making rent payments to the previous owner.
TOK Gulliver in the Pechersky district of the capital was opened in 2013. Its area is 151,800 square meters. The construction of Gulliver was mainly financed by Oschadbank, which provided LLC “Tri O” with a $460 million loan. The debt restructuring procedure under the loan agreement with a mortgage on TOK Gulliver in the amount of UAH 18 billion 176.9 million was completed in 2020.
TOK Gulliver was transferred to the management of the National Agency of Ukraine for the Identification, Search, and Management of Assets Derived from Corruption and Other Crimes (ARMA) by a decision of the Shevchenkivskyi District Court of Kyiv dated June 3, 2024, and the Kyiv Court of Appeal dated June 25, 2024, at the request of the Office of the Prosecutor General as part of a criminal investigation by the Economic Security Bureau (ESB) into the possible evasion of nearly UAH 146 million in taxes by TOK’s management. The BEB issued a corresponding suspicion to the director of Gulliver in May 2023.
ARMA twice announced a competition for the management of TOK Gulliver, but rejected the applications of the candidates due to non-compliance with the tender offer.
As noted by ARMA head Elena Duma, the market value of the property is UAH 7.6 billion according to an assessment conducted by an independent appraiser selected on a competitive basis, and the minimum amount of expected income was more than UAH 17 million per month.
