The Asset Recovery and Management Agency (ARMA) has valued the Gulliver shopping center (Tri O LLC, Kyiv) at UAH 7.6 billion and is preparing a tender to select a manager, the ARMA press service reports. The press release specifies that the appraiser, Business Consulting PE, selected in a transparent tender, provided the National Agency with an appraisal report and a review of the report dated October 9, 2024.
According to the appraisal, the value of the Gulliver shopping center is UAH 7.6 billion. After processing all the information and preparing the tender documents, ARMA will announce a tender to select a facility manager. The Gulliver Multifunctional Complex (MFC) was transferred to ARMA by the decision of the Shevchenkivskyi District Court of Kyiv on June 3, 2024 and the Kyiv Court of Appeal on June 25, 2024.
Earlier it was reported that on June 3 this year, the Shevchenkivskyi District Court of Kyiv granted the request of the Prosecutor General’s Office to transfer Gulliver to the management of ARMA. The prosecutor’s motion concerned only the transfer of property to ARMA for management, not for sale. In addition, the court ordered ARMA to carry out periodic (at least once a month) checks on the effectiveness of the asset management.
The asset owner announced its intention to appeal the decision to the Court of Appeal. The Prosecutor General’s Office filed the motion as part of a criminal investigation by the Bureau of Economic Security (BES) into possible tax evasion by IFC’s management of almost UAH 146 million. The BES issued the relevant suspicion to IFC Director Gulliver in May 2023. On April 9, 2024, the Kyiv Court of Appeal granted the prosecutor’s motion and decided to seize the property of Tri O LLC, including the Gulliver shopping and office center in the capital.
Earlier, the investigation of the program “Schemes” reported on the company’s financial obligations to state-owned Oschadbank and Ukreximbank in the amount of UAH 14 billion. It was alleged that the actual owner of IFC is the former owner of Mykhailivskyi Bank, Viktor Polishchuk. However, the state register lists Vyacheslav Ihnatenko as the ultimate beneficiary.
The IFC press service noted that Three O fulfills its obligations to Oschadbank and Ukreximbank to repay loans: in 2023, UAH 300 million was paid, and UAH 700 million is scheduled for repayment in 2024. The company believes that the withdrawal of Gulliver from the ownership and management of Three O’s could pose a threat to the fulfillment of obligations to banks.
Gulliver mixed-use development in the Pechersk district of Kyiv was opened in 2013. Its area is 151.8 thousand square meters. The construction of Gulliver was financed by Oschadbank, which provided a $460 million loan to Tri O LLC. The debt restructuring procedure under the loan agreement with the mortgage of the Gulliver shopping center in the amount of UAH 18 billion 176.9 million was completed in 2020.
