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.
UTG consulting company (Kyiv) from May 1, 2019 moved from the Parus business center to a new office located in the Gulliver business center at 1A, Sportyvna Street, the press service of the company has told Interfax-Ukraine. “Since May 2019, UTG has been meeting its partners and visitors in a new office located in the Gulliver class A business center. Along with the expansion of the working space, UTG has increased its staff, thereby increasing the efficiency of service provision,” the company said.
According to the report, the increase in staff resulted from the merger of the offices of UTG and DC Evolution. In particular, the number of employees has grown to more than 50 people.
The new office of the companies is located on the 27th floor in A tower.
President of DC Evolution developer Ihor Melnyk acquired a stake in the share capital of the Ukrainian Trade Guild (UTG, Kyiv) and became a member of the board as vice-president in 2016.
UTG (Kyiv) was founded in 2011. Its core business is accompanying of development projects.
More than 100 real estate projects were launched with the participation of UTG. Among them are Lavina Mall, New Way, Ocean Plaza, Gulliver, Piramida and Komod shopping centers (all based in Kyiv), Megamall (Vinnytsia), Most City Center (Dnipro), French Boulevard (Kharkiv) and Global.UA shopping centers (Zhytomyr).
According to the unified public register of legal entities and individual entrepreneurs, as of April 1, 2019, the share of 30% in the share capital of UTG LLC (Kyiv) belongs to Melnyk, 65% to Vadym Neposedov, and 5% to Artem Neposedov.
State-run Oschadbank and Ukreximbank have put rights of claim under a loan agreement with Kyiv-based Gulliver shopping mall’s mortgage up for sale through SETAM’s OpenMarket system for UAH 18.177 billion.
The lot includes a 1.14 ha plot of land on Kyiv’s Sportyvna Square, a trading and office complex with a parking lot with a total area of 151,800 square meters, a 0.11 ha plot of land for construction of a new trading and office complex, and 100% of corporate rights in the borrower’s charter capital, says an announcement posted on the trading platform.
The auction is scheduled for October 16. Bids are accepted until October 15.
