The State Property Fund has completed the valuation of the Ukraina Hotel and plans to hold an auction for its privatization in late summer 2024, and for the Ocean Plaza shopping mall in the second half of the year, Vitaliy Koval, the head of the SPF, said in an interview with Mind.
“We have already completed the valuation of the hotel, which amounts to UAH 1.039 billion excluding VAT. We are now preparing for the auction, which we plan to hold in late summer, maybe even in the third quarter,” he said.
According to the SPF head, foreign operators are interested in privatizing the Ukraina Hotel, in particular, as they are considering upgrading it to a five-star hotel.
In addition, according to him, more than three bidders are considering participation in the auction for the privatization of the Ocean Plaza shopping center, and the Fund has received inquiries from investment funds and development companies.
As reported, the Ukraina Hotel is a state-owned enterprise managed by the SPF. It has 363 rooms, six conference halls, and meeting rooms. There is a parking lot for 80 cars and a shelter with a separate auditorium for 50 people. At the same time, the hotel’s debt is over UAH 45 million.
Ocean Plaza was opened in Kyiv in December 2012 at 176 Antonovycha Street. Its total area is 165 thousand square meters. Investments in the facility amounted to approximately $300 million. UDP and K.A.N. Development LLC acted as partners in the development of the project.
The mall was sold to Arkady Rotenberg’s Russian TPS Real Estate in 2012. Later, in 2019, Ukrainian businessman Vasyl Khmelnytsky indirectly acquired a 33.5% stake in Ocean Plaza through UPD Holdings Limited. In 2021, he sold his stake to entrepreneur Andriy Ivanov. The deal was finalized in the summer of 2023.
In June 2023, the Cabinet of Ministers transferred a 66.65% stake in the authorized capital of Lybid Investment Union LLC, which owns the mall, to the SPFU for further privatization.
International hotel operator Accor Live Limitless (France) will open a three-star ibis Kyiv Beresteiska hotel in late 2023, according to the operator’s website.
“I am pleased to announce the opening of ibis Kyiv Beresteiska. It will be a great addition to the Accor family in Ukraine,” commented Andriy Davydenko, CEO of Accor Northern Europe – Ukraine, Georgia and the CIS, in a linked post.
As reported, the international hotel operator Accor Live Limitless planned to launch three new hotels in Ukraine in 2022-2023, ibis & Adagio Kyiv, ibis Lviv and Novotel Lviv. At the end of December 2022, Adagio Kyiv Beresteiska also started operating. Both hotels are located in the same building at 55 Peremohy Ave. Adagio Kyiv Beresteiska has 105 rooms and Adagio Kyiv Beresteiska has 156 rooms.
Adagio Kyiv Beresteiska is an apart-hotel, its rooms are adapted for long-term stays: they have fully equipped kitchens, special workspaces, WIFI and other necessary facilities for work and leisure. The ibis Kyiv Beresteiska has six meeting rooms for business events and conferences.
The 77-room ibis Styles Lviv Center hotel, located in the business center of Lviv at 3 Shukhevycha Street, was opened in December 2022.
Accor Group, one of the world’s leading hotel operators, opened the first hotel under the Novotel brand in Lille (France) in 1967.
As of December 2023, Accor operated 5,487 hotels, resorts and residences in 110 countries under more than 40 brands (Raffles, Sofitel, Fairmont, OneFineStay, MGallery, Pullman, Swissotel, Grand Mercure, The Sebel, 25 hours hotel, Novotel, Mercure, Adagio, Mama Shelter, Ibis, Ibis Styles, Adagio success, Ibis Budget, Jo&Joe, hotelFormule1, hotel F1, Thalassa sea&spa, greet, etc. ).
Accor SA shares are listed on Euronext in Paris and traded on the US over-the-counter market.
In Ukraine, AccorHotels manages three-star Ibis hotels in Kyiv, Ibis Styles and Gruner in Lviv, five-star Fairmont Grand Hotel in Kyiv, and Mercure Kyiv Congress Hotel. In addition, one hotel under Accor’s management is located in Odesa – MGallery Hôtel de Paris.
Ukraine’s hotel market has stabilized amid the war, with the highest activity in the west of the country and a slow recovery in Kyiv, according to a study by EY Ukraine.
“We can state that the market has stabilized in the new realities. Lviv, Bukovel and western Ukraine in general have very positive indicators, while Kyiv’s are quite low. In the capital, hotel occupancy is 15-25%, while before the war, the normal rate was 50-60%,” said Rostyslav Khoma, Head of Real Estate Advisory Services at EY Ukraine, at the conference “Analytics of the Ukrainian Real Estate Market: First Half of 2023”.
According to the company’s research, in Lviv and Bukovel, hotel occupancy in June 2023 was about 50-60%, while in Kyiv it was about 25%. At the same time, occupancy in the capital has shown moderate growth since January 2023, and June showed the highest occupancy rate in Kyiv since the start of the full-scale war.
“At the moment, we do not yet see any grounds for a sharp change in the level of loading in Kyiv given the current situation,” Khoma said.
In the first half of the year, the main income of hotels was directly from accommodation, while the food & beverage category and conference functions brought less money.
According to the expert, further recovery and development of the hotel market depends on the military and macroeconomic situation in the country.
“If the war ends quickly, there are more positive expectations due to the possible resumption of air travel, a potential increase in foreign tourists. However, it will take some time until tourists are convinced that it is safe to travel to Ukraine. In the event of a protracted war, however, the emphasis will have to be on domestic tourism. Given the restrictions on men traveling abroad, domestic tourism will be a key driver of demand in the medium and long term,” Khoma summarized.
The Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine (AMCU) has allowed businessman Vadym Hryhoriev’s Zhytomyr Furniture Plant to buy real estate in Kiev, which was sold by the State Property Fund (SPF).
The corresponding decision of the AMCU approved July 6, reported on the website of the agency.
Earlier, Zhytomyr Furniture Works won the FGI auction on privatization of the historic building of the former Hermitage Hotel in Kiev on May 25. As reported by the FGI in June, the investor paid UAH 373 million to the state budget for the acquired asset.
The winner of the auction is obliged to apply to the relevant cultural heritage authority and conclude a protection agreement within a month after the registration of ownership of the privatization object.
Experts interviewed by Interfax-Ukraine estimated the necessary initial investments in the restoration of the buildings of the Hermitage Hotel at EUR8-10 mln.
The buildings were erected in 1902-1904 according to the project of Kiev architect Andrei Ferdinand Krauss – the author of many buildings constructed in the capital at that time. The house was one of the best hotels in the city “Hermitage”. The owner of the house was a millionaire and brick manufacturer Jacob Bernard. The end wall in the 1960s was decorated with a mosaic panel “Ukrainian Song” by Stepan Kirichenko.
These buildings have a protected status. In 1998 they were included in the list of historical and cultural monuments of local importance by the order of Kyiv City State Administration.
According to Opendatabot data, Zhytomyr Furniture Factory PJSC (ZhMK JSC), registered in 2003, authorized capital is UAH 4.9 mln. The ultimate beneficiary is Vadym Grigoriev.
At the end of 2021, the FGVFL sold the main office of VTB Bank, located at the intersection of Pushkinskaya Street and T. Shevchenko Boulevard in the center of Kiev, to Diprobudmashina PJSC of businessman Vadym Grigoriev for UAH 294.3 million at the auction “Prozorro.Sales”.
Previously, Grigoriev has already acquired part of VTB Bank’s assets: business center “Incom” for UAH 390 million and office center (6, Vatslav Havel Blvd., Kiev) for UAH 351 million, as well as Kiev business center “Renaissance” from Alfa Bank.
Grigoriev is also the owner of Merx Group after buying out Valeriy Khoroshkovskyy’s stake in 2004.
Hotel operator Ribas Hotels Group (Odessa) plans to buy income-generating assets in 10 hotel complexes managed by the company, five investment projects under construction in partnership with developers.
“In 2023 and 2024 we plan to acquire income assets to the amount of 7 million c.u. in more than 10 projects managed by Ribas Hotels Group. The hotel and restaurant complexes that will be part of the portfolio are located in Lviv and the region, as well as in Ivano-Frankivsk and Transcarpathian regions. These are mostly resort areas, which are busy all year round”, – the company told Interfax-Ukraine Agency.
Five investment projects are being built in partnership with developers: WOL.GREEN Polyana in Polyana village (Zakarpattya region), Agate Resort & SPA and Morion in Mikulichin village, AMA Family Resort and Ribas Villas in Polyanitsa village (all in Ivano-Frankivsk region). The facilities are to be opened within 2023-2024, with payback period of 10 years, the company specified.
According to the terms of Ribas Invest’s investment program, the entry threshold is 10 thousand c.u., and the company expects an annual yield of 9-12% with capitalization of 5-10%. The company expects that Ukrainians will be interested in investing in income real estate first of all.
“Investing in real estate in installments and with the entry threshold of 10 thousand USD opens up the possibility for hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians to invest in a reliable company and profitable property. For foreigners it’s rather an investment in charity or high-risk asset, which can become very profitable “- believe in Ribas.
Ribas Hotels Group cooperates (management and reservation) with 26 hotel and restaurant properties (city, beach and ski hotels). Company portfolio includes ski hotel Ribas Karpaty (Bukovel, Ivano-Frankivsk Region), 5-star Ribas Duke Boutique Hotel (Odessa), aparthotel Wol.121 by Ribas (Odessa), business hotels brand Ribas Rooms (Odessa, Lutsk, White Church), city hotel Bortoli by Ribas (Odessa) and others. Hotels in Lviv, Kiev, Ivano-Frankivsk and other cities of Ukraine, as well as in Poland, Italy, Yerevan and Cyprus are at design and construction stage.
The total room inventory of the network is more than 1 thousand rooms in different forms of cooperation in eight cities and resort locations in Ukraine.
Wealthy connoisseurs and collectors of prestigious wines have freed up a few days in early April for a unique sale of thousands of collectible bottles organized by the auction house “Lombray-Tecam” in the chic surroundings of the Ritz Hotel in Paris.
The total value of all lots is tentatively estimated at 6 million euros. All the bottles exhibited at the auction come from the same collection of a major collector and enthusiastic about the history of French winemaking man.
For more than 50 years this enthusiast, now deceased, whose name the auctioneers do not announce, bought up and preserved tens of thousands of bottles. His heirs decided to scatter this collection at auction. In the “Ritz” April 3 7 will go under the hammer about 30 thousand bottles.
Those who have had the opportunity to get acquainted with the collection, they say that this is the very material history of the best millezimy, the milestones of the winemaking of post-war France. The collector bought his wines following recommendations from the most renowned, internationally recognized experts in the wine industry.
“The auction house informed me of a certain significant cellar. But it never occurred to me to be in front of such a treasure. It is a kind of Grail, the best initiation into wine experts,” admires Claude Maratier, a specialist who has been invited to advise a number of famous wine auctions. This time he was asked to authenticate each of the bottles.
According to connoisseurs, the selection is worthy of a museum. Among the tens of thousands of bottles are 2,000 magnums (one-and-a-half-liter jars), hundreds of cases of Bordeaux grands crus classés (collected from the best vineyards). As well as batches of bottles of the legendary Petrus, Le Pin, Haut-Brion, Clinet, Mouton-Rothschild and a whole range of other wines of the southwest of France, coveted by any lover.
The collector, of course, did not forget about Burgundy. Numerous cases of the best Burgundian wines – grands crus and premiers crus – from the estates of Romanée-Conti, Dujac, Georges Roumier, Armand Rousseau and others, whose names alone say a lot to true connoisseurs, were put up for auction.
“To describe it in a few words, very simply: all the best is here. Bidders will see only the famous labels and only the best vintage years, such as many wines of the mythical, especially for the Rhone Valley, 1978. Seeing it all was an exciting sight,” comments Claude Maratier.
“At the same time,” emphasizes the expert, “all these wines are in impeccable state of preservation, as if they were new, fresh off the bottling line. I’ve never seen anything like it. The labels are intact, the capsules on the necks look great – all of which should appeal to discerning buyers. This is a cellar of treasures carefully collected over the years.”
The starting prices of the lots are known. For example, a set of six “magnums” Petrus 1982 will be traded from 40-50 thousand euros. A set of bottles Romanée-Conti 1976 year offered for 50-60 thousand euros.
