Vygidna Pokupka LLC (Opishnya, Poltava region), Ukraine’s largest one dollar store chain Aurora, may acquire West Gate Logistics LLC (Stoyanka, Kyiv region), one of the largest warehouse complexes near Kyiv with an area of approximately 97,000 sq m controlled by Dragon Capital, which was almost completely destroyed by Russian troops in 2022 and partially restored.
The Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine (AMCU) said in a statement on Thursday that it had granted Vigorous Purchase permission to acquire the integral property complex owned by West Gate Logistics.
“Aurora was founded in 2011 by Lev Zhidenko, Taras Panasenko and Lesya Klymenko and is headquartered in Poltava. Today, the chain has more than 1400 stores in Ukraine and 25 in Romania.
According to Opendatabot, the owner of Vyhidna Pokupka LLC, which develops the chain, is listed as Auroritail Investments Limited of Cyprus, with Zhydenko as its beneficiary. The Cypriot company also owns Prior Development LLC, Seven A LLC, Industrial 9 LLC, and Tak LLC.
“Prior to the full-scale Russian aggression, West Gate Logistics was a class A logistics center located on the international highway E40 at km 21 of Zhytomyr Highway with a total area of about 97 thousand square meters. It was constructed in 2008 and consisted of two buildings, including offices, warehouses, cold storage and mezzanine space. In August 2016, Dragon Capital received the AMCU’s approval to buy East Gate Logistics and West Gate Logistics, which manage the eponymous Class A warehouse complexes, from GLD Invest Group (Vienna, Austria), a development company.
Three months after the Russian troops were driven out of Kyiv, the front building with an area of about 7,700 square meters was repaired and reopened. Nova Poshta and Watsons Ukraine became its tenants.
Currently, West Gate Logistics LLC is owned by New Ukraine PE Holding (NUPEH), a member of the Dragon Capital group of companies, whose main shareholder is the Dragon Capital New Ukraine Fund, and whose beneficiary is the founder and chairman of Dragon Capital, Tomas Fiala.
Vacancy of shopping and entertainment centers in Kiev decreased from 16.3% in 2023 to 15.2% at the end of the first half of 2024, said the head of legal consulting department of UTG Konstantin Oleynik.
“At the end of last year, about 21.4% of space was de facto vacant, due to the closure of foreign department stores (IKEA, Inditex, H&M and others). The actual vacancy rate was 16.3%. Thanks to the opening of most foreign operators, the vacancy gap with actually closed stores has narrowed,” he said.
According to UTG research, the vacancy rate is higher in regional (18.4%) and district (17%) shopping centers, lower in specialized (9.8%) and district (7%) shopping centers.
The expert noted the trend of decreasing effective demand of the population. The growth of household expenditures on housing and utilities services and CP payment continues (at the end of 2023 this category was 18.8% and with the growth of electricity tariffs there is further growth), health care (4.7%), transportation (4.8%), communication (4.3%), education (3.6%). Cumulatively, these categories drain 36.1% from the family budget. Food and alcohol accumulate 43.4% of expenditures. The share of retail network (clothing and footwear, electronics, household goods, cafes and restaurants, entertainment, other goods) in the structure of expenditures is only 16.0% per family ($73.4 or 2,684.5 UAH per month). Inflation and rapid price growth lead to a reduction in individual savings (about 4.4% in 2023).
In general, general savings and cost rationalization are recorded, for the mall market this entails a decrease in attendance and adjustment of rental rates. Compared to pre-war rates, rates for some product groups have halved or more.
“Food supermarkets have become one of the few operators able to generate sustainable footfall and pay moderately high rental rates ($10-20/sq. m in August 2024), while most department stores, entertainment (cinemas, DDCs), fitness centers are aiming for a minimum fixed payment (around $1/sqm) with an additional RTO (fixed payments of $2 to $12/sqm prevailed before the war), shifting the risk to the developer,” Oleynik reported.
According to UTG research, taking into account the current income level of the population, solvent demand is able to ensure successful functioning for 2 million 313 thousand sq. m. in the capital, and in the second quarter of 2024 there were already 2 million 457 thousand sq. m. in operation.
Competition continues to intensify: large shopping centers with a total area of 250 thousand square meters are declared for opening in 2024-2025. Among them are Ocean Mall (GLA 110 thousand sq. m), Lukiyanivka (47 thousand sq. m), White Lines shopping mall (28 thousand sq. m), New Ray (34.5 thousand sq. m), April Mall (36.5 thousand sq. m), BalticSky (20 thousand sq. m). There is a possibility that most of the announced openings may be postponed to a later period.
According to Oleinik’s estimation, the commissioning of the declared projects will bring about a surplus of retail space and gradual redistribution of consumer flows between objects, vacancy growth and downward correction of rental rates. At the existing level of incomes and expenditures of the population, the vacancy rate may reach 17% in 2025.
UTG was established in 2001. It has developed more than 1300 real estate concepts. During the years of work with the company’s participation 4.7 million square meters of commercial space in Ukraine have been leased out.
KYIV, REAL ESTATE, UTG, Vacancy Shopping and Entertainment Center
A bridge has collapsed on the Kyiv-Odesa highway near Uman, blocking traffic in the direction of the capital, according to the Telegram channel of the Advisor to the Minister of Internal Affairs Anton Gerashchenko.
According to the Cherkasy region police, a truck “demolished” a pedestrian bridge, which collapsed onto the roadway. Information about the victims is being clarified, the statement said.
It is specified that the traffic in the direction of Kyiv is temporarily blocked. Patrol policemen organized traffic in the reverse mode.
U.S. Deputy Secretary of Commerce Marisa Lago arrived in Kyiv on Friday, U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Bridget Brink said.
“Welcome to Kyiv, Deputy Secretary of Commerce Lago! Today, we will meet with the business community, entrepreneurs, and government officials to discuss how the U.S. private sector can get involved in supporting Ukraine’s economic recovery,” the ambassador wrote on social media.
The Turkish company Dalgakiran Kompresör has invested UAH 400 million in the launch of a plant for the production of industrial power equipment in Bilohorodka (Kyiv region), according to a press release from Dalgakiran Compressor Ukraine LLC.
The construction project was started before the start of Russia’s large-scale aggression, and now, thanks to investments from the Turkish side, it has been completed. The investment in the production site and office will create 50 new jobs.
The office and new production facility in Ukraine will contribute to the development of enterprises in all industries, enabling them to continue their business activities, save money and resources,” said Vyacheslav Dinkov, director of Dalgakiran Compressor Ukraine, as quoted by the press service.
According to him, the plans include further development and localization of production, development and supply of new equipment to restore energy and industrial production in Ukraine.
In turn, Dalgakiran Kompresör Chairman of the Board Adnan Dalgakiran noted that scaling up business in Ukraine is a contribution to supporting the country’s economy and energy sector in difficult times. “In the face of a power outage, our equipment can ensure the continuity of business processes and production, enable businesses to continue to operate, pay taxes and provide jobs to Ukrainians,” he said.
“Dalgakiran Compressor Ukraine is a representative office of the Turkish Dalgakiran company specializing in the production and maintenance of generator and compressor equipment, cooling systems and industrial pumps.
The Ukrainian representative office sells the equipment and improves it to meet the needs of national consumers. Azov equipment is manufactured in Turkey, where a full cycle of quality control has been introduced and the company has its own design office.
The company has been operating in Ukraine for 19 years. It has representative offices in 11 cities and more than 70 of its own mobile service teams.
A number of temperature records, including the temperature of water in the Dnipro River in Kyiv, were set on July 16, according to the Facebook page of the Borys Sreznevsky Central Geophysical Observatory.
“According to the observations of the Kyiv hydrological station of the Borys Sreznevsky Central Geophysical Observatory, on July 16, the maximum water temperature in the Dnipro reached 29.0°C and exceeded the previous maximum by 0.4°, which was recorded on July 22, 2010, and amounted to 28.6°C,” the post says.
The maximum daily air temperature in Kyiv on July 16 was also the highest on record for this date and amounted to 36.0°C, exceeding the previous record of 1931 by 0.2°C.
In addition, the maximum wind speed in the capital reached a record 21 m/s, which is 1 m/s more than the previous maximum recorded in 1964.
A number of daily temperature records were also set on July 16 at meteorological stations in the Kyiv region: in the district center of Vyshgorod, the town of Baryshivka in Brovary district, and at the Teteriv meteorological station in Piskivka, Bucha district.
“A new record was set at the Teteriv meteorological station. The maximum daily air temperature was +36.9°C. The previous record was set in 1951: +35.5°C,” the report says.
In Baryshivka, the maximum daily air temperature was recorded at +34.5°C, the previous record was set at +33.6°C in 2010.
At the United Hydrometeorological Station “Vyshgorod” on the night of July 16, the warmest minimum daily air temperature was recorded at +23.5°C, which is 0.1° higher than in 2010.
