IKEA sells its last asset in Russia

IKEA's owner, the Swedish company Ingka Group, has sold its last asset in Russia – a warehouse in the town of Yesipovo not far from Moscow, in Vladimir Oblast. 

Source: The Moscow Times, citing RBC with reference to two sources in the commercial real estate market and representatives of the buyer, businessman Robert Uzilov

Details: It is a distribution centre that the Swedish company opened in 2003. 

In 2019, Patrick Anthony, who was then Ingka's CEO in Russia, said that this centre was the key to IKEA's development in Russia. The warehouse with an area of almost 180,000 sq m served all the Swedish retailer's stores in the country.

In March 2022, amid the full-scale war, Ingka suspended its retail operations in Russia and Belarus, as well as at factories it owned that produced goods for IKEA. In 2023, the Swedish group gradually sold all of its main assets: the factories were bought by the Russian timber processor Luzales and Slotex, a company specialising in the production of facades and kitchen worktops. Gazprombank acquired 14 Mega shopping centres, while the IKEA headquarters was bought from Khimki Business Park by KLS-Khimki. 

The source said that the warehouse has not been used since IKEA's closure. It is not known who will occupy it after the sale.

The sources also added that the deal was approved by the Russian government's Commission for Control over Foreign Investments, headed by Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov.

The deal also complied with the established rules: the transaction amount must take into account a discount, and even a voluntary contribution to the Russian budget is paid from it. In October, the government increased the minimum discount from 50 to 60% and raised the budget contribution from 15% to 35% of the asset value. However, as RBC's source clarified, the deal with Ingka Group was made at the "old" rates.

Background: Sweden-based Ingka Centres, which owns the IKEA furniture and home furnishings chain and Mega shopping mall in Russia, has sold its headquarters in Russia – the 42,000-square-metre Khimki Business Park office complex.

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