How much did the new owner Maxim Krippa cost the Parus business center?
Buying and selling capital real estate is always a hot topic, especially when it comes to buying a very prominent and large skyscraper in the very center of Kiev. That is why the public was so excited when the first reports about Vadim Stolar's alleged intentions to sell the business center "Parus" appeared. Now that the name of the new owner Maxim Krippa is known, another thing is intriguing - what was the final amount of the deal?
According to experts, the purchase of Parus cost Ukrainian businessman Maksym Krippa $100 million. The figure is approximate, but it also raises questions. The first of which is: did Maksym Krippa take advantage of the market situation and get a good asset for moderate money?
Such thoughts are prompted by the fact that Maxim Krippa's portfolio mostly contains assets of quite a different kind. He is the owner of the cyber sports organization NAVI, as well as the studio GSC Game World. The latter is known for creating the world hit computer games S.T.A.L.K.E.R. It would seem that real estate is not in Maxim Krippa's area of interest, so why and why did he buy Parus?
Let's analyze the moves and remember the numbers
The construction of the skyscraper lasted more than three years and was completed in 2007. At that time, the owner of the object was entrepreneur Vagif Aliyev. According to journalists, he invested about 500 million hryvnias (about $9 million at the exchange rate at the time) in the object at the construction stage.
Before the building was commissioned, Aliyev decided to sell part of his property. The new buyer got more than 50% for $300 million. The new buyer was businessman Dmytro Firtash. Interestingly, at that time experts doubted the figure and behind the scenes named twice the amount, but it was not possible to verify this information either then or today.
In 2016, Dmytro Firtash decided to sell his part of Parus and looked at potential buyers for a long time. But the negotiations were unsuccessful, and then Parus returned to Aliev again, and on a cashless basis. The agreement between the partners was that the share was transferred against the obligation to repay debts of about $50 million. Thus, in 2016, half of Parus was worth about $50 million.
In 2019, there was another change of ownership. Aliev, who needed money to invest in other facilities, was ready to sell the business center floor by floor. But in the end, the new owner of Parus became Vadim Stolar, who according to experts' estimates paid about $100-150 million.
Steady and stable "Parus"
Having analyzed the history of Parus, one can conclude about the amazing stability of the asset. Despite the change of owners, political and economic situation in the country, the business center has always been worth about one hundred million dollars. We will not go into a complex economic analysis of the cost of money and its purchasing power, but only fix the figure and move from the days of the past to the current situation.
Maxim Krippa managed to buy Parus at the end of last year. This required the relevant decision of the Antimonopoly Committee. The decision of November 2023 states that the body decided: "to grant permission to OLA FAIN LLC to acquire a share in the authorized capital of PARUS HOLDING LLC which provides for an excess of 50 percent in the supreme governing body of the company".
Thus, the company OLA FAIN LLC, owned by Maxim Krippa, obtained ownership of the legendary business center. The amount of the deal, according to experts, amounted to the same $100 million.
It was calculated based on the cost of one square meter of real estate of the corresponding class in Kiev. Thus, the price of one square meter on the market varies from $1.9 to $2 thousand. The total area of the business center is about 75 thousand square meters, and useful, commercial - about 55 thousand.
At this point, the talk that Maxim Krippa took advantage of the moment and bought cheaply an asset that is not typical for his portfolio can be closed. The price corresponds to the market and moreover, it is peculiar to this asset, as the experience of previous deals shows. But the question remains open: why?
Plans and prospects
No businessman or investor speaks frankly about his plans and intentions. Money likes silence - that is understandable. And Maxim Krippa is in no hurry to tell us how he will use the acquisition. But there are suspicions that the plans may be both traditional and more innovative.
Everything is more or less clear with the traditional plans for the use of office real estate in the center of Kyiv. In the year when the full-scale war started, the former company-owner of the business center "Parus" demonstrated a good profitability - at the level of 200 million hryvnias, half of the amount was net profit. Consequently, Maksym Krippa can already earn on rent without any additional investments.
Much more interesting is the second scenario, which is directly related to Maksim Krippa's other assets. The main striking force of his portfolio is cybersport, which in recent decades has demonstrated not just success, but also good margins.
In Ukraine, cybersports is not very developed, although there is a community, and followers, and even world stars. In this regard, some experts and journalists have suggested that Maxim Krippa, among others, plans to create a modern cybersports hub on the basis of "Parus", with training grounds, tournaments, offices for gamers, etc. The location, with the appropriate efforts and investments, quite allows to realize such a plan. There is enough competence of Maxim Krippa himself, who already owns one of the best cyber sports clubs in the world. But whether the forecast is correct and whether it will be realized is still an open question.