Rostelecom plans to make money on its corporate real estate

The Rostelecom Board of Directors decided to monetise real estate for over RUB 120 billion in value. The company intends to set up a real estate fund of almost 23,000 properties with over 3 million sq m. of space. They want to offer a stake in this fund to an investor to be selected in early 2016. The operator intended to monetise its corporate real estate back in the late 1990s; however the company planned to execute the really large transactions just now. The Foreign Trade Bank has already shown great interest in the created fund.

Rostelecom plans to make some of the production sites available, and then sell or lease them. In order to speed up the process, the company intends to manage the corporate real estate as a separate business. The company will transfer to the created fund all the facilities to be sold, leased or redeveloped, and all the real estate for repositioning.

The first stage will include a separate business plan for the most attractive corporate real estate in the capital and other cities with a million people. In Moscow, for example, the company has over 500 properties with over a half million square metres of space. The company board plans to make the final selection of facilities by the end of this year. During the three years of property management, Rostelecom hopes to gain over RUB 25 billion from sales, as well as increase in real estate leasing income to RUB 5 billion, which is more than double the current level.