IMG buys stake in Volgograd residential project

Investment Management Group (IMG) has purchased a 44 percent stake in Dominant, a residential project in Volgograd, south of Moscow, the firm said in a statement today.

The stake in the 75,000 square metre project was completed, at an undisclosed price, on behalf of IMG’s Russia Development Fund, which has €105 million of investment capital, according news agency Reuters.

The development is being undertaken by Kvartstroy Group, a large regional residential developer, also based in Moscow, in which the fund also has a 30 percent stake purchased last year.

Maksim Kunin, managing partner of IMG said of the transaction: “Amid the crisis, when many Russian and foreign investors quit the market, we continue investing: this is our third transaction over the last twelve months…”

The Russia Development Fund typically invests in non-controlling, minority investments in private real estate companies as well as individual assets. Other investments made by the fund include a 45 percent stake in a residential scheme in Novaya, also in the Moscow region.

Investors in the Russia Development Fund include EBRD, Immofinanz and the Aberdeen Indirect Property Partners II fund.